Don't Use Manual Mode on Your Camera, Use This Instead

You don’t have to learn how to use manual mode to take excellent photos! A common misconception in the photography community is that the best photographers only use manual. While it’s very important to know what all of your camera settings do, you can often times get away with aperture priority mode, rather than manual.

Using aperture priority let’s you choose the aperture, and the shutter speed and ISO will be automatically calculated for you to perfectly expose your photo. This is a great tool to have so that you can spend more time focusing on nailing the shot, and less time tweaking your settings. Especially for scenes where the light changes fast, your settings will automatically continue to adjust, allowing you to get the perfect exposures throughout your shoot. #uberquickphototip #photographytip #camerasettings #landscapephotography #improvephotography #shorts

[sleepyburr]

Something worth mentioning about this is that it can be highly dependent on your subject. For example, I do a lot of wildlife photography with subjects that are rarely inclined to sit still. As such, I typically do manual shutter and aperture with auto ISO, enabling me to set the shutter as fast as possible and ensuring that I can avoid motion blur while still getting a good exposure. I find this helps evade possible miscalculations by the sensor due to the shortcomings of onboard light metering when it comes to discerning between dark colors and actual darkness. However, I'm actually considering getting more comfortable with adding manual ISO, at least for certain situations, because of the excess noise that I see it causing as a result of this same problem.

For example, I was recently shooting in a brightly-lit foreground with both dark-colored subjects - purple martins and tree swallows - AND a shaded treeline in the background. The shots came out annoyingly grainy to the point that the amount of denoising needed to eliminate it in post would markedly reduce the sharpness of the subject. I eventually examined the metadata on a hunch and discovered that the ISO on these shots had been pushed up to 3200 when the level of foreground lighting really only necessitated 1000, 800, or even less.

The method I use will probably vary depending on the lighting conditions since auto ISO *has* been very helpful to me at times, but just be aware of this if you're shooting a scene that might "fool" the onboard sensor into seeing darkness. If you're using this method and are seeing a lot of noise in the final result, you may want to reconsider.

[ronmiller]

If i had done this would the image be less grainy in low light ?

[michaelmcphee]

For still landscapes, it makes absolute sense to use Aperture priority, i usually set from around 5.6 to f11.

[sleepyburr]

A further word of advice to those using auto ISO; I do a lot of wildlife photography with subjects that are rarely inclined to sit still. As such, I typically do manual shutter and aperture with auto ISO, enabling me to set the shutter as fast as possible and avoid motion blur while still getting a good exposure. I find this helps evade possible miscalculations by the sensor due to the shortcomings of onboard light metering when it comes to discerning between dark colors and actual darkness. However, I'm actually considering getting more comfortable with adding manual ISO, at least for certain situations, because of the excess noise that I see it causing as a result of this same problem.

For example, I was recently shooting in a brightly-lit foreground with both dark-colored subjects - purple martins and tree swallows - AND a shaded treeline in the background. The shots came out annoyingly grainy to the point that the amount of denoising needed to eliminate it in post would markedly reduce the sharpness of the subject. I eventually examined the metadata on a hunch and discovered that the ISO on these shots had been pushed up to 3200 when the level of foreground lighting really only necessitated 1000, 800, or even less.

The method I use will probably vary depending on the lighting conditions since auto ISO *has* been very helpful to me at times, but just be aware of this if you're shooting a scene that might "fool" the onboard sensor into seeing darkness. If you're using this method and are seeing a lot of noise in the final result, you may want to reconsider.

[javscasillas]

What’s the best mode for movements? For example, taking pics of cars on the freeway.

[BigBadLoneWolf]

I mainly use aperture mode for landscapes, but manual for long exposures. for fast action, like bids in flight or motorsports, i use manual with auto iso

[mattebaloo]

I almost always shoot manual. Too often has wrong shutterspeed been used or ISO. better to know what you're settings are beforehand.

[isaiah]

So would you recommend this setting "A" like for taking wedding reception photos/ portraits where the subjects arent moving?

[Louis.brnnnn]

That works when you’re lazy. You either shoot in aperture mode and realistically miss 2/3 shots out of 10, or you get really good at using manual mode and never miss a shot

[lilslimjim]

Hey, question, I have an eos canon rebel t5i, and when I'm in manual mode or the aperture mode it makes the screen black and white. Is there a way to make it in color?