I shoot about 98% M as I take photos of trains and the train lights on the locomotives will confuse any of the auto modes. I've been doing this for years, so I know when the lighting conditions require spot metering vs matrix as so on. The great thing about digital is the histogram which gives you intead exposure feedback in the field. No more waiting for slides to see if you did it right! I even switched the order of the meter + / - on my D800e to match the meter on my D3s, so I don't get confused as to which camera I'm using.

I use Manual mode with AutoISO on everything except with flash usage and then it's either P or A mode. When I shoot with strobes I use Manual mode as well but set my ISO.

I think it all depends on what venues one shoots.

Hi all,

I switch around a lot, like many others, depending upon where my 'priorities' are.

Many will remember 'match needle' metering, and M(anual) mode is more or less just that. A or S just shifts 'priority' to aperture or shutter and you can use exposure compensation adjust accordingly. Often that isn't enough, especially when using flash outdoors to overcome sunlight, one might have to step up aperture and increase shutter speed manually. That's one time manual really comes into play.

There are others, too.

Intentional long exposures at night with with popped flash(es) or additive scenes in a shoot for layers - similar to what one suggest for a panorama so the exposure would be accurate.

Manual has it's place, but really, for me either Aperture or Shutter priority is just another 'match needle' alternative that makes it faster and easier to get the job done, likely faster and more accurate than I could do it for myself.

My best,

Mike

msmoto said:
M....mmmm....in situations where I want control over shutter and aperture.... with or without auto ISO. Strobes require a fixed setting of both shutter speed and aperture along with a fixed setting of ISO.

Moving targets...I know what I need in shutter speed...so this is fixed. I also know about how much DOF i want, thus Aperture is fixed. This is Manual mode. However, with moving targets, the light is almost always going to vary, thus Auto ISO.

In low light, I might want a minimum shutter speed, e.g.., 1/60th sec, and also want to fix my f/stop so as to maintain a constant DOF. Once again, Manual mode with ISO on Auto.

Almost any situation where I have a need for control of the situation...manual. Then of course, long exposures...always fix the parameters...

yes, this.

I'm late to the discussion, but I prefer manual exposure in almost every situation even if it's not really manual these days. Call it a control thing. I just get frustrated when a little backlighting throws off exposure on a portrait.

This isn't to say I think I get it perfect all the time, either, though. It's not all that strange for me to change exposure in post processing by 1EV, sometimes. I just know who to blame, and all the pictures in a series can usually be changed by the same amount.

Hello fellow Nikonian's, (if that is how you spell it). Name is Mark and I have just joined the forum as a place of familiarity and to contribute when I can. Look forward to talking with you folks.

Mark

Shooting in manual mode is a very good way to deal with situations where the light is nice and uniform and isn't changing. For example, in indoor sports photography the light is often very uniform and one meter setting can be used for hours.

As has been pointed out, remembering that you're still allowed to use the exposure meter in manual mode can help a lot. Just be aware that your meter's results aren't perfect, and if you've carefully chosen an exposure for sufficiently uniform and constant lighting conditions, there's no reason to second-guess that.

donaldejose says.....A looooong time ago I shot mostly Kodachrome 25

Gitzo says......A loooooooooooooooong time ago I shot mostly Kodachrome 10 ! (LMAO !)

And on a more serious note.........I use "M"......a lot ! Any time I'm still using one of my MF lenses, any time it's so dark the AF can't see what it's doing, and ALWAYS when I'm doing macro; (to name just a few)

@ bri4njun....Welcome, Brian, to NRF. Join in and post some photos, videos, or just chat.

Brian, checkin in!

msmoto said:
@ T140Rider...welcome to NRF...there are others who ride bikes...and lived to tell about it...LOL. Please share some of your photos on PAD.

Especially what makes your T140AV different to the rest - Pics please! You show me yours and I'll show you mine....

Ooops, wrong place :)

@ T140Rider...welcome to NRF...there are others who ride bikes...and lived to tell about it...LOL. Please share some of your photos on PAD.

Hi, I' T140AV Rider. The Handle is named after a Triumph Motorcycle. I have the only one of its kind ever made.
I've been using Nikons since 1978 when I bought an FT3. My current gear is as follows
D800,D700 and D2X
70-200 F2.8 VR1
200-400 F4 VR1
24-120 VR
135 Macro
200 Macro
28-300
Sigma 15mm Fisheye
Plus an assorted collection of Bellows and extension tubes.
I'm mainly a wildlife and lansdcape snapper but I do anything really. My Charity calendar this year includes a Coal Fired Chip Shop!

@ waterpork, Yatz, skeudenn, Fizzy69... Welcome to NRF. Please feel free to post in the various threads and also on PAD. Just put up what you shoot and it might even get a comment. Hopefully there is an educational benefit to some of the threads and PAD can be helpful sometimes.

Hi Everyone
I've been lurking on the site for a couple of years now, a member for a few months and today is my first post :-).

I've looked at PAD almost every morning for a couple of years now and the quality of posts continues to amaze me and give me ideas.

I'm from Ireland and been interested in photography since I was a teenager (a long time ago) when I got my first Practica SLR. I moved to Nikon a couple of years ago and now have D300s, D800, 24-70mm 2.8, 70-200mm 2.8, 50mm 1.4 and 105mm 2.5.

Mostly interested in Landscapes, Buildings and some photos of the kids (when they allow me)

Still not worked up the courage to post - although I will shortly.

[NR] admin said:
This is the place where you can introduce yourself. Include your website/blog link if you have one (no spam please).

good morning everybody
I'm in bird photography ( bif ) and landscapes. I live on the west coast of brittany
I' m a video dabbler too.
when my a77 broke down I wanted the new a99 but it couldn't be had in france for love or money. Then I remembered that before I had loved the d300 and came back to Nikon and a d800. Although I miss some of the the reach of dx ( and the 500 af mirror minolta )I am getting my bearings.The 1.2 and 1.5 dx crop modes are handy.
Video is good enough butI relly miss the a77s articulated screen for video.
I use a 70-300 usd + sigma 150-500 os. I should get a 300mm f2.8 + tcs today or tomorrow
apart from photography, I am in traditional Celtic music and languages. I organize ceilidhs in the Breton language.I have been studying Ireland's language and landscapes for a few years now...

I've been a lurker for a while and felt that it's high time to join the party. Used to shoot film but my daughter fell in love with photography and now we have something to do together.

I consider myself a landscape/nature shooter and an aspiring "strobist".

I'm shooting DX these days because I like the reach for shooting birds.

Current rig:
D7000 with a couple of DX, FX and a bunch of older film lenses.
For some reason, I tend to favor the close and wide lenses.

Hi everyone
I am Zhang Junkai. Junkai is my first name. I am from mainland China, now study as a college student in Indiana, USA. New to photography. I am considering to buy a Nikon DSLR in the coming winter break. I used my uncles d40 and sigma18-200 for some days. Hope everyone have good time here!

captjamo
Brad

Welcome both of you to NRF.... lots of interesting and often good information.here on NRF.

Hello my name is Brad, I do not have a website yet but will eventually put one up. I just recently purchased a Nikon D7000 with the 18-105 kit lens and hopefully more lenses in the future! Hope everyone is enjoying the holidays!

Hey everyone. captjamo here. Regular middle aged guy just getting into photography. I have a D5100 with 18-55mm, 55-200mm and just ordered the Nikkor 40mm. Already I am enjoying shooting nature, architecture, sunset/sunrise vistas, botany and insect macros and, of course, portraits of my beautiful grandchildren. Glad to be logged in here. Looking forward to learning a great deal more about this wonderful area of interest.

@Tord..... Welcome to NRF. Great history.... I suspect you are older than 20 years old.. like a lot of us :-)

Hope to see some of your photos on PAD

Hi all,

Time to introduce myself, after having been a member here for a few months:

My name is Tord, and I am presently employed as a bus driver, but I have done a lot in my life: conscript in the Swedish Air Force, dish washer, security officer, firefighter, editor, editor-in-chief, journalist, technical illustrator, car builder, to name a few.

I've got a MA in journalism, but jobs for journalists are scarce around here.

I got my first camera, at a tender age (around nine), and it was a Kodak Brownie Starlet, which had fix focus, and two settings - one for B&W and one for color (the aperature changed between the two settings, that's all). No batteries, nothing, but I managed to build myself a flash that work OK.

Then it was my sister's beau that had started to earn money (he was a bit older than she), so he decided to scrap his old camera gear (Edixa Reflex, made in W.Germany in 1957), and all those lovely lenses, and bought a Hasselblad setup instead - it was in those days made here in town, so if you had the right contacts you could get one for less than the list price. So I bought his gear for about $100 dollars, which gave me a camera, SLR, with exchangeable prism (like the F-1, and about as heavy!), four lenses - everything from wide to 400mm telephoto lenses - and a lot of other gear.

This is how I learned the basics, but eventually tired to carry all that bulk, so I eventually (decades later) gave it all away, and meanwhile had turned to Minox 35 - two, each costing as much as three times the sum I had paid for that big kit! One with color slide film, and one with B&W - usually Tri-X.

I carried them with me every day for years and eventually wore them down - that a girl borrowed one, and that got dunked with her, by her sea scout patrol, didn't help a bit!

Then I turned to Konica Big Mini compacts, very durable, and with good optics, but eventually the digital era struck me, so I bought a Konica digital compact - as I knew I liked their optics (still do).

That was followed by other compacts, and eventually a row of Pentax DSLRs (K-x, K-7 & K-5), and a number of lenses. Eventually, I bought a Nikon V1 to my wife, but she opted for the Olympus OM-D E-M5, that ran rings around her K-7, performance wise.

I then inherited the V1, and after a few months bought a TF1, and a few lenses (new and antique), and that lead to a D3200, and eventually a D600! But before that almost all the Pentax gear was sold, and I haven't been sad about that one minute (well, maybe one minute).

So I shoot single birds on the ground with the V1, and AF-S 70-300 VR, groups in the air with the D3200, and heaps of birds with the D600, preferably long-legged ones ;-)!

I shoot in A about 85% of the time, M about 10%, and S for the balance. I don't have anything against shooting in P (i.e., I'm not one of those people who looks down my nose at people who use it), it just gives me headaches 'cause the "choices" the camera makes sometimes aren't the ones I would've wanted it to make under those circumstances. And if you're going to change your aperture or shutter speed in P (which I've always found to be a pain), why not just shoot in a priority mode anyway?

The great thing about M (once you've got the hang of what shutter speed, aperture, and ISO each do for your exposure) is that you can push the camera past what the built-in meter thinks your photo "should" look like, and you can decide what compromises you're willing to make in terms of under- or over-exposure. You can still do that in S or A* as long as you know how the different parts of the equation relate to one another; M just streamlines the process, and gives you a quicker/finer degree of control.

It's especially useful if you're shooting at night or in low/dodgy light, since the camera's always going to want to expose for middle grey, which has the end result of making everything look like it was shot around 2:30 in the afternoon. ;) I like my night photos to look like they were taken at night, which is where M mode really comes in handy.

*Or using exposure compensation, but then you're stuck if you want to go past the EV your camera allows while using it