Shooting in M mode
(the ultimate goal for the photographer?)
Manual Mode Photographer – Smarter than a camera
I browse quite a bit on facebook and one theme keeps popping up in both regular messages and in the numerous photo groups; “You are only a real photographer if you work in the M mode of your camera”. You will even be bombarded with offers for t-shirts all printed with slogans to the same effect.
Personally, I think the easiest way to tell a novice photographer from an advanced photographer is that the beginner actually thinks that working in manual mode is difficult or to the photographer's credit. Neither is true.
An advanced or professional photographer will use every mode of his camera in situations where the circumstances require it. I myself regularly use aperture priority and a hybrid aperture/shutter speed priority, where I fix both values and the camera varies the ISO to obtain a correct exposure.
I think it's high time we stopped criticizing budding photographers for not working in manual mode. Why the hell should we discourage aspiring artists from learning their craft? Just as there are no bad cameras, there are no bad settings.
What does manual mode do?
All you do as a photographer is manually change your aperture and shutter speed according to your camera's built-in light meter. The faster way is, of course, to tell your camera to automatically fill in these values for you.
The fact that you manually enter these values in your camera has total NO effect on the quality of your images. In fact, I dare say that all that fiddling with your buttons is at the expense of your attention to composition and timing.
All photographers who use aperture priority or shutter priority get more out of their camera because the light meter checks the shutter speed or aperture hundreds of times per second and changes it where necessary. Just tell the camera to automatically use the correct shutter speed for your desired aperture. Every time you adjust your composition, the exposure of your sensor changes. Your light meter reads this change and immediately adjusts your exposure without any delay. No chance that you can do this yourself in manual mode!
Exposure
Please don't come up with slogans such as "I have more control over my camera" because they go a long way. You either have the right exposure or you don't and you histogram immediately shows whether your exposure was good or not. If it's you INTENTION is to over- or under-expose to obtain a certain effect, you can achieve this with extreme precision by using the EXPOSURE in combination with aperture or shutter speed priority. Manual exposure has its place, of course, for exposures longer than 30 seconds OR…for studio work where the camera's light meter can't read the correct exposure.
Personally, I don't really care if you like manual shooting or not, but I'm really annoyed by photographers (let's call them wannabe professionals) who criticize photographers who work in Av or Tv mode.
Can we agree that we will just enjoy photography with the settings that we feel comfortable with and that we will respect everyone?
Thank you for this explanation. I've also been photographing (semi-professionally) for years and I'm also annoyed by those cries that only the M mode would be good. How or how dependent you are on the exposure meter of your camera (except with flash photography in the studio). If you shoot Av, you can set the aperture and the ISO yourself. The camera chooses a shutter speed, and if you're not happy with it, you can always compensate by using the exposure compensation dial. This gives you all the control you need. What are you going to do in M mode if you're shooting a landscape somewhere, for example? Taking a wild guess at which three positions in the exposure triangle you need, only to find that the photo is horribly over or underexposed? And then mess around until you get it right? So much wasted time.
Thank you for your response Adelheid, good to read that there are more photographers who know that shooting in a semi-automatic can offer a lot of convenience!
Let's hope that they will also change all those so-called basic courses. Getting so tired of that mandatory M stuff. It's not for nothing that digital cameras have these possibilities. I often compare M mode with a car with cruise control, park assist, etc. and do not use all that, because otherwise you are not a good driver.
Hi Chris, I get that many photographers use the M mode to explain how the exposure triangle works, but there are other options for that too. But overall, in my opinion, your images will get better if you spend less time setting up your camera and more thinking about your composition and creative process.
I find this explanation neat and nice if you click on play at the bottom you can try it out.
Canonoutsideofauto.ca/learn
Well written and very relatable. I have been photographing for about 20 years and I mainly focus on bird photography. In the beginning the automatic mode and after a while the A-mode. A buddy of mine swears by the M mode and I've tried that too, but it's hard to get used to and it takes me too much time. In addition, birds do not always sit still and it is completely difficult for birds in flight. By fiddling with the settings you lose momentum and that's a shame!
I stick to A mode with the occasional trip to M mode to try things out.
For birds and insects, I choose a fast shutter speed, so not the a position
A wonderful argument for the aperture/shutter speed priority. Why is the M(easily) position the holy grail in photography. If you don't use M(easily) or hardly use it, you're doing something wrong, you don't count, you're a renegade in photography, you get a cross behind your name. A delightful and justified article to read. Thank you Mike.