I had not appreciated just how much was involved in taking photos when not using full auto.
Actually, there isn't.... and heed the warning the 'idea' that there must me, is what leads so many to spend more time looking AT the camera than THROUGH the camera....
There is far more to be found, looking AT your subject, and worrying about the angle of view, the framing, the composition and the lighting than there EVER is to be found fretting about 'settings'.
A year or two back I shot a set with my Granddad's Kodak Retinette, 'range-finder' film camera, that finally surfaced after it was left to me twenty years ago!
This is a clock-work camera; has no in-built light-meter, let alone one coupled to the aperture or shutter, everything has to be set manually, and focus? You foucs by the distance scale on the lens, and frame with a peep-hole.
When Pops used this camera it was like watching a major medical procedure as he wandered around taking incident light meter readings with a hand held meter; then set the camera up on the tripod, and faffed for twenty minutes with the 'accessory' range finder on the hot-shoe to get a focus distance to 'set' on the lens, before making the shutter and aperture settings...
He used to try taking an annual family photo infront of the Christmas tree each year, and I dont remember him EVER getting one, after posing us all infront of the tree, as every-one would have remembered presents they had to wrap, or gone to make a cup of tea, or gone to watch Zulu on TV, before he was ready to press the shutter! I really believed that this photography lark was 'so complicated' for most of my childhood!
BUT... when I came to actually use that camera myself; I assessed the light levels by eye and f16-Sunny, to get a best guess estimate of settings; took a couple of incident readings with a hand-held meter to check my guess was in the right ball-park, then discovered that the 'accessory' range-finder for calculating focus distance had been 'lost'.... so similarly judged distance by eye.. "How many times could I lie down between me and subject?" sort of reckoning; checked the DoF around my guestimate on the scale, did a quick check that that gave me enough tolerance around my subject if my guess was a bit out, and then worried about composing the shot.
After getting a 'base' exposure estimate, I only needed to tweek that a stop or two depending on the shot, I only had to tweek focus a little for each shot, and I shot pretty much an entire roll of film.. (a decades worth of pictures for Pops, I think!) almost 'point and shoot' in a couple of hours.
That was with a camera that is fully manual; you dont have any choice but make all the settings your self, there's NO automatic easements... you HAVE to shoot 'manual'; manual metering, manual exposure settings, manual focus... YET despite how absorbed and involved Pops used to get with setting it all up.. even THERE you dont have to!
There's as much 'faff' as you want to make the job... and most of the job, ISN'T faffing with the camera! Its in seeing the photo-ops; making the best of whats infront of the camera, and composing that in the frame to best effect.
Yup theres a LOT of knobs you can fiddle and faff with... but practically there's only really three and a half...
Focus; top of the list, get that wrong and you cant do mug all about it after.
Aperture; has influence over focus / Depth of Field, so you need to be a bit cute picking an appropriate one, some-times.
Shutter Speed; has influence over motion blur; you need a shutter speed high enough to avoid camera shake, and then to freeze motion in the scene... or low enough to blurr it, if you want that effect. Can beg a little thought, but most of the time, putting the shutter speed number higher than the lens length, is good enough!
ISO... the 'half' a thought. For Film, we have to pick the Film-Speed before we load up, and little we can do about it after! so a bit of thought before you even start may be required, but after that cant change it, so why fret about it! With widgetal, you can change ISO shot by shot, so may beg some thought if you hit the buffers and reckon you may want to turn it up or down to be able to use more favorable aperture or shutter speed for the scene.
That is IT.. that is the primary control you have 'in' a camera... not a lot really!
Read this:-
Exposure - Exposed!..
'Cheap' and later 'built-in' meters were the start of a LOT of 'Faff-Feux-tograffy'... making folk spend a lot of time, obsessing about the meter, numbers and settings rather than 'the scene', convinced how 'critical' metering is, before how important aperture and shutter settings based on it must then be....
In fact, the meter LIES! In camera it's only measuring reflected light and assumes that it's seeing about 18% grey on average... it may or may not be!
Tutorial shows, you can get a decent 'picture', one, or two, maybe even three stops either side of the meter's 'best guess' exposure value!!
Its rather 'subjective' what is the 'best' exposure; and there's no such thing as a scientifically correct one, so the scientific accuracy of your metering method does rather tend to insignificance!
It's very easy then to get lost like kiddie-in-the-sweet-shop, looking at ALL the possible choices, never making one.... BUT... end of the day, the 'criticality' of any particular setting combination, and the correctness of the 'exposure value' you based them on, ISN'T all 'THAT' important.....
Certainly not as important, as getting the subject in the frame... as Pops lesson... all well and good having the 'perfect' focus distance, the ideal DoF, the most crucially calculated exposure value... if by the time you have considered all that, and got the camera 'set up' all you have left in the frame is the Christmas tree, 'cos the 'subjects' have all bludgered off to make tea, wrap presents or watch Michael Caine and Sean Connery get shot by men with spears!
A stop represents a halving or doubling of light; EVEN with digital cameras that don't have the 'exposure latitude' of film.. you have a HECK of a lot of 'tolerance'...
It's very easy to get settings 'wrong'... but remember there's no such thing as the 'right' exposure, so even less the 'right' settings, its all about preference and tolerance, and faffing with them for the sake of is a road to madness!!!
Its as 'involved' as you want to make it, it can be as much 'faff' as you let it, or as 'simple'... if you DON'T get get lost in the trees looking for the woods.
Keep it Simple Silly... you will NOT make huge difference to your pictures obsessing about settings; you WILL make a lot more difference paying attention to the SCENE! Spend more time worrying about looking THROUGH the camera, not AT the camera!
