Complete this sentence. I use Manual mode because...

For the sake of beginners who look to this forum for answers and education, please tell of your Manual mode use cases.
There sometimes seems to be a strong beginner belief/assertion that Manual mode is superior, simply because you have duplicated the auto settings manually. Whaaa?

I'll start,
I use Manual mode when I need to ensure that successive frames MATCH exposure from one frame to the next. Just one personal example, I use M mode when - shooting 360 spherical images which require 7 camera positions per sphere. I get uniform, un-changing exposure across every angle of the sphere (as it should be).

I use manual mode for:

Astro (rare)

Flash photography (very rare).

99.97% of the time Im in FV.

for some type of sports I want to dictate my shutter speed and aperture, and let auto-ISO determine the brightness.

Gam3r01 said:

I use manual mode for:

Astro (rare)

Flash photography (very rare).

99.97% of the time Im in FV.

Click to expand...

What's "FV" please ???

PhotoTeach2 said:

Gam3r01 said:

I use manual mode for:

Astro (rare)

Flash photography (very rare).

99.97% of the time Im in FV.

Click to expand...

What's "FV" please ???

Click to expand...

Its a new mode on Canons R series cameras, its essentially manual except you can set anything you want to auto whenever you want, and can swap between selected parameters rapidly.

We have done this recently.

I use manual mode because I want full control. I have not trusted a camera exposure system since 1999 when I lost at least 6 rolls of film in an extremely challenging situation. I have used it 100% of the time since and digital makes it easy to confirm exposure immediately. Digital photography has actually removed the need for metering systems altogether.

I use manual mode to confuse noobs.

Kidding (I do wonder where people pick up that they have to start using that for no particular reason. Odd.)

I use it (with a further caveat I use that Fv mode from Canon and a similar one on Pentax) for macro, astro, flash, to match certain brackets and such, and whenever my camera is acting like an idiot and not get exposure right.

It's also necessary on some old lenses I use, like M42 with stop down aperture rings.

...my Pentax KX doesn't have any automatic modes.



Aaron

Only ever use it when I shoot portraits with flash and artificial light in a controlled environment. A lot of the times, manual is a bit of fraud. When my cam shows me that my exposure is 2 steps too dark or too bright - and I correct the aperture or the shutter speed or the ISO accordingly until I reach a balanced exposure, I could as well shoot in Aperture Priority or Shutter Priority with Auto Iso, or even in P-mode.

I think the question doesn't make sense if it doesn't relate to the kind of photography you are interested in. If you are doing snapshots or street photography or spontaneous shots in a not controlled environment, it makes much more sense to use one of the half-auto modes like Aperture Priority. If you are doing sports or objects in motion, shutter priority makes sense.

Just imagine you are at a party and look for interesting subjects and situations. You just see something is going on that is interesting. You simply want to take a shot immediately or you miss it. Will you then think about the right metering method, the right shutter speed or aperture and iso, considering that the light works against you and dial in all the right parameters and then press the shutter button - but the moment is gone forever long ago?

In situations like the above mentioned party, I would always use Aperture Priority with Auto Iso and a minimum shutter speed set in the Auto Iso setup.

If you do portrait shots in a studio or professionally shoot architecture, it makes sense to use the manual mode.

Is it broken? dpr review shows this

Only if my camera is broken and none of the auto modes work any more.

Mostly, or when I prepare heavy editing in PP would be needed...

For easier shooting conditions, A or S + EC can handle most case easily.

Interesting.

But you still have to tell your R on what specific setting to change under Fv mode before it will switch from effectively P to say effectively A or S?

On my camera, I can change the P/A/S/M simply by Touch LCD without the need to go through selection on the Mode Dial. i.e. touch to change from P to A, Is it the same result?

John Crowe said:

We have done this recently.

I use manual mode because I want full control. I have not trusted a camera exposure system since 1999 when I lost at least 6 rolls of film in an extremely challenging situation. I have used it 100% of the time since and digital makes it easy to confirm exposure immediately. Digital photography has actually removed the need for metering systems altogether.

Click to expand...

Same here. Sometimes I will use Aperture Priority (rarely Shutter priority), but mostly manual as I like to control the look of the image I am taking and not rely on Auto to take just a "holiday snaps" photo for me...

I have started to play with Auto ISO, but am not yet 100% convinced it will give what I want in most situations

Frankie J said:

For the sake of beginners who look to this forum for answers and education, please tell of your Manual mode use cases.
There sometimes seems to be a strong beginner belief/assertion that Manual mode is superior, simply because you have duplicated the auto settings manually. Whaaa?

I'll start,
I use Manual mode when I need to ensure that successive frames MATCH exposure from one frame to the next. Just one personal example, I use M mode when - shooting 360 spherical images which require 7 camera positions per sphere. I get uniform, un-changing exposure across every angle of the sphere (as it should be).

Click to expand...

That's strange. it is my experience that in most environments if you change the angle of eh lens axis by as much as 120 degrees there is a strong chance that the scene luminance will change. Keeping the same manual settings will result in a differing exposure in such a case.

I use manual mode with auto ISO when I want to control the shutter speed myself. (Usually to freeze or specifically not freeze action.) And on an interchangeable lens camera, I always want to control the aperture myself, so manual + auto ISO replaces shutter priority mode.

I use manual mode with a fixed ISO in situations where the light meter will give me incorrect and/or unpredictable results, and there is time to take test shots to see what kind of exposure would be good. So things like astrophotography.


2017 solar eclipse in Oregon

Frankie J said:

For the sake of beginners who look to this forum for answers and education, please tell of your Manual mode use cases.
There sometimes seems to be a strong beginner belief/assertion that Manual mode is superior, simply because you have duplicated the auto settings manually. Whaaa?

I'll start,
I use Manual mode when I need to ensure that successive frames MATCH exposure from one frame to the next. Just one personal example, I use M mode when - shooting 360 spherical images which require 7 camera positions per sphere. I get uniform, un-changing exposure across every angle of the sphere (as it should be).

Click to expand...

I use Manual mostly in the studio because I'm controlling the light and it never changes unless I purposely change it, then I have to adjust my manual setting to expose for that changed light.

Sometimes when shooting sports in very overcast or rainy conditions, again, I'll shoot manual because again, like in the studio my light is constant.

When shooting anything where the light changes constantly, like in sports where I shoot in front of me into the sun then turn and shoot behind me away from the sun and maybe alternate every couple of seconds, those would be impossible shots on manual, so I usually shoot SS priority to make sure my shutter is fast enough but let the camera pick the other parameters because it's physically impossible for any human to change setting fast enough like the camera can do.

Sometimes I can shoot on manual and let Auto ISO do the proper exposures and it works best.

It seems that some beginners seem to think that shooting manual is like a red badge of courage. That might be because so many old farts suffered shooting manual on film and they think it made them pros but a pro would NEVER give that advice. If a guy tells you to learn on manual, look at their portfolio, If it doesn't absolutely blow you away it means they couldn't shoot then and they can't shoot NOW. Look for advice elsewhere! If you still insist on learning in manual, put the camera on Auto and shoot walking in the snow, uphill both ways in a blizzard and don't come home till you've got a dozen keepers. THAT will teach you to shoot quicker!!! LoL

John

Frankie J said:

For the sake of beginners who look to this forum for answers and education, please tell of your Manual mode use cases.
There sometimes seems to be a strong beginner belief/assertion that Manual mode is superior, simply because you have duplicated the auto settings manually. Whaaa?

I'll start,
I use Manual mode when I need to ensure that successive frames MATCH exposure from one frame to the next. Just one personal example, I use M mode when - shooting 360 spherical images which require 7 camera positions per sphere. I get uniform, un-changing exposure across every angle of the sphere (as it should be).

Click to expand...

My usual working mode is M with auto ISO. If I need to be more careful ISO goes to manual as well. The reason for using manual comes down to what you're trying to achieve when setting exposure. In general, I see exposure control as a matter of controlling depth of field and motion blur, whilst maximising exposure. The reason to maximise exposure is that the major source of image noise depends on exposure*. Exposure is maximised by using the widest aperture that fits your DOF requirements and the slowest shutter speed that fits your motion blur requirements.

Camera auto modes in general are not designed to achieve this. They are a hang-over from film days and film had quite different characteristics from digital. What they invite you to do is load a 'virtual film', and that determines the exposure that you will use. Thus in typical use you end up with more noisy photos that you could have had. This isn't necessarily an issue if the light is bright enough, but in less than ideal conditions it is.

* Note: In the more general case, it depends on exposure, sensor size and sensor efficiency, but since you can't change the sensor in most cameras, it comes down to exposure for the camera that you're using at the time.

DirkPeh said:

Only ever use it when I shoot portraits with flash and artificial light in a controlled environment. A lot of the times, manual is a bit of fraud. When my cam shows me that my exposure is 2 steps too dark or too bright - and I correct the aperture or the shutter speed or the ISO accordingly until I reach a balanced exposure.

Click to expand...

What do you mean by 'balanced exposure'?

Bob A L said:

Is it broken? dpr review shows this

Click to expand...

Pentax KX = mechanical 35mm film SLR

Pentax K-X = multi-mode digital SLR

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