Beginner's Guide to Manual Photography

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Kurtis Kronk
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Jul. 19, 2006

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Common Manual Modes

Before we really get into all of the gritty details, I'd first like to talk briefly about the common manual modes available on cameras. Some cameras have 4 different manual modes abbreviated as P A S M, which stands for Program, Aperture priority, Shutter priority, and [full] Manual. However, there isn't really one single naming standard for manual modes in photography, so it may differ depending on the camera(s) you use. As an example, my Canon EOS 20D DSLR has different names for these modes: P Tv Av M. But with that said, they mean basically the same thing in a different order: Program, Time value (shutter speed), Aperture value, and [full] Manual.

Camera Mode Dial

Program mode can be thought of as a sort of automatic-manual hybrid where you can adjust the shutter speed and aperture (sort of! more on that in a moment) and depending on the camera you can adjust other things such as exposure compensation and ISO. The reason I said that you can 'sort of' adjust shutter speed and aperture is that you will be roughly adjusting both of them at the same time through what is called a program-shift, with the camera still deciding precisely what settings to use each time you take a picture. In essence, the purpose of this mode is to let you have a little bit of creative control while still letting the camera do most of the work for you. You can obtain the same overall exposure while capturing a very different image by using this 'program-shifting' mode. For example, you can decide whether you want to freeze or capture motion, or whether you want just the subject or the whole scene to be in focus. I'll go more in-depth about those things in the Shutter Speed and Aperture sections of this article, of course. It is important to note that your preferences are not retained in this mode, and will be reset after each photo.

Aperture priority mode gives you full control of the aperture and depending on the camera you may be able to control some other things such as exposure compensation and ISO. Shutter priority mode gives you full control of the shutter speed and depending on the camera you may be able to control some other things such as exposure compensation and ISO. One of the great things about the Aperture and Shutter priority modes is that they allow you to be creative without spending a lot of time adjusting settings between shots. You pick the shutter speed or aperture that you want, and the camera will do the rest of the work to get what it thinks is a properly exposed photograph. This might be very important if you're shooting an event or something where you only have a small window of opportunity to take each shot.

Finally, there is [full] Manual mode. As the name implies, this mode will give you full control of both shutter speed and aperture (and many other things which will depend on your camera). It is also the most difficult and time-consuming mode you could choose, as the camera won't help you out at all. So why would you want to use manual mode if it's so much harder? Rather than trying to explain in detail why someone would put forth the extra effort to shoot in manual, let me pose a question! Why don't the great painters use stencils?

I wanted to explain those modes because this is, after all, an introduction to manual settings. I strongly encourage you to experiment with these modes as you read along and as you're out practicing.

You'll notice that I haven't mentioned anything about an ISO mode on cameras, and that's because (on the majority of cameras) there isn't one. Rather than ISO being a camera mode, it is just one of a myriad of settings you'll find on your camera, but you won't be able to change it unless you're in one of the aforementioned manual modes.

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Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: Common Manual Modes
Page 3: Shutter Speed
Page 4: Aperture
Page 5: ISO (sensitivity)
Page 6: The Big Picture

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5 User Comments

1 - Posted by Kurtis on July 19, 2006 - 3:35 pm

Digg this article:
http://digg.com/hardware/Noob_s_guide_to_manual_ph...

2 - Posted by jcmarney on July 20, 2006 - 12:06 pm

Good Read- One comment though. The Sunlight f/16 rule isn't going to work for digital for many cases. Small digicams simply don't close down to f/16, and DSLR's will often start degrading in quality due to diffraction.
There is a good article to familiarize yourself with the effects of diffraction here: http://www.diglloyd.com/diglloyd/free/DigicamDiffr...

3 - Posted by Kurtis on July 20, 2006 - 12:32 pm

Good point. I personally never use the sunny 16 rule, but thought it might be a helpful reference for some.

4 - Posted by blackjet on July 24, 2006 - 7:31 am

hay kurtis, good article, enjoyed the read....now I just need a camera to try it all out!

5 - Posted by ty_hot on February 15, 2008 - 5:06 pm

Good article! Thanks!

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