Manual Mode Walk-Around, I'll Be Looking at Your Screen
Okay. This is the last lesson in this module and it's a different format than the others, so let me explain what we're doing.
Every other week I've been up front talking and you've been shooting in your seat, more or less. This week I'm walking the room. You're going to be set up in full manual, shooting whatever I put in front of you or whatever's around the room, and I'm going to come by and literally look at your screen. Not to grade you. To see what you're actually doing when nobody's watching over your shoulder every second.
Here's the thing. You can nod along in a classroom for weeks and still not be doing this on your own at home. I've had students who could tell me exactly what shutter speed does and then go set their ISO to 6400 in a well lit room because they weren't thinking it through, they were just turning dials. Walking the room is how I catch that. It's also, I'll be honest with you, how I catch myself explaining something wrong three weeks running and finally noticing.
What we're doing today
I've got a few stations set up. A lamp with a shade, some fake fruit I am not embarrassed to admit I bought at the DI for this exact purpose, a fan running on low, and whoever wants to model for five minutes gets a granola bar.
You'll rotate through. At each one you're setting exposure from scratch, all three settings, no auto anything. I want to see:
- The still life under the lamp. Low light, no flash allowed at this station. This is where I check whether you understand what to do when the meter tells you you're two stops under and you don't want to raise ISO into noise territory. Slow the shutter down. Widen the aperture if you can. Use what you've got before you reach for ISO, that's the order I want you thinking in.
- The fan blowing a scarf around. Motion. Freeze it or blur it, your choice, but you have to tell me which one you picked and why your shutter speed matches that choice.
- The volunteer model. This is the one that makes people nervous, and I'll admit right up front, it makes me nervous too. I am not a people photographer. I do landscapes and objects because they hold still and don't look back at me. So if you're better at this station than I am, that's not surprising, and it's fine.
At each station, work through your settings one at a time like we've practiced. Meter first, decide what matters most for that scene, shutter or depth of field, then balance the rest around it. Don't rush it. But also, don't overthink it into paralysis, and that's actually the point of the next part.
Why I'm not letting you check the LCD every shot today
Last lesson was about turning that review screen off for a while, and today's the day I actually enforce it a little. At each station you get three shots before you look at your screen. Three. Then you can check, adjust, and move to the next station.
I do this because of something that happened to me up Provo Canyon a few years back. I was out early, good light, and a moose walked into a meadow maybe eighty yards off. Just walked out of the trees like it had somewhere to be. And instead of raising the camera and shooting what I had, I started adjusting. Shutter speed, then I second guessed the aperture, then I looked down to check a setting, and by the time I looked back up the moose was gone. Never got the shot. Not even a bad one.
I think about that a lot when I see a student fiddling with a dial while the light or the moment is doing something in front of them. A slightly wrong photo you took beats the perfect photo you missed, every time, and today I want you to feel that in your hands. Get three shots off. Move on. You'll fix the craft later, at home, on your own time, looking at what worked and what didn't.
What I'm actually looking for when I come by
I'm not looking at whether the photo is good. I'm looking at your settings and asking you why you chose them. If you can tell me "I widened the aperture because the light was low and I didn't want to push ISO up," that's what I want to hear, even if the shot itself is a little soft or a little dark. If you tell me "I don't know, I just kind of guessed," that's fine too, that's honest, and we'll work through it together right there. Nobody's in trouble. I just want to know where you actually are versus where you think you are.
One caution, plain and simple. If you're at the model station, ask before you get in close, and be aware of your background, people trip on cords and chairs backing up to get a shot. Watch your footing, not just your frame.
Before next time
Go home and shoot fifteen minutes in a room with tricky light, a bathroom, a garage, somewhere the sun does something weird. All manual, three shots per setup before you check your screen, same as today. Bring your notebook next time with what you landed on and I'll look at it before we start the next module.