Manual control article

[planetc]

Just wanted to say thanks for the informative feature on using manual. I've been considering moving to manual for some of my shoots for a little while and reading through this has been rather useful. I'll give it a go at tomorrows event if the light is consistent enough.

[collywobbles]

Re: Manual control article

I don't feel the need to go manual. When I started, everything was manual. Meter reading, (not through the lens.) One even had to remember to close down the aperture to take the picture. Then remember to take into consideration compensating for any filters or converters etc.
Aah, that old Russian tank that was the Zenit E!

[Columbarius]

Re: Manual control article

Aah, that old Russian tank that was the Zenit E!

One of my first cameras. I still have it somewhere ...

[planetc]

Re: Manual control article

I don't feel the need to go manual.

To be honest I never really saw any point myself either, with a little exposure compensation I was doing ok with Av. I do find on occasions however that the metering doesn't keep up with the action, leaving me with the odd shot here and there that underexposes. I can't say shooting manual was dramatically different, but it did give me consistency.

[the black fox]

Re: Manual control article

i did have a go last week after reading the article ,but found it rather difficult on the 1d3 ,lost to many good shots through it .funny thing is that when i was using nikon it was order of the day .

[planetc]

Re: Manual control article

It worked quite well when I had a lot of similar shots one after the other. Just took me a couple of shots to get it right each time I moved or the light changed. Shooting Av or Tv I occasionally get an odd frame where it's missed the light change as the dog enters the frame, or as I pan if I'm following one. There's definitely merit in it for some things.

[planetc]

Re: Manual control article

Feeding back, here's a couple of examples from Sunday, playing at manual. These are the type of shots I would sometimes experience difficulties with the camera not reacting fast enough to the change in light. They are shot with pre focus, high shutter as the dog enters the frame. All 3 are in the same light, but obviously the camera would meter them differently. I dropped the iso a notch on the black one as I was just seeing the beginnings of clipping on the histogram on the previous shot. I can definitely see me doing more with manual in the future.
IMG_8106.jpg

IMG_8114.jpg

IMG_8052.jpg

[Nathaniel]

Re: Manual control article

I always use manual controls when taking my church photos, without flash.Excellent article.

[paul linton]

Re: Manual control article

I'm another one that occasionally uses manual if the light is playing tricks (floodlit games/ice hockey)its safer to get the subject exposure correct and leave those settings fixed in.

Paul
ps- nice shots

[Jock]

Re: Manual control article

When I had my 20D, I seldom use any type of manual settings, but after I got the 700D, I attended a digital photography course at the local college and we were encouraged to use manual mode (if only to get used to manual settings and what effect they'd have on the photographs).

Since then, I've been stuck in manual mode with very few forays into even semi-automatic mode. I like to think I can look at the screen, decide where I went wrong and compensate almost immediately. (Note, I said "I like to think!" :-)

Of course, manual focus is something else - with my eyesight, I stand at least half a chance of getting something with AF on!