GET OFF AUTO MODE!

hey everyone welcome back to another video in this video I'm going to teach you how to shoot manual how to unlock the creative abilities that manual offers and how to get you in control of your photography and your camera if you stay to the end I'll teach you a Twist on how to shoot manual for when the action is moving too fast and you don't have time to fiddle with your settings my name is Seymour Dalton I'm a professional nature and wildlife photographer living in Eastern Canada I make weekly videos giving you photo tips or taking you behind the scenes for wildlife and nature photography subscribe if you want to see more [Music] try to open up your mind sometimes you'll be just fine first off I need to disclose that I'm not a shooting in manual snob that thinks that shooting in manual is the only way to rise to a high level in photography there are plenty of situations and plenty of photographers who use aperture priority shutter priority very effectively for their scenarios that being said shooting Emmanuel gives you the ultimate control of the camera not allowing the camera to make the creative decisions but putting those in your hands so you can take more creative photos first off let's look at the three settings that you need to be in control of to be shooting a manual all three of these will affect your exposure that is the brightness of your photo the first is shutter speed that's how long the shutter is open to allow light to get onto the sensor a faster shutter speed can freeze the action where a slower shutter speed may allow the movement of your subject while the shutter is open making for a blurry image here's what a 1 1 thousandth of a second shutter speed looks like and here's what a longer shutter speed of one second sounds like something not moving can be Frozen at 1 50th and 1 100th of a second someone walking or riding a bicycle maybe one 320th of a second or one five hundredth of a second sports or someone running or moving cars maybe 1 800th or one one thousandth of a second and finally to freeze the wings on a hummingbird might take one thirty two hundredth or one-fourth thousandth of a second if you use too slow a shutter speed and your subject moves while the frame is open it will make your image blurry let's look at my owl model that you've seen in other videos if I shoot this at 1 30th of a second the owl is moving while the shutter is open causing a blurry image if we increase the shutter speed to something like 1 200th of a second we see that we're close to freezing the action but not quite if I move the shutter speed up to 1 400th of a second the image comes out sharp so if your subject isn't moving you can use slower shutter speeds but the faster your subject is moving the faster shutter speed you'll need to freeze the action changing the shutter speed also changes the brightness of your photo see here when I increase the shutter speed it lets in less light and the image gets darker when I slow down the shutter speed it lets in more light and makes my image brighter the next setting you need to control when shooting in manual is the aperture the aperture is actually on the lens but it's controlled by the camera it's described by something called an F number and the system kind of works backwards a small F number means a large aperture and a large F number means a small aperture here's what cycling through the apertures looks like when you're looking through the lens like all three settings that you're using to control when shooting in manual changing your aperture changes the amount of light on your sensor and thus the exposure larger apertures let in more light smaller apertures let in less light you can see as I cycle through here the apertures you can see on the back of the screen how the image is getting brighter and darker but aperture also controls a very important variable in photography that's depth of field that's the amount of your image that's in focus in front and behind your subject a large aperture that is a small F number like 2.8 for example will create a blurry background and what's called a thin depth of field the amount that's in front and behind of your subject that's in Focus will be very small making the background even blurrier a small aperture that is a large F number like F9 F10 F16 will create a very deep depth of field that is the amount behind your subject and in front of your subject that's also in Focus will be much more so if you want to make your subject pop out of the frame and make the background blurry like in portrait photography or maybe in Wildlife photography like I do use a large aperture that is a small F number like f 2.8 or F4 here's a photo of my owl model shot at F 1.4 you'll see that the owl is in Focus the owl in the back is out of focus and blurry but if I change the aperture to F16 which is a very very small aperture everything will be in Focus so if you want to take a photo where you want everything in Focus let's say a landscape photo or a photo of many people that are not all standing at the same distance to the camera use a small aperture that is a big F number like f8 or F9 and finally there's ISO ISO is like a volume knob on the brightness of your photo if your photo is too dark you can raise the iso to brighten it if your photo is too bright you can lower the iso to lower it most cameras have a base ISO of around ISO 100 which is the lowest it can go if your image is very dark and you need to really raise the iso to get the brightness at an acceptable level you'll introduce noise into your photo it's best to try to keep ISO Low by making sure your shutter speed and your aperture are collecting as much light as you can if you're shooting outside you might be able to get away with shooting at ISO 100 which is often the base ISO and gives the cleanest images but indoors or in very dark environments you may need to raise the iso to 1600 3200 or 6400 which can introduce noise into your photos here's the same photo taken at ISO 100 and ISO 6400 and I'll zoom in so you can see the difference in the image quality and Noise also by looking at the back of the camera see how when I increase or decrease the iso the image gets brighter or darker so shooting in manual is all about controlling these three settings so that your exposure is appropriate and that you're controlling the creative parts of your photo like depth of feel and freezing the action just like you want to one more quick thing before we get into some practical examples how do you know if your exposure is right well luckily your camera has a light meter the light meter is on a scale with zero being the appropriate exposure one two and three stops on the right are overly bright one two and three stops on the left are overly dark you'll see that as I increase or decrease the brightness of this image your light meter will show you whether or not it's Overexposed or underexposed getting the exposure right is getting the light meter to zero the reason the aperture and shutter priority don't always yield the best results is that your camera can't read your mind it doesn't know what you want creatively for a depth of field and how much shutter speed you need to freeze the action that's where manual comes in so it's time to shooting manual but where to start this is often the most difficult decision for people shooting Emmanuel for the first time every photo usually has something that's very critical something that's kind of important and a third parameter that's maybe less important aperture shutter speed and ISO not only control the exposure of your photo but they control a creative aspect of your photo either freezing the action getting the background out of focus or in Focus or image quality so I say start with the most important variable in your photo and finish with the least important that you can use as what I call your tweaking variable at the end to get your exposure to zero to note you should rarely finish with aperture it's not very often that's not going to make a difference whether or not your subject and your background are in Focus or just one of them so if the most important thing your photo is to decide whether or not you want both your subject and your background to be in Focus aperture controls these so let's set that first in this case for example if I want my owl to be in Focus but the background to be blurry I want a large aperture and that's a small F number my lens can open up to F 1.4 4. then let's set the shutter speed needed to freeze the action in this particular case the owl isn't moving so I don't need a lot of shutter speed now I've left my ISO as my tweaking variable that is the last thing that I play with to set the exposure to zero in this case ISO 250 has given me The Perfect Exposure if freezing the action is the most important variable in your photo like when you're shooting sports and Wildlife shutter speed is what controls that so let's set that first you can set that at 1 500th of a second for a kid on a bicycle planes at an air show or Sports may be 1 1000th of a second and for fast flying birds one twenty five hundredth of a second for my little owl model going across the frame it's not going very fast one 400th of a second should be enough to freeze that in this scenario I only need the owl to be in Focus so I'll leave my lens wide open at F 1.4 finally let's set the iso last as the tweaking variable to get the exposure to zero in this particular case setting my ISO to 3200 will get my exposure to zero I often recommend leaving ISO till your last variable to tune your exposure because it's not responsible for any of the creative aspects of your photo just an image quality one but let's look at a scenario where starting with your ISO is okay if you're on a tripod and your subject isn't moving then your shutter speed is often not very critical to the image you can leave that to last in this case my owl isn't moving and my camera's on a stable base on a table I can set the iso to 100 for the best image quality I have the aperture at F5 which will make some of the background in Focus but not all of it and as my tweaking variable to get the exposure to zero now I can set my shutter speed to what's needed to get the exposure to zero in this particular case eight tenths of a second take note that for really slow shutter speeds using this technique you should use a two second timer or shutter release to make sure the shutter vibrations don't make your images blurry I also promised you an extra tip if you find that shooting in manual is a bit of a hassle when there's fast action because you don't have time to change your settings in between the action set your ISO to automatic it's usually found beyond your base ISO in my case just left of ISO 100. this way you can react to Quick changes in exposure levels I've got a whole video on how to shoot manual with auto ISO right here get out there and Unleash Your Creative Energy by using this knowledge and tips and go out there and take your best ever photos I know you can do it

Channel: Simon d'Entremont

Views: 122,215

Keywords: photography, photography tips, photo tips, camera tricks, photography tutorial, photography hacks, beginner photography, digital photography, photography tutorials, landscape photography tips, better photography, photography tutorials for beginners, metering mode, shoot in manual, manual, manual mode, camera, camera settings, learn photography, exposure triangle, photography basics, manual photography, how to shoot in manual mode, learn manual photography, how to shoot manual

Id: lGvz9Gfv5HE

Length: 10min 10sec (610 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 11 2022