Originally posted by hoghead How many of you shoot in manual all the time? I'm taking a nature photography class and the instructor reccomends shooting in manual 100% of the time to get proper exposure. I shoot in Av mode a lot to control depth of field and my pictures look great(using K20D). The camera seems to do really well with exposure in full auto too, I know. point and shoot. All of the pictures he takes are planned and from a tripod. I do lots of bike and car show events and can't take the time to "set-up" every shot. How to you guys shoot most of the time?
Excellent question.
If i'm walking around with other photographers or friends, I'm generally shooting in Green Auto mode. In general my photos are better exposed than i could make them.
By myself, i used to shoot in TAV all the time, and would adjust exposure by adjusting EV settings.
Then i found a better way. I shoot in Manual mode. I found it was far easier than messing with EV settings all the time. Pentax makes manual mode really easy in a coupla ways. If i care about aperture, i set the aperture manually, then click the green button and the meter sets my shutter speed. I do a significant amount of night scenes on a tripod and the aperture counts for a lot in terms of DOF. I'd rather not fight some auto program in this situation. When i care about shutter speed instead of aperture, i just reverse the above.
I just recently read that once you meter the situation, you can set the AEL lock. Then when you go to set shutter or aperture in manual, the shutter or aperture automatically jumps to the appropriate setting for the mettered lock.
So, i use Manual mostly and Green auto if i'm with others.
Phil