Need help on learning to shoot full manual...

I am having a rough time learning how to perfect the M mode... It doesn't seem to be easy for me... Is there any helpful links I can read on. I google'd some topics but, i can't get anything useful at all...

chabooky386 wrote in post #3960674
I am having a rough time learning how to perfect the M mode... It doesn't seem to be easy for me... Is there any helpful links I can read on. I google'd some topics but, i can't get anything useful at all...

M mode means that you have full control over aperture, ISO, shutter speed & exposure compensation. To understand how to control all these it is necessary to have an understanding of what each of these are and how they affect your exposure. More importantly, how they affect EACH OTHER. How well do you know the relationships between these 4 features?

There is no exposure compensation in manual mode.....exposure compensation has to do with the particular priority the camera is deciding on in a priority mode (AV, TV, P). I would say the 4 exposure settings you need to know for manual are shutter speed, aperture, ISO, and WB setting.

To get a better understanding of aperture vs shutter, I'd recommend keeping the camera on Av for now. That lets you set the aperture and see how it effects shutter speed. You then have to find out what a slow shutter speed does for your subjects....and also when you might want a small aperture.

I'm not going to tell you anything.....I'll let you find out!

Get Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson. The best book on the basics you can get.

Do yourself a huge favor, buy the book
"Understanding Exposure" by Brian Peterson
It's pretty cheap on Amazon, is a fairly quick read and has many, many tips that you might like. Also, in the first or second chapter he takes your hand and walks you through "M" mode. He is very easy to understand and it is a "fun" read.
Good luck

"Understanding Exposure" is the best book you can buy for the money.

Put your XT's control dial to M. Keep it there. Go take pictures.

davesrose wrote in post #3960875
There is no exposure compensation in manual mode.....exposure compensation has to do with the particular priority the camera is deciding on in a priority mode (AV, TV, P). I would say the 4 exposure settings you need to know for manual are shutter speed, aperture, ISO, and WB setting.

I'm not going to tell you anything.....I'll let you find out!

And WB is not an exposure setting.

There's a web site & forum that opened up a few months ago, although without much action that's devoted to manual photography, in fact its called www.goingmanual.com. The host has put together some free tutorials to download that look interesting, although I haven't read them yet.

Hope this may be of some help to you.

Good luck,

davesrose wrote in post #3960875
There is no exposure compensation in manual mode..........

If I choose to set the index mark either to the right or to the left of the 0, that's not exposure compensation? I am manually compensating for what I believe to be an incorrect meter recommendation.

EC gives you the ability to adjust the exposure chosen by the camera. In M mode you select the exposure. If you want to get technical, you are compensting based on what the meter tells you if you adjust the shutter/aperture/iso but in discussion using EC refers to using the quick control dial in Av, Tv or P mode. It is not relevant to a discussion of the M mode.

good info for those getting into M mode. great to do night photos

Try this...

Take a photo in JPEG mode..then look at the settings (ISO / appeture / timing etc) and write them down.

Then go to MANUAL mode and change the settings to the ones you wrote down. Take the picture.

That should give you some idea about what kind of settings you need for certain situations.

tzalman wrote in post #3961567
If I choose to set the index mark either to the right or to the left of the 0, that's not exposure compensation? I am manually compensating for what I believe to be an incorrect meter recommendation.

No....the main dial that's used as EC in your priority modes becomes your shutter dial for manual mode. Under priority modes, your dial that's close to the shutter button is your manual adjustment for whatever priority mode you're in (so it's either shutter or aperture). In M, that dial is your aperture. The meter is only acting as a meter under M.....I don't get any blinking numbers from whatever priority the camera was determining under a priority mode. Even if your meter is well below what the camera's meter deems acceptable, you don't get any blinking numbers under M.

Put it another way.....go check out an old manual film SLR: Is there an EC dial on one?

gooble wrote in post #3961567
And WB is not an exposure setting.

It is for the sake of learning proper exposure!!!!!!! It may not be an effector for exposure duration, but please tell me if what you're exposing doesn't change if you set WB to tungsten, daylight, or flash?

True, film SLRs didn't have WB.....but they did have color balanced film. WB is just like that.

Axton wrote in post #3960748
M mode means that you have full control over aperture, ISO, shutter speed & exposure compensation. To understand how to control all these it is necessary to have an understanding of what each of these are and how they affect your exposure. More importantly, how they affect EACH OTHER. How well do you know the relationships between these 4 features?

I know them well but i juss am quite lost with the controls to switch around when using M mode