Shooting in Manual (TIM?)

[bpuppy]

I'm going to try shooting in M mode this season, much more often.

My question is (and it's mostly for Tim, who shoots manual now) ... how often do you have to ride exposure? Do you find you set it for a given room, and pretty much leave it there, or are you often changing it? (And of course you'll often be CHECKING it, but how often do you actually have to change it?)

The thing I'm thinking is that I seem to ride the EC all the time anyways (in Av mode mostly) ... so I might as well lock exposure and only change it when I want to instead of letting the camera decide.

[jj1987]

I shoot manual so hopefully I can speak up.

If a room is consistant lighting then yes, I would most definatly use manual and let the flash use ETTL for the differences.

If a room changes quite a bit (IE- in a wedding when guests are being seated, and I'm still using flash) I try and use Aperture priority with the flash set to M and 2 stops under my aperture on camera, and use EC when needed.

Did that help?

[tim]

Depends on the lighting. For natural light it varies around the room hugely, so I often go back to Av using EC as needed. Under artificial overhead lighting it's usually more consistent so I stick in manual. Outdoors manual. I ever ran my 580EX in manual on Saturday, ETTL just wasn't giving me what I wanted, so a couple of test shots and I stayed with manual flash for a while.

Oh, once I meter with the Sekonic, I always check the histogram, I often have to tweak it - my metering technique mustn't be quite right yet. Usually use ettl at FEC-1 or 1 2/3.

Bit busy now will answer any followup questions later on.

[noiret]

i would say that when shooting for weddings or events(indoors, manual exposure using flash n ettl mode), i always analised the subjects and the dresses they wear since flash metering will depend on these factors. for white dress i usually overexpose the flash to +2/3 and for a generally black suit, i always underxpose my the flash -1 or -2 depending on the composition... but for manual flash modes, this is a real distance based flash exposure meaning you have to be aware of the distance/aperture ratio...hope this helps...