Do I Need Exposure Compensation When Shooting In Manual Mode

<p>I wonder if we've stumbled across some manual-mode bores. The giveaway is how they cut quotes to allow them to bang on about manual mode. Can't you do this without my "help" ;)<br /> 1. Jeff Lear truncates my "Why would anyone shoot strictly in manual mode in varying situations like a walk-around. It just means a lot more dial-rolling". It wasn't good enough to take my quote in context, obviously!<br /> 2. Robert K quotes a line of mine as if I were carrying on a conversation with him. Nobody else made that inference! Do you mind... ;)<br>

I in fact wrote:</p>

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<p>Why would anyone shoot strictly in manual mode in varying situations like a walk-around. It just means a lot more dial-rolling. I do use manual mode for people at events where the lighting is all very similar so that the meter doesn't get confused by the rest of the scene and keep changing the exposure.</p>

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<p>When I first started shooting with a DSLR two years ago, I just couldn't completely wrap my head around the function of the 'exposure compensation' button on my Nikon. I was confused by the term "exposure compensation" and what that meant photographically speaking in terms of exposure and "the mystery button" on the camera by the same name. It seems simple to me now, but it was really confusing for the longest time lol. One day it clicked, and I understood that I can control exposure compensation in M mode on my own via the aperture or shutter or ISO. The EC "button" didn't factor in, but if I was in an automatic mode, i.e. aperture priority, THAT's when I would use the mysterious EC button in order to 'override' the settings the camera was automatically choosing based on the light meter allowing me to over or underexpose if need be while retaining the priority I chose (i.e. aperture or shutter). Man, I hope I'm making sense! haha...</p>

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<p>I wonder if we've stumbled across some manual-mode bores.</p>

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<p>Yep, seems we have. <a href="http://www.canonrumors.com/forum/index.php?topic=16169.0">Lot of 'em about</a>, too. Amazing how many are self-important wedding 'togs.</p>

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<p>I understood that I can control exposure compensation in M mode on my own via the aperture or shutter or ISO</p>

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<p>And what if you need to nail down a necessary aperture, shutter speed and ISO for IQ reasons, but need to react very quickly to (say) a small bird diving in and out of cover and shade?</p>

<p>EC is essential there, and this is a common use-case for lots of us. Riding up and down on the EC dial is a commonplace for me when shooting fast motorsport in changeable crappy UK light, too.</p>

<p>Anyone who says EC isn't needed in manual mode is simply demonstrating ignorance of the needs of other photographic genres.</p>

<p>A lot of that about, too.</p>

<p>What EC does in manual mode? It only changes the meter reading.</p>

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<p>Anyone who says EC isn't needed in manual mode is simply demonstrating ignorance of the needs of other photographic genres.</p>

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<p> <br>

I use a dial for EC or a dial to change the exposure. What's the difference? EC is only useful if you don't know which way to spin the aperture and shutter speed dials.</p>

"<I>...Am I missing something or is it [EC] basically a cheat that compensates when you are not doing it manually? </I><P>

 

Yes. In manual you would meter a person's face and get perhaps an indicated exposure of f/8 @ 1/500. You know you have to compensate to move the face value from zone 5 to zone 6 so you set the exposure for f/5.6 @ 1/500 or f/8 @ 1/1250.<P>

 

In aperture priority at f/8 and +1EC the indicated exposure would be f/8 @1/250.<BR>

In shutter priority at 1/500 and +1EC the indicated exposure would be f/5.6 at 1/500<BR>

In auto exposure and +1EC the indicated exposure would be any one of the above or the equal following the law of reciprocity.<P>

 

Metering off of a black lab dog would get you an indicated exposure that would require a closing down of two stops to go from zone 5 to zone 3. In manual you would adjust either the aperture or shutter speed two stops down. In aperture priority, shutter priority or auto you would set the EC for -2EC. I guess you could call that a "cheat" .<P>

 

Note: Ansel Adams routinely set his Tri-X 320 ISO film at 160 ISO to overexpose and get a denser negative to work with. I don't know it there would be any advantage to routinely overexposing digital images.

Do you need it? Probably not. It only impacts the meter reading, and that could cause confusion. It has no effect on the

actual photo. It's an option that might be useful in some cases, but I would recommend against using it in manual.

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<p>Am I missing something or is it basically a cheat that compensates when you are not doing it manually? </p>

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<p> <br>

Do you feel that it's cheating to press the accelerator pedal when your car goes up a hill? Or the brake when you go downhill?<br>

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That's effectively what you're doing with exposure compensation. You are instructing the camera to take in less light (negative compensation, brake pedal) or more light (positive compensation, accelerator) depending on circumstances that you have skillfully observed. If you want to call that cheating, that's up to you.</p>

<p>I am a novice photographer and i am using a canod 40D and i was reading the thread abot compensation exposure to solve one query i had.<br>

unfortunately the query did not got answer , so i did ask william W, who has offered his explenation and i can confirm is right ( not that there was any doudt).<br>

I wanted to take a nice pic of the moon and i use several different setting i got from various posting from different expert.<br>

Th eproblem i was having ( well it turn out not to be a problem after all) was that while in manual mode and focusing on the moon ..the exposure compensation meter read -2. i was worried that the photo was taken with that compensation which i did not wanted. it did annoy me quite a lot that while in manual the camera was adjusting. William did eplain that the -2 was just the camera metering and not any compensation. but to double check i went and check the metadata of the photo. there was no compensation. Hurray... but i could not blaim the camera for my shabby pic anymore :o(. <br>

I did wrote this as some user probably are making the same error as confusing the meter reading for the compensation </p>

 

<p>As the OP also a beginner, got my first DSLR (Nikon D7100) last October and been adventuring in the last few months onto the manual modes. Lots of experimenting and reading. Baby steps, and a good few thousand experimental photos. Now starting to gather pieces of the whole puzzle (not to say picture) and decided to venture onto full manual. No issues now, I get the basic idea well enough now. I then wondered what Exp Comp would do in full manual... I mean I was setting Ap and S manually, and ISO was fixed, so what would the camera do... shift the histogram?! <br /><br />When I tried it, no amount of compensation made any changes though I could see the zero meter setting changing. So I couldn't understand what was its purpose. I typed a question into google and got here.<br>

Thanks to Michael R Freeman. His reply made a lot of sense. I went back to the camera and tried it out and I think I now understand a purpose (in case there are others...).<br>

As Michael points out, if we are in a given situation and have a different opinion to the camera (scene is fooling the camera, off camera manual flash, experience, metered the scene or for a particular artistic effect) and we want to work on that basis over a number of shots, we could meter on camera, make a Exp Comp adjustment to 'Zero' it. Now we're able to work on the basis of the new zero.<br>

I'd expect we'd use this if you'd have manual mode, off-camera manual flash (not TTL or similar) since the camera has no idea what the light source will be.</p>

Thus we can change aperture and shutter for the session depending on the effect we want (speed, DoF, etc) based on the new zero and achieve an equivalent exposure for every shot (so long as the overall light itself doesn't change). Obviously if the light changes, we'd have to re-meter and re-zero.

<p>Any comments, I'd love to hear.. see If I'm on the right train of thought and learn.<br>

Thanks</p>