A car has a steering wheel, an accelerator pedal, and a brake pedal. It has a turn signal lever, a headlight switch, and something to turn on the windshield wipers. Most cars also have a radio, a heater, and an air conditioner. Some have a manual transmission, and others have an automatic transmission.
When you get into a new car you have never driven before, certain controls are immediately apparent and others are in unfamiliar places or operate differently from previous cars you have driven. However, knowledge from earlier cars can be applied to the new car.
Cameras are similar. Most have controls you are immediately familiar with, and other controls may either be buried in menus or you are not sure how to operate them. Most cameras have manual and automatic controls. In a sense, when you get a new camera, you are learning to drive it, to control it. Your knowledge from previous cameras often helps you learn the new camera.
However, today’s cameras often have hundreds of settings and dozens of controls. It can be difficult to wrap your brain around all of them at once. It is a good idea to learn the most important settings and controls first. All the others can wait until you have a degree of mastery over the items that control exposure.
There are many good books on the market that explain cameras in great detail, such as my Mastering the Nikon DSLR series (published by Rocky Nook, www.RockyNook.com). Whatever brand of camera you choose will have its own user’s manual, and there will be several other books available that do a better job of explaining how to operate the camera. Usually the manual included with the camera is relatively useless for most people. They are too technical and sparse to help people understand why and when to use a certain setting. Most manuals cover only how to use a function, and that is simply not enough information for most people. This chapter should help you understand some of the basic controls you need to use in order to do excellent photography. However, I suggest that you also acquire a good book that explores all the settings on your particular camera.
Let’s carefully examine the most important controls for an enthusiast photographer. This chapter assumes that you are interested in learning to use the semiautomatic and manual controls on your camera. Many DSLRs and ILCs offer certain modes for the point-and-shoot crowd because, not surprisingly, many point-and-shooters want the higher quality a bigger imaging sensor provides.
We will ignore point-and-shoot modes like Portrait, Sports, Child, Landscape, Nighttime, Pet, and Party (plus many others). Instead, this book will focus on the most important controls and modes for an enthusiast, which are the main exposure modes: aperture priority (A or Av), shutter priority (S or Tv), and manual (M). We will also discuss the auto exposure mode since there are certain times when it is appropriate.
Let’s now examine how an enthusiast can best control a camera for superior photographic results.
A camera’s light meter is a very important control. It gives you a starting point for getting a good exposure. You can use it and the camera’s histogram (discussed in chapter 7) to make sure the exposure is exactly the way you want it to be.
Figure 5.1: Light meter chip in a Nikon camera
There are generally five types of light meters available in today’s cameras:
Multizone meter
Center-weighted meter
Spot meter
Averaging meter
Partial meter
Figure 5.2: A representation of the way a multizone meter divides a scene and meters for each division
Each of these light meters works differently and can give different exposure results. Let’s examine each of them so you can decide which is most appropriate for your style of shooting. Figure 5.1 shows the light meter chip inside my Nikon camera.
Multizone metering is an interesting concept. The camera divides the scene in front of the lens into various zones and then it examines each zone to determine its importance and light value.
Figure 5.2 shows a rough approximation of a multizone meter. The number of zones vary among camera manufacturers. Some have only a few zones, and others have thousands of zones.
How does multizone metering work? By using complex mathematical formulas, your camera stores characteristics for many thousands of images. These characteristics are used along with proprietary camera software and complex evaluative computations to analyze the image that appears in your viewfinder or on your monitor. The meter is then set to provide accurate exposures for the greatest majority of your images.
A simple example of this is when the horizon runs through the middle of an image. The sky above is bright, and the earth below is much dimmer. The metering system evaluates this image and compares it to hundreds of similar images in the camera’s database, then it automatically selects and inputs a meter setting for you.
The multizone meter examines four critical areas of each picture. It compares the levels of brightness in various parts of the scene to determine the total range of exposure values. It then notices the color of the subject and surroundings. If you are using a lens with a chip that communicates with the camera, it also determines how far away your lens is focused so the camera can calculate the distance to your subject. Finally, it looks at the compositional elements of the subject.
When it has all that information, it compares your image to tens of thousands of image characteristics in the camera’s built-in image database, makes complex evaluations, and comes up with an exposure value that is usually right on the money, even in complex lighting situations.
Camera brands have different names, which may be trademarked, for their multizone meters. The following list includes a few names used by camera manufacturers to describe their multizone meter:
Matrix Metering
Evaluative Metering
Honeycomb Metering
Segment Metering
Multizone Metering
Automatic MultiPattern Metering
ESP (Electro Selective Pattern Metering)
Check your camera user’s manual to see if you can find a reference to one of these meter types or one that sounds similar and implies multiple zones. Cameras are usually set to multizone metering at the factory. It is a very effective and accurate way to meter a scene.
Center-weighted metering is a throwback to the good old days. Many of us were raised on classic center-weighted meters and feel comfortable with how they work.
The center-weighted meter is a simple concept, really. Whatever part of your subject is in the center of your viewfinder or LCD influences the meter more than the edges of the frame. Depending on the camera brand, the weighting can be 60/40, 75/25, or 80/20. If your camera uses 75/25 metering for its center-weighted meter, the circle in the center gets 75 percent importance, and the surrounding parts of the scene get 25 percent importance. The size of the circle that determines most of the exposure can be varied from 5 to 15 percent on many cameras. Figure 5.3 shows a visual approximation of a center-weighted metering circle (red area).
Figure 5.3: Center-weighted metering circle in the center of a view-finder or live view monitor
If you point your camera so the circle in the center of the frame covers your subject, it will get the best exposure, and the rest of the scene will get less importance. Unfortunately, most cameras do not display the circle that has the most influence over the exposure. Without some sort of visual indicator, you simply have to guess where the circle ends and the surrounding areas begin.
This old-style meter is loved by many who will vigorously defend their use of it. However, for most of us the center-weighted meter is not extremely useful. If you find that the multizone meter works well for you, then you can safely ignore the center-weighted meter. I suggest you experiment with it to satisfy your own curiosity. Just realize that the multizone meter has so much more technology that it is often better. The multizone meter takes things like color and subject distance into account, whereas the center-weighted meter cannot.
Normally the circle for the center-weighted meter cannot be moved around on the view-finder or monitor. In the majority of cameras it is in a fixed position, which I suppose is why it is called a center-weighted meter. Whatever is placed in the center of the viewfinder or monitor gets the best exposure.
Placing your subject in the center of the frame often leads to a static-looking composition that is not pleasing. It is much better to place your subject a third of the way into the frame and leave some space next to it (this is called the rule of thirds). Using the center-weighted meter forces you to place your subject in the center of the frame if you want it to get the best exposure. Not good, in my opinion!
A spot meter is a specialty meter designed to let you get a light meter value for a very small portion of the scene. No zones are involved, and the meter ignores everything except the small portion of the scene under the spot. Figure 5.4 shows an approximate spot size in a viewfinder. Not much of the scene is used, is it?
Figure 5.4: A spot meter evaluates only a very small portion of the scene
You might wonder how you can possibly use a spot meter with it being so tiny. Wouldn’t that little spot be hard to position correctly on the subject? Fortunately, the spot can be moved around within the viewfinder or monitor. Cameras have a thumb control on back that lets you move things around on the screen (sometimes you must unlock the control).
Most cameras allow you to move an autofocus point to a specific area of the viewfinder or monitor so you can focus on a specific area of the subject (check your camera user’s manual to find out how to do this). Usually the spot meter invisibly surrounds the autofocus point, which you can move around on the screen or viewfinder.
You can move the autofocus point to a person’s eye, for instance, and also spot meter a small portion of the person’s face at the same time. The spot meter evaluates only 2 to 6 percent of the area surrounding the autofocus point, depending on the camera brand. That is a tiny spot, which is why it is called a spot meter.
You can use the spot meter on a certain small area of the subject to make sure that area gets an accurate exposure, no matter what happens to the rest of the scene. In situations where the light is very bright and there are also dark shadows, the camera will not be able to capture all that light and dark at the same time. You can use the spot meter to get an accurate light meter reading from the most important part of your subject, which is an easy way to get an accurate exposure of the subject itself.
An averaging meter takes the light values from the entire scene and averages them for the exposure. This is basically the exact opposite of a multizone meter. It could be called a one-zone meter (figure 5.5). It doesn’t matter where the subject is in your scene because the meter simply averages all the light values it sees.
An averaging meter—also called a reflected-light meter—tries to make all the light reflected by the scene average out to a middle gray value (12 to 18 percent gray). Since the meter is seeking an average, it often overexposes (too light) a dark subject and underexposes (too dark) a bright subject. In other words, an averaging meter does not like light and dark values. It would rather have a nice medium gray value. If you take a closeup picture of a dark black or bright white subject, it will be rendered as a medium gray subject instead.
A spot meter is designed to use a very tiny spot to get a light meter reading, and an averaging meter uses a wide area—the entire frame—to get the exposure. Averaging meters should only be used in situations like landscapes.
Guess what type of exposure your camera will give you with the averaging meter? An average exposure. Since you are an above-average photographer, do you really want to use an averaging meter? Not likely!
Partial metering is like a combination of center-weighted and spot metering. A spot meter evaluates only the values from a very small portion of the scene (2 to 6 percent), and a partial meter makes the spot much bigger, from 10 to 15 percent of the scene. It acts like the big spot in the middle of the center-weighted meter, except in partial metering the camera ignores everything outside the big spot. A center-weighted meter gives 60 to 80 percent priority to the big spot, but a partial meter, like a spot meter, gives 100 percent priority to the spot.
This type of meter is best used when very bright areas outside the partial meter’s spot would ruin the exposure. If you are shooting a sunset with the sun in the frame and want to meter the light values in the sky near the sun but don’t want to include the overwhelmingly bright sun in the exposure calculations, the partial meter should work well. It ignores everything outside the spot.
Figure 5.5: An averaging meter averages the entire scene to a medium gray value
Most enthusiasts use the multizone meter for general shooting. I use my multizone meter about 98 percent of the time. I rarely use the other meter types, except for the spot meter under special circumstances, such as when I am concerned about exposing correctly for a very important and specific part of the scene. I can meter only that part of the scene, and the camera’s metering system will ignore the rest of the scene. For example, when I use an external flash unit in certain dark environments, such as shooting a wedding in an interior room, I often use the spot meter on the bride’s face, instead of using the multizone meter to meter the entire scene.
Another use of the spot meter is to determine a good average exposure. You can meter various parts of the scene with the spot meter and then see how many stops difference there are among the areas. Since a camera’s imaging sensor can record a light range of around five to nine stops (in RAW mode, discussed in chapter 6), you can tell from the multiple readings whether the camera can record the scene in one picture or if HDR (high dynamic range) imaging will be required. Some excellent references for learning how to do HDR imaging (HDRI) have been published by Rocky Nook (www.rockynook.com) such as Jack Howard’s Practical HDRI, 2nd Edition, and Christian Bloch’s The HDRI Handbook.
In a sense, using the spot meter like this is similar to what the multizone meter does. So why not just use the multizone meter in the first place?
I’ve found that even modern multizone meters can be influenced by the dark areas surrounding a subject and may tend to overexpose the subject. When I use the spot meter on a subject’s face, I am telling the camera what the most important part of the scene is, and it obediently meters that small part of the scene. I would much rather have an underexposed wall behind the bride than a blown out bright spot where the bride’s face used to be.
I am overstating the case a bit because multizone meters are pretty accurate, even in dark-area flash situations. However, if your camera gives you a problem in an extreme contrast scene, you should know how to overcome it. You are an enthusiast, after all, and should know such things!
Many camera users are not enthusiasts. A camera is merely a device used to get a picture any way possible as long as the picture looks reasonably nice. Some camera users are not concerned with how a camera operates but still want the best of pictures. They may have used low-end point-and-shoot cameras and were unhappy with the noisy images from the tiny image sensors. Then they switch to a DSLR or ILC, yet they still want to use the new camera as a point-and-shoot device.
Camera manufacturers want to sell cameras; so new DSLRs and ILCs often have many scene modes. With these special modes, shooters who are unconcerned about the photographic process and have no interest in the difference between a shutter and an aperture can still make nice images, with higher quality than a regular point-and-shoot model. The point is that scene modes are made for point-and-shooters, not true enthusiasts.
Figure 5.6: Point-and-shoot scene modes on a mode dial and a monitor
The scene modes are found either on a mode dial on top the camera or in menus on the monitor (figure 5.6). As mentioned earlier, the scene modes have names like Portrait, Sports, Child, Landscape, Beach, Fireworks, Nighttime, Pet, and Party.
If you feel inclined to use a scene mode while you are learning to use your new camera, go right ahead. However, know them for what they really are: modes for people who have no idea how exposure works and really don’t care.
By selecting a scene mode you are telling the camera what type of scene it should optimize itself for and that you do not want the responsibility for creating a good exposure. The camera then kicks into overdrive, using all its available internal software resources to give you a good picture. In some modes it will turn off the popup flash, in others it will force you to use it. It will control the aperture, shutter speed, and ISO sensitivity according to what it thinks is best for that scene mode. It will change things like sharpening, contrast, hue, and dark detail enhancement to help an amateur get a better picture.
Basically, when you use a scene mode you are turning the photographic process over to software algorithms inside the camera. Those algorithms have been optimized over the years and do a good to average job in most situations.
A scene mode gives an inexperienced shooter a good picture most of the time, without the user knowing or caring how or why. Does that describe you? Will you use scene modes? That might be fine in the beginning; however, as you learn how to control your camera, you will quickly turn away from automatic modes and make images yourself.
Auto exposure mode is an intelligent point-and-shoot mode that I sometimes use. Although I turn up my nose at scene modes, I do use auto mode. What’s the difference?
In a sense, the auto exposure mode on your camera’s mode dial or in a menu on the monitor turns the camera into a point-and-shoot model. You will need to examine your camera manual carefully to determine which mode is the auto exposure mode. Camera brands have different ways of indicating this mode. Some have the word “Auto,” others have a green camera or green rectangle, and others simply have an A setting.
What makes auto exposure mode different from the scene modes? Auto exposure mode is a generic mode designed to let the camera intelligently sense what is going on in front of the lens and get a good picture. The camera makes all the exposure decisions, as with a scene mode, except it is a one-mode-for-all-scenes solution.
Note: Do not confuse auto exposure mode with aperture priority mode (A or Av), discussed in the next section. Canon sometimes designates auto exposure mode with an A, sometimes with the word “Auto,” and sometimes with a green rectangle. On the same camera, aperture priority mode will be indicated by “Av.” Search your camera manual for auto exposure mode and see how to use it on your camera. It can be confusing because camera manufacturers are not consistent.
When I am at a party and simply want excellent pictures I often switch to auto exposure mode, put a small external flash unit on my camera, and blast away. The intelligent camera and flash does all the work as I walk around having a good time with my friends and family. It turns my camera into a point-and-shoot model.
I am not ashamed of using auto exposure mode in certain circumstances because I have taken the time to understand how my camera works. I’ve mastered things like shutter speed and aperture settings, and now I just want to take some nice pictures. I am not ashamed to use the technology built into my powerful camera. But when I shoot a wedding, graduation, or other event, I don’t use auto exposure mode. For those times when the camera is there for fun, auto exposure mode works very well, but not so much for commercial shooting.
However, let me qualify that. If I were an inexperienced photographer who had been asked to shoot a wedding and I was unsure of myself, I wouldn’t hesitate to switch to auto exposure mode. The camera is capable of making good images, even if the photographer is not—yet. Use the technology when you need to; that’s why it is there. I wouldn’t fiddle around with scene modes, though. To me that is going too far. However, auto exposure mode is a one-size-fits-all solution that can help you in emergencies.
If I couldn’t get my regular experienced partner to shoot an event with me on short notice, I wouldn’t hesitate to hand one of my cameras to a semienthusiast photographer friend, with it set to auto exposure mode, and ask for help with shooting the event. Today’s cameras will perform.
There are some gotchas with auto exposure mode since the camera will control the ISO sensitivity and sometimes take it to higher levels. One of them is image noise. In auto exposure mode the camera has full control of all three exposure controls (aperture, shutter speed, and ISO sensitivity). It can raise and lower the ISO sensitivity, plus it can change shutter speed and aperture, as it needs to for a good exposure. If you have your ISO set to auto, the camera will keep the ISO sensitivity under 800 until an aperture and shutter speed combination will not result in a good exposure. Then it will increase the ISO sensitivity to get the shot.
A higher ISO sensitivity can add digital noise to the image, decreasing its quality and lessening the image sharpness, due to internal noise reduction that blurs the image. The camera will capture an image when you press the shutter-release button; however, that image may have some problems due to high ISO settings.
Also, in auto exposure mode you lose control of the flash. The camera decides when it has enough light, or not enough light, and will fire the flash accordingly. If you happen to be shooting a group shot with a bright background, you may want the flash to light the group properly, but the camera may see the bright background and refuse to fire the flash, even though it is turned on. You’ll get a silhouetted group with no facial detail and a perfectly exposed background.
Or you may prefer to shoot an ambient light (no flash) closeup shot of a bride’s beautiful rings, but the camera fires the flash. You remove the external flash unit from the camera’s accessory shoe on top, but now the popup flash fires. No ambient light shot for you! The camera figures you don’t know what you are doing since you have it set to auto exposure mode, so it wants to protect your images.
The point of all this is simple. Use the amazing technology of your camera when you really need it. Otherwise, don’t! You lose creative control when you use any fully automatic modes. You allow software algorithms written by a programmer somewhere to make assumptions. That programmer may not even be a photographer. In fact, the programmer may even use a stinky little point-and-shoot model and not even care when there is noise in his or her pictures.
Wouldn’t you rather control the final outcome of the image? Don’t settle for auto exposure mode. Use it while you are learning to use your camera, when you are shooting images for fun, or if you’re in a dire emergency. Otherwise, keep control of the camera and create your own style of pictures. Don’t let your photography be controlled by a camera software programmer’s style!
My first SLR camera was a Nikon FM back in 1980, which I remember with fondness because that was when I first got serious about photography. It’s hard for me to imagine that so many years have passed since I last used my FM. Things were simpler back then. When I say simple, I mean that the FM had a basic center-weighted light meter, manual focus, and manual shutter speed and aperture settings. I had to decide how to create the image in all aspects. It was a camera with only one mode: M, or manual.
Later I bought a Nikon FE and was amazed to use its A-aperture priority auto mode. I could set the aperture manually and the camera would adjust the shutter speed for me. Luxury! The FE had two modes: M-manual and A-aperture priority.
A few more years went by, and I bought a Nikon F4 that was loaded with features and was much more complex. It had four modes, including the two I was used to (M and A) and two new modes, S-shutter priority auto and P-programmed auto. I had to learn even more! The F4 was my first P, S, A, M camera.
Today’s cameras are amazingly complex and flexible compared to cameras from only a few years ago. Let’s examine how we can use that flexibility to our benefit. Most enthusiast cameras today have four advanced shooting modes, depending on the camera brand: P, S, A, M; or P, Tv, Av, M. Those letters represent the progression of primary shooting modes that allow you to control the shutter speed and aperture yourself. Let’s examine each in detail.
Digital cameras inherited controls from the film days. The programmed auto (P) mode is one of them. Back in the good old days, P mode was similar to the auto exposure mode we discussed in the last section, except it lets you control the flash and ISO sensitivity—unlike auto exposure mode.
P mode is designed for those times when you just want to shoot pictures and not think much about camera settings. The camera takes care of the shutter speed and aperture for you and uses your selected exposure meter type to create the best pictures it can without human intervention.
Many cameras allow you to override the aperture in P mode if you need more or less depth of field. Check your user’s manual to see if you can override the aperture. Otherwise, the camera controls both the shutter speed and the aperture for you.
P mode can handle a wide variety of situations well, but I wouldn’t depend on it for my important shooting. Similar to auto exposure mode, it can be great at a party where I want some nice snapshots. I don’t have to think about the camera, and I can just enjoy the party. P mode to me is P for party. It’s a good mode to use when you want to let the camera control the aperture and shutter speed while you control the flash and ISO sensitivity.
In my opinion, P mode is a bit out of date, similar to the center-weighted and averaging light meters. It is there for photographers who have been shooting for many years and are accustomed to it. For a new shooter, P mode doesn’t offer enough benefits to consider it for regular use, especially for enthusiasts who want to learn how to control their camera.
Shutter priority (S or Tv) mode is a semiautomated mode for action images. With shutter priority mode, you control the shutter speed and the camera automatically adjusts the aperture to maintain a correct exposure. This allows enthusiasts to decide what shutter speed is best for the action, so they can control the look of motion in their images.
You can use a slow shutter speed to allow motion to blur the picture (figure 5.7), or you can use a fast shutter speed to freeze the action (figure 5.8). You also control the ISO sensitivity and when to use flash in shutter priority mode.
Being a semiautomatic mode, shutter priority is very convenient for people who must shoot quickly. While the camera automatically adjusts the aperture to maintain a good exposure, you can concentrate on the most important thing to an action shooter—the shutter speed.
Many professional sports shooters use shutter priority mode. The photographers with big lenses at games and races must shoot hundreds of pictures. They have little time to worry about exposure since they have to control motion, so they let the camera worry about exposure (camera-controlled aperture size) while they manually vary the shutter speed according to their needs.
Figure 5.7: Shutter priority mode allows you to blur motion
Figure 5.8: Shutter priority mode allows you to freeze motion
Figure 5.9: Aperture priority mode allows you to use shallow depth of field
Figure 5.10: Aperture priority mode allows you to use deep depth of field
If you find yourself shooting a lot of action shots, this may be a good mode for you to use regularly.
For portrait, landscape, and nature shooters, aperture priority (A or Av) is often the mode of choice. This semiautomatic mode works opposite of shutter priority mode. Aperture priority mode allows you to manually control the aperture while the camera adjusts the shutter speed to maintain a good exposure. You also control the ISO sensitivity and when to use flash.
If you are shooting a portrait of a person, you may want a very shallow depth of field (zone of sharp focus) so that only the person is in focus and the background is blurred; therefore, you use a big aperture (figure 5.9). If you are shooting a beautiful landscape, you may want everything from near to far to be in good focus, so you use a small aperture to increase the depth of field (figure 5.10).
For most photographers, aperture priority is the number one shooting mode. The vast majority of us shoot action only from time to time but need to control depth of field much more often.
Aperture priority mode allows you to use the power of your camera while maintaining creative control over the aperture. If you don’t envision yourself shooting a lot of action, you may want to seriously consider leaving your camera set on aperture priority mode. It will allow you to get beautiful images by controlling the aperture while the camera maintains the shutter speed for you.
Manual (M) mode takes a big step backward to days of old. It gives you manual control of your camera’s shutter speed, aperture, and ISO sensitivity so you can make all the exposure decisions, with suggestions from the light meter. You also decide when to use flash.
Some people tell new photographers to forget about all the other modes and immediately switch the camera to manual mode. To me, though, that is the same attitude as tossing someone in the water and letting them sink or swim.
Although manual mode is truly the most creative way to use a camera, it is also the most time consuming. If you have the time and inclination to think about each shot and adjust the shutter speed and aperture manually, you will have greater control over the look of the image. I suggest that you use manual mode from time to time so you will know how to use it. It lets you do a more contemplative form of photography. If you fully understand how the shutter speed and aperture affect the image, this mode basically turns off camera assistance, and you are in full control of the exposure.
As shown in figure 5.11, to use manual mode you will have to learn how to use the graduated exposure scale (also called an analog exposure display in some manuals) to see how the exposure is affected when you change the aperture or shutter speed.
Figure 5.11: Manual mode uses a graduated exposure scale (with a correct exposure) to help you adjust the aperture and shutter speed accurately
When you are metering your subject, an indicator will appear underneath the analog exposure display and extend from the zero in the center toward the plus side to indicate overexposure, or toward the minus side to indicate underexposure. You can gauge the amount of over- or underexposure by the number of dots and lines the bar passes as it heads toward one side or the other. The goal in manual mode is to make the bar disappear or rest at zero on the exposure scale.
Figure 5.11 shows a graduated exposure scale that indicates a good exposure. Figure 5.12 shows the scale with one stop of overexposure, and figure 5.13 shows it with one stop of underexposure.
Adjust the shutter speed or aperture to get the look you want, which will under- or over-expose the image according to the graduated exposure scale. You must then adjust the other control until the exposure is back to zero.
Figure 5.12: Graduated exposure scale with one stop overexposure
Figure 5.13: Graduated exposure scale with one stop underexposure
Let’s say you selected a shutter speed of 1/500s to freeze some action, and that caused the light meter to indicate one stop of underexposure (figure 5.13). You selected the shutter speed to control motion, so now you must bring the exposure back to zero by changing the aperture to offset the underexposure caused by the shutter speed adjustment. Because of the faster shutter speed, the camera will let light in for a shorter time, so now you must compensate by letting more light come in through a bigger aperture.
Conversely, let’s say you choose a big aperture to blur the background for a nice portrait of your partner. Since you opened up the aperture to make a larger hole, more light will come in to the camera. Now you must use the shutter speed to limit the amount of time light can come in to maintain a good exposure. When the graduated scale indicates that the exposure is back to zero, you are ready to shoot.
Basically, when you choose one of the controls for a special effect (motion control or depth of field), you must offset the exposure change with the opposite control. If you change the shutter speed, adjust the aperture to compensate. If you change the aperture, adjust the shutter speed to compensate. As long as you keep the graduated exposure scale at zero, you will make a good exposure. Afterward, check the histogram—see chapter 7 to learn how—to see if the exposure needs further adjustment.
In manual mode, you can slightly under- or overexpose the image to fine-tune it, if you’d like. Graduated exposure scales in most cameras have dots or bars that divide each stop into 1/3 stops. You can tweak the exposure by validating it with the histogram and reshooting.
Do these last few paragraphs sound familiar? They should, because we discussed these same issues in chapter 4. Now we are directly applying the concepts to manual exposure and how the light meter works in manual mode.
You have to decide what type of photographer you are. If you are a slow, contemplative photographer who likes to take a lot of time on each image, you may enjoy using manual mode. Most photographers use it from time to time, just to exercise their knowledge or to turn off the camera’s assistance when they are shooting in difficult light. However, the majority of us are better off using one of the semiautomated modes, such as aperture priority or shutter priority.
If you are a photographer who shoots a lot of action (motion control), you will definitely benefit from learning how to use shutter priority mode. If you are a shooter who needs to control depth of field (sharp focus area), you will need to use aperture priority mode.
The other modes—such as auto exposure mode, programmed auto (P) mode, and the scene modes—are there for fun or if you need to hand your complex camera to a friend or family member who doesn’t know as much as you do.
If you use the semiautomated aperture and shutter priority modes most of the time, you will have excellent camera control to satisfy your photographic eye. When you feel fanatical and want to do it all yourself, switch the camera to manual mode, turn off autofocus, set the camera to black-and-white mode, and pretend you’ve traveled back in time to 1955.
Your camera has so many modes that you can afford to be choosy. Select the best mode for your current situation—whether it’s fully automatic, semiautomatic, or manual. Because you are an enthusiast and have taken time to learn all these modes, you have the choice when you need it.
In the next chapter, we will discuss image formats, which is called image quality in many camera menus. Your camera offers more than one image format and you will need each for various types of photography. Let’s see which is best for your style of taking pictures.