Whats the real advantage of using manual over aperture priority?

[herc182]

Dear all,

I have read articles on "taking control" of your SLR but i still dont see the merits of using fully manual (controlling shutter speed and aperture) over sing aperture priority. does the camera meter differently?

Whats the difference and how do you take better pictures using fully manual? In my view you are still using the cameras light meter and hence will end up in the same place as you would in any other mode (i want to be corrected here :D)

thanks in advance

[coldrain]

There is no difference in metering, no. The only reason to use M is because the camera almost never is able to meter correctly, for the simple fact that most scenes just can't be metered correctly by looking at it (the camera can NOT see if an object or scene is dark or light, it just can measure the light entering the lens).

The way a camera meters light is to assume that what it meters is a mid-tone. And when something is NOT a mid-tone, the camera will just under expose or over expose, to more or lesser extent depending on the subject/scene.

To meter correctly, you should use a light meter at the subject to measure the light conditions at the scene. People with lots of experience use manual, because they have learned to recognize when to compensate over or under, and by how much. Or use light meters to determine correct exposure, which they dail in in M mode.

A way to expose more correctly in aperture priority or exposure time priority modes is to recognize mid tones and to use the camera's spot meter to meter on the midtone.

[herc182]

I have read also that a way to meter for what you want is to zoom in on what you choose (as a mid tone i guess) then meter it, recompose and shoot.

I might give manual a try...AFTER my holiday :D

[LR Max]

I always run apeture priority EXCEPT when indoors and under adverse conditions. Last time I really used full manual earlier this week at a graduation, it was indoors. The flourescent lighting kept flickering ever so slightly (as to be expected) and kept messing up the lighting BIG time. I switched over to full manual and was able to get good shots.

Otherwise I am at apeture almost all the time. Shutter priority doesn't do anything for me. P sometimes.

[aparmley]

Just to add to what Coldrain said. . . The camera does not always know whats most important to the image you are wanting to create - is it details in the shadows or details in the highlights? Shooting manual is useful for getting the camera to expose how you want it to expose the scene, regardless of what the built in meter is telling you and to do this consistently.

[tcadwall]

To me more important than what the meter says, is what the graph tells me. That is why I have the histogram showing when reviewing the just taken image. If I am off, it will do a pretty good job of telling me if I have blown highlights or if I am under exposed.

[erichlund]

There is a light meter in your camera, and there are hand held light meters. Typically, a hand held light meter is used to measure incident light falling on the meter held close to the desired subject (Somewhat challenging if you are shooting Half Dome in Yosemite from the other end of the valley). A hand held meter can have other attachements to read a spot or to read reflected light (which you would want to use in the aforementioned example). There are also attachments to read specific lights in a pro lighting setup.

Your camera measures reflected light off of the scene. I will have several ways to do this, but typically they are matrix, center-weighted and spot. Center-weighted and spot metering can be used to more specifically select the desired subject for metering. With my camera, where I set my focus point is where the spot meter takes its reading, and is about 2% of the screen at that point. I think of it as the area inside the little brackets around the focus point.

One reason to still use manual is that even though you take a meter reading, you can use this thing called judgement to vary either shutter speed or aperture to get the desired effect. For instance, while you meter your subject, you may want to accept a slight overexposure on your subject to bring out some shadow detail that would otherwise be lost.

Hand held meters and histograms have less utility in situations where lighting conditions are rapidly changing, so knowing how to use your camera's meter will greatly benefit you in these situations.

[tcadwall]

erich...

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I know what you are saying, but I just want to clarify for others, that changing light means ligher / darker / lighter /darker. Your histogram is a great method for checking your work and ensuring that you compensated correctly. And the changing light must be changing pretty fast in order to not be a good method. (like a windy partial cloudy day - or an event where spotlights are used...)
>

Generally though, here is a little more reasoning behind why I do it the way I do for the most part.

I rarely spin my dial out of manual, and 90% of the time that I do, it is so that I can hand my camera to someone else to have them take a couple of shots of which either I am one of the subjects, or unable to get the shot myself (like when coaching a game).

But I use my own judgement to get the depth of field that I want, and also control whether to adjust the shutter speed or the ISO to achieve the results I want. Or if I am more concerned with shutter speed, I can control whether aperture or ISO make up the difference in the exposure.

Just adding my 2c.

[herc182]

Interesting points. I think a big plus is that the settings will stay fixed unless YOU change them (which it wouldnt in aperture priority mode).

I will give it a go i think. Makes me feel more of a photographer :D and I think there will be a lot to learn from it.

In case anyone didnt know BTW the shutter speed on the D80 advances by half a stop as does the aperture size (probably fundamental to most of you but hey!)

[tcadwall]

In case anyone didnt know BTW the shutter speed on the D80 advances by half a stop as does the aperture size (probably fundamental to most of you but hey!)Can't you configure those to 1/3 stops?

[colemanr]

CSM #10 - it actually defaults to 1/3.