camerapapi Loc: Miami, Fl.

With all due respect, I do not believe you are ready to use the RAW format. RAW requires expertise developing the files that I do not believe you have. Nothing wrong shooting JPEG till your photography knowledge improves to the point of making a difference.
The manual mode requires experience also and basic knowledge of photography something not difficult to attain if you begin to take instructions on how to use your camera and lenses. For now learn the basics of photography and you will see a significant improvement in your skills. Exposure is the basis of a good photograph along with visual design. Learn how the meters in your camera work and when to use them. Learn about using apertures and shutter speeds creatively. All this will take some time.
There are many books and workshops for beginners that will show you the basics. If you join a local camera club so much better because you will have lots of help and someone always available to answer your questions.
Good luck to you.

Haymaker

I did take his courses and they helped tremendously with my understanding. I believe you meant to say that these lessons are to get photographers off AUTO not off MANUAL.

ggenova64

What course did you take?

markngolf Loc: Bridgewater, NJ

As usual, excellent suggestions!!
Happy Holidays!
Mark

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

The biggest hurdle to using Manual Mode is planning ahead and having a goal for the photo. Accept that it’s not a snapshot mode but requires a deliberative process that starts with having an objective clearly in mind. After that, the mechanics are relatively straight forward. If the light and associated dynamic range are rapidly changing or your subject is constantly moving from light to shadow, Manual Mode may not be your best option.

BJW

I found this video to be helpful:

Just search On Youtube:
“Sean Tucker Manual Mode,”. a 25 minute video.
Very clear explanation.
He also has several other youtube videos on different topics.

Have fun
BJW

ole sarg Loc: south florida

You shoot raw! The first thing I would do is put some cloths on!

Next, manual is rather easy. I would get a cheap light meter but one that gives you various combinations of speed and aperture according to the light reading. I would look at some good UTubes on using a light meter. Put the camera on manual mode, get a light meter reading, decide on what f stop you want and what speed you want. These decisions are made by what you want to shoot and they accompany composition. Set the camera to achieve what you want to achieve (lots or no depth of field yea or nay, kids playing, etc.) and shoot away. It is what everyone did prior to about 1980.

mstuhr Loc: Oregon

A book. Read Bryan Pederson's "Understanding Exposure".

mike

ggenova64

Thanks BJW

DavidPine Loc: Fredericksburg, TX

Chris, the only difficulty with photography is learning the language to help get a grasp on what a good exposure is. Concentrate on good focusing and make lots of images. Look closely at what some call the Sunny 16 Rule. The ultimate goal with the manual mode is to get a good exposure or a similar exposure every time by balancing the amount of light hitting the camera's sensor. If you can see the relationship of what is termed as the exposure triangle you will see that all you are doing is allowing a specific amount of light into the camera by way of the shutter speed or the aperture or the ISO. When you discover that you are in control of those three functions things will work out for you. There's a book out titled "Understanding Exposure" and it is highly recommended. Good luck.

SusanFromVermont Loc: Southwest corner of Vermont

Automatic mode is OK when in a hurry, and it lets you concentrate on composition and subject matter. The camera in general will do an excellent job of figuring it all out. BUT when you discover that you want to achieve a particular effect and automatic will not let you get there, that is when Manual becomes much more important. That said, you need to learn about the other shooting modes as well, because each has its own particular strengths and therefore good usages.

Practice, practice, practice is the best advice. Put the camera in manual and pay attention to the settings. Lowest ISO for good light and less noise in the image, higher for decreased light. Objective - to let you have a shutter speed adequate for the situation. Aperture wider for more light but will also decrease depth of field. The camera will let you know how your exposure rates against what it considers under or over exposure, making it possible to adjust that, or to adjust other settings that will get the "right" exposure. There will be times when you will want the camera to "underexpose", and you will have the freedom to set it accordingly.

A lot of the use of manual is to allow artistic choice. Use the histogram, too. Study the principles behind the exposure triangle and understand how each one affects the others. Experiment to discover for yourself the results of one adjustment compared to another.

A photo club is good, but it will not help if you allow yourself to feel intimidated by others who are "better" at it than you. Try to talk to the members, ask for advice, and you will soon discover whether they are interested in helping newbies to progress! Use moderation in this, though, so as not to demand too much at one time! Apparently, some can be cliquish and/or competitive, but not all members are likely to have that attitude.

There are many threads in UHH that you can learn from on just about any topic. Searching for them can be time-consuming, but very interesting at the same time. There are other sites you could explore - CreativeLive has a program called "OnAir" where they show videos on different topics, free to watch, and if you like one enough you can purchase it. It is also a good place to get to know different people who teach photography, and you can explore their own websites, and also look for their videos on YouTube. I have bought a couple of videos from CreativeLive, and I also follow photographers I discovered there. They often charge for a membership, or promote their videos so you have an opportunity to purchase them. A lot of how you proceed with these is dependent on whose teaching methods suit you, and also on how much you will spend! Many have FaceBook pages as well as websites.

Hope this helps. Just go out there and shoot, and have fun!
Susan

alfeng Loc: Out where the West commences ...

Think about immersion as possibly being THE most expedient learning process ...

IMO, you may simply want to take advantage of the fact that your camera body can readily accommodate a VINTAGE, Nikon/Nikkor AI PRIME lens without modification to the lens or body.

So, you simply need to pony up for a 50mm lens of your choice OR a 55mm Micro-Nikkor lens -- either will give you the equivalent of a "short telephoto" lens.

... You may-or-may-not need to make a MENU-adjustment to indicate whether you want aperture priority, or not.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Those of us who grew up in the age of nothing but manual control over film exposure developed a process similar to this one:

Determine what is to be photographed, what story is to be told, what the end use of the photo might be... (This is the same for digital capture.)

Determine what speed and type of film is best for the situation — black-and-white, color negative, color transparency; low, medium, or high ISO (50, 125, 400, or thereabouts). (This is mostly the same for digital capture, except that it's raw data vs. JPEGs processed in camera. Output is positive, always producing color data in raw mode. ISO range is higher — 100 to ridiculously high.)

Load film and set meter to its ISO. (Insert memory card and set meter to *desired* ISO.) Low ISO retains full dynamic range and minimizes noise. High ISO allows smaller apertures or faster shutter speeds at the expense of noise, color depth, and dynamic range reduction.

Choose a lens based upon circumstances from those available in your bag. (Same for film and digital.)

Evaluate scene lighting (level, color temperature, spectral continuity, contrast range, consistency, specularity...). Decide whether to add lighting, subtract lighting, or modify the character of lighting to suit the subject. Adjust equipment usage accordingly.

For film, decide what, if any, color correction filter to use to match the light source to the type of color film in use. OR, decide whether to use a special effect color filter for black-and-white.

For digital, use a white balance target to set a custom white balance, or use a preset to match the light source, or use AWB as a last resort for JPEG capture, or as the easy way out in a raw capture strategy.
Meter a neutral area of the scene, or a gray card held in the light exposing the most important part of your subject. Set shutter speed and aperture according to your situation, using EXPERIENCE, KNOWLEDGE, and TRAINING as your guide. (Advanced users apply Zone System techniques, use hand-held incident and spot meters, etc.)

> Slow speeds let in more light, allow smaller apertures, blur action, require camera support or stabilization.
> Fast speeds reduce exposure, stop action, allow hand-held use.
> Wide apertures let in more light, allow faster shutter speeds, produce shallower depth of field.
> Smaller apertures let in less light, require slower shutter speeds, produce greater depth of field.
> Medium to wide apertures typically provide best lens performance.
> Smallest apertures may produce diffraction and limit sharpness.

Pose, Compose, Expose — Prepare the subject and setting (if needed, possible, or practical), frame the desired scene in the viewfinder, and capture the image. (Same for film and digital.)

I've been doing this since the late 1960s. It seems like a lot of work, and a long, involved process to the uninitiated. I assure you, it is an ingrained set of habits that are easy to apply, once learned. The advantage of this deliberate process is that YOU control each variable and use it to your advantage, compromising as best as possible to meet the physical limitations of the situation, circumstances, light, equipment, and subject.

Over time, you develop your own "starting points" for various types of work. Pre-setting the camera for those starting points allows fast, fine adjustments. For instance, as a long time candid yearbook photographer, I know that in the average school classroom, I'm going to use a 24-70mm (FF equivalent) zoom, ISO 400 or 800, 1/30 to 1/60 second, f/2.8 to f/4. That's because most school classrooms are lit with cheap, Cool White fluorescent tubes. Those lights flicker, so shutter speeds above 1/60 second are not reliable unless your camera has a "flicker avoidance" tool built in. I'm going to perform a custom white balance off of a Delta-1 Gray Card or a One Shot Digital Calibration Target, which I'll also use to set my manual exposure. The custom white balance effectively kills the green of CW fluorescents, or the color cast of any other kind of fluorescent. I'll record all images in the same room at the same exposure, if the room is evenly lit. I can record JPEGs and/or raw files with confidence either will be usable. Back in high school, I did basically the same thing, using Tri-X or HP-5 B&W film, but without the white balance. Classroom lighting hasn't changed much in 50 years.

I have about a dozen similar formulae or habits from past experience. I can pre-set my camera based upon a cursory examination of the situation and scene.

Do I always work in manual mode? Aw, heck no! Automation is quite helpful in many circumstances. But I don't trust it in others, and it is annoyingly inconsistent enough that I don't like to use it when the lighting is consistent. Exposure most often should be based upon LIGHT, not subject reflectivity. If you're trying to render 500 things or people with the same proper, accurate, realistic color balance and exposure, you don't meter THEM, you meter a standard reference target or use a hand-held incident dome meter. If the lighting is absolutely consistent, but subjects vary in tonality, the exposure should be the same, if you are going to render ALL subjects accurately. So the reflected light meter in your camera is not to be trusted blindly!

In my 20s, I was an AV producer for a creative services team. We used mostly slide and transparency film in our shop. If you wanted top-notch professional results, you had to be exacting, because transparency film has very little exposure latitude — about +1/3 stop, -1/2 stop from a gray card reading. You have to NAIL the exposure at the camera, AND get the color right at the same time. We used many different color correction filters to achieve that, along with a color temperature meter and a chart we kept of known best practices.

These days, all that knowledge transfers well to digital work when capturing JPEGs for immediate use. JPEG is a *distribution format* for digital images. It was never meant to be a capture format that would be post-processed! JPEGs have exactly the same latitude as most color transparency films did, so you have to do exactly the same sorts of things AT THE CAMERA to get the best quality possible.

Exposure for JPEGs has to be accurate. White balance has to be accurate. You can't always get that right *at the camera,* so raw capture absolutely is preferred in MANY situations (see below). However, JPEGs recorded in camera are great for situations where the lighting is controlled, consistent, has a high quality color content, and has a dynamic range of less than six f/stops. JPEG capture is also great when a professional is doing low budget work and there isn't a labor budget for post-processing. It's great when hundreds of images must be made to look the same — parts in a catalog or on eBay, or portraits on a panel page of a yearbook, for example. It's great for snapshots when you don't care to seek image perfection nirvana. It's great for simple documentation, where perfection isn't required or budgeted or even cared about. It is great for deadline work when seconds count. It's great for forensic work where you aren't allowed to do any post-processing manipulation of an image.

On the other hand, raw capture is much like color negative exposure. Latitude is at least +2 to -2 full f/stops. Raw capture contains 12 to 14 bits of information that is interpolated to 16-bits during post-processing, so it has a much wider dynamic range (10 to 15 f/stops, compared to 5 to 6 for JPEGs, depending on the camera model). The result? You can use it in situations where light is changing rapidly. It is great for scenes that have very wide dynamic range and require post-processing to reveal (compress) that range onto paper or into a JPEG for Internet use. It is most useful for saving time at the camera — the latitude requires less careful thought and attention to procedure than that required to make the best JPEGs. You can adjust white balance over an extremely wide range in post-processing. You can eke out subtleties that could never be revealed at the camera, even with extensive JPEG processor menu bracketing and exposure bracketing and white balance bracketing.

My biggest point here is that manual mode requires DELIBERATION. It requires planning, thought, intent, purpose... in short, it will make you a control freak, in a very good way. If you're not okay with developing that sort of discipline, the automation modes developed over the last few decades can be mighty helpful! They aren't perfect, but sometimes they are faster than our brains, or more accurate than we could be in similar circumstances.

The trick is to understand what the variables are, and how to control them to get the results you need or want. Everything is a compromise of something else. Life is full of little trade-offs. Learning the major continua of ISO, Aperture, Shutter Speed, White Balance, and all the other menu settings in the camera and the sliders in post-processing software takes time, practice, review, study, and repetition. You can take it as far as you like, as deep as you like, and after a point, you will marvel at the subtlety, complexity, and challenge it presents. But gradually, you will develop habits and practices that make it easier — MUCH easier. Enjoy!

Fredrick Loc: Former NYC, now San Francisco Bay Area

What a great site! Thank you for passing it along.

scsdesphotography Loc: Southeastern Michigan

Triggerhappy, all the advice given here is real good for all those looking to master their camera (aka going manual). I found that Scott Kelby's series of books called "Digital Photography" helped me a lot. His books are concise, short on theory, and long on technique. He covers what camera settings work under multiple photographic situations. Get the first book, spend 30 minutes with it and you will shooting manual with way more confidence than you have now. Plus Scott has a great sense of humor which makes his stuff an easy read.