Chicken to Take my DSLR off of Auto

[JSkriloff]

Okay, I realize that sounds like a cop out, but I bought a DSLR a year ago and I am really afraid to take it off of auto in fear of ruining a shot. Seriously. So I was reading another post where the poster wanted to jump right into Manual Mode. I am the complete opposite. I'm really afraid to take it off of auto and into manual.

Why: (1) I understand in theory ISO, Shutter Speed and Aperature, but putting them all together and taking charge of the settings scares the day-lights out of me.
(2) I've read the manual several times. I have a Canon Rebel XSI. But I still do not feel comfortable moving away from the Auto Setting. I think its a confidence thing where I don't think I'll be able to make adjustments quick enough or even worse forget how to change the settings on my camera.

So here's the question: Any suggestions to help me turn the dial from Auto to one of the other settings. I know this sounds rediculous, I mean I bought this camera to take control of my photos and here I am shooting like its a point and shoot.

If anybody had the same initial problem (and willing to admit it) as me getting started, I'd like to hear what helped you ease into working with the other settings

[Nova]

I've been there myself, so you're not alone. I don't know if you'll find this helpful, but my way off of auto was by choosing one aspect to focus on at a time. First, I chose shutter priority, and played with different settings, too high, too low, and in between. When I felt like I was getting a sense of the differences, I moved to aperature priority... you get the idea. Rather than "missing the shot" I had a bizillion shots to delete, it was actually a bit comical. Know too, you can always start by taking one shot on auto, and then switch over to another mode. It's all good! Have fun being where you are.

[DigUpHerBones07]

I don't have a DSLR but if I were you I would take it to your backyard, front yard, where ever there is semi interesting stuff and just play with the settings. That way you won't be somewhere that you want to get all good shots of, like a party or a day at the beach, etc. You can always go back to your yard and do it over again.

[milosh]

Probably the best way is to try altering one setting at a time. You can switch to full manual mode and set all the values and then change only the shutter speed, for example. That way you will have a feeling of how it effects your images. Then you can switch to the next one.
Or, you can take a photo in auto mode, then take note of all the settings that camera made for that shot (aperture,sh. speed,iso,wb), then switch to manual mode and enter all those setting yourself and try altering one, so you can see the effect it has.

Btw, there shouldn't be a fear of ruining a shot. Try to take a shot in some of the advanced modes, and if you can't, then switch to auto and take it. Of course, if a UFO appears in front of you, put it in auto mode.

[DogHeadGod]

I took me a long time to move away from auto too.

But it is amazing how simple it is honestly!

Firstly, switch to manual when sitting around the house and take shots that don't matter if they don't turn out. I have photos of tables, carpet, bits of doorframe... all you're doing is learning.

Now here is why it is easy Your camera has a build in light meter which will look something like this...



You may even have the same thing inside the viewfinder.

When you aim at a scene the lightmeter will have bars on the left, or right of the centre mark. Meaning your photo will be under or over exposed, you need to get the bar over the centre mark only.

So for example, say the bars are over the "-1" mark, this means your shot will be under exposed by 1 stop. You know from reading about photography that you need more light, and what are the two ways of doing that? 1. Longer shutter speed OR 2. Bigger aperture.

We'll go for the aperture for now, so turn the aperture wheel a click at a time and you will see the bar move towads the middle. Once it is over the middle hit the button and you will find you have a pretty good exposure.

Now, say you turned the aperture to its biggest opening and find the bar still isn't in the middle, you will need to give yourself a longer exposure too, so move the shutter speed wheel a click at a time until the bar is in the middle. Easy as that.

Once you have that exposure bar in the middle you can start being creative with the shot, if you want to move the aperture to a smaller setting (for greater depth of field) click the wheel until you reach the aperture you want counting the clicks as you go. So say you moved it 3 clicks left , to keep the exposure now you need to move the shutterspeed three clicks to the right. Check the viewfinder, the bar will still be in the middle.

So simply, once you have got the bar to the middle if you change one setting in one direction you have to change the other setting in the opposite direction to maintain exposure.

Honestly, take the plunge it is so easy you will wonder why you didn't do it sooner.

[FoG]

Originally Posted by JSkriloff

Okay, I realize that sounds like a cop out, but I bought a DSLR a year ago and I am really afraid to take it off of auto in fear of ruining a shot. Seriously. So I was reading another post where the poster wanted to jump right into Manual Mode. I am the complete opposite. I'm really afraid to take it off of auto and into manual.

Why: (1) I understand in theory ISO, Shutter Speed and Aperature, but putting them all together and taking charge of the settings scares the day-lights out of me.
(2) I've read the manual several times. I have a Canon Rebel XSI. But I still do not feel comfortable moving away from the Auto Setting. I think its a confidence thing where I don't think I'll be able to make adjustments quick enough or even worse forget how to change the settings on my camera.

So here's the question: Any suggestions to help me turn the dial from Auto to one of the other settings. I know this sounds rediculous, I mean I bought this camera to take control of my photos and here I am shooting like its a point and shoot.

If anybody had the same initial problem (and willing to admit it) as me getting started, I'd like to hear what helped you ease into working with the other settings

I know whta you mean sooo why not try this take the settings set ISO to Auto then use Aperture prioroty for a bit on some landscapes etc try dtuff ... the Camera does ISO and Shutter for you then when shooting note the Shutter used and ISO ... then once gotten used tto this try the same with shutter and make notes on the aperture etc .... once happy do same but switch ISO to 100 or 200 and do same then when you feel more in control play with the MAn settings using what you learnt ... I know I have ruined many shots the bonus of Digital ... no binning just delete and re-shoot use te cameras screen to check results and if not happy bin and redo ... easy peasy

[inkista]

I'm an ease-the-toe-in-the-pool kind of learner, too. Here's one way to feel your way through the different shooting modes.

Start with the baby step of going from the green box to "P" mode.

Program mode does everything full auto does, but it lets you mess about with the iso, the white balance, and exposure compensation. I'd add in here that one thing that will really help you out are histograms and how they can give you good feedback on whether or not you nailed the exposure you want. Messing about with the exposure compensation and seeing how it affects both your photo and the histogram will help you figure out when the camera's auto-exposure system will give you what you want, and when it won't.

Once all that becomes boring and old hat, go out and blow $100 on the EF 50mm f/1.8 II if you don't already have one. This will then force you to move into Av mode, because you'll want to play with thin depth of field and out of focus blur with the wider apertures, and to nail those apertures into the settings, you're going to want to tell the camera what aperture to use. In Av, you can still play with exposure compensation, and the camera will take care of the shutter speed. Also a good time to figure out what the DoF preview button is for. Use the 50mm to experiment with aperture and shoot both some portraits at wide apertures, and a couple of landscape shots at small apertures.

If you're interested in moving subject matter, Tv will let you nail down the shutter speed, so you can get a specific amount of motion blur/freezing. The camera will take care of the aperture for you.

Then, take an interest in either night shooting with a tripod and long exposures. This will pretty much force you to go into Manual mode, because metering isn't going to be particularly helpful. Be aware that, just as DogHeadGod described, what was your compensation scale in P/Av/Tv modes has now become your light meter, and will be your most important tool for nailing exposure where you want it to be.

[daft_biker]

Originally Posted by JSkriloff

Okay, I realize that sounds like a cop out, but I bought a DSLR a year ago and I am really afraid to take it off of auto....

I think that's the problem - you started on auto. I have never used auto on a SLR thanks to the shop assistant who told me it would be rude to buy an EOS 3 to use in auto. He was right!

What's the point in auto? What do you learn from it?

[kencaleno]

Originally Posted by daft_biker

I think that's the problem - you started on auto. I have never used auto on a SLR thanks to the shop assistant who told me it would be rude to buy an EOS 3 to use in auto. He was right!

What's the point in auto? What do you learn from it?

The point in "auto" is that when you begin photography, the most difficult thing to learn is composition. So, if you use the auto setting you are able to concentrate on learning composition, without needing to worry about aperture,shutter speed ot ISO. Ken

[Chip]

There's nothing wrong with using auto. No need to feel badly about using it.

But, if you're ready to take the next step in your photography journey - and it sounds like you are, otherwise you wouldn't have posted - you just need to realize that you're smarter than your camera. And you are.

"Auto" is the camera's best guess as to how to expose a shot and where to focus.

By going into one of the semi-automatic modes (aperture mode, for example), you start to take charge of what the camera does.

Eventually, with practice and by paying attention to how things like the amount of light, direction of light, color of your subject, amount of clouds in the sky, etc. all impact your photos, you'll begin to get a feel - before you press the shutter - on how to set the camera to produce the photo that you envision.

It takes time, and no one gets if perfect every time. (I don't think I've done it perfectly even once.) But it's a lot of fun and you'll start improving soon.