Using manual settings on your camera

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[Richard]

If you want to be a bit more adventurous with your camera, or use it in situations 'outside of the average' where the automated exposure can't be trusted, then manual settings are the way to go.

This is one of the clearest, most concise guides I've seen to choosing your settings wisely. 

An apparently simple rule-of-thumb like 'sunny 16' is pretty reliable even without a light-meter with very little practice... especially if you're in the habit of using the same ISO setting most of the time.

http://www.fredparker.com/ultexp1.htm

[Storm]

Whilst the 'sunny 16 rule' might get the exposure correct (it doesn't take into account extreme dynamic ranges) it can be rather limiting and restricts not only creative use of depth of field but also correct aperture use for the subject. For example, most people wouldn't want to shoot subjects such as flowers or birds (just a couple of examples) at f/16; the idea is to throw the background out of focus so the subject stands out from it.

Where landscapes are concerned, many camera/lens combinations suffer from the effects of diffraction at f/16 resulting in a somewhat 'mushy' looking image rather than the front to back sharpness and clarity that's usually required.  

That you would need to use manual settings to be more "adventurous" is an outdated point of view. Even the pros rarely use manual (it's akin to reinventing the wheel) most choosing aperture priority instead. That might seem as though you're reliant on the camera choosing the shutter speed for you, and to an extent that's the case, but not entirely since choice of aperture affects choice of shutter speed.

[Richard]

For example, most people wouldn't want to shoot subjects such as flowers or birds at f/16; the idea is to throw the background out of focus so the subject stands out from it.

Sunny 16 doesn't limit you to only using f16... that's just a reference point.

If you want to shoot at, say, f2 to get a shallower DOF that's fine, you'd just speed up the shutter by however many notches you open up the shutter.

And as for the dynamics, like any other rule there are exceptions, and you learn them by experience... 'rules' are only ever a starting-point, and bracketing will always be a good idea regardless of whether you're the one applying a rule or whether the camera is doing exactly the same thing with it's look-up table.

Truth told, when I'm using my SLR I tend to use aperture-priority too - but that's not available on a lot of older gear and some people do like to try and understand what's going on rather than blindly (dumbly?) submitting to the machine...

[Storm]

Sunny 16 doesn't limit you to only using f16... that's just a reference point.

If you want to shoot at, say, f2 to get a shallower DOF that's fine, you'd just speed up the shutter by however many notches you open up the shutter.

The basic premise of the sunny 16 rule is that on a sunny day you set the aperture to f/16 and use a shutter speed that's the reciprocal of the ISO speed, hence the name 'sunny 16' (sometimes termed the 'sunny f/16 rule'). That's the "apparently simple rule-of-thumb" mentioned in your opening post in its entirety.

some people do like to try and understand what's going on rather than blindly (dumbly?) submitting to the machine...

No shit, Miss Marple! Obviously they do and those 'some people' include me amongst them. What I stated was that believing it was necessary to use manual settings to be more "adventurous" with one's camera is an outdated view. That doesn't preclude learning how set one's camera manually because you want to.

[Richard]

That's the "apparently simple rule-of-thumb" mentioned in your opening post in its entirety.

No it isn't.

That's the only part of it you need to remember because settings in other circumstances can easily be derived from it... once you've got the concept of EV through your skull it becomes pretty intuitive.

I imagine by now, if somebody stuck a fully-manual camera in your hand without giving you a meter, you'd be able to produce a useful picture... not because you did the calculation each time, but because consciously or otherwise you remembered what your automatic did under similar circumstances.
You're also likely to have a pretty good idea that darkening it a stop at sunset will make it look a bit later than it is, and lightening it a stop when there's backlight will show you some detail but at the risk of a bit of blocking in the hot-spots... but you have the advantage of being a keen observer and a camera that shows you what it's doing.

Somebody starting from scratch - this post was actually in answer to an unposted question - wouldn't necessarily have either of those advantages.

[Storm]

No it isn't.

Yes, it is.

The Sunny 16 "rule of thumb" is: On a sunny day set f/16 and use a shutter speed that's the reciprocal of the ISO speed.

The sunny 16 rule takes into account the amount of available incident (as opposed to reflected) light which is pretty constant in bright sunshine. Yes, it can be used as a guide to estimate which settings to use for the correct exposure in different lighting conditions, but the 'rule of thumb' mentioned is as stated above. It's an estimation as the amount of available light isn't being measured, but guessed at, and the intensity of the shadows were most often used to assist with that.

When there isn't bright sunshine the amount of incident light is no longer as constant and once you move away from f/16 you very quickly need shutter speeds in excess of what most (if not all, and certainly older cameras) are able to provide requiring ISO and even exposure bias adjustments to keep the exposure correct.

I imagine by now, if somebody stuck a fully-manual camera in your hand without giving you a meter, you'd be able to produce a useful picture... not because you did the calculation each time, but because consciously or otherwise you remembered what your automatic did under similar circumstances.

Because my camera (like most) has a fully automatic setting doesn't make it an 'automatic' anymore than it also having a fully manual setting makes it a 'manual'. In point of fact I'd be hard pressed to remember what my camera did on its fully automatic setting since it's one I rarely ever use. It's more often used on its manual setting when conditions dictate that's the best option.

Modern digital cameras usually include a histogram which is a very accurate method of determining the correct exposure for any given lighting situation. A test shot immediately reveals if you've clipped any of the blacks or blown any of the highlights.

Use of aperture priority also gives you control over the shutter speed since one dictates the other and to use it properly an understanding of how both interact is a necessity.