For beginners, M or AUTO? (Page 8): When a person came to me on someone silly enough to suggest it to them. I asked them what they wanted to do with the camera. That question alone...

reverendray

When a person came to me on someone silly enough to suggest it to them. I asked them what they wanted to do with the camera. That question alone consumed some time. In the end I said try taking some of the park you mentioned, get them turned into prints on the Walmart sale, and then see what you think of them. Feel free to bring them with you and we can look at them. That as 5 years ago and they guy is a happy wildlife photographer.

Toment Loc: FL, IL

CamB wrote:

Newbies don’t get interested in photography and cameras because they are dying to understand the exposure triangle. I think they are thinking art and vision. Starting with some form of auto is fine. They will learn the rest as their interest grows.
…Cam.

Agree

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

User ID wrote:

Huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge mistake.

George Eastman, as quoted by Steve Jobs in an introduction of an early iPhone:

" "You press the button, we do the rest." [Jobs:] It's why we have over 800 engineers working on camera designs for iPhone."

With an app like Camera +, you can adjust the iPhone camera quite a bit. The new iPhone 14 Pro models have ProRes Raw, which lets you edit raw files.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Najataagihe wrote:

Most newbies are more akin to photojournalists tha... (show quote)

Yep. All of the settings on a camera are there for reasons that are important to at least some photographers. For those people, they make images easier to record. One good exercise in advanced photography classes is to take each variable on the camera and create examples of when/where/why you would use that feature. It forces the student to learn techniques and practice using tools they might not otherwise care to learn. Displaying great results to the class is inspirational for those who didn't make a particular feature work very well for them.

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

rehess wrote:

I disagree strongly!! “Make” tends to imply PP. This will probably start an argument with those inspired by Adams, but I believe many are like me, inspired by “Weegee” to document their lives, and I believe tweaked JPG is fine for them.

Perhaps I should say to make the photo in your mind before you take it with your camera.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

I'm a huge proponent of previsualization.
--Bob

gvarner wrote:

Perhaps I should say to make the photo in your mind before you take it with your camera.

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

burkphoto wrote:

I guess my point is that you can teach beginners a... (show quote)

Get the love then the desire to learn comes, usually.

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

rmalarz wrote:

I'm a huge proponent of previsualization.
--Bob

SuperflyTNT Loc: Manassas VA

BebuLamar wrote:

Yes M is easiest although it takes time. It's the simplest mode and requires less knowledge than other modes. I don't mean not using the other modes but I mean you must understand how those modes work before you use them. M mode is easiest to understand not taxing your brain power only taxing your muscle a bit to turn the controls manually.

There are people all around the world successfully using Auto that have no clue how it works.

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

SuperflyTNT wrote:

There are people all around the world successfully using Auto that have no clue how it works.

jefrid

CHG_CANON wrote:

Turn the dial to P, take Professional photographs. Where's the complication in that? There are really very few exposure modes that warrant the fears we have of them.

I agree. I dabbled with photography in the 1970's. When I decided a few years ago with an interest in capturing bird images, I bought a Canon point and shoot put it on "P" and took some satisfying photos. After a year or so I bought a Nikon D750 w/500mm zoom. At this point I had enough experience to relearn the the exposure triangle and switch to "M". Over time my photos improved and the larger sensor and superior lens made that possible.

SuperflyTNT Loc: Manassas VA

burkphoto wrote:

Absolutely. The 'exposure triangle' seems to forget all about light. Results start improving when you understand the facets of what light is, how it behaves, and what to do with light.

I think what’s misunderstood by those that say “it’s not a triangle” is that the triangle is made up of things the photographer controls with the camera. The light is there but it’s variable. If it wasn’t the same settings would always work.

SuperflyTNT Loc: Manassas VA

rehess wrote:

I disagree strongly!! “Make” tends to imply PP. This will probably start an argument with those inspired by Adams, but I believe many are like me, inspired by “Weegee” to document their lives, and I believe tweaked JPG is fine for them.

I think that’s your bias speaking up. In no way does “make” imply PP.

Artcameraman Loc: Springfield NH

If they want to learn they will, some will, some...
Remember: Cake R square, Pie are round.
Go make photographs.

CaltechNerd Loc: Whittier, CA, USA

CamB wrote:

Newbies don’t get interested in photography and cameras because they are dying to understand the exposure triangle. I think they are thinking art and vision. Starting with some form of auto is fine. They will learn the rest as their interest grows.
…Cam.

I totally agree. I started with auto focus, auto exposure, jpg. When I wasn't happy with results under certain conditions, I moved on to manual focus (when shooting art for a catalog from a tripod) with manual f-stop (f-19 for depth of field in sculpture), and RAW, etc. I understand the car analogy but cameras are different. There's a real motivation to expand your skills.

I'm just now after 20 years venturing into 360 and converting 360 to video. Lots of new skills to learn. I had to buy a new computer because Adobe doesn't even recognize my NVideo 450 as a real video card. But half the fun is picking up new skills. Whereas driving a stick shift is first, not interesting to many people, and second, requires the mechanical insight some lack to understand the differing speeds of what the wheels are feeding to the transmission and what the engine is feeding to the transmission. Anybody remember double-clutching?