Last time i was dealing with a more advanced topic the magic cloth technique, this time its a more intermediate level.
I am tempted to answer the rhetoric question in the title with an “Everything”. Writing this blog post gave me an issue I was striving between two titles “Wrong with automatic mode” and “Help my dial is stuck on M” and I am still in doubt which is the better.
This rant in about Manual, my dial seems to have grown stuck there. Oddly enough, regardless of the amount of technology we have invented, there is still a great need for manual mode in photography. Our cameras can detect everything from back-lit photography to fixing a red eye and it can even detect faces of our beloved ones, so why is there any need for Manuel mode and do we really need it, silly question really as i already answered this in the beginning of this article 🙂
Everywhere there is a witty head that is willing to tell you that that manual mode is obsolete, that it is no longer needed, and boy, how you should not listen to them. Most professionals that i know uses this day. But do not take my word on it, let’s dive in-depth, and find out why.
The logic of the camera has to guess what it is you are trying to achieve. Based on its understanding, the camera applies some assumptions for its program to work. Lets say that you are shooting a photo of a person up against the sun. Your camera now has to guess what you are doing, are you trying to make the person you shoot stand in silhouette, do you want or to get one of these nicely warm looking back-lit photographs? If you try to use an automatic mode, rest assure that your camera assumes something entirely different, and it messes up the shot. Even with back-lit programs your camera is almost certain to get it wrong, its auto focus will certainly not work, the colors will be off, and the shutter time and aperture at best predefined best guess values.
This is an example of the problems with automatic modes. I am tempted to say always, but to stay safe from flames, i guess I’ll say on saying that sometimes the assumptions are flat out wrong.
How to get started with manual mode
where you want to start is to figure out what you want to do artistically. Once you have figured that out, manual photography suddenly becomes a lot less complicated while the changes you have to make is fairly intuitive. Judging the light, and then pick the aperture and shutter speeds that are right for the job. there isn’t much more to it…
Sounds scary ? it really isnt. Learning the exposure triangle isnt rocket science, adding to that then live view will aid you a great deal. I recommend making you familiar with the effects of the Aperture Priority and Shutter Priority exposure modes before moving on to Manual mode. The aperture is the hole in your lens that light passes through to get to the image sensor where the shutter is how long time the sensor is exposed. A change to each of them affects the resulting photo.
The Golden Hour 
Program Mode
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The program mode is kind of confusing, because it is like automatic mode except you have the ability to change select settings like turning the flash off or on, and manually setting your white balance.
The capabilities of the program mode differ by brand and camera model. Some will allow you to adjust settings like the ISO and focus points, others will allow you to an aperture/shutter combination, while others again will have more limited options.
Shutter priority
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This mode allows you to select the shutter speed and then the camera adjusts the aperture to a value that will work with the shutter speed you’ve selected to create a properly exposed photograph.
Shutter speed controls how quickly or slowly your shutter closes. This allows you to control that amount of light that goes into the lens. The longer the shutter is open the more time the light has to get into the camera and hit the sensor to create the image.
It also controls how much movement is visible in your photo. As the shutter speed increases movement is frozen, whereas decreasing the shutter speed increases the visibility of motion. If portraying or freezing movement is your main concern, shutter priority is a good place to start.
Aperture priority
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This mode allows you to set your aperture and then the camera automatically changes the other settings to make them work with the aperture you’ve chosen.