Shooting Manually Made Simple

Who knew shooting manually could be so simple!  I've always thought that to shoot manually I had to be doing mathematical equations while I was shooting to discern which f/stop to use.  Not that I mind doing math, but it seemed highly inefficient - to the point of discouraging! BUT, there is a simpler way.

The same graph that is used for exposure compensation is used to demonstrate the light meter.

 

Apparently the goal is to use the lowest possible ISO for the light you have to avoid grain. So, begin by setting your ISO at 100 if you are outside, if you're inside or at a darker time of day, you'll need to raise the ISO accordingly.  Then, the easy way to choose your aperture or shutter speed is by looking at the light meter (graph shown above) which you can do by looking through the view finder or your screen.

To activate the light meter you push shutter button 1/2 way down.  This will cause the little line, below the number zero in picture above, to move somewhere on that number line to communicate to you how your settings are given the light in the area you're shooting.   If the little black dot/line is over at +2 you've over exposed to take a good shot so you need to either make your f/stop larger (smaller hole), or your shutter speed faster.

On my camera, I can look through the view finder and while in manual mode I can use the main dial to change the shutter speed.  In order to change the aperture I need to press the AV +/- button (it's like a "shift" button on a computer) and then use the same main dial to change the aperture.  I"m pretty sure he said that a Nikon has a back dial for the aperture and the the main dial is for the shutter speed. The goal is to get the little black dot/line to be under zero - unless you are wanting something to be over exposed or under exposed for some artistic reason.

That's all there is to shooting manually - at least on a basic level.

Here are a few of my very first manual shots which I took at my favorite place in our area to shoot... SIW Farmer's Market in Chadds Ford.

I love the blue in this house.  That's the real color, I didn't do any post processing.

These weird things are praying mantis nests used to kill off the unwanted bugs in the greenhouse.

I loved that this cat was taking a "cat nap."  

All constructive criticism is welcome!