Tag: Manual mode

Nikon D750: How to use manual mode – the basics

Manual mode

Manual mode is to many an off limits discipline, but there is no need to shy away from manual mode as it is a small investment to learn, and it pays off in great dividends in terms of better control of the camera and hence the pictures you take. And the good side effect is that by knowing manual mode, you also automatically know Shutter priority and Aperture priority, as these are “sub sets” of manual mode. But I advice you to practice manual mode until you have it “under your skin” and the controls and dials are – if not second nature – then at least part of your muscle memory, so you don’t have to think too much about the controls when you start shooting in manual mode for real.

If you want more detail on the exposure triangle, this post may be of interest to you.

Manual mode selector

To initiate manual mode, you need to select mode “M” on the mode dial, located on the top left of your D750 camera. Remember to push down the center button while turning the dial, otherwise your camera is less cooperative.

The Nikon D750 set to manual mode
The Nikon D750 set to manual mode

Aperture

The aperture is controlled via the command dial on the top right front of the camera. By turning the wheel left and right, the aperture changes accordingly. In the LCD display on the top right of the camera, you can see the selected aperture. In the picture below, the aperture is set to F/10:

f/10, 1/100th shutter speed and ISO 12800 (auto).
f/10, 1/100th shutter speed and ISO 12800 (auto).

Shutter speed

The shutter speed is c controlled via the command dial on the top right rear of the camera. By turning the wheel left and right, the shutter speed changes accordingly. In the picture above, the shutter speed is set to 1/1000th of a second, which is pretty fast. This is shown as 1000 – the “1/” is implicit. So a quarter of a second (1/4) is shown as 4.

ISO

The ISO has a dedicated button at the bottom left if the camera, the second button from the bottom.

The ISO button on the left side of the D750
The ISO button on the left side of the D750

When you push and hold that button as shown below, the ISO selection menu appears. Notice that only bottom half of the screen relates to the ISO – it is boxed in by a thin frame. The front command dial now controls the ISO auto setting (on/off) and the rear command dial controls the ISO value. You can see the graphics illustrate this to the very right. The selected value here is ISO 125 and ISO Auto setting to on.

When ISO setting is on, the camera selects the ISO as it sees fit (remember, you still control the Aperture and Shutter speed). If Auto ISO is on, the selected ISO sensitivity is ignored by the camera, but as soon as you set Auto ISO to off, then the camera uses the value selected here.

ISO sensitivity settings
ISO sensitivity settings

You can re-program the record button on the top of the camera (the one with the red dot, sitting right behind the shutter release button) to act as the ISO button. Press the menu button on the rear of the camera, top left, select the custom settings menu (aka the pencil menu), select f for controls and scroll down to F9. Here you can set the record button to act as an ISO selector:

 

Using the movie record button for ISO
Using the movie record button for ISO

Many find this configuration useful, as the entire exposure triangle can no be controlled with the 3 buttons/dials sitting right next to each other on the top right of the camera, with no need to move the eye away from the viewfinder.

Ok, that concludes the walk through of the controls and dials on the Nikon D750. Please don’t hesitate to drop a line in the comment section below if you have any questions or the like.

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Sony RX100 M3: Manual exposure guide

Introduction

Maybe shooting in manual mode with the Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-RX100 (M3) is a contradiction in terms, as the camera has been designed with a lot of features to automate the process of taking pictures, but it still offers a manual mode despite all the automated options available. The advantage of manual mode is that it gives you as the photographer full control of all the parameters (shutter speed, aperture and ISO) and hence no decision to be made on your behalf by the camera. So if full control is your thing, manual mode is for you.

In the following the back screen will be used to show the menus and the effect of changing the shutter speed, aperture and ISO. Notice however, that all of this can also be seen in the viewfinder, so that you do not need to use the back screen, for example on a sunny day when the back screen is difficult so see.

Mysterious manual mode?

Manual mode is often regarded as a complicated mode only managed by the most senior of photographers. With the introduction of mirrorless cameras like the Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-RX100, this is much less so now, as both the viewfinder and the back screen shows exactly what the sensor is capturing as it happens, and hence an over- or underexposed picture will be visible before the fact, so you can adjust the settings beforehand. So my suggestion is that you simply give manual mode a try to see what it is like and then based on that decide if manual mode is for you.

Manual mode selection

Manual exposure mode. Sony RX100 M3: Manual exposure guide.
Manual mode is selected on the mode dial on the top of the RX100 as the red circle shows

Aperture

When in manual mode, the aperture is controlled by the ring on the front of the camera. By turning the ring as indicated by the blue arrows, you change the aperture. 

Selecting the aperture. Sony RX100 M3: Manual exposure guide.
Selecting the aperture

The aperture value is shown at the bottom of the back screen. Here it is f/2.8 which is very wide and open i.e. letting in a lot of light:

The Sony RX100M3 at f/2.8. Sony RX100 M3: Manual exposure guide.
The Sony RX100M3 at f/2.8

Here is the same motive, same light, same shutter speed (1/30) and same ISO (80) but with a much more narrow aperture (f/7.1). Notice how dark the screen is now compared to the above:

The Sony RX100M3 at f/7.1
The Sony RX100M3 at f/7.1

This is one of the big advantages of mirrorless over DSLRs – you can see the picture will be underexposed immediately – no need to take the picture and review it afterwards. You can fix the exposure problem before you take the picture.

Shutter speed

The shutter speed is controlled by turning the command dial (red arrow) in the direction shown with the blue arrows:

Selecting the shutter speed. Sony RX100 M3: Manual exposure guide.
Selecting the shutter speed

The shutter speed can vary from 30 seconds to 1/2000th of a second. And again, you will see the brightness of the picture right in the back display, so if it all black or very dark, you probably need to go to a slower shutter speed meaning that the sensor is exposed to light longer. 

ISO

ISO as far as I can tell from the RX100 manual does not have a dedicated button. Instead you have to push the “fn” button just above and to the left of the command dial. When doing so you can move the cursor to the  bottom left cell using the command dial:

ISO value displayed bottom left in the rear LCD. Sony RX100 M3: Manual exposure guide.
ISO value displayed bottom left in the rear LCD

Pressing the center of the command dial selects the ISO menu point, and then a list appears where the ISO can be selected, ranging from 80 (the least sensitive) all the way up to 12.800. Notice that you can also choose auto-ISO, where the camera selects the ISO automatically for you. The advantage is that you do not have to worry about the ISO when shooting, but you leave the selection of the ISO up to the camera. The camera may then select a very high ISO, which may not be to your liking.

When the menu selector is on top if the ISO item, then an alternative an more easy way to change the ISO is to use the command dial to change the ISO. No need to press the center button first. Simply turn the dial in the direction shown with the blue arrows to the right (do not press down as when moving the cursor around) and a little table appears top center as shown below here. Simply turn the wheel to change the ISO value.

Selecting the ISO. Sony RX100 M3: Manual exposure guide.
Selecting the ISO

Maybe even easier that this is that instead of using the command dial, you can use the ring on the front of the camera (the one used for aperture previously) and that will have the same effect as turning the command dial.

The price for a high ISO is that your pictures are likely to be grainy, meaning that it looks like sand or pebbles have been thrown at your picture. So be careful if you go much above 1000 – you may get some very grainy pictures. Post processing software like Lightroom may be able to remove or reduce the grain, but it is better to get it right in camera to minimize your post processing time and workload.

Related reading

Sony RX100 M3: It has all the modes you can think of!

Review: Sony RX100 M3 is a value-for-money compact camera packed with features

Sony RX100 M3: How to shoot Panorama pictures in camera with

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Nikon D5600: How to use manual exposure?

You select manual mode on the mode dial top of the camera, right next to the right of the viewfinder. Turn the dial to position (M) for manual mode:

Manual exposure

Make sure the pivoting LCD screen is facing outwards (i.e. not towards the camera body) and press the Info button located right next to the viewfinder and just above the LCD screen. This should give you a picture with an M top left, and the shutter speed, aperture and ISO values shown (your picture may be different, but the information content should be the same):

Here the shutter speed is 1/160th of a second, the aperture is f/5 and the ISO is at 3200

Shutter speed

The command dial is located on the camera top right. The command dial controls the shutter speed – turning the dial increases and decreases the shutter speed. The slowest shutter speed is 30 seconds, after that follows bulb and time mode (will not be addressed here). The fastest shutter speed is 1/4000th second. To avoid camera shake, be careful not to use a shutter speed slower than 1/80th of a second, unless the camera is mounted on a tripod (or you have a very steady hand!).

Aperture

Just in front of the main dial, a smaller button is located:

Manual exposure

You can see the graphics is +/- and also a circle illustrating a shutter:

Manual exposure Nikon D5600

This button, when pressed down, alters the effect of the command dial, so that instead of controlling exposure compensation, it changes the aperture. So hold down the +/- button while turning the main dial, and this changes the aperture. The aperture values are subject to the lens mounted, but typically range from f/1.8 to f/22 or thereabout. The larger the number (the f-stop), the smaller the aperture and the less light is let in by the lens.

ISO (sensor sensitivity)

Finally, to change the ISO setting, find the “Fn” button on the front left of the camera. Pressing this button while turning the command dial changes the ISO value, the same way holding down the +/- button did for aperture:

Manual exposure
The Fn (function) button is located on the front left of the camera.

You can also change the ISO setting using menus: press the information button (i) as shown here, and a menu appears on the LCD screen:

Manual exposure Nikon D5600

In the top right corner is the ISO value. Use the multi selector (the large round button just below the (i) button) to move the cursor to the top rightmost cell in the screen. It says “iso” with small letters in the bar just above the cell. In the picture above, the ISO is set to 250. Place the cursor over the ISO cell and push the center of the multi selector (ok) and the ISO selection screen appears. Using the multi selector again, the cursor can be moved to the new ISO value, ok pressed and the ISO value is changed.

Auto ISO sensitivity control

There is an option to let the camera (within boundaries) select the ISO value itself, in order to arrive at a properly exposed picture, given the aperture and shutter speed selected by you. It is not a perfect solution in all cases, but it can be a great aid in the beginning especially, in order to avoid over- or under exposed pictures. And it enables you to focus on one thing less in the beginning of your work with shooting in manual mode.

To switch on Auto ISO, press the “menu” button located top left on the back side of the D5600 camera body. Using the command dial (the big round button middle right), scroll down to the so called shooting menu. The shooting menu has a green icon that looks like a camera viewed from the front. Press the right hand side of the command dial to enter the shooting menu, and press the bottom side of the command dial to scroll down to the “ISO sensitivity settings” menu:

Manual exposure Nikon D5600

Press the center of the command dial (ok) to select the ISO sensitivity settings. In this menu you can switch the Auto ISO sensitivity on and off, set the maximum allowed ISO sensitivity setting (high values gives grainy pictures), set the minimum shutter speed and select the ISO sensitivity.

Manual exposure Nikon D5600
Auto ISO sensitivity control…

The minimum ISO value for the Nikon D5600 is 100 – this is a value determined by the nature of the sensor in the camera, and cannot be changed via camera setting.

Notice that when Auto ISO is on, the camera ignores the ISO sensitivity value you have chosen. Only when you switch the Auto ISO off, the ISO setting chosen by you will be used by the camera.

Getting the exposure right

When shooting in manual mode (and Auto ISO is not on), it is very easy to select aperture and shutter speed values that give an over- or underexposed picture. In the bottom of the viewfinder, and also when you press the “info” button, there is a light meter indicating if the picture will be over- or underexposed:

-│ – – │ – – 0  – -│ – – │ +

<————│

If the arrow below the meter points to the left, then the picture will be underexposed. This is the case in the example shown above. If the arrow points to the right the picture will be overexposed, as the picture below illustrates:

Manual exposure Nikon D5600
The markings to the right of the zero shows the image is over exposed…

Only if there is no arrow visible, the picture will be exposed just right. Minor deviations can be fixed in post, only to some extend for JPG files, more so when shooting in Raw format, but the easiest is to get the exposure right in camera.

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Nikon D5600: Still a good buy as an entry level camera in 2021?

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