You probably bought an SLR camera because you wanted to take better pictures. Digital SLRs are very powerful but if you just use it in automatic mode, then you are just taking pictures with a very expensive point and shoot camera. So dust off the instruction book, grab the camera, and start practicing! Get out of your comfort zone by using your camera in manual mode.
Using the camera in manual mode really isn't all the difficult. The first thing to do is turn the dial on the camera to the big M (or whatever the symbol is on your camera for manual). Next, you need to decide on the shutter speed or aperture you need. If your subject is moving, pick a shutter speed first. Choose something that is fast enough to stop the action. This will vary on the subject so you will have to experiment. If the subject is not moving, then set the aperture first (this value tells the camera how wide to open its shutter).
Whichever value you set first, you will then need to set the other value using the camera's meter. The meter tells you how the camera is reading the light. You can see the meter looking through the eyepiece. You should see some kind of scale with -2, -1, 0, 1, 2 or a variation of that. The key is to get the meter to balance out at zero. You will need to experiment of course by switching the settings around to see what effect you get. But always keep the meter on zero so that your picture is exposed properly. If you click the shutter speed two notches, then the aperture needs to be clicked down two notches.
Once you experiment and learn what your camera can do, you will never go back to automatic again! Using automatic lets the camera decide how the picture will look instead of you.
Using the camera in manual mode really isn't all the difficult. The first thing to do is turn the dial on the camera to the big M (or whatever the symbol is on your camera for manual). Next, you need to decide on the shutter speed or aperture you need. If your subject is moving, pick a shutter speed first. Choose something that is fast enough to stop the action. This will vary on the subject so you will have to experiment. If the subject is not moving, then set the aperture first (this value tells the camera how wide to open its shutter).
Whichever value you set first, you will then need to set the other value using the camera's meter. The meter tells you how the camera is reading the light. You can see the meter looking through the eyepiece. You should see some kind of scale with -2, -1, 0, 1, 2 or a variation of that. The key is to get the meter to balance out at zero. You will need to experiment of course by switching the settings around to see what effect you get. But always keep the meter on zero so that your picture is exposed properly. If you click the shutter speed two notches, then the aperture needs to be clicked down two notches.
Once you experiment and learn what your camera can do, you will never go back to automatic again! Using automatic lets the camera decide how the picture will look instead of you.
SHARE
