Shooting in Manual Mode
(This is lesson 10 of my “How It’s Done” series of photography lessons)
Manual mode is often misunderstood and underutilized. Many photography beginners shy away from manual mode because it seems too complicated. There is also a misconception that “real” photographers shoot exclusively manual. The truth is, manual mode can be cumbersome to work with, but sometimes it is necessary. It isn’t difficult to learn manual mode and there are certain occasions when you are forced to shoot in manual. I use manual mode from time to time, but only when I have to. This past week I found myself in two different situations that required manual mode. I’ll break down my thought process so you can see how I go about using manual mode.
This first example is not meant to be the greatest looking series of photos in world. I was walking through the parking garage at Boston Logan airport, on my way into work, and thinking about how I was going to write this article. The variation in lighting inside the parking garage gave me an idea. Manual mode is useful when there is so much contrast in a scene that your camera can’t decide on a correct exposure — a scene like the parking deck. The outside of the parking garage is lit by daylight and inside is deep shadow. There is too much contrast between the inside and the outside of the parking garage for your camera to make a good decision about exposure.
Above is a photo of the parking deck taken in Av mode with no exposure compensation. The camera made a really bad exposure decision. The camera had no idea what it was looking at. It didn’t know that the inside of the parking garage is a dark shadow. The camera’s logic tries to render the scene as close to neutral grey as it can (read my exposure compensation article if I just lost you). The result is the large shadow areas are rendered too light and the brighter areas are completely over exposed.
What could I have done to get the proper exposure? I could have dialed the exposure compensation down, done some bracketing, and eventually found a working exposure setting. I had a better idea though. Most of the parking structure was made out of a nice neutral grey concrete. Leaving my camera in AV mode and using no exposure compensation I simply filled my camera’s frame with some concrete and snapped a photo. The histogram from this photo was right down the middle and the exposure looked right to me. Because the concrete was close to neutral grey I figured I could transfer the settings into manual mode and get a good setting for the entire parking deck.
Above is the photo of the concrete. Notice the settings: f/8.0 and 1/250 second. Now let’s see what happens when I use those settings to take a picture of the parking deck.
There, that’s better. The concrete and the signs are the right brightness and the interior of the garage is nice and shadowy. It could be argued that you could use the exposure lock button on your camera to get the same effect, but remember I am just showing you an example and exposure lock is another lesson. Next, I’ll show you a couple real world examples of manual mode.
This first photo is very similar to the parking deck example. Notice the large dark shadow area that fills a large portion of the frame. Left in an auto mode your camera would undoubtedly chose an exposure for this scene that is too bright. My idea for this picture was to capture the white, wind blown sea foam in front of dark boulder. I wanted the bolder dark, almost black and the sea foam bright white. What did I do? I metered the grey rocks and the beach sand. Both gave me a an exposure setting of f/8.0 and 1/400th second. I dialed those settings into manual mode and took some test shots. It worked. The boulder was black and the sea foam was bright white, right on the edge of blown out. Perfect!
This photo isn’t such an obvious time to shoot in manual as the last example. This is Ella at the farmer’s market getting her face painted. It’s late afternoon and we were in the shadow of a tall downtown building. The light was kind of dim, but not at all contrasty. These conditions should be easy for my camera’s light meter. However, in the background there were a bunch of white tents and also (not visible in this photo) a large black banner. The face painter is wearing a bright shirt and Ella’s shirt is black. That’s a lot of all black and all white. I was afraid that as I moved around and changed compositions my frame sometimes would be full of lots of white and sometimes be full of lots of black. If I didn’t use manual mode I would be in exposure compensation hell. And, there was one more reason to go manual — the bright sky. We were down in the shadows, and I knew that an exposure setting that would render the faces correctly would be too bright to maintain the sky. The sky was going to blow out no matter what. I know my light meter hates to let anything blow out. If I stayed in an automatic mode, any shot that included sky would get underexposed because my camera would try to keep the sky from blowing out. The solution was to shoot in manual. I don’t carry a light meter so to figure out the right settings I took some test shots and bracketing in Av mode. Once I found the sweet spot I dialed those settings into manual mode. I took a whole series of Ella getting her face painted using those same settings. All the shots had perfect exposure.
Does that all make sense to you? Please leave a comment if you have any questions.
Continue to lesson 11
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*David is an San Francisco Bay Area Photographer . You can order prints of the photos featured on this blog by clicking on the image or visit our website at raboinphotography.com Support this site by using one of my links to Amazon.com
. Thanks!
I think it makes sense but then again I fully understand manual mode. With that being said I learned manual mode the way you instructed above. I think the only other thing that’s REALLY key here is a shot of the histogram for each photo. Unless you know what your looking at in the histogram its not going to click. I think you can pull the histogram in canon’s software can’t you? Otherwise nice job!
April 29, 2011 at 2:25 am
I always like the feedback, thanks. Maybe I’ll add the histograms. This article was written fast. I imagine at some point it will get a rewrite.
April 30, 2011 at 4:14 am
I recently took a photography class where they taught us ISO, Aperture & Shutter Speed so we could use manual mode. The next day my company had a retirement party for someone who’d been there 40+ years! I take photos of our company events unofficially mostly because I like capturing the moment and making memories. This means I take a LOT of photos, in this specific case, over 400! I don’t like to use a flash because I like more candid photos, using a telephoto lens way back capturing them natural.
Anyhow, the room had a LOT of good red/orange wood, low spot lights, and bright light from the outside coming in windows. I took a few photos in P & A modes and they were HORRIBLE! Way under or over exposed, and the color was VERY orange.
Thanks to that class, I felt comfortable trying Manual mode. (The only thing we didn’t go over was white balance. Thankfully my camera (Sony a55) can set the temp and I was able to dial it in.) I dialed in f/5.6, ISO 800 or 1600, then adjusted my shutter speed until the the little -2 to +2 meter was one tick below center.
All of the photos came out great! Well, I could do some post processing if I wanted, but unlike the ones in P or A, I didn’t NEED to do any post processing! Since then I’ve been shooting more indoors stuff playing with all three settings getting more and more comfortable with Manual. Outside I don’t shoot as often in M, more in A, but I’m getting so I can flip through the M settings pretty fast.
It’s so nice to finally be taking advantage or my dslr’s abilities!
This was an excellent write-up! LOVE your photos and all of your tips! I’m learning tons! Thanks!!!
May 8, 2011 at 5:03 am
It’s good to hear that you are having success with manual mode. Manual works well for some indoor situations — like the ones you described. I like hearing your enthusiasm. Photography is great when you know what you’re doing.
Thanks for stopping by.
May 8, 2011 at 4:42 pm
“What could I have done to get the proper exposure? I could have dialed the exposure compensation down, done some bracketing, and eventually found a working exposure setting. I had a better idea though. Most of the parking structure was made out of a nice neutral grey concrete. Leaving my camera in AV mode and using no exposure compensation I simply filled my camera’s frame with some concrete and snapped a photo. The histogram from this photo was right down the middle and the exposure looked right to me. Because the concrete was close to neutral grey I figured I could transfer the settings into manual mode and get a good setting for the entire parking deck.”
And I have an even better idea. While you have the frame filled with the concrete, just press AE Lock. Now reframe and take your picture.
Manual mode is only needed when the meter doesn’t work, such as with astrophotography, light levels below 0 EV, etc. Otherwise, there’s no benefit ever to using manual mode unless you’re using it with AutoISO to control both shutter and aperture. An auto mode with AE Lock or simply EC is easier. On Nikon cameras, AE Lock can extend for multiple images just by extending the meter auto-off timer. You can keep the same AE lock all day.
Please note that I believe the same exact knowledge is required to use manual and auto modes effectively. Using auto doesn’t save you from knowing exposure. But knowing how to use your exposure systems can free you from time-wasting and distracting exposure settings so that you can concentrate more on composition.
May 14, 2011 at 3:58 pm
I totally agree. In fact, in the article I wrote that using exposure lock would be easier, and I was simply showing this technique to demonstrate a point. I guess you must have missed that part.
May 14, 2011 at 5:20 pm
First off, I said that “manual mode is only needed when the meter doesn’t work”…so for your own protection, let me just say that you don’t totally agree with me.
But getting back to the discussion…I would not characterize your words a YOU saying that exposure lock would be easier. What you said was…”It could be argued that you could use the exposure lock button on your camera” (which is what I did.) In all of your examples you could have easily used AE Lock to lock the exposure. You say you’re just showing a technique…okay that’s fine. But the technique has to have a viable application…it can’t just exist for its own sake. That’s what I find is missing in the article.
May 14, 2011 at 6:56 pm
Wow, you are totally roasting me on technicalities. When I put this all into book format will you promise to be my editor? Please go outside and enjoy your Saturday — maybe take some photos too. I’m gonna need you to be all rested up for the big edit.
May 14, 2011 at 7:37 pm
Thanks for the article. It was helpful. I see what your “editor” is saying, but jeez, he needs to chill out a bit
June 10, 2011 at 3:07 am
It may sound daunting to a beginner, but I think it also helps if you understand the zone system as applied to digital photography. for example, you could have set the aperture and iso you wanted (or any 2 exposure settings) and then set the shutter speed by taking reading off the black shirt and changing the shutter speed until the viewfinder meter read -2 (black with detail). Or you could have taken a metering off her skin and changed the shutter speed until the viewfinder meter read +1.5. Then of course you have the “expose to the right” theory to add to the equation. I usually shoot in manual mode as I find using exposure compensation and exposure lock to be a more cumbersome process.
August 31, 2011 at 7:11 pm
Interesting point. I have been using manual mode a lot more these past few months. Mainly, because I have been taking a lot of photos in tough light, midday on the beach. Like you say, manual can be less cumbersome than exposure compensation. Maybe it’s time for me to learn the zone system. Maybe I am already using parts of it as part of my regular process. These lessons are aimed at beginners so I don’t think I am about to write a zone system tut. Possibly I’ll consider it in the future.
August 31, 2011 at 9:27 pm
I stumbled across videos teaching the zone system a few years back on the dpreview forums. It was the only thing that really made the light bulb go off for me regarding the zone system. I knew the principles, but I didn’t know exactly how to apply them. They are beginner oriented so it might help you to explain it to beginners. There are 7 sections with several parts each. Here is the link to the first video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0daRdofOZo
September 1, 2011 at 5:15 am
Thanks for the link. I’m going to check out those videos as soon as I get a chance.
September 3, 2011 at 4:29 am