Manual mode is very scary for those of us who are just starting out. If you are anything like me than you just shoot in auto mode or the pre-made modes on the dial. Luckily for me, I have a mentor; Gary Ananian. He has helped me so much and has taken me under his wing to teach me just about everything I know today! Again, if you're anything like me, you just tell yourself that there is nothing wrong with the pre-made modes because your pictures are coming out great and you see nothing wrong! Well, that may be true but once you get into manual mode and you can change the settings to even better perfect your photos you will never go back and wonder why you didn't switch sooner!
Starting out it was very hard for me to comprehend what ISO, aperture, and shutter speed meant. Another reason why I just kept shooting in auto mode. Once learning what each of those do and how to set them based on where, what, and the weather is for that day, I have gotten a much better concept on how to make my photos come out perfect! Lets first get into ISO: What it is: ISO is a numerical value that represents how sensitive your camera's sensor (or film in the case of film photography) is to light. In other terms that I can understand, this controls the brightness of how your photos are gong to turn out. The brighter it is outside or in a studio the higher the ISO so your pictures don't come out too bright. In the opposite direction, if its dark (and you are not using flash) you want a lower ISO, keep in mind though the lower you go the more grainy your pictures are going to come out. At a certain point you are going to want to use either your built in flash or an external flash to avoid having too much noise.
Now lets move onto aperture: What it is: Aperture is essentially the "eye" of your lens, allowing light to pass through and onto the image sensor. Now for terms that I understand; for starters, "F" stands for aperture on the manual mode screen. Think of it as if you put your hand into a fist and slowly open it up more and more and you'll notice how more and more light comes in as you open your hand farther and farther. If your camera is like mine, the lowest aperture I can go is "F4". I typically never touch my aperture and have yet to come into any problems with needing it to be lower or higher. Note: I mainly photograph outside and have very little had to shoot during night but when I have, still have come across no issues.
Finally, shutter speed: What it is: Shutter speed controls how long the camera's shutter stays open, allowing light to hit the sensor. Again, let me break it down to English for us newbies. This is basically what will make your photo blurry or not. If you are photographing people like me, I typically keep my shutter speed between 1/100 - 1/250. The lower shutter speed is basically freezing time as if you were photographing a waterfall or stream and wanted the capture the water in a still motion. The higher the shutter speed is used to capture jets, running, and anything action. There are always photos you can download that is cheat sheet to show you what setting is best for each potential shoot you may be doing.
I hope this helps anyone who is starting out so they you can better understand their camera and how to become a better photographer! If you made it this far, firstly thank you so much, and second, if you still have some questions please feel free to reach out to me! I am so thankful for Gary and wish that I cam across him much sooner but I never gave up and that brought me to where I am today! All glory to God! I hope that I too one day can help someone just as Gary has been helping me.
