When I hear someone say they want to shoot in Manual, I hear them saying they WANT to slow down, they want to LEARN photography, the want to UNDERSTAND how the image is formed. When you shoot in manual without a light meter, you have to critically look at light, and this critical look will make you a better photographer in the art of photography as opposed to the technology of photography. Photography is not about documenting a particular scene, it is capturing the soul and spirit of the light that produced that scene.

We may never get there, but to comprehend how someone like Ansel Adams could spend a day, two days, a week looking at a view and then only take a single exposure to perfectly capture - not the view - the light.

That is the reason to shoot in Manual.

When I hear someone say they want to shoot in Manual, I hear them saying they WANT to slow down, they want to LEARN photography, the want to UNDERSTAND how the image is formed. When you shoot in manual without a light meter, you have to critically look at light, and this critical look will make you a better photographer in the art of photography as opposed to the technology of photography. Photography is not about documenting a particular scene, it is capturing the soul and spirit of the light that produced that scene.

We may never get there, but to comprehend how someone like Ansel Adams could spend a day, two days, a week looking at a view and then only take a single exposure to perfectly capture - not the view - the light.

That is the reason to shoot in Manual.

When I hear someone say they want to shoot in Manual, I hear them saying they WANT to slow down, they want to LEARN photography, the want to UNDERSTAND how the image is formed. When you shoot in manual without a light meter, you have to critically look at light, and this critical look will make you a better photographer in the art of photography as opposed to the technology of photography. Photography is not about documenting a particular scene, it is capturing the soul and spirit of the light that produced that scene.

We may never get there, but to comprehend how someone like Ansel Adams could spend a day, two days, a week looking at a view and then only take a single exposure to perfectly capture - not the view - the light.

That is the reason to shoot in Manual.

There is this whole urban myth that was created about manual. Trust me, that is all it is. An urban myth. Shooting in manual does not make you a better photographer. It does not allow you any more control than any of the other auto modes - including program. And, as you have found out, there are many times when using manual is actually the worst choice.

Here is a simple test. Take a piece of black poster board, and a piece of white poster board. Put them both in a spot where there are receiving even lighting. Now, move in close enough to the white board that it fills the viewfinder without throwing a shadow on the board. Set your camera in manual - center the meter for a "correct" exposure, and take a photo. Write down the settings you used. (You can get the data later off the file, but it's easier to just write it down).

Repeat with the black card.

Next, change the metering mode to Aperture, and repeat the above steps.

Next, change the metering to Shutter Priority, and repeat the above steps.

Do the same with any other exposure modes on your camera.

It's now time to import all of those photos into your editing software. You notice something about those images. You should. They are all going to be approximately the same shade of grey. There will be no white images, there will be no black images, they will all be about 18% grey.

Repeat all of the above, but this time, with the white card, open up from the recommended reading by two stops, with the black card, close down two stops. With the auto modes you use the +- exposure compensation button.

Import and compare - now the white card looks white, the black card looks black. And again it doesn't matter which mode you used, they will all look the same for each of the metering modes.

So why then this thing that you need to shoot in manual. Like I said, it's an urban myth. It didn't exist before the advent of the digital camera. In fact if you go back to books written in the 80's you will find lots of references to the advantages of the auto exposure modes (one of the advantages of being older than dirt - institutional memory of what was before). With the digital camera came a whole plethora of newly minted photographers trying to enter the world of professional photography. But being a real professional photographer is hard work. It's not anywhere near as easy as looks, because the camera really is only a tool, just like a hammer or a saw are the tool of a carpenter, or a paint brush and palette are the tool of a painter.

You know that old saying, those that can do, those that can not, teach. Well they found out that it was far easier and more lucrative to teach the newest batch of photographers. But what to teach. Well, you cannot be a "real" photographer, unless you use manual mode. So that's what they came up with. Building this whole myth that to be a real photographer you need to shoot in manual.

Well it is just as much bull, as back in the day, you were not a real photographer unless you used a view camera - that was cry when the roll film cameras came out. Followed by the cry you were not a real photographer unless you used medium format - that was the cry when the 35mm camera came out.

Every generation has the elitists that claim that you have to do X to belong to their select group. They are trying to make themselves feel important by excluding those that don't meet the criteria of their club.

Lets not forget the acolytes of the sunny 16 rule. They claim that you don't need to know anything more than a series of rules. Like if the sun is out and throwing distinct shadows that you shoot in manual and set your fstop to 16 and your shutter speed to 1/ISO. There are different settings for sand, snow, cloudy, etc. and they all used to be printed on the little instruction sheet that came with your roll of film. But the settings are not infallible they were simply designed to give you an exposure that would, when combined with the exposure latitude of the film, a negative that could be printed. That negative could be out by two stops either over or under, and you would still be able to pull an image in the darkroom. Today, it relies on the "We will fix it after in Photoshop"

The control you seek, does not come from any exposure mode in the camera. It comes from thinking about what you want the final image to say. Like do you want to illustrate speed, by the blur created by panning the camera with a slower shutter speed. Or do you want to do it by freezing the action with a high shutter speed.

This is a decision that you as the photographer make before you press the shutter, before you take a meter reading, before you put the camera to your eye. Once you make that decision you can capture that vision with whatever exposure mode you want to use.

My preference is for aperture preferred, because if I want to freeze action, I just open up the lens as far as it will go. That will give me the fastest shutter speed that lens and ISO combination can give me. It may not be fast enough, but I still end up with a properly exposed file. When you use shutter preferred - you are likely to come away with a lot of underexposed images because the lens isn't fast enough to support the shutter speed.

The big advantage to the auto modes is that they take care of the technical side (right brain side) of the image, leaving you to concentrate on the creative (left brain side) of the image. Todays cameras are far better and faster at dealing with the technical side, but they still haven't made a camera that can deal with the creative side. So let the camera do what it can do better than you, and you concentrate on what you can do better than the camera. And the hell with the elitists that say you have to do it this way or that way.

I guess that I just don't understand the romance of shooting in manual mode. I come from the era of film cameras and the zone system using a 4X5 view camera. I was forced to shoot in manual mode. We had nothing else. Today, we pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars for remarkably sophisticated cameras that can do everything except cook breakfast. And yet we choose to throw all of that technology away and dive right back into the world of manual mode. Why, I ask? The modern camera is a computer with some very nice glass attached to it. It can make millions of computations in a second. It can detect changing light conditions in an instant. It can focus under light so dim that our eyes can't even see the outlines of the subject yet alone focus on it. Most can auto bracket. Most can do in-camera HDR. I'm not suggesting that we should put our cameras in Auto Mode and take what we get. Not at all. But what I am suggesting is to think about what is important for a particular image and select the shooting mode accordingly. If depth of field is important, select Av and let the camera figure out the correct exposure. If stopping action is important, then select Tv and let the camera determine the aperture to get a proper exposure. It's time to embrace the technology that has been so graciously handed to us. And yes, even Auto or Program mode has its place in photography. Admittedly, these sophisticated machines can be fooled and we need to be ever mindful of the limitations of the conditions that can produce unexpected results. But having said that, it is my opinion that we could spend our time better by learning to use Av and Tv properly. However, for those that insist on using manual mode, remember to disable Auto ISO and lock in your ISO to a fixed value. If you continue to leave your ISO on Auto, your exposure will vary as the light changes even if you have your aperture and shutter speed fixed. Remember the exposure triangle. This should stir up a heated debate.

When I hear someone say they want to shoot in Manual, I hear them saying they WANT to slow down, they want to LEARN photography, the want to UNDERSTAND how the image is formed. When you shoot in manual without a light meter, you have to critically look at light, and this critical look will make you a better photographer in the art of photography as opposed to the technology of photography. Photography is not about documenting a particular scene, it is capturing the soul and spirit of the light that produced that scene.

We may never get there, but to comprehend how someone like Ansel Adams could spend a day, two days, a week looking at a view and then only take a single exposure to perfectly capture - not the view - the light.

That is the reason to shoot in Manual.