Photography

Don’t shoot manual — Backwards photography advice

Often people are told “to be a real photography you have to shoot manual”. Don’t believe it.

Photo by Tim Schmidbauer on Unsplash

I’ve had it said to me and I’m sure others will also have heard it said that to be a “real photographer” you have to “shoot manual”. It’s not true, at least not entirely.

Being a “real photographer” might be partly about knowing when (and how) to shoot manual, but that doesn’t mean you must shoot in manual at all times to be a real photographer.

There are situations where shooting manual will give you better results, more creative control, especially when combining light sources (such as ambient (natural) light and flash). But that doesn’t preclude the scene from being shot in a semi-auto or even auto mode for a slightly different result, or with clever use of other tools such as exposure compensation and TTL light metering. Or even a good old reflector.

Photo by Sonnie Hiles on Unsplash

Often, especially if you’re starting out, it’s easier to learn the semi-auto modes and get your head around those before trying to fully understand shooting manual.