“First off, yay! I’m so excited to have a place to ask questions. To be honest I have taken a class from a local photographer and then went through a serious depression and truly have forgotten everything. I feel like I have a good eye for composing a shot, but I want off of auto mode. I have had my camera for several years , it’s a Nikon d40. I also have a flash and 3 different lens. I hope to upgrade my Nikon some day, but I need to better my skill. So pretend I’m just starting, what do I do? How do I get off auto?”

Thank you!

 

Dear Desperately Wanting off of Auto Mode,

Old habits die hard. Take it from me…I still bite my nails, crack my knuckles and twirl my hair until a little bald spot forms on my head! Ohhhhh how I wish I was kidding! Whatever habit we form, it becomes second nature, comfortable and reliable.
I can be sitting in class and start twirling my hair over and over until someone says…”WHAT ARE YOU DOING”. I will bite my nails until its lowest point when overly nervous/anxious…and I only stop when physical pain in my nail beds kick in. Crazy, I know! But in the photography world, old habits…even bad ones….die hard as well. For many, this bad habit is called AUTO mode. This setting is everyone’s “comfortable/reliable” habit when they first start out. Its easy, zero thought or work involved, and takes an “okay” picture. Truth…the first 4-6 months of my business….I SHOT ON AUTO! AHHHH!
But what if you are ready for more? More of a challenge. More than a sub-par image. I know you look at others work and say, “Why isn’t my picture that clear…sharp…’perfect’. What am I doing wrong, shouldn’t this expensive camera know what to do to make my images look like theirs?”

YES! Your camera is MORE than capable of taking those stellar images you are drooling over, BUT…you have to TELL your camera HOW to use all of its bells and whistles to perform at its best level. For example…cars with 4 wheel drive…Sure…your car can drive in this wonderful mode and perform its best in the snow when ON THIS MODE…but if you don’t tell your car what it needs to do, it simply can not perform the way you desire. Cars, cameras….they are tools. Amazing tools…but they are MOST CERTAINLY NOT mind readers.

Looking back at my Shrek colored people and my jaundice colored babies (due to me having not even so much as an inkling about what ‘white balance’ was) I cringe. But at the same token, I also smile because I know that I had to start somewhere…I know that the changes I made to FIGHT those bad habits….fight the urge to shoot the “easy” way…TOTALLY PAID OFF.

DONT LAUGH…Here is me…shooting on auto…NO CLUE about white balance, lighting, shutter, iso….NOTHING! This is my son…ya know…when I thought I wanted to be a newborn photographer!

Not horrible…BUT COULD BE A MILLLLLION times better if I knew how to set up my camera…right?

Here is another….this is when I got crafty with props and oversaturation when editing in iPHOTO….oooooboyyy I just admitted that one! But this is good…because I have come such a long way and so can you!

You can tell I was looooving the pro-retouch…my child looks like a plastic barbie! And I most DEFINITELY wrote “kiss me” in on that frogs heart! LORDY ME!

And the pop up flash…on the bare wall…and vignetting…ahhhhh!

Getting off Auto Mode is not just a matter of changing a dial guys. It’s being mentally prepared to learn the ins and outs of your camera. Lots of practice, hands on help, referring to the manual that came with you camera, looking up self-help videos on YouTube…this all comes with learning a new and improved ‘habit’ (way of doing things that become comfortable and reliable)

Now in effort to keep this blog post under 20 pages…hehe, just kidding…I think its helpful for me to give you some STEPS to getting off of AUTO!

 

READ YOUR MANUAL COVER TO COVER. 

Even the parts you think you already know…read them again. Take notes, play with your camera after each page, and keep that camera in your lap/hands white you read. Hands on learning is the very best. Having it there to see the buttons and screens they mention will help you learn a new way to go about things and will help you get to know your camera inside and out.

TURN YOUR CAMERA INTO AV MODE. 

This is the first mode I shot in after I got off of auto. This mode is called Aperture Priority. You set the shutter/f-stop and the camera works around that setting to help you maintain an accurate exposure. In all other regards, the camera is still under your absolute control.

This is one of the first images I took in AV MODE…not horrible, but still room for improvement….BUT HEY…much better than above right? I must say it helps when my kids are this cute. Again…I was still a child, baby and family photographer at this point…NOT INTO WEDDINGS WHATSOEVER!

Poor Ryan looks a little blue….holy white balance issues Kaitlin!

 

 

EXPERIMENT WITH DIFFERENT MODES.

–       TV Mode (Shutter Priority)– In this mode, you set the shutter speed. Great for sports, action, and when you are moving.

–       P Mode (Program)– Truth: I totally thought “P” on my camera stood for professional…thankfully someone corrected me in a not so nice, but yet very informative and blunt way.  😛 This mode is like the in-between for auto and manual. It gives you more control over metering, etc…but the camera still determines the proper exposure. You can also shift the program by changing which combination of aperture and shutter speed the camera uses in a given situation.

–       B Mode (Bulb Mode) – This mode holds open your shutter for as long as you hold the button down. (Further explanation on what kind of image that creates will have to be in another blog post : P )

–       C1-C3 Modes: These are Custom Shooting modes. They enable you to save camera settings in any of the three dial positions for recall later.

 

Practice makes perfect! GET OUT THERE AND SHOOT!

I started shooting my practicing on a donkey…no lie! I then graduated to a teddy bear next to a flower pot…yeah, totally thought that was cute or pretty. I then practiced on my kids, then my friends kids, then their moms and dads, then couples, and now….IM A WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER! Don’t stop experimenting. If you get stuck…look it up. Ask for help. Take a class, workshop, or join a photography group. No one got to where they are alone…its ok to fail, fall, and then get back up!

PLAYING WITH SETTING MY OWN SETTINGS….AND A DONKEY! Told ya!

 

 

LEARN YOUR CAMERA AND ALL ITS SETTINGS! 

None of this is going to mean a DANG THING if you don’t know what aperture, iso, shutter speed, exposure compensation, white balance, etc are. DON’T WORRY! AV mode helped to see how all these elements go hand in hand…they all affect each other. And do your research.

 SHOOT HERE, THERE AND EVERYWHERE!

Shoot in different light sources. Shoot inside, in the shade, when its cloudy, when its full sun, when its sunrise and sunset. ALL OF THESE conditions are great for REALLY practicing and putting what you have learned into action.

SHOOT RAW, NO MORE JPEG!

  GET OFF OF JPEG and start shooting RAW! Trust me, you will thank me later. Don’t ask why…just do it!

Find some friends…SHOOT THEM!

When I started I begged my friends to let me shoot them. I wanted to test out what I just spent hours reading about or watching on YouTube. Find a support group where you can bounce questions off of each other.

DON’T EVER GO BACK TO THE OLD HABIT. NEVER EVER GO BACK TO JPEG OR AUTO.

That is the easier, cop-out answer and you ARE better than that!

EDUCATION, PRACTICE, TRIALS, SHOOT, GO! 

I’ve got nothing for this one…but I hate odd numbered lists…so for this one… “GET OFF YOUR HINNY AND GO SHOOT….OFFFFFF AUTO!”

After shooting on Manual and RAW for 2 + years and never looking back…countless workshops, new editing software, knowledge of light and camera settings…and this is what can happen…pure composition magic. Quite a difference from my first couple pictures right?! GET OFF AUTO!

 

 

Summary:

To make the most of that camera you hold in your hands…its simply best to shoot in manual. You will have control over every setting in your camera. You are its boss…puppet master, if you will. YES, Auto mode is easy… and yes it takes relatively nice images…but when you let the camera decide everything for you, its not really YOURRRRR image anymore…and truthfully…the camera DOESN’T always get it right!

You be the one to tell it where to focus, how much light to let in, what the exposure should be, how much Depth of Field you are after….when you do that…your creativity, your eye and your art will all have a voice. No longer will it be limted and suppressed my the restricted abilities of that which is Auto mode!

Change is hard. Its scary. Bad habits are the hardest to break. Believe me…I have tried every nail biting prevention kit there is….nothing is working. So now…I know its up to me to make the effort to stop myself….no matter how comfortable or reliable that habit has been for 27 years!!! Wish me luck y’all. While you learn to shoot off auto….I will be learning to not eat my nails as an afternoon snack. Ewww I know! : P

Good luck…know I am here to help…and trust me when I tell you…once you learn your camera and shoot on manual….YOU WILL NEVER GO BACK!!!

 

Xoxo,

Kaitlin Noel