If you’re new to photography and eager to learn more, one of the best ways to expand your photography knowledge is learning about manual photography. When you use automatic mode, the camera is using various measurements on the scene to determine what settings will produce the properly exposed image. Manual photography is about making these changes on your own and unlocking you creative potential.
Manual Photography Basics
At it’s core, manual photography really just means using the manual mode on our cameras. To use manual mode properly, we need to understand the exposure triangle. There are three core components to creating a picture: shutter speed, ISO and aperture. Each component plays a roll in determining how bright or dark the image is and each component has its own unique attribute.
ISO
ISO is how sensitive the camera sensor is to light. A lower ISO value is less sensitive to light. So, all else equal, an image with ISO 100 will be darker than an image with ISO 3200. ISO’s unique attribute is its digital noise. A higher ISO means more noise in your final image, so for clear, sharp images, it’s common to keep the ISO as low as possible, but high ISO values definitely work!
Shutter Speed
Shutter speed dictates how long the camera sensor is exposed to light. A longer shutter speed will provide more light and thus a brighter image. Shutter speed’s special feature is how it works with motion. A high shutter speed, like 1/1000s, can freeze an athlete’s movement, while a slow shutter speed, like 1/15s, can blur a waterfall. Quick note! When shooting with a shutter speed longer than 1/60s, you’re more likely to see blur in handheld images, so take a tripod!
Aperture
Aperture determines how much light is being allowed into the lens. Often referred to as “fast” versus “slow,” a fast aperture of f/1.8 means a lot of light is being let through the lens, while a slow aperture like f/16 means a lot of light is being kept out. Aperture’s special attribute is how it affects depth of field. To keep the explanation simple, depth of field is how sharp one part of an image is compared to the rest. A fast aperture is synonymous with a shallow depth of field while a slow aperture will create a deeper depth of field.
Bringing it together
The crux of manual photography is gauging how these components interact with each other to create the image you want. It’s a balancing act. For every variable that is adjusted, something else needs to be adjusted to compensate.
Manual Photography Examples
Example 1
Let’s say we want to take a dreamy, shallow depth of field portrait on a shining beach day. How do we do that? We know for sure we want shallow depth of field, so we can set out aperture to f/1.8. With an aperture of f/1.8, most ISO values will be far too bright, so we’ll keep that as low as possible. Let’s say ISO 100. With these two settings accounted for, we can now adjust the shutter speed. Thankfully, we don’t want motion blur in a portrait, so we can crank up the shutter speed as much as needed for an even exposure.
Example 2
Let’s say we want to get a picture of a waterfall with the cascading water looking silky. How do we do that? First, we know that the only way to get the smooth water effect is by having a slower shutter speed. We’ll start with a 1s exposure. Now it gets a little more interesting. If it’s really bright outside, we might be forced into the same situation as before where we have to bring the ISO all the way down and set the aperture to f/22 to achieve a reasonable exposure. But if it’s dimmer, we have an opportunity to use a quicker aperture like f/4 and can compensate by adjusting the ISO.
Example 3
Let’s say we’re at an NBA game and want to capture someone going for a dunk. How do we do that? Well, we know that we want a crispy snapshot that freezes the athlete in place, so we’ll need a high shutter speed – lets say 1/2000s. That’s really fast, so we need our other components to compensate! It’s indoors and we probably want a shallow depth of field to keep the focus on the athlete, so we might use an ISO of 800 and shutter speed of f/4. But here’s the catch: a professional sports photographer is rarely shooting manual! Instead, they’re probably using Shutter Priority mode.
Manual photography is all about questions and answers, which often bears more questions. The best part is that there always seems to be creative answers. This is where one of my favorite tools, ND filters, come into play – but I’ll save that for another article.
Experiment with Manual Photography
Experimenting is the most important part. Novices can get the hang of manual mode pretty quickly if they’re willing to make mistakes. Take the pressure off. Shoot a lot and review the images. This is how we teach ourselves what works and what doesn’t.