READ: Camera Modes

Manual Mode (M Mode)

Manual mode puts you in total creativeness control. It may seem very confusing and complex but manual mode isn’t as daunting as you would expect. There are tools in your camera that help you with using manual mode. The first thing you can do to make manual mode easier is to first take a photo using auto or P mode. Look at the settings it choose for the photo or lock the settings and bring them into manual mode. This will give you a good starting point. Then adjust the settings to your creativeness desire. If you normally use auto focus don’t be afraid of using manual focus. Your camera may not always focus the way you want it to and manual mode allows you to fix that problem. Manual focus can usually be selected from a button on your lens. Your camera will also have a way to let you know if your subject is in focus although you can usually tell this just by looking through the lens/view finder. So why would you use manual focus? The most obvious reason is because your camera is only as good as it is programmed to be. It doesn’t know what you want the picture to look like, it only know what it thinks the picture should look like and it could be way off. I have seen many photos that were not very good because the camera choose the settings incorrectly.