joecichjr Loc: Chicago S. Suburbs, Illinois, USA

🆒🆒🆒🆒

Ysarex Loc: St. Louis

Got it. So you were originally wrong as you point out here. It can be done using an auto mode by locking the best, as Gene said, "compromise" exposure.

M1911 Loc: DFW Metromess

Keep inn mind what the light meter in the camera thinks it sees. It thinks that everything averages out to a middle level gray. It doesn't know if the subject is a bride or a black cat. If it is a bride in white, you'll need to add exposure to make the white appear white. If it is the cat, you need to darken the exposure by stopping down the lens or using a faster shutter speed.

If you are shooting in manual and you always do what the meter tells you, then you are really shooting in auto but you are the automation. Shooting manual is supposed to let you decide if the light meter is right or if it is off for a given shot.

Ysarex Loc: St. Louis

Shooting in an auto mode gives you the same option to evaluate the meter exposure and override it as you see fit. Shooting in Program mode I almost never use the metered exposure.

BebuLamar

You select B yet use the camera in P mode.
With B you decide on the exposure you want to give. Using P pointing the camera at light and dark until the camera pick the exposure you determined using B. Use the AE lock to lock in that exposure. Then use the P shift function to choose the correct combination or shutter speed and aperture.

selmslie Loc: Fernandina Beach, FL, USA

How do you determine the best exposure? Do you frame each part of the scene and make a note of each of the recommended exposures (and ISO if you are on Auto ISO)? That's pretty tedious.

There are much easier ways to do this and it starts with knowing the exposure and ISO you want to use for all of them and lock them in on full Manual. I get there from experience and don't use the camera's meter at all.

It's obvious that you are only arguing this from a hypothetical viewpoint and have never actually done it and posted your results.

I have done it and posted a couple of panoramas here as well as on Fine Art America where a couple have sold.

But Gene Lugo does more of them than I have and he's better at it.

MrBob Loc: lookout Mtn. NE Alabama

Come on , get a life... slang term used ALL the time on here. WHY would you even have to Google... ? Term used a lot in place of Program mode. If you had to Google it, well.... Your pseudo denigration of folks seems to have no bounds. BTW, have you recently escaped from your local Dry Cleaners...? I heard there were a couple Stuffed Shirts missing !

Photec

Work methodically: Stationary/Landscape subjects.
1. Asses you scene/subject/lighting and what the story your photo is to tell?
2. What needs to be sharp-soft & included-excluded.
3. Determine shooting angle, distance, lens focal length.
4. Determine appropriate depth of field and set the aperture.
5. Adjust ISO and SS for first look, then check your histogram to see if the exposure needs to be adjusted.
6. Remember that your story and depth of field is SET based on the story you want to tell, so your exposure corrections need to be made with SS and/or ISO. Note: Some cameras handle ISO changes better/worse than others.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Really?

But, I'm beginning to notice the real joke here.
--Bob

Ysarex Loc: St. Louis

That's off topic. Here's the ignorant thing you said: "You can't use any form of auto exposure if you are going to make a panorama." https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-711661-3.html#12559342

Again off-topic -- you're trying to blow smoke now. Here's the ignorant thing you said: "You can't use any form of auto exposure if you are going to make a panorama." https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-711661-3.html#12559342

Just did it this morning: https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-711661-4.html#12559497 and the camera was in Program mode.
I'm always amazed how you know more details about my life than I know myself! Been doing panoramas for decades. Used to have one of these that attached to my Rolleiflex: https://www.picclickimg.com/d/l400/pict/183745047861_/Rollei-panoramakopf-tripod-camera-panorama-head-bubble-level.jpg -- loved it.

Below is an old one I shot of the river bend at Lansing Iowa (film).

Again here's the ignorant thing that you said: "You can't use any form of auto exposure if you are going to make a panorama." https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-711661-3.html#12559342
And here's you contradicting that in this same thread: "On auto anything it only works if you start at the end with the clouds and lock in that exposure." https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-711661-4.html#12559615

Blow all the smoke you want, what you said was wrong and you said so yourself.

(Download)

selmslie Loc: Fernandina Beach, FL, USA

Once you have locked in one of the exposures in order to use it for all of the frames you are no longer on auto exposure.

Each of your frames is working just as though you were shooting on manual, with a fixed ISO, shutter speed and aperture.

You are trusting the camera to be smarter than you are. Maybe it is. Letting the camera pick the ISO and exposure is not the compromise Gene is suggesting.

On full manual I am totally in control of the situation. The camera's meter is not involved. I know that my judgement is better than the camera's.

You just can't face The Challenge of Manual Exposure. That's the topic of this discussion, not panoramas.

So I am correct and you are just tying to make this into a win/lose argument. I'm not going to take this any further with you.

Bye bye.

Alaskangiant

What brand of camera do you have ? To shoot in manual you need to understand tonality and there reflective factor. Example a blue North sky is a mid tone, green grass. If you have a computer search for colour to black &white tonality scale. If your camera can shot black & white jpeg start first on a overcast day and look and the tones you won’t as mid tones and compare to the black&white scale for the mid tone. Set your camera on narrow spot meter and in manual mode. What country do you reside in. If you are anyway confused please contact me. My Mentor service offers virtual service free during Cov-19

Timmers Loc: San Antonio Texas.

It is a vary easy thing to know, but there are just a few points to take into consideration.

First, you are shooting digital so the analogue approach to this is NOT applicable. Digital and film exposure are opposite to one another. In film you do a lot of things to get exposure but they ill never apply to digital technology. In digital work we expose for the highlights and use post to take care of the shadows. Simple as that. So when in drought you will always go for detail in the whites white. This seems to be a mystery to the 'masters' of current photography but they are solei incorrect in this grasp of exposure.

Next is the rule of 16. It seems easy enough but it would appear hat there is a lot of idiocy in the understanding of the rule of 16. The 'rule' applies absolutely "for summer time and sea level" ONLY.

If you climb to 5-6 thousand feet in elevation, then you gain one stop of light, and at 10,000 feet you gain 2 stops of light (Mount Everest),and above this you gain about 2.5 to 3 stops of light. This is why cloud scrapes often have clouds that are over exposed, but mostly we don't really concern ourselves with them clouds.

The next item is related to a simple seasonal quality, In winter, we loos one stop of light. This is due to the angle the sun rays are coming to the earth. It is NOT the sun distance or some mumbo jumbo, it is the angle the earth is to the sun, still one stop loss of light.

EXAMPLES: It is summer in San Antonio Texas, the rule of 16 applies because San Antonio Texas is pretty close to sea level. So the basic exposure outside is f=16 1/ISO. I visit my brother in Santa Fe tomorrow and the exposure will be F=22 at 1/ISO, because Santa Fe in summer is elevated to about 5,000 feet. But if I visit again and on Christmas day we do family photos in the yard the exposure will be f=16 1/ISO because it is winter and we loose 1 stop of light but ain back that stop due to the 5,000 foot elevation.

The final suggestion is to turn off your light meter and set the camera to full manual, learn to estimate your exposure and that will teach you how to make exposures.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Fear of the Professional mode defeats more photographers than any other setting on their camera. Followed closely by filters.

selmslie Loc: Fernandina Beach, FL, USA

Sorry but that's wrong on both counts. Sunny 16 is not significantly affected by season or altitude for the first two miles above sea level (more than 10,000 feet). That's higher than we can go and breath without an oxygen tank.

To learn more about this take a look at Effect of Direct Sunlight on Photographic Exposure.

The seasons and time of day can attenuate the sunlight if it comes in at an angle, the sharper the angle the more air it needs to pass through. When the sun drops to about 30° from the horizon the light is blocked by about 1/3 stop, not enough to make much difference.