This is where you put it all together. Up until now, we’ve selected either aperture or shutter priority and let the camera do the rest. Now we’ll adjust everything manually. The meter is what tells you how much light is coming into the camera. On an SLR, you push your shutter button half way down and look through the view finder and you will see the meter scale. The arrow below the horizontal line shows you where you are at. By adjusting the ISO, aperture or shutter speed dials the arrow will move. If the arrow is to the left of the middle then you are underexposed by however many stops it is indicating. If your arrow is to the right of center then you are overexposed. When the arrow is in the center you will have one of many correct exposures. That is because ISO, aperture and shutter speeds all affect each other when changed.
Depending on what you are shooting and what your priority is such as depth of field or movement you will decide where you want your ISO, aperture and shutter speed to be. I typically set my ISO first and then set the aperture I want and then see what shutter speed I get for the correct exposure and if it is acceptable or not. When I am shooting action shots, I start with ISO and move to shutter speed next.
One thing to remember about metering is that cameras all come set to expose at a grey color. So when you shoot bright white such as snow on auto you will often get a grey colored snow because the camera has underexposed the picture. Likewise if you shoot something black or dark on auto, the camera will tend to overexpose the picture. This is something you will want to remember to compensate for. I overexpose snow pictures by one or two stops and underexpose really dark backgrounds one or two stops. The cool thing is you are now in control and you can check your pictures as you go and compensate when necessary!
Also there are different ways your camera will meter such as evaluative, partial, center weighted or spot metering. I prefer spot metering so I can meter where I am focusing and I know that spot will be metered correctly. You will have to read your manual to see how to change your preference on metering. If your camera doesn’t have spot metering, partial is the next closest. Try them all out and see which one works best for you.
As you photograph in manual, you will find that your meter jumps around a lot because the light often changes. Just remember to keep looking at your pictures every so often and keep on correcting the metering. Pretty soon it will become second nature to you.
Assignment:
Choose a subject inside, put your camera mode on M for manual and set your ISO. Then set your aperture and then look into the viewfinder and press the shutter button half way down to meter the light. Set your shutter speed accordingly until you see that you have a correct exposure. Take some pictures. Then do the same assignment outside. Congratulations, you are shooting in manual! It will seem cumbersome at first but once you get used to it you will never go back! Your pictures will be better than ever before, but you do need to practice until you have it down, so don’t stop!
ISO 400, f/10, 1/320
I overexposed this snow shot from what the meter was telling me by 2 stops.
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