JAS’s guide to understanding Manual Mode
When shooting in Manual mode on your camera you become completely in charge of how your camera receives light. For the record, “P” does not mean “professional” or “photographer”. :P There are three elements you must balance in manual mode. They are ISO, Aperture (or F-stop) and shutter speed.
There are benefits and drawbacks to each one, so you should figure out what the best balance is between them to create the best picture possible.
ISO:
ISO is the sensitivity of the sensor on your camera. The higher the ISO the faster you can take the picture, but with the drawback of having more grain in the image. Typically, you want to keep this as low as possible and balance out with the other two elements, but there are times when you have no choice as in shooting in low light and trying to capture a moving object.
Aperture:
Aperture is size of the hole inside the lens for light to get through, for lack of better wording. The higher (see below) the aperture the more light will hit your sensor and the quicker you can capture an image. The drawback (though you can use this for style once you are comfortable) is that the wider the aperture setting the lower the depth of field you get. Landscapes are typically taken at 16, for example, so that you get the entire landscape in focus. However, a low aperture allows for an out of focus background and that can be of use when you want bokeh, when out of focus lights become round in the background, behind your subject.
Understanding aperture settings is tricky since a high aperture is 1.2f as where a low aperture is 16f. We refer to them backwards because the lower the number the larger the hole is and the more light gets in. Also, when someone refers to a lens as being “fast” they mean that its aperture can go higher than standard lenses of the same type.
Shutter Speed:
Shutter speed is pretty straightforward. The faster it is the less motion blur you get from moving images. If you are not using a tripod you will probably want to avoid going lower than 1/60 since that compensates for the natural shaking you are likely to do while holding a camera.
*If I’ve noted something down incorrectly feel free to let me know.
