burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

It is a good working strategy. You can copy the settings from the automatic exposure to your camera's controls, then proceed manually. Or, you can "chimp" the image on the screen or in the EVF, review the histogram, and apply exposure compensation. Or, you can dream up some other variation on this theme.

There is no one best strategy for every situation. It's best to practice several, so you know when to do what. Automation does not automatically imply lack of control, if you monitor and control what the automation is doing. But blindly setting a camera on Auto or Program and exposing indiscriminately is risky. It abdicates responsibility for results, and CAN lead to inferior results.

That said, modern automation is a marvel of ingenuity. It is remarkably good about 80 to 90 percent of the time. It's the other 10% to 20% that you have to worry about.

Here are three scenes where automation nearly always fails, especially when processing JPEGs in the camera:

Black cat sitting on coal in a coal bin (will be very overexposed in most auto modes)

Scandinavian blonde bride in white wedding dress against a white curtain (will be very underexposed in most auto modes)

Red headed Irish lass in red dress, standing against red curtain (red will come out dull or grayish, and face shifts to cyan, when using Automatic White Balance)

When I ran the digital side of a pro lab, we saw these sorts of errors coming in the door, all day long, every day. That was back in 2000 to 2005, when pro portrait photographers were just shifting from film capture to digital capture. The lab had been very good at fixing most errors in color *negative film* exposure. But JPEGs are like *slide film...* What you put on slide film at the camera is what you get! What you expose for and bake into a JPEG at the camera is what you get! And there is very little latitude to fix it without noticeable quality deterioration. Burn out the highlights, or plug up the shadows, and nothing can get them back.

My favorite was from an older pro who took his brand new digital camera to a college graduation to photograph 250 college seniors getting their diplomas. The graduates and the faculty were all wearing black caps and black gowns. The podium was black with a gold school seal. The diploma covers were black. The curtains behind the faculty sitting on stage were black (and 50 feet back from the subjects). Essentially, everything in the scene, except hands and faces, was black (in reality)!

The photographer set his camera on Program Auto, Set his flash to full ETTL auto, and guess what happened? EVERY student was grossly overexposed by at least two stops. The college president and presenter and students were portrayed in milky gray robes, with white ovals where their faces should have been. Only the middle row of the faculty, seated about 40 feet from the camera, was correctly exposed. And of course, the photographer captured only JPEGs (Pro photo labs generally NEVER accept raw images, to this day).

The poor guy had to refund the school's $1000 deposit, AND he had to pay a non-performance penalty of $1000 that was written into his contract by the school's attorney. The photographer hired an attorney, to see if they could sue us, but when they confronted us, I explained what happened and demonstrated the problem. They backed off. The guy became a dedicated customer after that, and we opened up a dialog that lasted several years, until he retired.

The concept of Pareto's Optimality applies as much in photography as in economics. 80% of your work takes 20% of your effort. The other 20% takes 80% of your effort. You can reduce your overall effort tremendously by learning your craft inside out, upside down, forwards, backwards, and sideways.

BebuLamar

You may know but do the many people who use the AUTO mode know what settings the camera will set for a given scene brightness? I have no problem using any mode but one must know what the camera will do before using it. So manual is easiest.

Mr Bill 2011 Loc: southern Indiana

I can't recall ever using automatic on any camera. I grew up on 35mm SLR where everything was manual. Now I use either Av or shutter for 90% or more of my photos, and manual only where I figure conditions require it. Only time I use Program mode is to take "snapshots" indoors with the flash.

tjjm Loc: Saint Louis, Mo.

My back up camera is a 1" sensor and I am still learning so will often use shutter/aperture priority. On my 7D mark ll it is 99% manual.

Kuzano

A clarification on my use of the word EGO....Demanding control of the image and EGO are synonymous. The implication that EGO is bad, is a misinterpretation of my statement.

EGO, not necessarily bad. The rest of my post opens the door for use of what works for you. What worked for me for many years was non program mode film camera's and the necessity for learning full manual operation.

Digital photography brought a refreshing change with some automation. Then digital camera's and computers and editing software morphed photography into a "just too f__king much confusion" and changed the clock on real fun photography. Too much fiddly time with the settings on the camera at the point of capture, and far too much time in front of the computer. Post processing and organizing files, for me, is simply not photography, in the sense that I learned photography and enjoy it.

I did all the RAW and editing for a few years. At this time, I have abandoned both RAW and Post Processing, doing hardly any of either for the last 5 years. I do not sell my photography, as I have made a tidy side income buying and selling film gear. (You lose your ass trying to make money in digital equipment!)

My work must only pass my judgement and it's pretty damn good as I see it. Jpeg is just fine, as is going out to a hundreds plus car show and only coming home with 40 or 50 shots, and then organizing 15-20 keepers.

Flash Falasca Loc: Beverly Hills, Florida

If I shoot in manual and use the meter to adjust the settings won't I get the same settings as in A or S ??

TheDman Loc: USA

Did you ever think that some people might want to do more than take random shots at car shows?

PGHphoto Loc: Pittsburgh, PA

So are those like myself that want very specific results and know how to get them using manual mode simply egotistical ? I prefer to shoot based on my preferences not what my camera thinks is good. Certainly the results can be acceptable in auto modes but how does my camera know that I don't want the scene exposed so that it averages the reflectance of an 18% gray card ???? The Canon engineers have never called me to ask how I preferred to shoot so that their algorithms could duplicate my aesthetic. (pretty sure that won't happen anytime soon either !)

I fail to understand your last comment at all ! Are you saying that your camera in auto mode or aperture preferred or shutter preferred knows that a certain background you want underexposed should be underexposed so you won't need to change anything in PP ??

Maybe you just are just satisfied with average images and can't be bothered creating exactly what you want so that it looks exceptional. Auto modes only give you a common starting point across all lighting types and intensities. It does NOT make post processing un-necessary. Maybe you don't understand exposure and the inherent problems with trying to balance exposure over the entire image. I have no problem with those who take snapshots in full auto mode - but please understand the concepts before you try to explain that people who have a different evaluation than yourself are wrong (or as you say 'on an ego trip').

Screamin Scott Loc: Marshfield Wi, Baltimore Md, now Dallas Ga

If shooting Hi-Key or Low-Key images, it's easy for the meter to not set the proper exposure. Manual is a better choice in those situations as well.

TheDman Loc: USA

Yep. 1/500th of a second at f2.8 is 1/500th of a second at f2.8. Doesn't matter what camera mode got you there.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

This makes sense. Treat JPEGs much the same as you would have used slide film, and you'll bring home nice images. The principles are the same. I burned through tens of thousands of rolls of slide films in the 1970s through the 1980s, so when digital cameras came along, I was at home.

Unfortunately, I worked in an industry that was hooked on color negative film (Kodak Professional Films such as Portra 160NC), which has at least two stops of latitude either side of normal. Our customers were spoiled rotten, because if the exposure was within a stop and a half of normal, we printed it and they never knew the difference. We would call them outside those boundaries, and make a judgement call on printing or rephotographing.

When "portrait and social" market segment photographers shifted from film to digital capture, all hell broke loose. Every pro portrait lab in the country immediately had huge customer service challenges. Customers were shifting labs, left and right, blaming their former labs for their own ignorance. Some quit the industry, because they could not understand what had happened!

When I went to Kodak Digital Print Production conferences in Rochester, NY, and Bremson Users Group in Kansas City, we collectively commiserated about the ignorance of the professional photography community where exposure, white balance, and other digital image parameters were concerned. Collectively, we had to re-educate several generations of photographers to understand digital capture... All because they had never learned exposure control the way they should have...

Screamin Scott Loc: Marshfield Wi, Baltimore Md, now Dallas Ga

I guess you could then blame automation of the photographic field as the culprit ?

Oly Guy

I have been able to get better shots using Manual-but will shoot in P which is automatic really when in a hurry but usually the shutter is too slow or one of the three is not good compared to Manual-the camera and I disagree- once I get in the ballpark I usually go with adjusting Ap. for quick shots.I shoot with OMD 5 and Nikon primarily-some Fuji ex 2- am really liking the OMD 5 for color and sharpness.

photoman022 Loc: Manchester CT USA

I'm not proud; I shoot in manual mode the vast majority of the time but there are times I shoot in the other modes because I want the shot. I usually shoot in auto mode at night; if it gives me the outcome I'm looking for then I will continue to shoot in auto. Often, though, the auto shots at night are too bright and don't give a good representation of the actual scene. I will use the auto settings as a starting point as I change over into manual mode and get the shot I actual want.

James R. Kyle Loc: Saint Louis, Missouri (A Suburb of Ferguson)

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Yep!

Is what I do as well.

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