bull drink water Loc: pontiac mi.

most of us hogs, rely on our cameras for assistance.

rmacilroy Loc: pompano beach, fl

manuel teaches me how to use light slow leaner that i am but i am learning ha

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

That may be because the majority of members here only understand about half the functionality, or less, of their cameras

10MPlayer Loc: California

More and more often I'm going to Aperture rather than full manual. I bought the online series of lessons given by Nat Geo photographer, Joel Sartori. He uses A setting most of the time. If it's good enough for him it's good enough for me. I have found that I get a lot more usable shots that way too.

cameraf4 Loc: Delaware

Quick note, craig. Nikon FM2 = no semi-auto exposure. Manual exposure only. Good camera!

cameraf4 Loc: Delaware

Clickety, you can take a shot with your Canon and then look at the Metadata info. Whatever setting your camera "says" it uses, the metadata will tell you what was actually used.

http://exif.regex.info/exif.cgi

Jerrin1 Loc: Wolverhampton, England

Because the camera does not "know" what the photographer wishes to achieve with a particular shot. If I merely set the aperture, how would my camera decide if the subject required a shutter speed of 1/1600th of 1/2500th? How would it "know" if I wanted to track a subject at a low shutter speed in order to blurr the background.

BebuLamar

So you don't care about how bright or dark the image is?

traderjohn Loc: New York City

Yeah, that and they say they do. Who knows, only the shadow knows.

John Gavin

I use (what I believe is) full manual half of the time because I started out clueless Christmas day when I got a d3400 and started out shooting wildly in that "auto" setting which seemed to work pretty well. But there were a lot more buttons and I'd play with them and nothing would work. So I signed up for a beginner's course I just finished and in essence was taught how to get out of auto and start learning how to begin to manually set iso speed and aperture and manually focus. But before I take a shot now, I put the camera in auto and take a shot and then try and take the same shot fully manual to see if I can more or less replicate what the camera did. That's what I was taught to do so that's what I do. I'm slowly getting better but I have a long way to go. Looking through a viewfinder and changing settings in manual I find still difficult to do and find much easier on a tripod when the scene isn't changing on me so much. In a changing environment auto works better for me because the camera reacts faster than i can adjusting things. Example is hummingbirds in our yard. Given the time to set up a tripod and focus where i want, i find i can get better pictures than i can in auto. However i have a family gathering this weekend and i already know although i might sneak over to manual, the speed i can change things will be too slow and memories gone so, full auto it will be. In September the next course is all about understanding and using light both natural and artificial and I can already see that's probably going to be more difficult than learning to shoot manual. It was explained to me that controlling light was only the next step in manual. In January I have my last course in composition and was told this is the last step in manual. So I do use manual in the camera half the time but apparently I have a long way to go and I haven't even gotten my arms around manipulating things in Lightroom yet

cameraf4 Loc: Delaware

Actually, for landscapes, I point the light meter at what I want to be a certain tonality (usually middle gray). Having set the ISO and the f/stop, the camera would then "know" that I want that particular subject to be that particular tone. Some of the comments here "seem" to assume that folks just "point-and-click" these Techno-wonders when they use a Mode that "helps" with exposure. An easy bad habit to get into with auto-focus, Program Mode, Matrix Metering, Auto ISO, Auto White Balance, etc all available.

Jeffcs Loc: Myrtle Beach South Carolina

With the advent of the famed Nikon F3hp I became an apture priority mode guy and like many Nikon shooters still shoot in “A” mode. That said I watch my SS as to not go to slow! So with digital still a lot of “A” mode.

BboH Loc: s of 2/21, Ellicott City, MD

Essentially, the camera's "automatic" modes are set to present a certain look - manual allows me to set the camera for the look I want

camerapapi Loc: Miami, Fl.

I am going to give you my opinion on this matter. In the first place, if anybody thinks that post processing fixes everything including serious exposure mistakes that is totally wrong. Highlights clipping is the worst thing that can happen to a file.

When a camera is set to full automation it cannot do what we expect from it simply because the camera has no brain and as such it does not know what we want. Remember that cameras and lenses are only tools. The skilled photographer will use auto but he is aware of what the camera is doing and can take control when necessary. Let the camera work in full auto and the camera is in control, not the photographer. Under those conditions we have to take what the camera will give us.

In the manual mode we are in full control. If something goes wrong it is not the camera but the photographer. It makes a big difference when we use post processing to enhance our images and when we use it to try to correct our mistakes or the camera's mistakes.

I do not use manual at all times but when I select an auto mode like aperture or shutter priority I know exactly when the camera will need help to give me the type of image I have in mind.

traderjohn Loc: New York City

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