Shooting everything in manual exposure mode isn’t the badge of honour you think it is
May 22, 2022
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
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Shooting in one manual mode is one of those “You’re not a real photographer if you don’t…” kinds of things. It has been for years and it’s a constant debate whenever you jump into photography groups on social media. And while I personally believe it’s important to understand how to shoot in manual mode, I don’t think actually shooting in manual mode all the time (or even most of it) is essential.
That’s the topic explored in this excellent video from Pixel Village. After having somebody recently show them their work and regularly pointing out that images were shot in all manual mode, he dug a little deeper into why this photography felt it was so important to mention. His answer was basically that his photographer teacher was perpetuating the “You’re not a real photographer…” myth.
In the video, he mentions that it’s actually quite rare for him to shoot in full manual exposure mode. He hasn’t done since cameras started offering automatic and semi-automatic exposure modes, like aperture and shutter priority – even with film – typically preferring to use aperture priority mode.
There are times when manual mode offers big advantages over automatic modes. When you’re using a flash that isn’t TTL, or when you’re combining multiple flashes, for example. And it’s the use of flash that means the vast majority of my own stills are shot in manual mode. Or maybe you’re facing extremely tricky lighting conditions that the camera does create a good exposure for, but not necessarily the exposure you want.
For a lot of things you might shoot, though, the automatic modes will do the job just as well. And they’ll often let you get to where you need to go more quickly than shooting in manual mode, too, especially in situations with rapidly changing lighting conditions. Even if you do end up setting your aperture and shutter speed manually, your camera will be able to adjust your ISO way quicker than you can!
Ultimately, whatever mode lets you get the shot you want is the right mode.
Do you always shoot manual? Do you never shoot manual? Or do you switch between them as the situation dictates?
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
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2 responses to “Shooting everything in manual exposure mode isn’t the badge of honour you think it is”
Ah, manual mode… I guess when you are starting of you feel getting it right would be a sure sign you know what you are doing. And then you realize there are so many uses of your brain that make more sense than trying to second guess your camera.
I can expose manually pretty well, even without meter, it’s fun on an Ikonta, a Lubitel, you name it. But when I have a good automatic, why bother, really? I usually go for aperture priority, possibly setting the ISO. Occasionally shutter priority. I use exposure compensation quite regularly, but I hardly ever find a situation in which I’d find full manual preferable… but hey, I guess that’s one of these things you need to figure by yourself. Anyways, nice video.
In some special cases it make sense to use manual mode even with DSLRs:
– studio photography (non TTL flash)
– extreme long exposure/timelapse/HDR with tripod (e.g.:Canon DSLR cameras won’t set exposure time over 30 seconds)
-when the available exposure correction range is not enough
All other cases are covered by aperture priority/shutter priority modes, auto ISO and exposure correction. Even with manual mode, the built in light meter is showing the under/over exposure value, so it is also semi-auto and there is one or two more settings to worry about compared to aperture or shutter priority modes.