A Beginner's Guide to Shooting in Manual Mode

Knowing how to shoot in manual mode is one of the most fundamental and useful skills you can have and something every photographer should master as soon as possible. If you are new to photography, this excellent video tutorial will show you how to use manual mode to take complete control of your photos. 

Coming to you from Julia Trotti, this great video tutorial will show you how to shoot in manual mode. Most beginners start out in automatic mode or a semiautomatic mode like aperture priority, and while these can be quite useful, manual mode gives you the most technical and creative control over your camera and images. Even if you prefer to use an automatic mode, there are plenty of situations in which the scene can fool your camera's built-in meter, and you may need to anticipate these and take a greater degree of control to get the photos you desire. It is also a great way to "set it and forget it" to be sure you are getting a consistent exposure every single time without having to worry about minor variations from frame to frame that can be tedious to correct in post. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Trotti. 

Alex Cooke's picture

Alex Cooke is a Cleveland-based portrait, events, and landscape photographer. He holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Music Composition. He is also an avid equestrian.

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3 Comments

Trial and error and depend on the EVF for "correct" exposure? "...adjust the ISO and the shutter speed accordingly until the photo is exposed is correctly".
To all beginners: better skip this video.

Trial and error? Not sure where you're getting that from. She wasn't chimping.

Yes, you would adjust the ISO and shutter speed accordingly until the photo is correctly exposed. You conveniently left out the part where she mentions adjusting the aperture right before that quote. Basically, she's brought up aperture, ISO, and shutter speed, then shows practical examples.

Good high level explanation of the 3 settings.