Photography enthusiasts often claim that to truly unlock the potential of a DSLR or mirrorless camera you need to shoot in manual mode. And in my experience, there are bits of truth to that.
Learning how to shoot in manual will not instantly make your pictures better. But there are scenarios where it can make or break a photo.
Understanding how to use it will give you a better understanding of photography and will unlock your creativity. Here is all you need to know!
What is Manual Mode on a Camera?
Before you read how to use manual mode, take a minute to understand how it works.
When you are shooting in auto mode, the camera automatically adjusts 3 exposure (brightness) settings for you:
- Aperture
- Shutter speed
- ISO
This is what we call the “exposure triangle“.
Manual mode simply allows you to take control over these settings and set them yourself.
Why Shoot in Manual Mode?
Shooting in manual mode enables you to take pictures that would otherwise be impossible while also unlocking your creativity in certain scenarios.
Pop quiz: What went wrong with this picture?
If you guessed the shutter speed was too low, you’d be correct. This is often what happens when you shoot in low light with auto mode, and is one of the few cases where switching to manual mode is a necessity.
The reason is auto mode may be super convenient and it often works fine in non-creative scenarios. But, ultimately, cameras can’t read our minds. They simply read the exposure levels and adjust the settings accordingly.
Do you want to introduce motion to a picture? Or would you prefer to freeze it? And what about depth of field? Do you want to blur the background or capture the whole scene?
The camera simply can’t tell on its own, which is why you will have to use manual mode on certain scenarios, be it out of creativity or necessity.
To get there, you must first understand what each setting in the exposure triangle does, so that you’ll be able to set it up when in manual mode.
The Exposure Triangle
Aperture
Aperture is the opening at the front of your lens and it affects your shot in two ways:
- Light
- Focus area
As you increase that opening, you increase the amount of light that gets in while also decreasing the focus area. And as you close it, less light gets in, but you get a bigger part of the picture in focus.
For example, this is a photo taken with a narrow aperture:
And this is with a wide aperture:
Notice how the first picture with the narrow aperture has both foreground and background in focus, which is common in landscape shots. The second picture with the wide aperture, on the other hand, only maintains the subject in focus, while blurring the background, which is very common with portrait shots.
Sometimes you also have no choice but to widen or shorten the aperture depending on the lighting. The lighting was so dim in the second picture, for example, that even if you wanted to shoot in a narrower aperture, you would have to compensate by raising the ISO, thus introducing noise. But more about ISO later.
Aperture is measured in f stops, which you’ll notice on your camera. But keep in mind that the lower the number, the wider the aperture.
For example, f/1.8 is a wider aperture than f/2.8. And while it may seem counter intuitive, let’s just say it is what it is.
Shutter Speed
The shutter speed is how long the shutter exposes your camera’s sensor to light. To avoid complex technicalities, what you need to know are two things:
- Higher shutter speeds freeze motion but reduce light
- Lower shutter speeds introduce motion and increase light
So if you want to freeze a moving object, such as a flying eagle, you’d need to set a higher shutter speed.
And if you want to introduce motion, such as the water flowing down a waterfall, you’d have to set a lower shutter speed.
Low shutter speeds are also a necessity for night shots. Unless you are trying to shoot a moving object in the dark, in which case, you’ll need to rely either on flash or raising the ISO.
One thing to keep in mind is you can only lower the shutter speed so much before shaky hands start blurring the whole image, which is where a tripod will be necessary.
There is no precise number as each person, camera, and lens, are different. Some can’t shoot below 1/80 while others have no problem going 1/50 or even 1/40 and below.
Speaking of shaky hands, when it comes to telephoto lenses and high shutter speeds, keep in mind that the larger your focal length, the higher the shutter speed will have to be, typically twice as much as the focal length.
So for a 100mm lens you’ll likely need a shutter speed of at least 1/200, because the more zoomed in the lens is, the easier it gets to blur a picture due to shaky hands.
ISO
Simply put, ISO raises your camera’s sensitivity to light. And so it digitally makes the photo brighter.
The biggest downside of ISO is the more you raise it, the noisier the image becomes. While some people like that grainy effect, most photographers hate it.
What you need to keep in mind here is each camera produces different levels of noise. Some modern cameras can shoot at ISO 6400 or higher no problem, while with many older DSLRs you can’t go above 800-1600 before noise becomes apparent.
In other words, ISO is often the photographer’s last resort. I personally only touch it if I absolutely have to and otherwise keep it as low as possible.
How to Shoot in Manual Mode in 3 Steps
Congrats on learning all about the basics of the exposure triangle! With this knowledge, you can now move away from auto mode and create the photos you want to create.
Each photographer approaches manual mode a little bit differently, depending on what they shoot, the gear they are using, and their creative intent.
I like to shoot in manual mode with these 3 easy steps:
- Set the aperture to a wide or shallow depth depending on the scene
- Set the shutter speed as low as possible without ruining the image
- Raise ISO as needed, if needed
Et voila. You are now shooting in manual.
Of course, lots of practice and/or research will be needed before you know what settings to use for different occasions. But, theoretically, that’s the gist of it.
When NOT to Shoot in Manual Mode
Manual mode is great when you want full control over the results, but only for as long as lighting conditions remain the same. When light levels fluctuate, you’ll probably find yourself adjusting settings more often than taking pictures.
But that doesn’t mean you should go back to shooting in the auto mode. You can instead rely on either Aperture priority or Shutter priority.
Other Camera Modes & When to Use Them
That’s where two other, partially manual modes, can come in handy:
- Aperture priority
- Shutter priority
As the name suggests, these modes allow you to control either the aperture or the shutter, while the camera adjusts the rest of the settings automatically. It’s a fine balance between the fully automatic and fully manual modes. Most photographers just pick one of these modes all the time.
Some cameras also provide modes for portraits, macros, landscapes, action, etc. However, these are just aperture and shutter speed presets.
So, I’d argue you are better of understanding how to use aperture or shutter priority to create the images you want to create, rather than entrusting that process to a machine.
Aperture Priority
Aperture priority, branded as “Av” on Canon cameras, “A” on Nikon and Sony, is very useful if you know how much of the picture you want to retain in focus.
These are some very common scenarios for large and small apertures:
- Large aperture (f/1.2-6): Portraits, Objects, Dancing
- Small aperture (f/10-22): Landscapes, Cityscapes, Macros
Keep in mind that most lenses are usually sharpest a few stops up from their largest aperture. For example, an f/1.8 lens will usually be sharper at f/2.2, rather than f/1.8. And sharpness also goes down when you go to other extreme, usually above f/11.
If even the smallest aperture setting is not enough to get everything in focus, you may have to resort to focus bracketing and focus stacking. That can take a lot of time and effort and is usually only required in extreme scenarios, such as close-up macro photography, where you’d want a flower to be fully in focus.
Shutter Priority
Shutter priority, branded as “Tv” on Canon cameras, “S” on Nikon and Sony, is great when you know if you want to capture motion or introduce it.
Here are some common scenarios:
- High shutter speed (>200): Wildlife, Action, Sports
- Low shutter speed (<50): Waterfalls, Panning, Small waves
Shutter speed is also very important to keep in mind for low light scenarios. You typically want to keep it as low as possible as raising it in low light conditions will force the ISO to get higher, thus, creating more noise.
Wrapping Up
Overall, shooting in manual mode requires you to balance shutter speed, aperture, and ISO, depending on the lighting levels and the image you want to create.
The downside is you can only use it when lighting levels are consistent. Otherwise, you’ll have to rely in either full auto or, preferably, either shutter priority or aperture priority, depending on the situation.