• Home
  • Reviews Index
  • Best Gear
  • Inspiration
  • Learn
  • Disclaimer
  • Staff/Contact Info
  • Media Kit
  • Membership
Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
Photography Culture

Manual Mode Is Overrated: A Popular, Unpopular Opinion

Chris Gampat
No Comments
06/14/2022
3 Mins read
Brittany-Smith-The-Phoblographer-Autel-Nano-Plus-RAW-Image-Sample-6833

For most of my time as a photographer, it’s been instilled in me to always shoot in manual mode. This is the mentality of plenty of photographers from older generations. Make no mistake, there’s something to be said for the lessons from these sages. But the wisdom isn’t fundamentally timeless. Today, there are zillions of situations where manual mode is overrated. Don’t just take my word for it; consider the fact that most smartphone photographers use auto mode.

We hate banner ads too. Download our app for iOS, iPad, and Android and get no banner ads for $24.99/year.

Why Manual Mode Is Overrated

You’re walking along the street and notice some very inspiring light shine on a building. Two people are walking directly into it. The split-second trigger goes off in your head, and you see a shot. You raise the camera to shoot, very sure that you’ve got the decisive moment. But when you chimp the LCD screen, you notice the screen is pure white. Because you were in manual mode, your camera couldn’t adapt and you lost the moment. Had the camera been constantly adjusting the exposure itself, you would’ve probably captured the moment. 

You’re trekking through a National Park with friends and notice a curiously colored bird during spring migration. You attempt to photograph it as quickly as possible, but your camera is in manual mode, and you’re exposed for the beautiful woodpecker you found earlier. This is another situation where manual mode is overrated.

You’re at a party photographing an event. You decided that night that you’d be a natural light photographer. You stop someone with an intriguing t-shirt for a photo. You shoot a single photograph just to be respectful. They ask you if you can give it to them later, and you agree and exchange info. But later on, you end up realizing the photo wasn’t exposed well. What do you do? Do you tell them the photo wasn’t that great when they were excited to have the image? Do you just not respond and be an awful person?

Manual mode doesn’t always make a ton of sense. For lots of situations, it’s quite overrated.

When Should Manual Mode Be Used?

So when should manual mode be used? Well, two specific situations come to mind. The first one involves using flash. If you’re photographing an event or a session with a flash, your shutter speed matters. It controls the ambient light. You can lock it to 1/250th and go about shooting however you’d like. 

The other situation is where you can shoot to your heart’s content and you’ve got a lot of time to work with. One of the best situations that come to mind is photographing a sunset. You don’t have a bunch of time to photograph a sunset, but it’s a lot longer than a split second.

Further, it’s also excellent for when you want to be creative. The photo above was shot when I was experimenting and creating something painterly. Manual mode could easily work for this.

P for Professional

For years, I think that shooting only in manual mode was a way for professionals to look down on passionate photographers who call themselves enthusiasts. In truth, lots of those professionals would often just meter the scene to get to the center of the meter bar. In reality, if that’s what you’re doing, then just shoot in Program auto. Otherwise, aperture priority and shutter priority are still fantastic options.

aperture priority events manual manual mode Photography portraits street photography weddings
Shares
Written by

Chris Gampat

Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
Previous Post

3 Wide Angle Lenses with Great Weather Resistance

Next Post

Capture One is Now One Step Closer to the Product We Want

The Phoblographer © 2023 ——Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
  • Home
  • Our Staff
  • Editorial Policies
  • Media Kit
  • Membership
  • App Debug