Brenda IS Scottish Loc: GOLDEN Colorado

Although I have a few photography courses under my belt, I still am having issues with manual settings i.e., I just don't know where to begin. Can anyone direct me on a starting "basic cover all bases" setting that they start with. I understand the technical aspects of aperture and shutter speed, but I don't know what my starting range should be, I normally shoot in shutter priority or Aperture priority to get the results I'm looking for, but I want to be able to control it all if the need so arises.

GWR100 Loc: England

I would suggest setting the camera to RAW or jpeg manual and see the setting chosen by the camera programme. Then having noted them,set the manual to them and play from there. The more you play you will learn how aperture will affect the depth of field and shutter speed can control the light, for starters, the rest is just try try try again.

Country's Mama Loc: Michigan

Get Bryan Peterson's book Understanding Exposure. It is easy and fun to read and it will walk you through step by step. Every situation is different so there is no "covers all Bases" setting.
Take it one step at a time and before you know it you will understand it.

butterflygirl77nc Loc: North Carolina

Ok. I might get some heat for this but I started out using the small fstops (large opening) and working with my shutter speed and my ISO, when I figured out what effects I got from those combinations (including dof)) I started playing with my f stop and shutter speed, then I added ISO. Now I only shoot in manual and I pretty much know what I'm doing. Ha ha... That's what worked for me!! And yes, I read a lot of books too.. But I'm a trial and error learner!

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

Brendalou, it's not as complex as it looks.
First, all your dealing with is three numbers, that's called the exposure triangle. Speed, ISO and f-stop. Nothing more.
Start with the sunny 16 rule. For daylight set you camera to speed 100, ISO to 100 and F-stop to 16. This should work on bright days. This gives you good DoF and slow light sensitivity.
From your classes you should know that if it's blurred, you need more speed. But all has to stay the same on the exposure triangle. If you increase the speed, the other two have to compensate.
If you double the speed, you will need twice the light, open one full f-stop. If you triple the speed, you need to increase two full f-stops. Change one and the other two are affected.
Study your exposure triangle, it's very simple.
Or leave it on sunny 16 and you have an expensive Kodak Instamtic. My mother used a Kodak Hawkeye. In twenty years I never say a bad photo. But then I found out she was cheating, when it got dark, she put a flash unit onto it.
Not sure I helped, but this might encourage others that know much more than I to help out.
Good luck with you manual endeavors.

Country's Mama Loc: Michigan

I think that is a good way to learn. If you just look in your view finder and keep the tracking dot within 2/3 stops of center your picture should be properly exposed. So start with 100 to 200 iso pic an aperture setting then adjust your shutter speed to keep the tracking dot in the center.

rpavich Loc: West Virginia

There is no way to do it but practice.

Don't overwhelm yourself with options...start slow.

Sit at your kitchen table, focus on your coffee cup and practice gettting an exposure...you know..needle in the middle.

In my kitchen that would be about ISO 2000, f/2.8 and ss of 1/100.

So do that. Then lower your ISO one full stop to 1000.

Now what do you have to do to keep the same "needle in the middle" exposure?

You have to compensate by opening the aperture or slowing down the shutter speed one stop.


That's how to get familiar with your settings...keep doing it over and over when the pressure is off... :)

Brenda IS Scottish Loc: GOLDEN Colorado

Frapha Loc: Tulsa, Oklahoma

Spend some time with the DSLR Camera Simulator here -- http://camerasim.com/ Great learning tool.

big ed Loc: Dudley UK

I agree with rpavich.. practice practice practice
Kev

djtravels Loc: Georgia boy now

butterflygirl is right :thumbup: Learning is like a marriage between you and your camera. I went to an indoor sporting event yesterday, not knowing what to expect. Said, hey, fast shutter to stop action. Fast lens or wide open f stop. Put ISO and WB on auto. Guess what? ;-)

hflare Loc: Florida

There should not be too much difficulty in your endeavor to
get the knowledge you would need in order to understand and use the manual settings of the camera.

As you stated, you are familiar with the basic of it. I figure you might just not know what the "differences" would be to be able to use them properly...

The major factor in using the manual setting for the camera is for you to choose what in your photograph is going to be focused sharp and what is not.

This is called the "depth of field"....

Any picture you take will have a number of different F stop and Shutter speeds that will give you the proper exposure.

Now the question is which set do you use for the intended shot?

let us put some objects in a scene for you...

five feet in front of you is a rose bush, six feet behind that bush is a barn.. fifty feet behind the barn is a old rusted car...

We have these items at different distances from the front of the lens.....

which of the three do you want focused in your shot?

Now focus on the middle object... which is the barn..

What ever aperture you use will set the focus length...

If you open the aperture up to lets say 2.8 You are going to only get that which you focused on, the barn sharp in the photograph.... the bush and car will not be focused...

If you use the smallest aperture which can be F 16 or larger
then all the objects will be in focus...

This might be a bit awkward to explain... since most camera lens now are zoom ones.. as in the years past
there were more lens which were not zoom than there are now.. When one had a lens with a set focal size.

lets' say... a 50 mm lens.. there were markings on the lens rings to showy one what areas of the scene would be focused when using a certain aperture settings..
but now that they have these zoom lens, which contain about fifty different focal lengths in them and at each focal point the focused area would be different...

One could go on line and see out each focal point and get a focus chart for that lens length...

What I mean is that you can find a chart for the 35 mm, 45 mm, 50 mm and so on... as when you choose your zoom position that position would have a MM size set...

The basic chart used to read:

If your subject is ten feet from you and you focused your lens on the subject and then you used F 8 that photograph would have any object in focus with one third that distance in front of the subject and two thirds the distanced behind them....

If you just wanted the barn... in focus you would open the lens to it's widest setting... 1.2, 1.4 2.0 etc... and adjust
your shutter speed to match that light.. and the barn would be in focus alone....

Forgive the inability to write....

gfinnstrom

What sharpshooter said is good I have two canons Been doing photography since the 70's took a little time to get use to digital and now I am having fun... I do events documentary and historical photos... at the events I talk to different photographers and learn tips and tricks one is if not sure what setting to get or condition's weird put the camera in p mode if canon press shutter button half way down see what the settings show then go to manual and experiment see what comes up....

another trick is put the camera in live mode use the dials to set the settings that look good in the LCD then go back to your viewer take the photos now when you do this look at the settings and you will get to know them by instinct and have a lot of fun photography is an everyday learning curve the day someone knows it all is dead and buried till that happens you will learn Ansel Adams once said I can take a thousand photos in one year and only like one or two he was always experimenting all the time good luck

redpepper Loc: Central NY

I've beem shooting manual/raws about 6 months now. I formally used tv/av priority...youre ready for the next level, manual. I still chimp alot..tjats all in the learning. But I know ISO affects my images and I usially start with that value. Then I determine what DOF I meed to get the subject(s) in focus. Lastly, I select my shutter speed. If photographing kids/sports..I use 1/250 and up. If a still subject..Ill decrease to 1/60 handheld (my lenses have IS/OS). Finally, I look at the exposure meter and try and.get it within 2/3 of 0 ....take the shot and always check my histogram. The histogram has saved me both in camera and pp in Lightroom.

There.are many ways to get great exposure value. This is just ome way that works for me right now.

redpepper Loc: Central NY

Sorry for typos...my virtual phone keyboard, ugh.