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Saturday, October 19, 2013

October 19. Day 292. Going off auto pilot

I spend much of my life on auto, and none more so than when it comes to photography.
I reason that if cameras were meant to be used on Manual there wouldn't be 13 automatic modes. That's right Automatic modes outnumber Manual modes 13 to one, that must be telling you something. But the real problem with Manual mode is that it would require reading the manual and that's something I will never do.
Besides which reading about it become an exercise in tedium with f stops, apertures, ISOs, shutter speeds etc all swimming in my head in a big soup of confusing numbers and concepts.
Still, I would like to be able to at least pretend I wasn't totally out of my depth of field.
So after months of procrastinating, today I actually took part in a four hour photography workshop and today's image was taken at the conclusion of the course.
My head is still swimming but at least I think some of the concepts have stuck and I didn't have to read anything.
And I have made a deal with myself. Dial M on Manual perhaps not always but at least mostly.
Time will tell if it makes a difference.

3 comments:

  1. my husband talks about these when he is out with his camera. I will slow the speed down, or do this or do that, I am with you point and shoot on automatic, just change the automatic when you feel like it

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  2. I've toyed with manual settings, but for me, the bottom line is that taking photos is like tying knots: If you can't do a good one, do lots. Since most of my photos are taken while riding a bike off-road, my camera is almost always on Auto AND Rapid Fire. I'm sure there's a time and place for manual, but I think you need a lot more time to set everything up. (Excellent blog BTW, I've been lurking for 12 months and love your off-beat view of the world :) )

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    Replies
    1. That pretty much describes my attitude to photography. The camera has until this point lived on Sports Mode. My guess is that it will gravitate back there. Thanks for dropping by regularly. I enjoy off loading and it pleases my heart when people enjoy reading it

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