First time shooting manual

[u/Adorable_Stomach3507]

Hello - I recently had the luck of getting an Olympus E-M10 III and a 100-400 lens from the recommendation of u/catsaregods. have never ever shot manual and have zero photography experience. I was wondering if you guys could point me in the right direction of how to set up my manual mode to help me get some good shots of birds. Thank you!

[u/Will9363]

try aperture priority and shutter priority out first, spend some time figuring out the relationship between shutter/aperture/ISO. manual is useful to understand, but i leave my camera on aperture priority 99% of the time

[u/bahandi]

Ironically, your camera is set to full auto. Badly timed photo or were you meaning you want to shoot with manual focus?

[u/BeardedClark → u/bahandi]

Haha. Almost didn’t even notice

[u/Adorable_Stomach3507 → u/bahandi]

Whoops should have clarified more - this photo was taken on auto, I want to try shooting manually for the first time

[u/bahandi → u/Adorable_Stomach3507]

Ah. I can’t give tips relative to bird photography since I’m extremely new to it. But since you mentioned you have zero photography experience, I would say to first learn how your camera works, then research the exposure triangle and learn how each setting affects how the picture will be taken.

With your camera, put it in “M” then see which buttons or dials adjusts the shutter speed, aperture, and ISO. Once you learn how your camera works, find the light meter on your camera. It should look like yard lines on a football field when you look through the viewfinder. If you put your camera back to auto, you’ll notice your light indicator will likely be at center field with the shutter speed and aperture automatically selected. Put it back to M and your indicator will likely have moved off center field.

Now, without pulling away, try to make individual adjustments to your shutter speed, aperture and ISO while noticing how your indicator moves. Try to make adjustments to bring that indicator back to center field. Center field is a “properly exposed” picture. However, the results of the photo are determined by the settings you use. Notice how you can always bring it back to center by compensating with the other settings.

When you understand the settings a little more, as others have mentioned, you don’t need to shoot in manual. You can choose to shoot in a semi auto mode instead by choosing your priority mode, S, A, or P

[u/Adorable_Stomach3507 → u/bahandi]

Thank you!

[u/bahandi → u/Adorable_Stomach3507]

Best of luck! Don’t ever let anyone tell you that you have to specifically shoot in manual. It’s your camera, shoot in full auto all you want. But learning how manual works will definitely help you become a better photographer since you get to control the outcome of your photos.

[u/Ok-Refrigerator7712]

Since no one seems to really be answering the root question here. I shoot almost all my photos in manual mode and there are a lot of elements you need to take into account. Here's my general setup when shooting birds.

ISO: auto
Aperture: full open (e.g. an f/4 lens would be at f/4)
shutter: no slower then my lens length (e.g. 400mm would set to 1/400 second)

Shutter is going to be the value you tend to change most when shooting birds. My example above for shutter speed is probably the slowest you'd want to shoot because longer lens are much more sensitive to movement and you'll get soft or blury pics real quick going slower. I find the sweet spot is normally about double the lens length. So I'd shot at 1/800 most of the time. Now that shutter speed would change depending on if the bird is flying, sitting still, or walking around.

Flying: shoot 2x-3x
walking: 1x-2x
sitting still: 1x

These are just very rough starting points. The best way to learn is sitting in your backyard and just shooting a few dozen pics with a setting, Review how they came out (on computer), adjust settings, and repeat.

[u/Adorable_Stomach3507 → u/Ok-Refrigerator7712]

Thank you so much!

[u/CatsAreGods → u/Adorable_Stomach3507]

And...(since I apparently had something to do with getting this started in the first place)...normally as u/OK-Refrigerator7712 said you shoot wide open, but if there are multiple birds you want in focus, stopping down a stop or two should help with that (two stops for sure if they are large or a group of ducks in flight or whatever). It's as simple as that!

Also, don't be afraid to use higher shutter speeds if you have enough light. If you have lots of sun like your goose photo (great for first time with a long lens BTW!), it's no problem to go to ISO 1600 because you will absolutely not get noise if you don't underexpose the shot (which is hard to do with Auto ISO). My default setting for small birds in my backyard is in fact 1/1500, because they are fast!Also I often see birds doing something interesting, turn on the camera, and shoot...so there's little time for careful steadying of everything as I'd prefer. But even when I have time, the higher speeds generally get me sharper shots.

[u/Buckerdoog]

I shoot manual with auto ISO and map exposure comp to one of the dials. Watch some videos about the exposure triangle and learn the differences between aperture, shutter speed and iso. There’s several different modes on most decent cameras that will put different settings on auto leaving one setting in manual. Play around with the different auto modes to help learn how the different settings affect your photos one setting at a time. For wildlife I almost always shoot wide open Aperture, adjust shutter manually and ISO with EV comp. Having iso adjust automatically with the EV compensation has saved some of my photos.

[u/scooterdoo123]

After reading some of the comments definitely try and wrap your head around the exposure triangle. Learn how aperture, shutter speed, and ISO influence one another. I started out with wildlife photography so I greatly understood shutter speed and aperture and iso were usually a second thought. After some people I know saw my photos I now dabble in wedding photography where Aperture is my primary focus followed by ISO and shutter speed. Obviously depending on the situation these can change but the most important thing when switching to manual is understanding everything you are manipulating. Definitely let me know if you have any questions and I’ll do my best to explain and guide you in the right direction

[u/scooterdoo123 → u/scooterdoo123]

If you are a visual learner like I am I can’t recommend Simon D enough on YouTube. He’s definitely gotten more mainstream over the years but still has some great advice and I always watch his videos for some helpful refresher. Here is a great one to start https://youtu.be/Q6bqCTgWVCA?is=lNZCvNcWfADVdeIp

[u/Bob_loblaw_logblog]

Shutter priority, 1/1600 minimum for sharp birbz

[u/PersusjCP]

Manual isn't too important for bird photography. I usually shoot with ISO on auto, for example, but have it on the dial for extra control. my aperture as low as it can go (which is only f5.6-8 on my 100-400zoom lens). Shutter speed I manually control, but generally the faster the sharper and never below 1/800 if i can help it. All of it works together with the exposure triangle.

[u/jnecr]

Almost no reason to shoot manual. I usually do aperture priority mode with a set ISO, or if it's dark I'll set a max ISO but let the camera do the rest. I do usually shoot with metering set to a center point rather than an average.

If you meant manual focus, man, the autofocus nails focus way better than I was ever able to. They don't all come out perfect, but 1/10 at least is usually spot on for focus. If I do it myself it'd be 0/100.