Part 20 - Photography's Best Teaching Tool

You'll be pleased to know that you already own the best photography teaching tool ever invented.

It's your camera. More specifically, it's your camera in manual operation mode. It wasn't all that long ago when auto-exposure and auto-focus were not camera features. Cameras had built-in light meters, but the actual setting of the aperture and shutter speed was left up to the photographer.

Today, most beginning DSLR users set their cameras to auto mode and never give a second thought to the "M" symbol in their shooting mode menu. If you have followed this entire primer, it should come as no surprise that I advocate using Manual Mode whenever possible -- especially when first learning how to use the camera. If you have not read earlier articles in this series, please review the two posts titled 1a and 1b - Exposure is Everything.

These primer articles provide the basics of Manual Mode -- how it works and how to use it effectively. Setting aside the image quality and creative advantages of using Manual Mode, learning to determine proper exposure without the aid of camera automation is more educational than all the words on all the Internet photography blogs combined.

Virtually every modern DSLR has the capability of shooting in Manual Mode. The camera being used in this article is a Nikon D200. Check your manual for the equivalent controls and locations for your camera. The following discussion assumes you have already set your camera to MANUAL FOCUS. Turning off Auto Focus is not essential, but it will complete the transformation to a totally manual camera.

Figure 1: Manual controls and display on the Nikon D200

The process for the D200 begins by selecting Manual Mode (M) using the MODE button and main command dial (above). Now, more than ever, the information in the Settings Display Window is your guide to proper exposure. The camera will now only use the focus position, shutter speed and aperture settings you manually enter. Only the built-in light meter is working, and it will only provide basic information. The camera will NOT adjust the shutter speed or aperture.

Aperture and shutter speed settings are determined by you and entered into the camera using the aperture setting dial and shutter speed dial shown above.

Figure 2: Nikon D200 Control Panel in Manual Mode

Shown above are the controls for setting Manual Exposures.

• Blue Box: Mode indicator set to M (manual)
• Green Box: Current shutter speed setting. This setting is changed using the shutter speed dial.
• Yellow Box: Aperture (f/stop) setting. This setting is changed using the aperture dial.
• Red Box: Light meter exposure indicator
• Yellow Arrow: Indicates the camera's recommended exposure

Setting A Basic Exposure

Figure 3: Built-in Meter Display

The correct exposure determination will be guided by the light meter scale in the center of the control panel display. Notice the digital "tick" marks near the center point of the scale (red circle). The objective is to eliminate all "tick" marks by changing the shutter speed and aperture settings. Tick marks to the left indicate over exposure (yellow circle). While tick marks to the right indicate under exposure (green circle). As you change either the shutter speed or the aperture setting, the "tick" marks will increase or decrease on either side of ZERO (the center position in the red circle). When you have found a shutter speed/aperture combination that eliminates all digital "tick" marks, you are at the setting your camera recommends -- as shown in Figure 2. Taking the picture now will produce the same results as if your camera was set in Auto Exposure Mode.

So why go to all this trouble if I'm right back at the same settings my Automatic Exposure system would have selected?

The reason for going through the exposure process manually is to force the photographer to answer these basic photographic questions:

• What light source am I measuring?
• Which shutter speed is best in this situation?
• Which aperture setting is best for this situation?
• Where should my camera be focused?
• How can I correct the picture's histogram?

With the exception of the last item on the list, these are the same questions that faced Ansel Adams for EVERY picture he took. When a photographer learns how to answer these questions without the aid of automation, his/her understanding of photography increases, and is directly reflected in the quality and impact of the pictures taken.

What light source is my camera's meter evaluating? Is this object something that I want to be rendered as an 18% shade of color? If not, find an object in the scene that is approximately 18% gray in value and meter the light it reflects. That's the correct exposure.

Which shutter speed is best? You must determine how fast or how slow the shutter must move to capture the motion in your picture as you visualize the final image. If you believe you must shoot at a shutter speed of 1/500th of a second, then manually set the camera to this speed and adjust the aperture dial until you eliminate all the tick marks as you compose your picture. That's the correct exposure.

Or, which aperture setting (f/stop) gives me the amount of depth of field I need in this picture? Maybe you need a great deal of depth of field to cover your subject area, and you decide you need to shoot at f/11. Then set f/11 into the camera and use the shutter speed dial to eliminate all the tick marks as you compose your picture. That's the correct exposure.

Where should my camera be focused? In manual focus mode you must determine just where the central focus point is in your picture. And then you must determine if the aperture (f/stop) provides enough depth of field to cover the entire subject. That's the correct focus setting.

What is my camera's histogram telling me about my exposure? (review this Hub's camera article for using the histogram).

Figure 4A: Camera histogram indicating Underexposure

Figure 4B - Correcting for Underexposure

If the histogram indicates that your image is too dark (histogram is shifted to the left-hand side of the graph as in Figure 4A), deliberately increase your exposure setting by moving the "tick" marks to the left of the scale (Figure 4B).

Figure 5A: Camera histogram indicating Overexposure

Figure 5B: Correcting for Underexposure

If the camera's histogram is too far to the right of the graph (Figure 5A), the picture is overexposed (too light) and requires an adjustment. Move the f/stop OR shutter speed dial to deliberately increase the number of tick marks to the right of the center zero (Figure 5B). This will decrease the amount of light entering the camera to darken the picture.

I understand it's hard to press the shutter button when the tick marks on the display say you're wrong, but do it anyway. That's the correct exposure as determined by your more precise and photo-savvy brain.

Does this process take longer than setting the camera on "A" and just shooting away? Definitely. Good photography is hard work. But the personal rewards are monumental. Practice not only makes perfect but, in this case, also makes the process quicker and second nature as you gain understanding of exposure, familiarity with your camera and confidence in yourself.

Now get out there, "dumb down" your camera to manual mode and practice.

Good luck.