Psergel Loc: New Mexico

Give Tv a try. Set the shutter to freeze the action and let the camera pick the aperture.
Otherwise...it's a matter of discipline. Tough to exercise in the heat of the moment.

There are a lot of manual only advocates but unless I have the camera on a tripod and am consentrating on a stationary subject I get better results if I make use of the intelligence built into the camera.

Tv or AV.

RonH Loc: Shoreview MN

I completely understand your question as I have done this also. What I did was take a very fine paint pen and put a check mark on the top right area of my Nikon D800 and D300s. This visual reminder usually triggers my memory of a image that was very important that I screwed up because of not checking.

Remember habits take some time to change. It may take you a month or more to change your habit depending on how often you shoot.

Revet Loc: Fairview Park, Ohio

When I first started shooting manual I did this exact same thing for about 3 months (less and less over time). I think I finally pissed myself off enough that it became ingrained in my memory to check the "needle" and make the necessary adjustments. I like the post-it note on the back of your camera. Sounds ridiculous but I bet highly effective!!

Wanda Krack Loc: Tennessee, USA

I understand your problem also, because I, too, sometimes forget to check the exposure and make changes in manual. When breaking a habit, I sometimes set a goal in my own mind, and for a period of time, think about this goal each time I shoot for say a month, and by this time, I usually have developed the new habit. For me, nothing seems to work better than repetition when I want to change a habit. Luck to you in regards to habit changes.

jmizera Loc: Austin Texas

With the 5D (and maybe the 7D - can't recall) you have three preset configurations. I set one for typical indoor flash exposure and white balance, one for outdoor high sun, and one for sunset. This covers most of my shooting situations. Ideally you still need to tweak exposure, but this gets you pretty close. Makes changing location setups quick too.

hcmcdole

I usually shoot in Av mode but was in manual the last time I shot (why I don't remember). So yesterday I go out and start shooting some flowers on a vine climbing up a tree - not a problem since the scene must've been close to when I shot in manual a day or two earlier. Then I shot the spent flowers on the ground and a quick review shows it is dark as night and I'm like WTH? A fast glance at my mode wheel tells me I was in manual. So I'd say review your first few shots when you start a new shoot.

I read a book or saw a YouTube video by a famous pro - (I think it may have been Joe McNally) who said he has his assistant reset all the cameras to his favorite settings before the next shoot. That sounds like a very good habit to get into but I haven't developed that habit (yet).

ggttc Loc: TN

This really isn't a question of technical expertise it's a question of behavior modification.

I think this is a very good idea.... More than a few times I have gone out to shoot birds in flight and forgotten to put a memory card in my camera. In those situations, by the time you get a memory card out of your camera bag, your subject is in the next ZIP Code.

I literally cut a small strip of red electrical tape and put it on the door of my SD card slot. Cured me of a bad habit in about a week.

photoman022 Loc: Manchester CT USA

:thumbup: that's what I do. I've found my through the lens meters are not accurate.

pecohen Loc: Central Maine

I confess to having similar problems. I've gotten more serious about photography fairly recently after a number of years using point-and-shoot cameras that taught me to be pretty careless about details.

I recently bought a Sony A6000 which has more settings than I ever thought possible. Two days ago I took a series of shots using a tripod but when driving away from the scene I realized I'd never turned off image stabilization. I knew better but I'd been too focused (mentally) on getting the tripod set up and making sure the exposure was the way I wanted it. Come to think of it I didn't pay much attention to ISO either but (I think) the camera is set to auto-ISO within the range of 100 to 400. But I do recall that a few months back some gremlin got hold of my camera and pushed ISO up to 8000 - something I'm confident I would never do.

I do think of this as a problem of developing new good habits, however, not as breaking old bad habits. No matter, both are difficult.

filzfotoz Loc: Nashville, TN

Using your camera in full manual without checking your settings is like getting in your car & expecting it to take you somewhere without actually driving it! I see a horrible crash in your VERY near future!

gplawhorn Loc: Norfolk, Nebraska

I set basic exposure before looking through the viewfinder. For instance, if it's a golden light morning or evening, I'll set the aperture to f8, the shutter speed to 100, and the ISO to 800. Focus is put on infinity. I put the camera to my eye, check focus, and then check the histogram; as long as it looks reasonable, I'll grab a few shots to scratch the itch. Then I'll slow down while looking through the viewfinder and asked, "OK, what's my middle (zone 5 to those who think that way)? If THAT'S my middle, then my highlight is *there* and my shadows are *there*. Is that what I want?"

In wildlife situations (I would think sports are similar) I usually set exposure so the sky is +2, and then shoot. Every five minutes or so (again, at sunrise or sunset), I check the sky again, and adjust accordingly, also thinking about the color saturation I see in the viewfinder.

My camera recovers highlights better than shadows, so when I'm pressed I'll set exposure so that clouds have detail, and then increase the exposure 2/3 of a stop. This gains me shadow detail in camera, and Photoshop and Guy Gowan's processes will get the highlights back into place.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Brian, back in the late 1960s when I was learning photography, I learned to follow a rote procedure for my photography:

Assess the SUBJECT:

• Stationary? Moving? Backlit? Frontlit? Sidelit? Average, high key, or low key Reflectance level?

Assess the overall LIGHTING:

• Is it consistent? Changing? Contrasty? Flat? Controlled? Uncontrolled and Uncontrollable? Dim? Bright? What white balance?

From this assessment, I would choose a course of action. Back then, I'd usually pick my film first, based on ASA/DIN speed (now known as ISO sensitivity). This pick would be based on the lighting intensity AND white balance (when using color slide film). I might have to put a filter over the lens to match the lighting to the film (Daylight or Tungsten balanced) AND action stopping requirements (and sometimes depth of field requirements, but not often).

Next, and sort of in concert with film choice, I'd choose my shutter speed. Am I stopping action? What kind? How much 'stoppage' do I need? Did I need to "push" process the roll of film to a higher Exposure Index?

Finally, I'd meter a photographic reference 18% gray card in the light falling on the subject and set the aperture with my match needle meter. (I seldom trusted the reflected light meter in the camera to read anything other than a gray card correctly. When I could use an incident light meter instead, I did.)

Then, ONLY then, I'd focus, pose, compose, and expose.

Now, in the digital imaging environment, I use very much the same process.

• I set ISO for the environment and action stopping needs.
• I set Shutter for action stopping needs, or to match the aperture I need.
• I set Aperture for the depth of field I need, or to match the shutter speed I need.
• I meter a Delta-1 gray card or use an ExpoDisc or a One Shot Digital Calibration Target to set exposure and perform a custom white balance.

Finally, I photograph. I usually record only JPEGs, unless I know I need to do a considerable amount of post-production. After all, I grew up making tens of thousands of slides, and there's about the same amount of latitude in JPEG capture as there was in slide film: ± 1/3 of an f/stop. I'm disciplined.

I DO use Av and Tv modes occasionally. I reserve them for situations when the light is changing rapidly, or the subject is moving rapidly from backlit to frontlit situations.

But let's think about that for a moment. Unless you're working in an extremely high contrast environment such as bright sunlight with no clouds in sight, you can probably still meter a target or use an incident meter reading, and use Manual mode. It will render the scene as a whole correctly, and the shadow side of your subject will be, well, in shadow, as it was in real life.

When I need to photograph a backlit subject in bright sun, and render the tones of the subject properly, I either use fill flash, reflector fill, daylight-balanced LED panel fill, or a scrim behind my subject. OR, if I don't care that the background is overexposed, I open up one to two stops.

Several years ago at a PPA show, a Canon rep gave me a guide to the settings on dSLR shutter speed dials:

P = Possibly disappointing
A = Awfully disappointing
Tv = Terribly variable
Av = Awfully variable
M = MONEY MAKING MODE

His point was that professionals control the variables, because they know how. The other modes actually are quite useful, but to avoid disappointment, you have to know how they work, and know when to avoid them or apply exposure compensation.

ALL automation systems can be fooled by subject matter that is not typical.

Photograph a white bride with blonde hair in a white dress against a white wall, in auto mode, with no exposure compensation, and the scene will be grossly underexposed.

Photograph a graduation handshake where the dean and the student are both wearing black caps, black gowns, and are standing against black curtains and other people wearing black, and the auto exposure will render faces pure white, with almost no recoverable detail. Most of the rest of the scene will be milky gray.

Photograph a blonde model in a super-saturated red dress against a similar red background, using Automatic White Balance, and her skin will be rendered an ashen shade of cyan, while the reds are dull and lifeless...

I've seen all this in the lab, and the poor photographers I had to call were completely clueless why we couldn't "fix it."

The only time I use full auto is when I pick up my iPhone...

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

I'll tell you what I do. It has become habit. I check my camera before I leave the house. I turn it on, check the battery to see if it's charged and if I have a spare with me. Then I check to see if I have the memory cards in the camera and look to see if I forgot to transfer the images to the PC and if they need formatting or not. If they need formatting I format it now. Then I check my exposure. I know pretty much what to expect for the time that I arrive and start shooting. So I use an educated guess as to what my exposure settings might need to be. I still forget some settings like the other day I had the 2 second timer set instead of setting to shoot at 10fps. So my first shot of the day was screwed. But I try to remember to set the correct W/B, (at least auto W/B), the fps, metering mode and focus points settings. Then I'm pretty much set to start shooting. As the day gets long, I am always checking my exposure and if I shoot into shadowed areas, then I always change my exposure. I check the LCD often to make sure I'm not blowing anything out. I might only check the LCD once if there's action. I don't want to miss the action so when I check the LCD, I make adjustment once if needed and then continue shooting the action.

Jim Bob

Great suggestion. :thumbup:

Rick-ws Loc: Seattle or North Idaho

I think that is a Fantastic Idea!!!!