outdoor photography

Northern Mockingbird Silhouette Just saying the word "manual mode" can be scary for new photographers.  The thought of being in complete control of your camera's exposure  often causes beginners to shy away from using it all together.  The sad part about this is that manual mode is actually the easiest way to get proper exposure in certain situations.  There is no shooting mode that is inherently better than any other.  I believe you should use the shooting mode that allows you to most quickly and reliably get the exposure you want.  In at least three situations, this mode is very likely to be the manual mode: Whenever you are using your spot meter.  Zoom in to the area you want to spot meter , set your exposure manually, and you have it set until lighting conditions change. For Exposure Compensation more than 2 Stops . In many camera models,  aperture priority  and  shutter priority  modes limit your  exposur...

Your camera is equipped with a light meter that can read exposure values all over the scene you're shooting, and for the most part,your camera uses these readings to give you very reliable exposure settings so you can get the exposure you want.  There are four main types of metering modes that you can choose from: Matrix/Evaluative Metering.  The default metering mode for any camera is usually called matrix or evaluative metering.  This mode takes exposure readings from throughout the frame and averages them together to give you an exposure reading that gives roughly equal value to every part of the frame. Spot Metering.  Spot metering takes all of exposure values from the center of the frame.  The center "spot" usually covers about 2 or 3 percent of the frame. Partial Metering.  Partial metering is very similar to spot metering, but the "spot" is larger, covering around 10% of the frame.  Some cameras may have partial metering with no spot met...