Best Time for Manual Settings

• Manual settings are best used in conditions where automatic settings don’t provide a good enough picture, like low light. Flash usually takes care of this problem, but you may not like the effect, and pictures taken at manual settings are generally more pleasing to the eye. Manual control also works better when you have time to tweak and play with such settings for a better effect, like with stationary subjects or in a photographic studio.
  
  

Types of Manual Modes

• Manual settings are mainly found in higher-end, single-lens reflex (SLR) cameras. Most of the smaller, point-and-click cameras don’t have manual functions. Most digital SLR cameras, by contrast, offer varying degrees of manual control, letting you control either the aperture or the shutter speed. Different effects can be achieved in each mode.
  
  

Shutter Priority

• Shutter priority settings are labeled as Tv in most cameras, according to the book “Digital Art Photography for Dummies.” This mode controls the speed in which the aperture opens and closes as you click to take a picture. The slower the aperture speed, the more light enters the camera’s sensor. Slower shutter speeds enable light-trailing effects, while fast shutter speeds are frequently used in sports photography.
  
  

Aperture Priority

• Aperture priority controls are commonly labeled as Av and allow the photographer to open or close the “iris” in the cameras photographic lens. The more open the iris, the more light enters the camera every time you take a picture. The effect is different from that of shutter priority, however. Aperture is measured in F-stop numbers; the lower the number, the wider the aperture.
  
  

“M” Mode

• Full-on manual mode —also known as “M” mode— lets you control both the aperture and shutter speed, giving you full control over the picture’s exposure. Pressing a button and flicking on a dial lets you control the aperture, while doing the same without pressing that button lets you control the shutter or vice versa.
  
  

ISO Speed

• Exposure control also introduces another variable: ISO speed (ISO stands for International Standards Organization). This is similar to the “speed” used to describe different types of film; faster films are more sensitive to light than slower ones. ISO speed is applied to the digital realm to represent the sensitivity of the photographic sensor. Unlike the shutter and aperture, which can be changed in real-time, ISO speed is usually set beforehand in the camera’s settings menu.