Digital Camera World - UK (2020-03)

54 DIGITAL CAMERA^ MARCH 2020 http://www.digitalcameraworld.com

What is ‘going manual’ all about?

When photographers advise you to ‘go manual’, they usually mean setting the exposure yourself.

But there are other ways in which you can take back direct control of your camera

Today’s digital cameras

are sophisticated hunks

of plastic and metal that can

take care of pretty much every

technical aspect of taking a

picture. They might not be able

to suggest where to stand or

what to put in or leave out of the

frame (yet), but they’re able to

handle the exposure, set the

white balance to give accurate

colours, and adjust the focus

to keep moving objects sharp

faster than most of us could.

The array of automated modes

and features makes life easier

• but while cameras are
  ‘intelligent’, they are certainly
  not infallible. Fortunately,
  there are numerous ways
  to ‘go manual’ and override
  the automatic functions.
  Exposure and focusing
  are two areas where you may

frequently want to take back

control, as errors can be harder

or impossible to correct later.

When it comes to exposure,

the camera can serve up

pictures at times that are too

bright or too dark. However,

you can manually override

the camera’s light meter with

exposure compensation – or

you can switch to Manual mode

to set a specific exposure.

Exposure compensation is

typically only available when

the camera is set to its more

advanced shooting modes, such

as Program, Aperture Priority

and Shutter Priority. It can be

activated in a number of ways,

depending on which camera

you’re using: you may be able to

simply turn a dial to change the

brightness, or you may have

to tap on the information

Manual exposure and

manual focusing are

two simple ways to

take more control

of your photography.

Marcus

Hawkins

Photographer and

writer Marcus is a

former editor of

Camera Digital Camera

College

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