Note: This article was shared a few days ago by email with my VIP Readers. Given the general interest of the message, I publish it here in an open manner “for all audiences”.
This is the most personal article I have written, perhaps in my entire life as head of the Photographer’s Blog. I need you to read it to the end. Today I “naked” my facet as a photographer in front of you. This item can transform the way you view and practice photography. Hope this can help you.
When I started in photography, I thought I would never touch automatic mode. «Why do I want an advanced photo camera if I am going to take photos in automatic mode? For that I keep my little compact camera always‘ he thought naively.
The day I bought my first SLR camera (a Nikon D60 that I keep with great care to this day) I went straight to the camera mode dial and put it on the letter “M” to shoot in manual mode. I was excited and determined to practice all the theory I had been reading for a long time.
I spent the first and second day taking photos. To my surprise, they were all horrible. Some were underexposed, you could hardly see anything. Others, overexposed and almost burned. The ones that seemed to have decent exposure and light levels were washed out or out of focus. There was no way to get photos that he could show without embarrassment.
Within three days I was taking photos in automatic mode.
All the theory he thought he knew had come to nothing. Auto mode helped me take photos that weren’t underexposed, overexposed, washed out, or out of focus. They were photos that he could show others without feeling “embarrassed.” However, there was something that made me uneasy: those photos were flat, empty of content. They had a correct exposure most of the time, true, but they were silent photos, empty, devoid of life. If photography was considered “art,” those art photos didn’t have a hair.
Also, while taking the photos in automatic mode, I felt all the time that those photos were not mine. They were from the camera. I couldn’t call myself a photographer, much less the “creator” of those photos if all the settings and decisions about settings had been made by the camera itself. What was my mission, holding the camera and pressing the shutter with my index finger? That was not the kind of photographer I wanted to be.
I started to leave the automatic mode like someone who wanted to get rid of a bad habit. Obviously, as soon as I went back to manual mode, the blurry and poorly exposed photos returned. But that wasn’t going to stop me. The difference, this time, was that he was determined to learn manual mode at all costs. I started taking photos in manual mode and when they didn’t come out good I thought to myself «It will be horrible as a photo, but at least it’s mine. I can work on improving it«. The photos I took with the camera in “auto” mode weren’t even mine.
Over time, “photographic destiny” began to smile at me 🙂
I began to notice that each of my “manual mode” photos was better than the last. I quickly discovered that each of my “horrible” photos helped me understand how the camera and light work. I could take the photo, analyze the result, change the settings slightly, and take the same photo again. In this way the photos I took only got better.
Gradually I felt more confident in what I was doing. I understood all the potential that my little Nikon D60 could offer in “manual mode”. Before I knew it, I was already taking photos that all my friends and acquaintances liked. What we would normally call an “awesome” photo.
It seemed incredible that my photos were taken by the same person who weeks before took “horrible” photos.
It seemed like magic. Deep down, I think it was (hence the title of the new book).
Perhaps you have felt identified with part of my story. If this is your case, I don’t know where you are right now in your relationship with your camera. But if manual mode is still resisting you, you get some underexposed, overexposed or blurred photos, I would like to do my bit and help you to leave the automatic mode. Forever.
If you have been following BdF in the last few days, you will know that we have been working on a book for some time whose theme has been one of the most requested by readers. Today I am pleased to present «The Magic of Photographing in Manual Mode«, a photography book designed for all those who are passionate about photography but still do not take that definitive step towards manual mode.
Finally, I have the pleasure of putting in your hands, dear reader, a book in which we explain everything you need to know to master the manual mode of your camera, a book that goes beyond simple theory to propose real “magic tricks” that you can get by using the manual mode by practicing the steps that we explain in each chapter of the book.
Throughout 17 chapters we reveal a series of tricks that will amaze anyone who sees your photo. In the same way that a magician impresses you with an elaborate magic trick on stage, and when he shows you the trick, all the magic begins to make sense; This is how you will feel when you begin to put into practice each of the photographic tricks that we propose in the book, and that we explain step by step and in great detail.
You can get your copy of the book from the following link.
Thanks for reading this. Happy photography.