I was in high school when I got bit by the photo bug. My parents gave me a set of the Time Life Library of Photography via subscription, in the early 1970s. I DEVOURED those books. (Mom immediately regretted it. She wanted me to be a doctor, or a lawyer like my sister!)

I was the photographer for my school's newspaper and yearbook, and sold a lot of photos to my friends, too. So I got that structured background by reading photo magazines, the T-L series books, and then by doing.

When I joined a school portrait and yearbook company in 1979, it was to produce big multi-image slide shows. I thanked my parents for those books every time I saw them for a few years. I took the entire set to the office, where they stayed for 33 years. I bought the second edition of the same series for my home use. I still have them.

I always have found that understanding the principles behind the technology is the MOST enabling thing I can learn. If you know how and why something works, you know just what you can, and cannot, do with it.

Ok all y'all camera smarties....I truly do want to learn manual shooting. And I understand that when a setting is changed that it will affect another setting somehow. Sorry to say this but like the dumb blond joke " I just don't get it". I have watched countless videos and have tried "on my own " to learn it but in frustration I just wanted to throw my camera BUT of course I won't do that. I guess my question is this - Is there a chart ( like to a color wheel ) that will show that if I make a change in one setting that it will show what else it affects and how to correct what needs to corrected? From lower than novice and slower than slow, I thank you!

I find that the BIGGEST benefit in getting out of AUTO (I use a Nikon d3400) is that I am able to chose my meter mode and my focus modes. When we let the camera choose everything, often it meters on the brightest spots, and will focus on the closest thing in the viewfinder. That is not always what we try to capture in our images. The P mode allows this as do S, A, M.

There are many Youtube videos that you can watch, just do a youtube search and you will find a ton of information.

Books are available also. Many to choose from, but I find that I learn better with the camera in my hand, a video in front of me, and practice and experiment. PIXELS ARE FREE

Looking back on my own learning experience, I would advise newbies to start methodically with manual mode. Either use self-taught trial and error or use a more studied, formal approach. Digital film is cheap, take lots of pictures and be self-critical. I skipped most of this advise and, after 50+ years, am still pretty much an advanced snapshooter. And study the light whether indoors or out. Planning ahead will result in more successful shots and eventually become automatic in your process. Those are my thoughts.

In reading all the replies, and considering that I bought my very first SLR in 1969 and it was manual everything, manual is a no brainer to me at this point. But how often do I actually use manual mode now? Only when I don't want the camera to make decisions for me. Most of the time it is Aperture Priority or Shutter Priority. And with long zoom bridge cameras, it is Auto Mode since I find that the available ranges for ISO, Shutter Speed and Aperture are more limited and it can easily hit the limit.

When I do astrophotography, I only use manual mode. This is one place that I don't want the camera making any decisions.

And I suppose we should include manual focus in this discussion too. I go to manual focus when there is a good chance that the camera won't know what I am interested in focusing on. Simple as that. And I definitely use the focus magnifier since my focusing efforts without it are never are as good as I really want. And I avoid focus peaking (talking mirrorless camera) since it is not as accurate as focus magnifier. But it is useful when there is insufficient time to use the focus magnifier, for instance if the subject is moving.

When most people say this sort of thing, and you quiz them on their real meaning, the conversation gets to a point that they REALLY mean you should learn the physics of photography:

How does the meter work? How do you use it? What do the various metering patterns do?
What is exposure?
What is ISO? How does it relate to exposure?
What is the purpose of Aperture control? How does it relate to exposure? How does it affect depth of field and diffraction?
What is the purpose of Shutter Speed control? How does it relate to exposure? How does it relate to camera shake, motion blur, and action stopping ability?
What is depth of field?
What is focal length? How does it affect depth perspective?
What is format size? How does it relate to focal length, and by extension, depth of field and angle of view? How does it affect low light performance?
What is focus? How does YOUR particular camera adjust focus (Manually, single point, multi-point, face or eye tracking, regular tracking...)
What is diffraction limiting of sharpness? How do I avoid it?
What is the Inverse/Square Law? (1/D^2, or "All radiation (light, in photography, and sound, in video) dissipates with the inverse of the square of the distance from the source") Why should I care?

I could go on and on, but the point is that an understanding of the variables you can manipulate and how you can manipulate them is what enables you to get FULL potential from the various automatic modes on your camera or flash. It is not enough to, "Set 'er on 'A' and pray!" Murphy's Law says that will let you down when you least want to fail. Knowing how to manipulate the right variables to your advantage in any situation requires a deeper look at HOW it all works. That can occur through a LOT of reading, practice, classroom discussion, and other means. Practice in manual mode is but one of them.

It's not about the medium of film or digital. It's about applied physics.

The ART of photography is an entirely different matter. Needless to say, an artists' ability to control the tools greatly affects the finished work.

I suggest steps first. Work with Aperture Priority and/or Shutter Priority settings first. See the relation in the exposure triangle and how altering one variable will alter the other two as your camera adjusts to make a usable image. As you learn the relationship between the three, and start to look at light, you will see/experience/learn how to manipulate them individually and then in combination. Then using Manual mode with auto ISO lets you alter 2 of the three, and then, if you wish full Manual is an easy last step.

IMHO, when you leave Auto Mode, you stop taking pictures and start capturing IMAGES!!!! Best to all!!