Some of you might have seen this post before, but somehow it got deleted in the transition to the new blog design so I decided to repost it since so many of you have mentioned wanting to learn how to use manual mode. It’s an oldie but a goodie. You’ll want to learn to use manual mode because it gives you total control of your cameras settings which allows you to adapt to any type of shooting/lighting scenario imaginable, something that your camera isn’t so great at doing all the time when left on automatic mode.

To get started, you need to learn about your exposure meter. The black boxes below with the numbers and arrows represent the exposure meter usually located in the viewfinder of your camera. It basically tells you how bright or dark your subject will be in depending on where the arrow is in the meter. If it’s in the center, the subject will, in general, be properly exposed. If it’s to the left in the negative region, the subject will be under-exposed, and if it’s to the right in the positive region, the subject will be over-exposed. Below each box is a picture representative of what the photo would look like at the various exposure meter settings and a description of how to compensate for under/over-exposed photos.

The subject is properly exposed.

The subject is underexposed.

Decrease the shutter speed and/or raise the ISO to move the arrow in the exposure meter to the right, back to the center mark.

The subject is overexposed.

Increase the shutter speed or decrease the ISO in order to move the arrow in the exposure meter to the left, back to the center mark.

Now, here’s how to set up your camera in manual mode. This is how I do it every time:

1. Select your aperture of choice. This is pretty self-explanatory. Choose your aperture based on the depth of field that you want. I usually set my camera to f/2.8-f/3.2 for outfit shoots.
2. Adjust your shutter speed. Adjust your shutter speed so that the little arrow in the exposure meter is in the center of the meter around the zero mark, see the example above for the properly exposed photo. If you’re in a dimly lit area, be careful as you can’t decrease the shutter speed below 1/125th of a second as camera shake will become apparent at any shutter speeds slower than this. If you encounter this problem, move on to step three. If you’ve managed to get the arrow in the center without this being a problem however, you’re done!
3. Adjust the ISO. This last step should only be used as a last resort. If you can’t get the exposure meter back to the center without decreasing the shutter speed below 1/125th of a second, raise the ISO. This will make the image sensor more sensitive to light and allow you to use faster shutter speeds in conditions where there isn’t as much light {indoor/dusk shoots are the most common times you’ll have to raise the ISO}. Try to keep the ISO as low as you can if you don’t need it though, as raising ISO also adds noise to your images.

That’s it! See, that wasn’t so bad now was it? Go out and master manual mode. You’ll never look back once you see the kinds of pictures you can create with it.