Should I Always Shoot in Manual Mode?

You’ve probably heard, over and over, that you should be shooting your camera in manual mode. But what is manual mode, and why is it so important for your photography? Manual mode is one of the main settings on your camera, and it lets you manually control shutter speed, aperture, and ISO. These three settings work together to control how bright or dark your photo is, as well as change the overall look of the image. So why learn how to shoot in manual mode if your camera can automatically adjust settings for you? Because manual mode is going to give you much more control over the look of your photos. Let’s take a look at the main benefits of shooting in manual mode, and just how that can help you improve the look of your photos!

No Harsh Flash

When you shoot in “auto” your camera chooses all your settings for you. If there is low lighting the camera decides to pop up the flash and add more lighting. Unfortunately, this lighting is often extremely unflattering to your subjects and leaves you with a picture of washed out skin, closed eyes, or red eyes. When shooting in manual mode with your Canon EOS Rebel T6 DSLR from Beachcamera.com you have control over everything. You get to choose your shutter speed, aperture, and ISO which affects how much light comes in. This allows you to get natural skin tones and expressions without that horrible flash.

Deal with Tricky Lighting Situations

Now here’s a huge reason to learn to shoot in manual mode. Some lighting situations are simply too difficult for the camera’s auto modes to handle! Trying to shoot these scenarios with an automatic mode can give you the wrong exposure. Some lighting situations are simply too difficult for the camera’s auto modes to handle. The biggest problem is with backlit situations. If the light behind your subject is much brighter than your subject itself, then your camera will try to adjust the settings in order to capture the brighter light. This will result in your subject being completely underexposed, and hard to see. If your subject has really bright light on it, but the background is quite dark, then your camera may choose to expose for the darker background. Here your subject will be totally over exposed Luckily, there’s a solution. Manual mode. Being able to manually adjust your settings will let you guarantee that your subject is properly exposed, instead of struggling to get your camera to cooperate.

Aperture

By manually controlling aperture you’ll have more control over the depth of field in your image. This can be helpful when taking portraits. A large aperture will help you create shallower depths of field, which can massively help your subject to stand out from the background. Or you might want to select a smaller aperture if you want more of your photo in focus. This can be useful for many situations, like in landscape photography where you want to capture both foreground and background in reasonably sharp focus. Shooting in manual mode with the Sony a7K Full-Frame Mirrorless Camera from Beachcamera.com lets you make the choice based on what result you want!

Shutter Speed

As for shutter speed, being able to control it can help you capture motion with your Nikon D5600 in more creative ways. By selecting slower shutter speeds, you can capture shots where your subject shows some motion blur. Or maybe you want to completely freeze action by using a fast shutter speed. Being able to choose your shutter speed lets you decide just how you want movement to be portrayed in your image.

The possibilities are ENDLESS! There is so much you can do with your camera when shooting in manual mode.