jbmauser Loc: Roanoke, VA

I think learning to shoot in manual is more about developing a photographers brain to go with developing the photographers eye. The eye sees the image and the brain uses the settings to shape the image. Any of the camera settings will work to build a averaged or weighted result. Learning to shoot in manual is feeling or shaping the capture using the effects the various camera controls have not just the resultant balanced exposure. I guess it is like using both sides of the brain, the artistic and the analytical to craft the image. But all in all it is the image that speaks.

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

You can use your camera meter in a more manual way than just setting it on matrix or evaluative. If you use spot mode, or even just center weighed, you can take readings from different areas of the scene to determine your exposure. You could even use your camera meter to take a reading off a grey card or something in the scene similar to a grey card. The camera meter can be fooled by scenes with large areas of brightness or darkness.

cthahn

If you know the basics of photography, can take pictures in complete manual, you are a photographer. If you have to rely on automatic, then you are a picture taker.

Jeffcs Loc: Myrtle Beach South Carolina

I'm not so sure with a digital world you can go total manual remember film did not have a white ballance you needed filters to correct light temperature
Other than that you can set ISO ( film was ASA) shutter speed apture focus but focus is electronically assisted no more split image or fresnel screens
So unless you began photography in the early 70ds or earlier you've never experienced "manual" photography

agillot

manual focus / F stop / speed . like a older 60 or 70 s 35mm camera .

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

White balance is just one more factor you can have the camera set automatically or set yourself manually. I would consider setting a custom white balance "manual". By the way, ISO replaced ASA in the film era before digital came along.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Of all the cameras I use (Nikon F, Nikon F5, Hasselblad 500C/M, Graphic View II, Nikon D700, Nikon D800e, only 2 are digital. When using the digitals and the F5, the only thing I let the camera do for me is focus. I set the ISO, determined by level of scene illumination. I choose my aperture and then meter for my shutter speed, if I have the camera on a tripod. For hand held, I choose an appropriate shutter speed for the focal length of the lens I'm using and then adjust the aperture. In some cases, I've had to select a shutter speed appropriate for capturing the action I was photographing, In that case, I then adjust the aperture to make a correct exposure. In one case, I need to capture the action, but also wanted to control the DOF. I adjusted the ISO to allow for the shutter/aperture combination. So, I'd say, except for auto-focus, I am completely manual.
--Bob

Greenmachine Loc: Chicago, IL

I agree with you both...before our cameras evolved into the sophisticated machines with FULLY AUTOMATIC modes, all the old pros shot manual, and they say it helped their creativity:
I find myself often starting out in Program Mode (with Auoto ISO, of course!) just to get the in the ballpark for the correct exposure; and then I usually switch to Manual to tweak and
fine-tune my photo: No need to be locked into ONLY manual or ONLY Automatic: As a freelance newspaper photographer her in the Windy City, I say let's use our expensive camera's automatic bells and whistles
if and when we want to! :)

wingclui44 Loc: CT USA

I use 'manual mode ' with Auto ISO all the time. Shutter speed; aperture; & ISO are three factors to make correct exposure, aperture & shutter speed control the amount of the light reaching the sensor/film and the ISO/ASA is the light sensitivity of the sensor, but aperture also controls depth of field, and the shutter speed also controls the subject movement 'blur'. These two are the main factor for an good image. In early 70, I had been using three slrs, all had built in meter which were using matching needle in the view finder by changing the aperture or shutter speed value to get the proper exposure or may using hand held meter. We can only put in a fix 'ASA' sensitivity film to the camera depending on the lighting situation at that moment. Since you started you can not switch film. So we all had that so called "camera assist." So can you call this a "full manual or semi- manual"?
Going back to "Auto ISO" with "manual mode" I steal call it a "full manual", because manual setting gives me full control the aperture and shutter speed that exactly I want, then come to the ISO that's only controlling the sensitivity of the light. On my camera, it's very easy to turn a ISO "dial" on top of my camera to directly adjust the exposure by looking at the 'exposure indicator/ exposure compensation scale' in the view finder, it works just like the old time 'needle matching' method! Do you call this not full "manual'?
So, instead turning the ISO dial, I choose using "Auto ISO" to deal with different lighting conditions same as changing film. This is the same as "needle matching" Why doesn't it called "full manual"?

gessman Loc: Colorado

When I get ready to make a picture I take my hatchet into the woods and cut down a cherry tree, build me a pinhole camera, wood pegs of course, no nails, ever. Then I melt some sand in my blast furnace built from rocks, build a fire using the extra timber I fell to get the wood for the camera. Then I make my glass plates, melt down leaves and stuff to get my chemicals to develop the glass plates, etc. I do that each time I want to make a picture - manual all the way. Yes siree, buddy! "manual-R-us." Why, I got the shot below with the last camera I built. This ol' guy started giving me the stink eye and I grabbed my camera up, only weighs 250 lbs., beat the sucker to death with it, quartered him and toted half of it out on the first trip, leaving my camera behind. When I got back there was a pack of wolves eating on the other half of the moose and I had to take all of 'em on with just a little three inch knife I always have with me when I go into the woods. Damn bunch of wimps, using all that auto stuff. You can't call yourself photographers if you don't do it just like me. What the hell's wrong with you. Sissy-ass bunch of nerds. You need to just go get a job at the cosmetic counter at Macy's. ...a bunch of cream puffs! no huevos!

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

You can set the exposure just by looking at your surroundings, based on the sunny 16 rule, but that requires a lot of f-stop counting! To avoid that, a meter comes in handy, but you can certainly do without it!

mborn Loc: Massachusetts

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

Yep.
But Manual is manual if taken literally.

boberic Loc: Quiet Corner, Connecticut. Ex long Islander

Best response yet

cameranut Loc: North Carolina

When I first stated shooting with a digital camera (my first one) I put it in auto because I didn't know any better. I had a Canon Powershot sx20is., one of the first "mega zooms", as they were called at that time. They are now referred to as "bridge" cameras. Most or all of my shots were a bit overexposed, in other words, I needed sunglasses to view them. Long story short; I now use full manual and manually focus also. I like being in control so I don't have to post process them to death.
Some camera/lens combinations might do fine in auto. Of that, I wouldn't know.