Wow! Day 7! Did you skip 1 through 6? Did you just land on this page through a Google or Bing search? If you said yes to any of those, go back and start at day 1.
TL;DR;
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Assignment: Use manual mode to repeat the look and feel of some of your previous photos.
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If you followed through all seven days, congratulations and you are ready for manual mode. You have played with aperture priority and shutter priority. Now it is time to start playing with manual mode. In the beginning, you can keep ISO on auto for a few shots and it is actually something I do sometimes when doing wildlife photography.
Whether ISO is on auto or manually set by me here are some thoughts I have:
ISO is my setting I may adjust first to ensure my shutter and aperture are at settings that I want for the look I am trying to capture. Let me give you some examples.
Friday night High School Football games.
For portraits, I want to control the aperture settings. (this is without flash)
Are you ready for the secret of manual mode for your digital camera? There isn't one. That is the secret. You have to practice and just think through what you are trying to capture with your photo. What you are trying to capture can be a workshop all by itself. The purpose of this series is to get you using modes other than automatic and get you playing with manual mode.
There is no "right" mode. However, there are some effects that can only be accomplished (or is much easier) in manual mode. For example, sunsets and long exposures. Fireworks is much better in manual mode. Most portrait photographers are in full manual mode.
Here are some tips for which mode to try while progressing through shutter priority, aperture priority, and manual mode.
Assignment: Use manual mode to repeat the look and feel of some of your previous photos.
Keep practicing, you will get better. I will create some how-to blogs for projects that are best suited for manual mode.