burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Meter with a hand-held incident meter, or meter a gray card with your camera meter. Record raw files and post-process in software with highlight and shadow recovery tools.

LoneRangeFinder Loc: Left field

I cannot help but think that if we learned manual first, we would understand much better the differences of the various shooting modes. I understand the temptation to just set it and forget it. With digital one has a great opportunity to try each setting and immediately observe what has happened. One doesn’t need to fall into the science to “get it”. Playing with aperture and shutter duration can provide valuable insight into the relationship between the two utilizing both the visual and the kinetic to reinforce the fundamentals.

Notorious T.O.D. Loc: Harrisburg, North Carolina

Jimmy T Loc: Virginia

Jimmy T Loc: Virginia

Jimmy T Loc: Virginia

Larz

I think of not shooting in manual is like using a pair of vice grips to change a transmission in your car when you have a complete set of tools in your toolbox. You might get an acceptable result with the vice grips but using all of your tools will be easier, faster and allow you to overcome difficult situations. I suggest reading the manual, viewing some tutorials, but most of all, put your camera on a tripod and go through all of the manual settings with the same subject in consistent light, and review and understand the results. Then try different lighting situations. You'll get there and love it!

SteveR Loc: Michigan

Do you understand the exposure triangle? ISO? How to use your camera's meter (all three modes?). If so, you're ready to shoot manual. Select your ISO, desired aperture or speed, whichever would be of priority for your shooting situation, adjusting the other until your meter shows that the light is correct. Push the button.

pithydoug Loc: Catskill Mountains, NY

Bryan Peterson's "understanding exposure." Simple to read, lots of examples to include photos. If one can not learn to shoot manual after that read, i would suggest they take up badminton.

That said, I can shoot manual without any problem but prefer to use aperture and shutter priority 95% of the time. If you are cramming for a single photo do manual. If you plan to take many shots and the light and or motion is changing use a priority mode and let the camera do the work.

traderjohn Loc: New York City

I rarely shoot in manual. If I do it is for shooting fireworks. My biggest "have to" is to remember to move the AF to M on my lens and then back after I'm finished.

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

There is no substitute for experience, even if a good book will explain things.

There is much good advice given already, and I agree with sharpshooter. The T3i makes a very good manual camera, just like the ones we had in the early 1970s.

The important thing is to get a feel for what each of the primary controls do to an image.

I would recommend you set your camera to capture both raw and high quality jpg. I would also recommend using Canon's DPP software, if only while you are going through this learning exercise.

Then go out and experiment as SS suggests, and make lots of mistakes. Unlike the film days, it costs nothing and you won't wear out your camera. You will likely learn more from the mistakes if you spend the time to work out why you think they are mistakes. Raw will help you correct for exposure a little, but not for things like motion blur or depth of field.

If you understand the basics of the exposure triangle, then go test it.

It's a bit like driving in snow and ice, you can read all the books you want, but you only learn how to do it through actual experience, and hopefully the mistakes aren't expensive ones!

Good luck

SonyBug

From all the people that started in film, the triangle is easy. The film speed was fixed, so you only worried about shutter speed and aperture. Then when your pictures were all blurry, you realized that the shutter was too slow. And when the picture was too dark, (or light) you realized that the aperture was important too. So, the camera taught you what to do!

RKL349 Loc: Connecticut

I’ll second the recommendation about reading Bryan Peterson’s book “Understanding Exposure”.

camerapapi Loc: Miami, Fl.

Some experience is needed to shoot in the manual mode, I know you are aware of that. If you have basic photographic information the process should be easy. Manual allows you to be in full control, if something is wrong it is all the fault of the operator.
A basic understanding of apertures and shutter speeds is paramount. ISO is adjusted according to the light intensity and readjusted when necessary. For depth of field a small aperture is used. To stop action we make sure we have an appropriate shutter speed.
Metering is very important. I like to use center weighted and spot metering because I know how they react and what I have to do to correct the exposure.
The rest is practice.

traderjohn Loc: New York City

I think a book would explain to the novice the first steps and then no matter what it is you continue to read and progress.