New to photography using manual exposure settings HELP!

[TomXcorE]

hey, im new to photography and this is my first post ! (hope its in the right place) i was just wondering when using manual exposure settings aperture, shutter speed, iso ect is there any specific way of telling what settings you will roughly need in different lighting conditions or will this always come down to taking a few shots until you get the settings correct or is this an experience thing cheers, tom

[Sime]

I thought about moving your post, I just have no idea where to! :-) I hope you get some answers here...

I'd suggest that if you're new to the big "M" that you just "suck it and see" ...Take a few shots, see what works and what doesn't, in addition, go through your jpgs and see what worked and what didn't and check out the EXIF to give you an idea of what works etc.

Welcome to dPS...

Sime

[TomXcorE]

yeh ! i reckon thats the way to go about it i guess if there is something you need to take a picture of quickly to just use auto if your not set up ! ill do what you said that will give me a better idea of what settings worked under what conditions so next time i can get it right pretty much straight away ! cheers

[Agata]

WB is still something I'm trying to learn. The way I started was exactly the way you describe it though. Use one setting, see how it works, try another one keep going or use Auto and fix it later in PP.

I got a white balance cap recently and it's probably the best $20 I ever spent.

Also, read, read and read some more! This forum is full of information and I've learned a lot from different tutorials on WB and how to's.

Best of luck!

[inkista]

Originally Posted by TomXcorE

hey, im new to photography and this is my first post ! (hope its in the right place) i was just wondering when using manual exposure settings aperture, shutter speed, iso ect is there any specific way of telling what settings you will roughly need in different lighting conditions or will this always come down to taking a few shots until you get the settings correct or is this an experience thing cheers, tom

All three. You can ride the meter, or get diligent about checking the histogram out after every shot, or you can just judge the light mentally or do all three. It depends on your personal working preferences and whether or not you ever shoot without metering in the camera. Get a manual focus lens onto an entry-level Nikon, and I guarantee your skill at guesstimating settings from just looking at the light will increase.

I am lazy and I just rely on the meter in Manual mode to get into the ballpark, and then I evaluate the scene in front of me and adjust accordingly, then I shoot and check the histogram and adjust and reshoot if I have to.

[TomXcorE]

ahh i see im not sure that the D60 has a histogram if so im not sure on how to access it ! what is metering by the way is this something that i have to turn on or off cheers, tom

[inkista]

The histogram is probably one of your playback display modes. You can turn it on or off. I'd recommend looking through the manual to find out how to turn yours on if you need it, and reading this article to understand what the histogram is telling you about exposure. In post-processing, Levels is pretty much the same thing.

Metering is always on. It's how the camera will set its autoexposure settings. When you look through the viewfinder, it's a horizontal scale at the bottom.



It's the bit marked "7" in the picture above.

When you're shooting in an automatic mode, this is your exposure compensation scale. The "needle" is set to 0 by the camera, and you can slide it towards the - to make things darker or towards the + to make things lighter with exposure compensation.

When you're in Manual mode, this is your meter, and tells you what kind of exposure you're getting through the lens. If the needle is all the way to the right, you're very underexposed, all the way to the left and you're very overexposed. This meter setting will take into account any changes you make to the camera settings. Those dots indicate stops, so the scale is from -2 stops to +2 stops over what the camera's autoexposure system considers a good exposure. Getting the needle to 0 will nearly always get you in the ballpark, and it is, as I said, what the camera would have set had you been in an automatic mode.

Sometimes, the camera's AE system is wrong, though, which is why we have the ability to adjust for ourselves, and why Manual mode is a good good thing.

[TomXcorE]

Wow that must be the most in depth response i have ever had to anything on the internet ever ! very helpful thanks very much ill get the manual out now ! . tom

[wulf]

Other technique, I think... (although it would be great if someone wants to write a detailed tutorial just for DPS).

I use manual mode virtually all the time now, not least because my favourite lenses require it (and don't even give me metering information). I rely a lot on the histogram view to assess whether my informed guesses about suitable settings are correct and what wiggle room I've got while still keeping the side effects I want (eg. freezing or blurring motion with shutter speed).

However, I did have the camera several months, using mainly aperture and shutter priority modes and the kit lens before I jumped into full manual work so don't sweat it if you don't feel confident to go manual just yet!

Wulf

[autofocus]

A few little exposure pointers:
1) Move your exposure needle to the right to overexpose if: you are shooting into very strong back light, or your subject is itself very bright like a white wedding dress, or a white limo, or shooting at the beach or a snow scene

2) Move your exposure needle to the left to underexpose if: Your subject is dark, or has a lot of dark areas in your composition like black tuxedos, or black limos, etc

The little chip inside your camera is not too smart in these situations and often will under, or overexpose the image when these conditions prevail...so, you have to outsmart it a little. Always use your histogram as a guide in these situations because there is no set rule how much you need to compensate your exposure in these applications. Hope this helps a little

Vinnie