How to Use Manual Exposure Mode for Wildlife Photography

[@paulinefollett3099]

As a bird photographer I use manual mode with auto ISO. It works very well. I am enjoying your content very much Paul.

[@rlgenge]

As a rule of thumb I tend to use spot metering for open space bird photography and choose a reflecting object that gives me the best shutter speed and in close field of view where I expect the bird to appear and focus on the subject. This way I can keep my shutter speed up and ISO down and grab a sharp picture, any over brightness I control firstly with the aperture setting which is initially set at 5.6 during daytime. Sunrise and sunset I can hopefully drop the aperture and let more light in. I find that any shadow or brightness issues are usual easily recovered in post processing.

[@danielladd7424]

In doing macro photography I always use manual exposure because I shoot with speed light. I also bracket my exposures and the subject always looks better

[@njs12706]

I use manual all the time on partial metering. I generally take a reading from a mid tone, mostly grass or grey sea, taking care of reflected sky. Love your stuff, very clear

[@PaulMiguelPhotography]

Good stuff Nigel. I often take a manual exposure reading. Thanks for the kind comments.

[@skiingowl]

Once the insurance get their act together, I'm getting a 'modern' digital SLR (my previous one was the EOS 300D - KISS digital). Probably the Canon EOS 90D or the 6D MK II. I've replaced my stolen EOS 50 with a second hand one - so pleased to find that I can still buy film! All of which is to say that I am quite used to a fixed ISO, with a very limited range (100, 200, 400, and if I really wanted to splash out, 800, and I'm pretty sure that I used some 1600 film once). The concept of being able to vary the ISO setting is a new one for me, and your video explained it very well. I am looking forward to the upgrade even more now!

[@PaulMiguelPhotography]

I'm glad this video was helpful Sandi. 90D and 6D both very good cameras.

[@myf0c4ld1st4nc3]

Manual exposure with auto ISO. Whenever necessary I use exposure compensation. Nice video. Thanks.

[@gpfeiffer1]

I shoot auto ISO almost exclusively with exposure compensation as needed for conditions.

[@garystone6583]

Hi Paul. never thought about manual exposure before. will be giving it a try on my 5D mark iv. will let you know how i get on.

[@PaulMiguelPhotography]

Great. 5D mark iv is very similar to the 1DX, if not the same.

[@mickbear413]

Your videos, are so easy to understand, and explain things so easily. You are my go to videos, for any help that I need in my wildlife photography. Thanks so much Paul. Stay safe

[@PaulMiguelPhotography]

Thank you so much Mick.

[@jettles1]

Always enjoy your content, I use manual with auto ISO most of the time except early morning or dusk.

[@PaulMiguelPhotography]

Sounds perfect to me.

[@CamillaI]

Certainly recommend manual exposure once you have got the hang of the exposure triangle ! I Wouldn't use anything else now especially with the mirrorless cameras these days ! What you see is what you get awesome work Paul !

[@PaulMiguelPhotography]

Best way if you can, but I do use AV quite often nowadays.

[@nsbhagwat]

@@PaulMiguelPhotography Paul, any plans to go mirror less? R3 maybe?

[@paulbaldwin2290]

Really well explained Paul ! Made it easy to understand 👍your just cut out for this job a natural teacher! Keep them coming 👌

[@PaulMiguelPhotography]

Always appreciated. Cheers Paul!

[@paulbaldwin2290]

@@PaulMiguelPhotography cheers Paul thanks for taking time to reply to everybody decent of you! Missing my little heart replys though 👍

[@paulbaldwin2290]

🤣🤣👍👌Thanks you really appreciate your subscribers a credit to you 👏👏

[@geoffmartinvideocraft5076]

Great video as always Paul , my photography as come a long way since watching your channel. Thanks

[@PaulMiguelPhotography]

Great to hear!

[@clivewelch1025]

Hi Paul brilliant video and probably the kick up the arse I need to start practicing with manual. Until next time take care and stay safe my friend.

[@PaulMiguelPhotography]

Play around with it. Otherwise I'd probably say to use AV with auto ISO.

[@MW-ty1dv]

Nice video Paul, I always use Manual with auto iso shooting wildlife just before and after sunrise as light conditions change so rapidly. Same would apply through sunset. Keep up the good work

[@PaulMiguelPhotography]

Good stuff. Thanks for sharing Martin.

[@jimfok4343]

I do plant close up photography and am on Manual ALL the time. Slight changes in any of the triangle can make a huge difference in the capture. -Elaine

[@PaulMiguelPhotography]

Absolutely. I pretty much always use manual for close ups myself.

[@oscarosullivan974]

This is very helpful seen as though I'm new to wildlife photography

[@laku4412]

Great video! I personally use M+auto ISO or Av for general shooting, however if I have changing backgrounds (animals moving, bif,...), I usually switch to full manual to avoid the camera making my subject darker/brighter. Especially a problem for very dark/bright animals, as there can be quite a loss of detail if the camera suddenly decides to expose differently. ^^

[@Eccentripoet]

Hi Paul. Another great video from yourself. I've recently bought a 1DX and I'm still finding new settings on it. So, I shall be studying all of your videos intently.

[@PaulMiguelPhotography]

Many thanks Colin. The DX is an oldie.. but a goodie. I hope you find the videos of more use.

[@alanryder]

Instructional and very informative video as usual Paul. Top marks ..... but as far as one of your least favourite (or is that favorite), animals goes, (ref: 5:47 into the video), I have discovered via Wikipaedia that the Latin name is Sciurus carolinensis rather than "Immigrant Tree-rat" but I suspect you knew that already 😊

[@thomastuorto9929]

Except when I first purchased my camera( took a few photos in the P Mode to get an idea of the settings for a starting off point) , always in M with Auto ISO for wildlife. Once in a while, like shooting up into the sky to for an Osprey & the underside is just way to dark, I'll switch to Manual ISO & & not worry about the sky exposure which really doesn't blow out the highlights to often. Even with spot metering ( which I use a majority of the time ) in this situation , the metered area is to big to just read the bird. For some odd reason I never gotten use to using the Exposure Comp button/dial for this. Probably should start exercising my memory muscles for it.to give it a fair try but feel it is more for the more auto modes like A, or Tv in the Canon world. Thanks for the vid. Looks like you could get some wildlife photos near that Apple tree.

[@PaulMiguelPhotography]

Thanks for sharing your techniques. I agree about the sky exposure - the bird is important - if it's white sky you can blow it out.

[@kilohotel6750]

When I shot with the 1DX2 I always used manual with auto ISO but since switching to the R5 last year it’s been full manual. Now having three dials and being able to see the histogram in the view finder it’s so fast and easy to adjust whichever of three I need for the subject and exposure meter has become irrelevant.

[@PaulMiguelPhotography]

Sounds brilliant. So you pretty much meter by looking at the histogram.. in the viewfinder?

[@kilohotel6750]

@@PaulMiguelPhotography Exactly and having that third dial makes it so easy and fast to change shutter, aperture or ISO depending on the situation.

[@ianpawson1356]

Great video again, need to practice more on manual

[@PaulMiguelPhotography]

Thank you Ian.

[@narutodayo]

I do use manual exposure, exclusively. My lens is so dark, 7.1, that I don't ever adjust my aperrure, and I leave the shutter pretty much at 1/2000, leaving ISO as the only thing I ever actually change. It's quick to do with the twist of a knob. However, I'm going to try your auto ISO approach and see how I get on.

[@PaulMiguelPhotography]

I understand. yes, try auto ISO and see if it works for you.

[@Jack-jy1tt]

Great video Paul, very informative. I use manual, but feel like I should try and use Shutter Priority a little more. I find that auto ISO is too unreliable, but like you I am mainly out in the early morning. I've only recently started trying to use exposure compensation, so it would be great to see how you tie this in with your use of AV/TV and manual too 👍 Look forward to the next one as always

[@PaulMiguelPhotography]

Cheers Jack. There's many ways to do things. Just a case of finding what works for you. And usually you can only really do that from practice in the field.

[@sophieg8897]

Thank you for the tips

[@danieltopham5911]

I've enjoyed all your videos for a long time and look forward to watching many more. Likenothers here, I use manual most of the time with auto ISO particularly for bird photography. When photographing at a slower pace I will use a set ISO to achieve what I want.

[@PaulMiguelPhotography]

Sounds perfect to me Daniel. And thank you for the kind comments.

[@basilboer8158]

Great video Paul. Just a bit unsure about your shutter speeds. I live in South Africa and what I consider to be a slow shutter speed ie 1/500 you often consider it to be rather fast. Fast to me is 1/1600 upwards. Would appreciate your comments. I use the Sony rx10iv and do mostly birds and smaller wildlife photography, seldom landscapes.

[@PaulMiguelPhotography]

I guess I'd usually consider 1/1000 + as fast.

[@ashwinmistry9464]

Nice explanation thanks I am using Nikon d500 and using AP mode some time noise coming so much and if I decrease iso exposure meter will not adjust I mean during the struggle bird flu away Lol please guide me the best

[@PaulMiguelPhotography]

If you decrease ISO manually you will need to either lower shutter speed or open aperture. Other option is to set aperture and shutter speed and use Auto ISO.

[@Pseagust]

Thanks Paul. Another great video. I was only at the exact location for the "Tree Rats" as you last weekend. :-)

[@PaulMiguelPhotography]

It's a great spot. Always appreciate having that close to home.

[@Pseagust]

@@PaulMiguelPhotography Its also local for me. I'm just down the road in Harrogate

[@janos71]

One thing that is bothering me, is that on my canon 6D you can't use exposure compensation when you are in manual mode with auto iso.

[@PaulMiguelPhotography]

It is a problem - you can't do this on some cameras.

[@craigsteele5661]

Hi Paul enjoying your videos greatly . i have used manual exposure ever since i picked a camera up 40 years ago and would not use any other mode . i use Auto iso and exposure compensation all the time with wildlife and sports .i have tried Apeture priority ,but its not for me.

[@PaulMiguelPhotography]

Hi Craig. That's fair enough, it's whatever works for you. If manual does the job keep using it!

[@jeffkatzer]

Thanks Paul, good info.

[@PaulMiguelPhotography]

Thanks Jeff.

[@peterbarby9251]

Something I've been playing with of late in the waterfall shots I took recently. When I use manual mode, I more often than not use auto ISO. This wasn't helpful to shoot the waterfall as I wanted to make the water look "creamy". It took a moment or two to work out why my first shots were totally underexposed. Anyways, I eventually worked it out. So this will be very helpful for those trying manual mode for the first time. I could have done with the video a couple of weeks ago, mind, but I hope it helps others. One last thing, Paul. I'm not totally sure that's the Latin name for Grey Squirrels 😂😂😂 but I think yours is better than the one I use. KZbin friendlier at least. Anyways, great video, mate. 👍🏻

[@PaulMiguelPhotography]

Manual is absolutely best for waterfalls.. you can control everything. The Grey Squirrels - I swear I just googled it and that's what came up.. Who'd of thought..? Someone else reckons it's Sciurus Carolinensis.. I think they're talking out of the their duck's aperture.

[@peterbarby9251]

@@PaulMiguelPhotography 🤣. I think that other person is clearly mistaken. I'll go with your "Latin" because mine isn't KZbin friendly 😉. Anyhoo, I'm really getting to grips with manual mode. I'm using now for everything. It makes a difference I'm finding. Looking forward to next month when I'll be going to Stainforth Force in the hope of shooting the salmon run. Hope to get a little more rain so the rivers are swollen enough to get them leaping. Should be fun

[@philipwatson2443]

i use manual all the time, for wildlife i have it on auto iso, for landscaes full manual.

[@PaulMiguelPhotography]

Great stuff!

[@joshbaileyphotography]

Thank you this was very helpful 👍🙏

[@PaulMiguelPhotography]

Thanks Josh.

[@SkylarkFields]

Helpful! Thank you!

[@PaulMiguelPhotography]

Thank you!

[@simonworger]

I like using manual mode the most but what I struggle with is knowing what shutter speed I need for the type of animal I trying to photograph. Any tips ? Or have you done a video on this ?

[@PaulMiguelPhotography]

I've not done this specifically but have mentioned it a few times. A lot of it is practice. Anything moving you need usually at least 1/500 but static subjects can be a lot less than this.

[@malaustwick5364]

Hi Paul, Great vid as per usual 👍. I've been using Manual with Auto ISO since I started last year and with the early mornings have been getting a lot of grainy images due to light conditions (High ISO)!! Maybe I need to look at Aperture priority for these outings instead? Thanks Pal.

[@PaulMiguelPhotography]

Manual with Auto ISO is great but yeah, I prefer AV with auto ISO early morning. But basically, if light levels are very low the ISO will always be fairly high. You can try sacrifice shutter speed for lower ISO.

[@CZOV]

You are addicted to this 400 f/5.6 eh? :)

[@PaulMiguelPhotography]

Lol. I don't always use it. But it's ideal for making video with when I need something..

[@skakdosmer]

I see so many videos with horrible music, often even during verbal explaining. So much nicer here: No music during speech, and very good music in between! Oh, I shouldn’t forget: Very good content also.

[@PaulMiguelPhotography]

Thank you! I have learnt it's best to keep to a minimum - and occasionally it may be soft in the background. I do enjoy my music!

[@sherryroberson446]

I use manual most of the time

[@MrRobovision]

"Immigrant tree-rat" 😆

[@garyshilton9502]

My camera hasn’t got auto iso!!

[@PaulMiguelPhotography]

Which camera is it?