Camera Critter Meme #24

For this week's Camera Critter Meme, I thought I would pass on my favorite way to shoot when I go out. I didn't start shooting this way, but I have come to rely on it every chance I get. When I began shooting the smaller forms of wildlife where I live, I would stick my camera on Aperture Priority, the lens on f/8, the ISO at 200 and proceed to shoot to my heart's content. I was pleased with the results and continued shooting that way until...

Early last year, I read an article in a photography magazine which got me thinking. The author mentioned that in the studio, he always shot using manual settings based on the lighting around the subject. Most studio photographers shoot that way. But it was his usage of manual settings which caught my interest. I then refreshed my memory on manual shooting which was a style of shooting I used during my film days, grabbed my camera, set it up using the Sunny 16 Rule and off I went to my favorite shooting site, Dry Canyon Trail of Redmond, Oregon.

I came across a number of subjects to test my new style of shooting on and began snapping away. I shot the entire time with my camera set using the big "M" settings and never touched the dials all day. When I came home and looked at my photos, my eyes popped out. The contrast and colors were vivid and gorgeous, better than I thought my camera could accomplish. I was suddenly very sold on using Manual settings as often as possible.

California Tortoiseshell

Zephyr Anglewing

I set the camera initially with settings of ISO 200, Shutter Speed of 1/200 and aperture of f/16. I then turned the shutter speed to 1/400 a second which is a good quick speed, and increased the aperture to f/10 which was the same number of clicks I adjusted the shutter speed. The photos, as I mentioned before, were spectacular. Today, I shoot at ISO 100, a shutter speed of 1/400 and with an aperture of f/8 (which is the sweet spot aperture for the lens I shoot with). My camera is set to adjust exposure in one third increments, which differs from the listed settings in the charts below. However, following the suggested guidelines as mentioned below will provide similar results to my photos above.

More information on the Sunny 16 Rule can be found at the site linked above, or here:

For those interested, more in depth information on manual exposure can be found here and here: