Digital Camera World » manual mode

How to shoot in manual mode and get it right every time

jmeyer — Thu, 31 May 2012 11:00:03 +0000

Do you find you tend to stay within the auto modes of your digital camera? When your automatic settings deliver great results, it can difficult to think why you should venture beyond.

But using your manual settings can offer enormous creative potential. Shooting in manual mode takes more experience, but the control it gives you over shutter speed, aperture and overall exposure at the same time means you can not only experiment, but gain new confidence in how to use a camera.

Below we show you step by step how to shoot in manual mode on your camera. We’ve used a Nikon DSLR for this exercise, but the principles remain largely the same whichever digital camera you have

How to shoot in manual mode

Switch to M
On most DSLRs you can do this on the main mode dial, but on professional models like the Nikon D800 we’ve used here there’s a mode button that you use in conjunction with the command dial.

Change shutter speed
You do this with the rear command dial. As the shutter speed changes, you’ll see the bars on the exposure indicator moving to show that the exposure is changing (for more, check out the Common mistakes at every shutter speed – and the best settings to use).

Tweak aperture
Use the front sub-command dial if your camera has one, or on other models hold down the EV compensation button and turn the rear command dial.

Use the indicator
As you change the shutter speed and/or aperture, you’ll see bars on either side of the exposure indicator’s zero point showing under- or overexposure.

Zero the setting
When the bars are ‘zeroed’, the exposure is indicated by the camera’s meter, but it’s up to you how you interpret the reading. You can use your own skill and judgement.

Compensate on the fly
If your subject is very light or dark, adjust the shutter speed or aperture so the exposure indicator bars move to the left or right of centre (for more on how to do this, check out our free exposure compensation cheat sheet).

Manual focus: what you need to know to get sharp images

jmeyer — Thu, 03 May 2012 10:51:43 +0000

Your DSLR has comes with a highly advanced autofocus system, so why on earth would you want to use manual focus? Actually there are some very good reasons – various subjects and environmental conditions either fool the camera, or make it considerably harder to get a good shot in autofocus mode.

The AF sensor in your digital camera needs certain things to perform well, and at the top of the list is light and contrast. It uses edges or textures to focus on areas of contrast. If you’re shooting in low-light, AF can have problems seeing subtle, indistinct features.

If contrast is low, as in misty conditions or when aiming at smooth water or wet sand, your camera’s AF circuitry has difficulty locking onto the subject. Manual focus, then, helps you get sharp shots when AF can’t correctly interpret what the lens is seeing.

Another set of AF issues occurs when the camera focuses on the wrong thing. Shooting through a wire fence or a glass window, for example, can cause focusing problems in AF mode because the camera focuses on the obstruction, rather than the subject beyond it, and likewise it can be particularly challenging to get good nature shots through branches, leaves or long grass.

Your camera will always focus on the closest thing the sensor sees, and this can cause problems when shooting a particular animal, when another one flies or walks through the frame and distracts the AF. So switch to manual focus when you know your camera could get confused.

The final set of conditions where you’re better off focusing manually is to do with speed: either because the subject is moving so quickly that it’s hard for the camera to focus in time, or the slight delay of hunting to achieve focus is long enough to miss the shot.

When shooting racing cars on a bend, for instance, it’s often better to pre-focus on a particular spot on the track in AF, then lock your focus in MF, and wait for a fast-moving car to reach that spot before taking your shot.

The same principle applies in nature photography, where pre-focusing on a perch allows you to prepare for a bird’s landing or take off to get a crisp action shot without AF delay, or even when photographing your children in the park.

Shooting situations where manual focus is best

Photographing animals
When shooting through foliage or grass, manual focus and a wide aperture reduces the foreground to a pleasing colourful blur (confused about aperture – download our Free f-stop chart to master your aperture).

Capturing speed
With fast subjects like this, it’s best to pre-focus on a particular spot and, when the subject reaches that mark, fire the shutter.

Landscapes
If you autofocus on the horizon, you’ll waste much of your depth of field. For more on how to focus for this type of image, see the cheat sheet on calculating hyperfocal distance below (or you can check out our tutorial What is hyperfocal distance: 6 tips for sharper landscapes).

Creative shots
When you want to combine a series of shots into a panorama or an HDR image, manual focus is absolutely essential to ensure that the focus doesn’t change between images.

Main manual focus controls

To help you – literally – get to grips with the manual focus controls on your DSLR, we put together the photography cheat sheet below, which illustrates where to find some of your most useful buttons. Feel free to drag and drop this infographic on to your desktop to save as a reference or print out and stash in your camera bag.

PAGE 2: Using manual focus in Live View; camera assisted manual focus; focusing for macro
PAGE 3: How to calculate hyperfocal distance; final tips on using manual focus

Perfect your exposures

crutter — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 11:07:55 +0000

Although it’s possible to correct minor exposure errors if you shoot raw files, lightening under-exposed shots with very dark shadows introduces unwanted noise, and you simply can’t recover completely scorched highlights. If something registers as bright white on your sensor, without any detail, no amount of editing will bring back that detail. So it’s always best to strive for perfect exposures in-camera.

Exposure compensation

The easy way to correct exposure in-camera is to use the +/- exposure compensation button. Under-exposed shots require positive compensation, and over-exposed shots require negative compensation.

Using AE-Lock

If your subject is off-centre and has a very bright or very dark background, metering from the whole frame may fail to provide the correct exposure. Your camera’s Auto Exposure Lock (AE-L) facility can help here.

First, compose your shot so that your subject fills the frame, zooming in if necessary. Then, while pressing the AE-L button, half-press the shutter button to meter directly from the subject. Then, recompose and shoot (although be aware that the default setting in your camera may require you to keep the button half-pressed throughout). This technique is very effective for evenly lit subjects, but may need further adjustment. AE-L can also create difficulties if linked to focus lock – check your manual to find out how to separate them.

Exposure bracketing

Even when you think you’ve nailed an exposure, with important shots it’s good practice to bracket your exposures. You can either do this using exposure compensation (see left), using manual mode, or using the exposure bracketing facility on your camera. Try bracketing shots at +/- 0.3EV, 0.7EV and 1EV (equivalent to +/- 1/3, 2/3 and one stop) each side of the metered exposure.

Bracketing basically provides peace of mind, and it’s essential when faced with a high-contrast scene that you plan to ‘fix’ later by merging exposures in Photoshop. However, it takes longer and uses up more space on your memory card.

Using manual mode

If you work in manual mode, it’s relatively straightforward to correct for exposure errors. If the image is too dark, for example, you can dial-in a slower shutter speed or choose a larger aperture to allow more light in. Many SLRs enable you to vary aperture and shutter speed values in increments as small as 1/3EV (1/3 of a stop), enabling subtle fine-tuning. It does work, but you need to have the confidence to set both the aperture and the shutter speed manually.

Manual is the most flexible of the exposure modes

The exposure level indicator

Select any of the creative exposure modes on the mode dial (usually P, S/Tv, A/Av and M) and look through your camera’s viewfinder. You’ll see some numbers and what’s called the exposure level indicator – a dotted line typically marked -2, -1, +1 and +2.

In the middle of the exposure level indicator is what’s called the standard exposure index, and an exposure level mark. When this mark is in the middle of the exposure level indicator, you’ll capture a standard exposure, as determined by the camera’s meter. The scale shows any exposure compensation you’ve set, or shows you if your image is under- or over-exposed if shooting in manual (M) mode – again, based on the exposure determined by the camera’s meter.

Your camera’s meter isn’t infallible, so you need to know how to correct it when it errs

As well as the exposure level indicator, you’ll see your shutter speed and aperture, and on some cameras, the ISO setting. You may also be able to press a button to display all this information on the top-plate LCD.

Back to: Shutter speed explained

Forward to: Focus modes explained