Depending on the photo phase you’re in, I’ll tell you about your past or predict your future, you bought or bought your first DSLR camera (or not), as in any relationship, the beginnings are intense, you love it, you want to take your camera everywhere, you die of illusion, you hate having to part with it. Everything he does seems beautiful, wonderful, sublime. While others raise their eyebrows with disapproval or disbelief, do you see only unique and wonderful results worthy of the classics?.
As this relationship progresses, the first defects begin to appear. Or does what you ever love start to sound heavy, even hateful?This is the second phase. Unseeding, when you drop your bandage and realize the stark reality. Your camera is not perfect, nor independent, nor does it take great photos on its own. You realize that it doesn’t blur the background the way you’d like, freeze the movement when you don’t want it and the frames move when you don’t want it, measure where it wants and not where you thought. I will. Well, if you’re in this phase, it’s time to move on to the third phase. Are you trying to get me to change? (Yes, I know, with people you shouldn’t try to do this, but fortunately in photography you can and should) And for that, there’s no other way to do it than to take control of the situation. And that in photography is synonymous with using manual mode. You know what they say: “If you want something done right, do you have to do it yourself?”?.
- To start using manual mode.
- You should consider the following basic considerations regarding the concepts that make up the exposure triangle:.
If you learn these three concepts, you’re more than ready to press manual mode in your free time, and you open up a world where anything is possible (photographically speaking?) Now, since everything that shines is not gold, it will also end with problems that fortunately have a solution, let’s see what they are and how we can solve them.
If you are one of those who have little patience, do not know what a user manual is, read a few lines of the blog and start jumping words, reading diagonally, hoping that through unfounded science, the information will be transmitted to your brain in Matrix plan to be able to apply it immediately, I have to tell you a few things: 1. I understand you and 2. No , it doesn’t work, from my own experience I tell you to start moving the cable a little up and down, small buttons up and down without knowing what it’s doing, it won’t work for you in any way. If you don’t know what you’re doing, you won’t get an acceptable average result unless you’re very, very lucky.
The solution? Back to the starting point of this article?Basic considerations about manual mode? And, if possible, deepen each point through the suggested links ?.
Another common mistake when we go into manual mode is to think that this is the best way in all situations, well, that’s not true, and to believe that this can lead us to hate the manual mode by being inefficient, complicated and giving us bad results despite our when they tell you it’s a shame to waste your SLR’s capabilities automatically , shouldn’t I necessarily go to the other end?There are semi-automatic modes adapted to many situations, which allow you to combine the speed of the automatic mode with the ability to participate in the decisions to be made.
Compared to the previous point, this is one of the main problems of manual mode, it is not the fastest in the world, and although with practice it is obvious that the speed in decisions and handling improves a lot, it costs you to work. in situations where a lot of reaction speed is needed, for example in changing light situations, in sports, street photography, events, etc.
To do this, in such situations, it makes more sense for you to enter semi-automatic (or semi-manual, depending on how you see it?) Priority to speed and aperture.
Whether you use exposure triangle settings (aperture, diaphragm, ISO) as ignorant beings we are, no wonder you forget that in manual mode, you have to make manual adjustments constantly. In other words, in most situations where the changes in light, or the colors of what we were photographing are different, the exposure values will be different and therefore vary from each other. If we haven’t made the relevant adjustments beforehand every time we change the exposure values (and I repeat, in the same scene depends on where we measure the light, they can vary greatly from one to the other), we’ll have mis exposed images, or what’s the same, you can’t go to take photos without thinking, or focus exclusively on framing or composing. Manual mode invites and requires patience and reflection.
When there was no other option, when we had a Maria Casta camera of the year, we always focused on the manual, but even I, who am a strong advocate of analog cameras, see the benefits of the automatic modes of most cameras. As long as you are not facing a landscape, a still life, macro shots, scenes with minimal contrast, darkness, etc. , where the camera is easily lost or needs an extremely precise approach, it is better to work with one of its cameras. Autofocus modes. Manual mode requires time and precision. If you don’t have it, do automatic modes work perfectly?
The trick of manual mode is to know it in depth, only then can it be used to reach its full potential, when you are envious of an image and think my God, how did this photo be taken?Was it in manual mode? Dominating manual mode, you can paint with light, photograph a path of stars, the pupil of a lizard, silky waters, you can erase the background at once by challenging it, you can photograph the movement or freeze it, or all at once. You can photograph the desert, snow, rain or fog.
Manual mode is the only mode with which you will achieve everything you have decided to do, everything you dream of, everything you imagine, everything? So forget about running, going back to slow photography while we try to go back to slow cities or slowfood? I know I mentioned that semi-auto modes sometimes work better in certain situations. Well, forget about them for now and dive into the manual. From my point of view, the only way to master all the other shooting modes is to master the manual mode. Once you get the hang of it, then yes, the semi-manual modes will help you in many situations, especially when you know what you are doing and why.
I hope this article has been useful to you, but above all I hope it will convince you and encourage you to practice manual mode. Gradually, with patience and perseverance, you will know how to master it and, therefore, you will get all these images that you propose. Oh, and if you think someone needs a little help with manual mode, share it. Thank you and soon?