Larryb Loc: Burlington, Ontario

"P" stands for Program, not Professional. Just adding my tcw!!

bwana Loc: Bergen, Alberta, Canada

The ONLY time I shoot in Manual is for Landscape and Astrophotography. Autofocus (AF), at least in my opinion, is essential for wildlife capture. I use a small center focus area to be able to eye focus or AF on some other small feature I want in sharp focus.

bwa

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Manual Focus and Manual Exposure have only 1 thing in common: they both are photography terms. Otherwise, they have no other relation.

Picture Taker Loc: Michigan Thumb

If you are getting good pictures (Light balance) don't worry. If you understand the advantages of setting your f stop or speed and shooting your fine.

Hip Coyote

You simply are not a photographer unless you....ok, I jest.....

I am sure you are aware of the "exposure triangle" and the relationship among shutter-speed, Aperture and ISO. One you understand that, then how you get to an acceptable exposure really does not matter. But, IMO, there are two big circles around that triangle...the first one is, "get the freakin shot." I have seen people messing around with their cameras as a scene develops. Do what you have to do to get the shot! Too a high an ISO? So what, get the shot so that you have the memory. In my case, at Xmas a few years ago a very elderly couple happened to kiss...and I knew it was "the moment." The camera was off. I turned it on, put it in auto and have a somewhat grainy, poorly done photo of them kissing. The wife died a few weeks later and it was the last photo of those two after 55 years of marriage. Kissing...Do I care if I shot in Manual, Auto, P or had Ansel Adams there to instruct me? No. Get the shot.

The larger circle around the triangle and get the shot is "enjoyment." If I am out in the field or "doing photography" I shoot in a variety of modes, mostly Aperture Priory, but M and sometimes S. I enjoy it, the mental exercise of getting the triangle right, composition, etc. But there are times when I want to be in the moment, with friends, family, etc. I put my camera usually in P mode, auto flash and move on. I want to enjoy myself, talk to people, maybe hand my (older) camera to someone to take photos. If there is a kid there, he/she may become my photographer. If I am not enjoying what I am doing, then the triangle really is meaningless. Enjoy. IMO, there are some on this forum who get entangled in the intricacies of photography and can even diminish the enjoyment of photography. Avoid them.

What helps me is to somewhat be prepared for my anticipated shooting environment..There is a big difference between going to the zoo and going to a flower show. So, in keeping with outermost circle of enjoyment, I like to plan for that as well. Finally, there is a very well regarded photographer here that leads trips around the world, has very large recognition, etc...and I was surprised that she often shoots in "scene" mode and often in jpeg. She apparently has this notion that the idea is to get the shot!

Sensei

Use what ever works for you and the conditions you are working with. In the field. I shoot virtually everything in auto. I need quick shoots. There are limitations of the gear I can carry, and use either an 18-400 or 28-300 lens on my cameras. Quick shots for ebay or etsy are set on auto. For contract shots I use a full studio set up, with several lights, shoot in raw.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

What a concept!
Individual volition.

fetzler Loc: North West PA

With a modern camera a better question would be: when is it better to use manual mode?

My cameras are rather good at getting the exposure very close to the best value. Most cameras have exposure compensation as well.

Light meters generally expect the scene to have an average reflectance of 18% (The gray card). Modern cameras can be a bit smarter than this and can analyze the scene somewhat. Scenes that have very bright objects or very dark objects may require a bit of tweaking with exposure compensation. Just watch the histogram. I normally use aperture or shutter priority.

I use manual mode (mostly) for:

1. Flash photography
2. Macro photography with flash.
3. Night photography.
4. Panoramas (no exposure variation between frames)
5. Some times with manual lenses where the camera can be used like the old match needle cameras.

In the old days with film, there were many times that I could just guess the exposure. This requires a lot of practice, however.

It is very helpful to know Ansel Adams' Zone system.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Fear of the Professional mode defeats more photographers than any other setting on their camera.

Silverrails

Well, I have heard advice from other UHH members that a DSLR or MIRRORLESS Photographer should NEVER shoot in AUTO-MODE, only Program Mode, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, Manual Mode. So far I have stuck to this Advice. Now I must dive into RAW & RAW+JPEG

Josephakraig

______________________________________________________________

Manual is simply like any other mode, it has a purpose and there are times when it is the best option. Most of us don't start out a session in manual, we will start in another mode and see what the camera likes and migrate to manual from there. I have never used Auto or "P" but "A" and "S" are both automatic modes it just lets you decide one of the 3 pieces of the triangle. If you have a camera that supports "Auto ISO" I highly recommend you give it a try in any of the modes including Manual. When shooting birds or other wildlife we have to get a shot that is not blurry because of movement, with the right shutter speed we can stop humming birds wings. Speeding up the shutter however greatly reduces available light. Auto mode however does not know you are trying to stop motion, so for landscapes or portraiture you might get a good shot, for moving animals probably not.

Linda said it first above and is right, Auto ISO is your friend in this situation. You can go to Shutter priority and set the speed to what you want and tell the camera what parameters you prefer with ISO and it will do it's best to follow them. While in Auto ISO it is possible the camera will stray from what you desire because it has to to get the shot , it will not stray from your shutter settings. Auto ISO makes Manual just another automatic mode with you setting both the shutter speed and the aperture. I don't know about other brands but Nikon lets you set the lowest and highest ISO with the preference being the lowest. Depending on the model you can also set limits on shutter speed in Auto ISO. Some of the best wildlife photographers use Auto ISO and get remarkable results, you can too.

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

In my experience, choosing the most appropriate metering mode will have a much greater impact on the final result than <properly> choosing one exposure mode or another. But for some reason, no one ever seems to ask that question here...

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Yup, it is.
I use whatever I choose to use for the conditions, including AUTO sometimes. Except when I don't want the flash to pop up.
My ISO is hard set at either 100, 200, or 400, depending on the situation.
Can't remember if I ever went higher. Might have.

I don't follow people who say NEVER use this or ALWAYS use that.
I'm not them, not trying to emulate them either.
I decide for myself depending on the situation and my desires.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Yes, you seem to be correct.
Maybe because it's much more important to have the correct exposure mode?

Picture Taker Loc: Michigan Thumb

I found if I set bit on "P" and fiddle with the camera and have a white lens I get respect. If I use manual and don't use a white lens nobody notices,