I I DON'T SHOOT IN MANUAL FOR 99% OF WHAT I DO AS A PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER • Commercial & Aerial Photographer Sheffield

14 Apr 2020

I DON’T SHOOT IN MANUAL FOR 99% OF WHAT I DO

I’m a professional photographer and what I said in the title is true.
There are certain things that I shoot in manual and these tend to revolve around using flash indoors as I want to control the shooting speed, the aperture and the ISO. Some of these are . . .

– Studio portraits
– Black tie events
– Product shots hand held

For the rest of what I shoot I do that in Aperture Priority (A or AV on your camera’s dial)

HERE’S WHY . . .

When I turned professional many years ago I had been schooled in “professionals shoot in manual” and I aspired to do just that and for some years that’s what I did.
We shot a lot of weddings in those days and I found myself missing opportunities outdoors because I was spending too much time adjusting the dials and settings and not enough time letting the camera help me.

On the day I had my lightbulb moment the bride came out of the service into a lovely sunny afternoon and she and her husband walked down a tree lined path towards me, the trees were casting shadows on the path so it was a continual sun, shade, sun shade and I was changing the camera speed every second or so to adjust for the sun and the shade AND THAT’S WHEN IT HIT ME!!

I switched into Aperture priority and set F8 and let the camera decide on the shutter speed for me.

All I had to do then was frame my shot and click away like a point and shoot camera and no more missing the shot.

Think of it like this . . If I gave you plates to spin would you prefer less or more plates to deal with? By switching your camera to Aperture you only have to spin one plate and the cameras spins the rest for you.

Last year we were at the Cosford Air Show and I shot nearly 8000 photos in Aperture priority, there were lots of fast moving aircraft and because it was a bright day the camera gave me very high shutter speeds so everything was perfectly in focus.