Simplicity SLR Class: The Challenge of Manual Mode

Shooting in manual mode all the time is extremely challenging and rewarding. In an instant I must determine what combination of ISO, aperture and shutter speed (not to mention white balance) is needed for a proper exposure. Then quickly react by clicking buttons and turning dials to change my camera’s settings. The clock is ticking in fractions of seconds as I compose the shot, get the right angle or perspective. Click click click! I hope one of them turned out good!

For the Simplicity SLR Class I’m challenging myself to shoot 100% manual. It’s hard work and I have SO much to learn. I like the idea of getting back to the basics of photography and learning how to use all of my DSLR’s settings to their maximum potential.

There are a number of great photographers taking this class with me right now. I’m delighted to be learning side by side, with and from them!

Momma Rocks, June Makes 6, Bubbleboo of The Thought Bubble, Brooke Martin, Charmaine of just bits & pieces, Jen of hey, buddy man and my fellow 31DBBBer Kimberly Gauthier are just some of the truly awesome people I get to work with in Faith’s class. A lot of them are also shooting in 100% manual, aperture or shutter priority mode and writing about the class on their blogs.

I dabbled in manual mode last year when I discovered that spot metering helped me pinpoint exactly what I wanted to expose. It’s helped me a lot to expose my shots in aperture priority mode, but I can’t say I did a lot of manual exposures last year. This is the first time I’ve left my camera’s settings on manual.

Week 1 Aperture Assignment: Outdoor Light

Last week was blah weather-wise. I can’t say I’m extremely happy with my outdoor light shots, but I do feel they’re a good example of using aperture to control depth of field.

The shot on the left has much less detail in the background and the focus is pinpointed on the car. More of the foreground and background is in focus in the shot on the right. If I’d used an even higher aperture value, like f/20, nearly the whole yard and fence would be in focus.

Week 1 Creative Assignment: Contemplate Your Shot

For last week’s Friday Finds: Motion there were several submissions where the photographer spun around and hand-held a self portrait.

The idea of the shot inspired me, so I set out to try my hand at this technique. Somewhere around 100 clicks later, I got one usable image, but the motion blur in the background is nowhere near what I was shooting for. Inside near a window, it was a bit too dark and I simply could not hold my hand steady enough to get my face even partially in focus. Outside, even with my ND filter on, it seemed too bright to get a good motion blur. My real problem was my shaky hands. If you’ve tried this shot and succeeded at it, I would love to hear tips. I want to try this again sometime, hopefully with better results.

Week 2 Creative Assignment: Shoot Where You Are

As soon as I read about this assignment in the tutorial I had to go get my camera and complete it. Inspired from the book, The Best Camera is the One You Have With You, the idea is that where ever you are at any given moment there are at least five photographs waiting to be taken. I was sitting on my living room couch and immediately started searching everywhere for photographic opportunities. As I found my subjects, I tried to apply some of the themes this week such as using negative space in framing and long exposures for motion blur effects.

I had so much fun with this assignment! You can click through to the photo on Flickr for a breakdown of the camera settings for each photo. They are very minimally edited in Photoshop.

Week 2 Assignment: Frame Your Photo Two Ways

We had the option of cropping one photo two ways or framing the shot two different ways. I crop shots in editing quite a bit, so I chose to challenge myself to framing shots differently. The less cropping is needed, the better.

I baked some cookies yesterday afternoon and took them on a plate outside in open shade to photograph.

For the shot on the left, I tried to use negative space and the rule of thirds to focus on the stack of cookies. I used a wide aperture to blur out the details of the plate and concrete in the background. For the shot on the right, I got really close in and used the wide aperture to keep my focus in the top third of the photo only for more visual interest. The exposure is minimally corrected in Photoshop as you’ll see in the example below, but there was a much bigger edit I did for this shot.

Editing Alert!

The plate I used had a floral pattern around the edge, which I feel is far too distracting. I wish I had access to a bigger plain white plate for this shot, but I didn’t. I created a duplicate background layer, then worked in small sections selecting a neighboring color with the eyedropper tool and painting over the flowers with a soft, opaque brush. It wasn’t exactly easy as there were shadows and the curvature of the plate involved. I’m sure I could have done a better job, but I’m pleased with the results!

Mouseover the SOOC photo below to see the edited version.

What do you think?

Coming Up Next

For Week 2, I still have a shutter speed assignment to capture water “frozen in time” and in motion, another shutter speed assignment to capture an action freeze in daylight or night time motion blur and an optional “Ordinary Beauty” challenge to capture the beauty in everyday objects. I tried and failed miserably at the water assignment earlier today. I had an elaborate outdoor setup that was probably just stupid and my results were crap. It is kind of funny actually. So I need to redo the entire assignment. I’ll share the ridiculous setup and an outtake shot with the successful results.