Photo Basics:

Creative Exposure Modes

Manual Exposure (M) Mode
For total exposure control, especially in tricky lighting situations that can fool a camera’s exposure meter, choose the Manual Exposure mode. In this mode, you separately set both the shutter speed and ƒ-stop for a slightly darker or lighter picture (or background). You can also change the settings to control the degree of subject movement, as well as subject movement vs. background movement, and vice versa.

This Botswana sunset was already spectacular. To enhance the colors, I set the exposure to one stop under the camera-recommended setting while in the Manual mode.

To capture the beautiful sunset in the background and the couple in the foreground, I used an accessory flash and dialed in the correct ƒ-stop shutter speed combination while in the Manual mode, which let me fine-tune this tricky exposure in a tricky lighting situation.

I selected a relatively slow shutter speed (1/30th of a second) and wide aperture to blur the background and capture just a touch of movement of this butterfly’s wings.

Now that you see the reasons for, and advantages of, the creative exposure modes, I hope you take the time to use them and be more creative with your pictures!

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