Any Other Nikonians Shoot In Manual Mode?

[pcnilssen]

<p>Calvin,<br>

when photographing the freestyle/disojazz competitions in badly lit indoor sportsarenas, you have to decide: with or without flash. I do both, but I am also afraid that the flashes will disturb the dancers, so I most often shoot without. </p>

<p>In order to stop action I need a shutter speed of 1/320 or faster, and the arena is so dark that I have to use the lenses almost wide open. Experience have shown me that in these settings, my 50 and 85mm 1.8 gives sharp enough results from 2.8 and up, and the depth of field is also OK there. Setting these fixed in M-mode, the only variable I can rely on is Auto ISO, which varies wheter the dancer is in the spotlight or not. AutoISO ordinarily varies from 1400 to 6400 on my D300. </p>

<p>If I suddenly decides to use flash, the AutoISO instantly and automatically reduces the ISO to a nicer 200, if I'm lucky.</p>

<p>Here is an example with flash: <br>

<img src="http://home.broadpark.no/~perchrn/div/dans2.jpg" alt="" width="750" height="498" /></p>

[pcnilssen]

<p>And I forgot, The manual settings also depends on the available light. In some arenas, I also have to use M-settings of 1/250 and 2.8, but then I have to know the dance routine of the dancers, and also hope for a bit of luck.</p>

[brians.]

<p>I always use Manual mode (well usually). Once you check a few basics it's pretty easy.</p>

<p > </p>

<ol>

<li>

<p >Determine your<strong> ISO</strong>: do you need clarity or speed; is the light bright or dim?</p>

</li>

<li>

<p >Change <strong>WB</strong> from auto if needed: is it a cloudy day or a special situation?</p>

</li>

<li>

<p >Set the <strong>aperture</strong>: use the optimal size for your lenses clarity unless you have a special situation.</p>

</li>

</ol>

<p > </p>

<p >Then just press the shutter release half way and adjust your <strong>shutter speed</strong> until your exposure level is 0. Viola, you're ready to click.</p>

<p > </p>

<p >Of course there are many other settings to consider but these basics have made working in Manual mode fun and easy for me. Most situations are fairly constant so once I've got the first 3 settings, a tweak of the shutter speed when the light changes is all I usually need (but then I don't take many pictures while dangling off the side of a cliff, egad! :) ).</p>

 

[bmm]

<p>Per - never thought of it that way... so in a sense you're using M as an auto mode where the only variable is ISO (set of course within the parameters of your autoISO settings). Very interesting and counter-intuitive thinking... thankyou for opening my eyes to this thought!</p>

<p>On a totally different topic...<strong><em> Canonites and Nikonistas</em></strong>... is anyone else reminded of the Montagues and the Capulets? [...or am I just a whacko?...]</p>

[mike mcdermott]

<p>I picked up a camera for the first time in Jan 08. For a year I shot only with manual film cameras and loved it. Now that I'm shooting with a D700, 99% of my shots are in full manual mode. I switch between spot/ matrix and C/W as required and use Aperture priority for around 50% of my street photography.</p>

<p>After shooting manual Nikon's for a year. Manual mode just seems like the natural way to use a camera.<br>

I assumed that most people shoot in manual mode...?</p>

<p>Most of the time I use auto white balance as I shoot in RAW. I find that if it was a sunny day. The correct WB will be right in the middle of Auto and Sunny when I open up the file in Adobe RAW, so I split the difference in the two kelvin values. I find it the same for all white balance settings. When the shot allows I'll custom set the white balance.</p>

<p>I've never used the P mode on my camera, just as I've never mounted a flash directly onto the hot shoe mount. Both give ghastly results.</p>

 

[steve m smith]

<p>With most of my cameras I don't have a choice, manual only and separate light meter.<br>

I also use a Minolta XE-1 which has an internal meter which is quite accurate. I always use it in manual and set the shutter speed according to the meter's recommendation. It is capable of aperture priority with auto shutter speed selection but I never use it despite 99% of my shots being taken at the metered speed. They would be the same if I changed to auto.<br>

I suppose it's just a habit to use manual but I should shoot a roll on auto only to see how it comes out.</p>

 

[plasma181]

<p>I use manual focus, but I don't have much choice on my FM3a. Sometimes I use manual exposure, and sometimes aperture priority. </p>

[marizu_okereke]

<p>My medium and large format cameras are totally manual but I shoot a lot of Aperture priority on my D300. I also shoot Manual when needed and occasionally SP with Auto ISO for some sport stuff.<br>

The benefit of shooting manual is that you visually evaluate the scene, consider the meter's suggestion and then make the exposure having deviated from the meter's suggestion as you consider appropriate. It you just line up the meter in the middle then you might as well be shooting AP as you gain the ability to quickly turn round and make a grab shot if the lighting is different on the other side.<br>

The problem that I find with making a judgement based on the D300 meter reading is that I'm not exactly sure what the Matrix meter is doing. On a meter that just averages the scene, like my Seconic, I can tell that a bright area in the background will bias the reading so I may expose longer than the meter suggests in order to accomodate.<br>

Sometimes the matrix meter really calculates things well, such as a grab shot that I made of someone blowing candles out on a cake. I have no idea how it knew what I wanted. At other times for completely unknown (to me) reasons, it occasionally makes a real mess.<br>

I use the different modes as I deem appropriate for the situation.</p>

 

[ShunCheung]

<p>As long as you understand how to trade off among aperture, shutter speed, and ISO sensitivity to control your image, it does not matter much which exposure mode you use. The end result should be the same.</p>

<p>I tend to use Program a lot because when I shoot quickly, the camera gives me a reasonable default, but I still pay attention to the aperture and shutter speed. If those are not what I want, I use Flex Program to change to other equivalent exposure settings.</p>

[phototransformations]

<p>I guess I am the exception to the above rule. I almost always shoot in P mode and then, if I don't like the shutter/aperture combo P mode suggests, adjust with the thumb wheel. I grew up with cameras that had no meters, and for a while I didn't have an external meter either, so I became quite good at estimating exposures by eye. For me, having a camera do a lot of the figuring out is like moving up from laborer to supervisor. I just have to see if it's doing what I think it should be doing, instead of having to do it myself. What I like about P mode is that it attempts to adjust the shutter speed for the current focal length of the lens, which I tend to be less conscious of, having "grown up" mostly with primes.<br>

On the other hand, I usually shoot with center-weighted, after a year of struggling with matrix and finally finding it too unpredictable. I can judge, by eye, whether what I most care about in the image is brighter or darker than 18% gray and pre-set the exposure compensation accordingly. For me, this "manual" step works better than trying to out-guess what's in the camera's image database.<br>

All that having been said, maybe I'd find it easier to adjust the shutter speed or aperture instead of the exposure compensation (without taking my eye off the viewfinder) and I may give Manual a try.</p>

[garydem]

<p>when you first get the dslr, the user does not really know anything about the settings used to take a picture. using manual mode for a time is way of learning what combinations of iso fstop shutter speed work any why.<br>

but after you know this, and it may take time to do so, there is no reason not to shoot in any of the auto modes, and let the camera do the work. this lets the shooter free to concetrate on the much harder part of photohgraphy. that is: learning WHAT to shoot. this is called composition. the technical part, the settings, is just a mechanical exersize. the knowledge that you got while in manual mode can now be used to check the dslrs's automatically chosen settings and if necessary change them to suit the scene lighting situation and photog's wishes.<br>

the only time i shoot in manual anymore is when i shoot hdr, panoramas, or astromonical images. i am too busy deciding on the composition of the shot to continually change the settings myself unless i have to. i am in my 38th yrs of slr/dslr shooting pictures.</p>

 

[whoz_the_man_huh]

<p>Thanks for the pic, Indraneel.</p>

[Peter_in_PA]

<p>I use Aperture Priority a LOT, and Manual too, but when I put the camera away, I often stick it in the green auto mode that many of us here despise. Why? That way if I need to hand my camera to somebody next time I pick it up, I just hand it, no fiddling. (Okay, I might put my flash on.)</p>

<p>Recently, I wasn't paying attention and left it in Green Auto mode when I meant A and took a BUNCH of shots before I realized that spinning my wheel wasn't changing aperture at all.</p>

<p>They all came out great, which made me think that when I'm in Manual I'm just working too hard. I think I should try shooting in P for a week or so (it's "flexible", so you just spin the wheel and you're basically in "A" mode) and see how it goes.</p>

[whoz_the_man_huh]

<p>Scott, what's "AA's Zone System"?</p>

[heiko.mausolf]

<p>I nearly always use A or even P mode. That's because I struggle to see the difference between using the M or any other mode.<br>

When I use M, I watch the indicator in the viewfinder that tells me, if the exposure is correct. So I can deliberately go for some over- or underexposure. But I can do the same when in any other mode, I just can dial in a little plus or minus. So I think there's nothing really wrong with shooting in program mode, as I can alter the exposure depending on the needs.</p>

[josephbraun]

<p>I think it's important to be familiar with all the modes of your camera. Every situation is different.</p>

[whoz_the_man_huh]

<p>Per, "Nikonficionado" is a beautiful term. Being a big Hemingway fan I am particularly fond of it.</p>

[ken_i_h]

<p>So far down of the thread, few will see my post. Anyway, I tend to keep it at A most of the time simply because I often take close-up of table top objects (watches, etc.) and the camera is set as such when I am not carrying around. When I walk around with camera, I make sure that ISO and WB is NOT Auto and whetner A or S or M or P really depends on where I am. In the park, when I aim birds, I choose S for faster speed without blurring. When I aim flowers, I first try with A mode, then switch to M for better to my liking. When I am simply walking the street, I tend to set at P..... So, it really depends and I try NOT to blindly set at certain mode and try consciously to set it to the mode for the purpose before encountering the situation. <br>

Wow, your thread always attracts MANY posts!<br>

Ken</p>

[whoz_the_man_huh]

<p>Thanks, Lil.</p>

<p>For some reason I had ridiculously envisioned you locking your ISO regardless of the situation. Heh.</p>

[rarmstrong]

<p>Calvin, I was just reading through this and I saw your question. Scott is referring to Ansel Adam's zone system of judging exposure of a scene. See this article...<br>

<a href="http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/zone_system.shtml">http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/zone_system.shtml</a><br>

Dick</p>

[craig_shearman1]

<p>I shoot manual most of the time. For 30 years, that was the only option I had on my old F2 and FM bodies. In manual I know exactly what I'm going to get, with no risk that the camera will "think" I want something else. I do occasionally use aperture priority or shutter priority on my D200 now that I've moved into the digital world. I shot a job a week ago where I was using fill flash to shoot party pictures and moving from inside to outside. I set the aperture for the flash exposure (good old Vivitar 285HV) and let the camera worry about the shutter speed to take care of the backgrounds. But even then I had to switch to manual once the outdoor light got so low that the shutter was dragging slow enough to blur hand movements and such. I've used shutter priority sometimes shooting sports where I need to lock in shutter speed because of motion or a long lens, but the players are moving instantly from sun to shade and aperture changes quickly. I've put the camera into program mode on rare occasions for quick snapshots or to hand it to someone else, but don't normally use program for anything serious.</p>

[d_syd]

<blockquote>

<p>Shun: I tend to use Program a lot because when I shoot quickly, the camera gives me a reasonable default...</p>

</blockquote>

<p>It's so refreshing to hear someone of known experience and skill confess to using P mode at times. There's almost a kind of bravado in forum threads attached to doing everything manual. Too funny.</p>

[corkman]

<p>Calvin. The modes spell MAPS, and that's all they are. Different ways of getting where you want to go. If I used Manual at a motocross race, I'd spend my entire day looking down at the camera's settings and twirling knobs, talking to myself, and missing the unpredictable and extremely fast action of the riders. I rely on Shutter mode, because that's a must, changing it based on whether the action is coming straight at me (1/500) or I'm shooting from the side (1/1500). I change ISO to account for whether the sun is out, or ducked behind the clouds, or whether the sky is in the background or not. I have to trust the camera's instincts somewhat or at the end of the day I'd have zero keepers. In static situations similar to what's in your portfolio, Manual on a tripod with some exposure bracketing will get you where you want to go. And like everyone else, I keep the camera on P just in case. Regards, Bill</p>

[ShunCheung]

<p>D Syd, the only thing is that you used the word "confess." The fact of the matter is that as long as you know how to use it, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the Program Mode. Otherwise, Nikon wouldn't put it on the F4, F5, F6, D2X, D3, D3X ....</p>

<p>A lot of people dismiss P because they don't understand how Flex Program works. They think in P the camera sets both the aperture and shutter speed for you. Apparently even Ellis Vener didn't understand and we had an exchange about that in this very forum several years ago. On the F4, unfortunately, that is indeed the case. The F4 has no command dials so that there are only P and PH (high shutter speed), and I simply don't use P on the F4. On anything with a main command dial, Flex Program lets you adjust the aperture and shutter speed simultaneously while keeping the overall exposure constant. (E.g., if P select 1/250 sec f5.6, you can swtich to 1/125 f8, 1/60 f11 or 1/500 f4 ... by rotating just one dial.) To me, that is very convenient and I use that as a more advanced A mode.</p>

<p>I would avoid the P mode when I use flash, though.</p>

[whoz_the_man_huh]

<p>Thanks for the background on what you do, Per.</p>

<p>Very nice low light photo.</p>