When shooting in manual mode, do you use any camera metering feature to get in the ball park?

If so, what? Histogram? Meter?

Also, getting started....?..
for me anyway, I'm going back to my film days.

Part of my film choice was ASA (ISO today). I got used to a film's ISO and I could look at a scene and pick my F Stop and Shutter Speed.

So, I'm thinking setting the ISO first is good way to learn manual mode?....
Like picking a film.

Wrong thinking?

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You need to set the ISO first. Then use the meter in the bottom of the viewfinder. Since you already have experience with judging the light, set up your expected aperture and shutter speed first and then fine tune with the meter.

Len

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Exposure is the same for digital as it was for film. Set ISO on your D7K, look at the scene and pick your F stop and Shutter speed. You'll get similar results as you did for film.

The way I do it is...

Set desired ISO, usually 100, adjust this as scene requires.

Chose Aperture, for desired DOF characteristics and adjust shutter for good exposure. Of course adjusting ISO is the third variable.

Or chose shutter speed, for desired movement control and adjust aperture for good exposure. ISO variable in play here as well.

Check the analog meter readout in lower right of viewfinder for good exposure. There is a "0" with "+" on one side and "-" on the other. Dashed lines appear on the "+" side indicating the degree of Overexposure or Underexposure if the dashed lines appear on the "-" side. No lines indicate proper exposure for a normal scene. Of course if the scene is a bride in white gown against a white background the proper exposure would require at least one stop overexposure, or more.

The analog meter will show up to two stops either side of the "0". I normally use the analog meter readout to introduce exposure compensation while metering a scene rather than the "exposure compensation" button because once you set the button for exposure compensation it remains for all succeeding shots until you remember to change it.

Tom
From Beautiful Smith Mountain Lake in Virginia

It's no different than shooting film. Set your ISO, set your desired aperture (or shutter speed if that's more important), adjust shutter speed (or aperture) until you've zeroed the meter, and shoot. With digital, you then have the benefit of the histogram to see if the exposure is to your liking.

Alan

it's not manual in the conventional sense but I quite often use manual with automatic ISO - you set the aperture and shutter speed, and review ISO, and can adjust aperture or shutter speed if you don't like the ISO that you get.

W i l l

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And how would then control over or under exposure of more then 3 stops?

This also makes manually bracketing for HDR difficult if not impossible.

One not only uses the light meter but one should also check for blown highlights and the histogram spread to get the best possible exposure with the greatest dynamic range an minimum of blown highlights.

The ability to see blown highlights and the dynamic range recorded is only possible in digital since the image is processed and analyzed within the camera and not after development in a darkroom.

George
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It's very easy to turn automatic ISO off

W i l l

Nikonian in Bogor, West Java
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Using the term "ASA" is a dead giveaway that you were probably brought up using a manual or mostly manual camera.

1. Set ASA/ISO - you'll find that today's digital cameras produce extremely high results at ISO up to 1600 - well beyond anything film could ever do!
2. Set either aperture(f/stop) or shutter speed depending upon desired result - depth of field, stop action, etc.
3. I suspect most people use the in-camera light meter to make adjustments. You can also go absolutely manual by using the BDE (Basic Daylight Exposure) principle - shutter speed at f/16 = inverse of ISO (if ISO is 100, then correct exposure is f/16 at 1/100th) This of course supposes direct sunlught with sun behind you. Then, you can adust for sidelighting, backighting, hazy, cloudy, etc.
4. I utilize a combo of BDE and in-camera meter and often use my old hand held analog meter.
5. Post exposure I use a Hoodman loupe to check image via lcd and set my playback to show any blownout areas of image. I don't use histogram at all. I find the loupe really assists in checking the image in bright light

Have fun - you've chosen a great camera!

Tom

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The only thing I'll add: I often use the spot meter to check exposure on the important highlights, and I'll frequently underexpose a large portion of the image to preserve the highlights. I double-check my exposure settings post-shooting by looking at the highlights and seeing what is blown out.

In my case, I shoot a lot of dogs who have white muzzles with black masks, and dark fur overall. Seems like everybody just accepts the fact that those white muzzles are going to be blown out. Not me. With today's technology, I can expose with an eye towards preserving enough information in the highlights, and then bring up the rest of the image in post processing.

Bill,

A follow up to my message of a couple of days ago. I got to thinking about the in-camera reflective meter and went outside today and took a number of images using:
A) Internal D7000 reflective meter
B) external Sekonic Studio Delux II incident meter

I found that when comparing the images I was over-exposed using the D7000 internal reflective meter by anywhere from 1/3 to 1 1/3 stops!

It could be just my camera, but I find the results interesting and not really too surprising given the differences between reflective and incident metering.

So, if you're going to shoot manually with your D7000 and depend on the internal meter - compare results with an incident meter (if you have access to one) and be ready to compensate for the difference.

Tom

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Thanks everybody. Good tips.
I gotta practice.

Yeah, I took 3 semesters of photography in college..... A loooong time ago.

The class was taught by Tom Roe. A Brooks grad.

Can't even remember the make and model of my first SLR. But all I could afford was one camera with a normal lens (50 mm). Manual focus, manual exposure. The expensive cameras had built in meters.

Rolling Plus-x and Kodachrome in development reels in the pitch dark. Hoping you don't blow processing and ruining your shots.
Using Dodge and Burn while making prints.

All that equipment and chemicals $$$$$$

Photography has really changed...for the better.

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I am with Will. I use manual mode all the time and just set maximum auto iso. That is it.

Often when I shoot in manual I set the ISO to what I want to use, usually 200, and take incident light readings with my old Gossen Super Pilot light meter.

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