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Shooting manual washes a lot of stuff out

Started May 1, 2020 | Questions thread
irvcobb
irvcobb Contributing Member • Posts: 600
Re: Shooting manual washes a lot of stuff out

Are you watching your meter when you set up the shot? You want to have the meter pretty well zeroed out as a starting point. If the meter is toward the right, you will get what you have shown us. Toward the left and things will go dark.

One of the tricks with manual is knowing that although you have total control of all your settings, the available light you have (and your camera's intrinsic limitations) still have ultimate control. For instance, if you want a lot of depth of field, you'll have to set your aperture to a higher number. But this limits the amount of light getting to the sensor, so then you have to compensate somehow, maybe with a slower shutter speed or higher ISO. It's a dance, and often a compromise to get what you want and keep the meter where it needs to be.

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