I need to use my Nikon D7100 by learning how to use something other than AUTOMATIC mode. I see video e-books and DVD guides to teach this process. Can you recommend one over the other? Is this the approach to take?
Everyone here seems to know so much and I am in awe and sometimes in the dark on understanding what you are saying in regards to photography and camera settings. I'm not so bad at composition, but really would like to take better photo. I shoot RAW.
Advice appreciated.
Thanks,
Chris

Those of us who grew up in the age of nothing but manual control over film exposure developed a process similar to this one:

Determine what is to be photographed, what story is to be told, what the end use of the photo might be... (This is the same for digital capture.)

Determine what speed and type of film is best for the situation — black-and-white, color negative, color transparency; low, medium, or high ISO (50, 125, 400, or thereabouts). (This is mostly the same for digital capture, except that it's raw data vs. JPEGs processed in camera. Output is positive, always producing color data in raw mode. ISO range is higher — 100 to ridiculously high.)

Load film and set meter to its ISO. (Insert memory card and set meter to *desired* ISO.) Low ISO retains full dynamic range and minimizes noise. High ISO allows smaller apertures or faster shutter speeds at the expense of noise, color depth, and dynamic range reduction.

Choose a lens based upon circumstances from those available in your bag. (Same for film and digital.)

Evaluate scene lighting (level, color temperature, spectral continuity, contrast range, consistency, specularity...). Decide whether to add lighting, subtract lighting, or modify the character of lighting to suit the subject. Adjust equipment usage accordingly.

For film, decide what, if any, color correction filter to use to match the light source to the type of color film in use. OR, decide whether to use a special effect color filter for black-and-white.

For digital, use a white balance target to set a custom white balance, or use a preset to match the light source, or use AWB as a last resort for JPEG capture, or as the easy way out in a raw capture strategy.
Meter a neutral area of the scene, or a gray card held in the light exposing the most important part of your subject. Set shutter speed and aperture according to your situation, using EXPERIENCE, KNOWLEDGE, and TRAINING as your guide. (Advanced users apply Zone System techniques, use hand-held incident and spot meters, etc.)

> Slow speeds let in more light, allow smaller apertures, blur action, require camera support or stabilization.
> Fast speeds reduce exposure, stop action, allow hand-held use.
> Wide apertures let in more light, allow faster shutter speeds, produce shallower depth of field.
> Smaller apertures let in less light, require slower shutter speeds, produce greater depth of field.
> Medium to wide apertures typically provide best lens performance.
> Smallest apertures may produce diffraction and limit sharpness.

Pose, Compose, Expose — Prepare the subject and setting (if needed, possible, or practical), frame the desired scene in the viewfinder, and capture the image. (Same for film and digital.)

I've been doing this since the late 1960s. It seems like a lot of work, and a long, involved process to the uninitiated. I assure you, it is an ingrained set of habits that are easy to apply, once learned. The advantage of this deliberate process is that YOU control each variable and use it to your advantage, compromising as best as possible to meet the physical limitations of the situation, circumstances, light, equipment, and subject.

Over time, you develop your own "starting points" for various types of work. Pre-setting the camera for those starting points allows fast, fine adjustments. For instance, as a long time candid yearbook photographer, I know that in the average school classroom, I'm going to use a 24-70mm (FF equivalent) zoom, ISO 400 or 800, 1/30 to 1/60 second, f/2.8 to f/4. That's because most school classrooms are lit with cheap, Cool White fluorescent tubes. Those lights flicker, so shutter speeds above 1/60 second are not reliable unless your camera has a "flicker avoidance" tool built in. I'm going to perform a custom white balance off of a Delta-1 Gray Card or a One Shot Digital Calibration Target, which I'll also use to set my manual exposure. The custom white balance effectively kills the green of CW fluorescents, or the color cast of any other kind of fluorescent. I'll record all images in the same room at the same exposure, if the room is evenly lit. I can record JPEGs and/or raw files with confidence either will be usable. Back in high school, I did basically the same thing, using Tri-X or HP-5 B&W film, but without the white balance. Classroom lighting hasn't changed much in 50 years.

I have about a dozen similar formulae or habits from past experience. I can pre-set my camera based upon a cursory examination of the situation and scene.

Do I always work in manual mode? Aw, heck no! Automation is quite helpful in many circumstances. But I don't trust it in others, and it is annoyingly inconsistent enough that I don't like to use it when the lighting is consistent. Exposure most often should be based upon LIGHT, not subject reflectivity. If you're trying to render 500 things or people with the same proper, accurate, realistic color balance and exposure, you don't meter THEM, you meter a standard reference target or use a hand-held incident dome meter. If the lighting is absolutely consistent, but subjects vary in tonality, the exposure should be the same, if you are going to render ALL subjects accurately. So the reflected light meter in your camera is not to be trusted blindly!

In my 20s, I was an AV producer for a creative services team. We used mostly slide and transparency film in our shop. If you wanted top-notch professional results, you had to be exacting, because transparency film has very little exposure latitude — about +1/3 stop, -1/2 stop from a gray card reading. You have to NAIL the exposure at the camera, AND get the color right at the same time. We used many different color correction filters to achieve that, along with a color temperature meter and a chart we kept of known best practices.

These days, all that knowledge transfers well to digital work when capturing JPEGs for immediate use. JPEG is a *distribution format* for digital images. It was never meant to be a capture format that would be post-processed! JPEGs have exactly the same latitude as most color transparency films did, so you have to do exactly the same sorts of things AT THE CAMERA to get the best quality possible.

Exposure for JPEGs has to be accurate. White balance has to be accurate. You can't always get that right *at the camera,* so raw capture absolutely is preferred in MANY situations (see below). However, JPEGs recorded in camera are great for situations where the lighting is controlled, consistent, has a high quality color content, and has a dynamic range of less than six f/stops. JPEG capture is also great when a professional is doing low budget work and there isn't a labor budget for post-processing. It's great when hundreds of images must be made to look the same — parts in a catalog or on eBay, or portraits on a panel page of a yearbook, for example. It's great for snapshots when you don't care to seek image perfection nirvana. It's great for simple documentation, where perfection isn't required or budgeted or even cared about. It is great for deadline work when seconds count. It's great for forensic work where you aren't allowed to do any post-processing manipulation of an image.

On the other hand, raw capture is much like color negative exposure. Latitude is at least +2 to -2 full f/stops. Raw capture contains 12 to 14 bits of information that is interpolated to 16-bits during post-processing, so it has a much wider dynamic range (10 to 15 f/stops, compared to 5 to 6 for JPEGs, depending on the camera model). The result? You can use it in situations where light is changing rapidly. It is great for scenes that have very wide dynamic range and require post-processing to reveal (compress) that range onto paper or into a JPEG for Internet use. It is most useful for saving time at the camera — the latitude requires less careful thought and attention to procedure than that required to make the best JPEGs. You can adjust white balance over an extremely wide range in post-processing. You can eke out subtleties that could never be revealed at the camera, even with extensive JPEG processor menu bracketing and exposure bracketing and white balance bracketing.

My biggest point here is that manual mode requires DELIBERATION. It requires planning, thought, intent, purpose... in short, it will make you a control freak, in a very good way. If you're not okay with developing that sort of discipline, the automation modes developed over the last few decades can be mighty helpful! They aren't perfect, but sometimes they are faster than our brains, or more accurate than we could be in similar circumstances.

The trick is to understand what the variables are, and how to control them to get the results you need or want. Everything is a compromise of something else. Life is full of little trade-offs. Learning the major continua of ISO, Aperture, Shutter Speed, White Balance, and all the other menu settings in the camera and the sliders in post-processing software takes time, practice, review, study, and repetition. You can take it as far as you like, as deep as you like, and after a point, you will marvel at the subtlety, complexity, and challenge it presents. But gradually, you will develop habits and practices that make it easier — MUCH easier. Enjoy!

Try a few different, but similar approaches:

Put the camera in Program Mode. This is the same as 'auto', but gives you an option to override the exposure settings. Do you understand the exposure is composed of three aspects, aka the exposure triangle? In P, the camera will judge the exposure the same as in full-auto, but you might want a different aperture or shutter or even ISO. You can adjust these parameters and the camera will compensate one or two other 'sides' of the triangle to maintain the same exposure.

Another method to transition over to manual is to again let the camera determine the exposure in P or Auto. You can then change to manual and dial in those same parameters and shoot with and / or adjust further. Particularly in Manual, look through the view finder and note where the meter registers in the view finder based on those exposure parameters. With the camera to your eye, learn where the dials are on the camera and adjust the shutter and / or aperture and / or ISO and monitor how the meter moves.

You may find manual is not how you desire to use your camera as you'll spend a lot of effort, at least initially, manipulating the camera. Over time and practice, you should be able to develop a feel for using the controls that are second nature rather than conscious thought. If you're missing shots while fiddling with the controls or can't seem to get a good exposure as compared to the camera's judgement, you may find the semi-auto settings are better for your needs (P / A / T).

I need to use my Nikon D7100 by learning how to use something other than AUTOMATIC mode. I see video e-books and DVD guides to teach this process. Can you recommend one over the other? Is this the approach to take?
Everyone here seems to know so much and I am in awe and sometimes in the dark on understanding what you are saying in regards to photography and camera settings. I'm not so bad at composition, but really would like to take better photo. I shoot RAW.
Advice appreciated.
Thanks,
Chris

I need to use my Nikon D7100 by learning how to use something other than AUTOMATIC mode. I see video e-books and DVD guides to teach this process. Can you recommend one over the other? Is this the approach to take?
Everyone here seems to know so much and I am in awe and sometimes in the dark on understanding what you are saying in regards to photography and camera settings. I'm not so bad at composition, but really would like to take better photo. I shoot RAW.
Advice appreciated.
Thanks,
Chris

Try a few different, but similar approaches:

Put the camera in Program Mode. This is the same as 'auto', but gives you an option to override the exposure settings. Do you understand the exposure is composed of three aspects, aka the exposure triangle? In P, the camera will judge the exposure the same as in full-auto, but you might want a different aperture or shutter or even ISO. You can adjust these parameters and the camera will compensate one or two other 'sides' of the triangle to maintain the same exposure.

Another method to transition over to manual is to again let the camera determine the exposure in P or Auto. You can then change to manual and dial in those same parameters and shoot with and / or adjust further. Particularly in Manual, look through the view finder and note where the meter registers in the view finder based on those exposure parameters. With the camera to your eye, learn where the dials are on the camera and adjust the shutter and / or aperture and / or ISO and monitor how the meter moves.

You may find manual is not how you desire to use your camera as you'll spend a lot of effort, at least initially, manipulating the camera. Over time and practice, you should be able to develop a feel for using the controls that are second nature rather than conscious thought. If you're missing shots while fiddling with the controls or can't seem to get a good exposure as compared to the camera's judgement, you may find the semi-auto settings are better for your needs (P / A / T).

I need to use my Nikon D7100 by learning how to use something other than AUTOMATIC mode. I see video e-books and DVD guides to teach this process. Can you recommend one over the other? Is this the approach to take?
Everyone here seems to know so much and I am in awe and sometimes in the dark on understanding what you are saying in regards to photography and camera settings. I'm not so bad at composition, but really would like to take better photo. I shoot RAW.
Advice appreciated.
Thanks,
Chris

Back in film days (tm) there were only two practical aspects of exposure control, aperture (a/k/a "f stop") and shutter speed, as changing your film's speed or sensitivity could not be done mid-roll, and there were fewer choices of film speed - 800 was extremely fast, now many DSLRs can shoot at the equivalent of more than 25,000.


The analogy that stuck with me is this:

You have to fill up a one gallon bucket of light, err, water.

If you choose to use a large diameter hose, you will only have to leave the faucet on for a few seconds.

If you use a skinny hose, you will have to leave the faucet turned on for a longer time to get the same gallon of water.

Andy

I need to use my Nikon D7100 by learning how to use something other than AUTOMATIC mode. I see video e-books and DVD guides to teach this process. Can you recommend one over the other? Is this the approach to take?
Everyone here seems to know so much and I am in awe and sometimes in the dark on understanding what you are saying in regards to photography and camera settings. I'm not so bad at composition, but really would like to take better photo. I shoot RAW.
Advice appreciated.
Thanks,
Chris

I got my first "real" camera at age 12 . . . a 35mm manual camera with F/stops and shutter speeds . . . that is EXACTLY what my mentor told me 68 years ago!! First time I've heard someone else use that example since then, except myself of course.

Just gave my grandson, 16 years old, my old Canon 20D. We had a talk about the settings and I set him up with the camera on Manual . . shutter speed at 1/200th second to minimize camera and subject movement . . . set the ISO at 200 to maintain quality and told him to pretend that the camera was stuck on those settings. Then the rest of the "shooting prep" was regarding exposure, adapting to the light by the size of the aperture (hole) using the built in light meter in the viewfinder . . . and the proper way to focus with the three step process of Focus . . . Recompose . . . and Fire.
Sent him out on a walk in the neighborhood and told him to come back when he had taken 100 shots. On his return he had 4 shots out of focus, and only 3 that were not perfectly exposed. I was so proud of him . He has been shooting for about three months now and still has never been tempted to use and "automatic" settings.