Quote Originally Posted by Jerry R View Post
I agree with alamo on setting the dial to manual. A lot depends upon what you want to shoot. Product photography, landscapes, people, scenic towns/villages, etc. Since light is very important, I normally set ISO to automatic. Then I consider whether I want aperture or shutter speed to be dominant. Example, I am shooting a landscape, and doing it handheld. I would pick a shutter speed that I could hold with minimal shake, say around 1/500 or greater. Then pick an aperture that would provide the depth of field I wanted. Snap it, look at the image. If it is too dark, or too light, adjust either the shutter or aperture. ISO will try to take the image as best it can, but the scene may be slightly out of "range", hence the slight changes may be necessary.

Having said that, for product shots (usually with a tripod) I always set the ISO to 100 and make the light provide enough brightness (unless outside) to get a sharp image. This forces me to pick shutter and aperture to make the image clean. I do that only because higher ISO setting can introduce grain into the image. It's a lot of fun learning the camera, and manual is the way to learn. Auto will take nice snapshots, but manual is the learning tool for photographs.

Start a thread, and show us some of the shots. Include the settings for each shot, and we can (maybe) provide some insight.

Following with great interest.
Jerry and Alamo,

The Manual mode is the sole intent for the investment so far! Naturally, since making this post, I've either worked on sunny days, or been off-work on crappy days. Today continues that tradition as it's wet, cold and the light outdoors is horrible. Spring will come, and with it many trips to the woods and other outdoor areas, but for now, all I can do is practice indoor shots. To Jerry's point about ISO, I think I am making the connection to what he's saying by compensating with shutter speed and aperture adjustments at an extreme low ISO setting. I'm basically learning with garbage shots, moving through max, and minimum settings to help understand the interrelationship of these settings before moving on. I must admit, parts of the reading and sitting with the camera are enlightening, and others are less than thrilling, but I recognize the need to lay a good base and am dutifully not skipping ahead. If any of you have good resources, please share them! It's a new wing to my library. Breaks are necessary for my ADD, so I am working in some checkering work on my commander project and getting ready to switch to the vertical grooves, which mandates installing grip bushings to attach the marvel checkering fixture to. All-in-all, it beats just sitting around and watching movies on a rainy Sunday.

I hope y'all are having a great weekend!