matty

When you are working with longer shutter speeds, do you still shoot in manual mode, or do you switch to Tv mode?

I've found that if I'm in manual mode, and say, using a 1 second shutter, I just dial the aperture until the exposure meter gets close to zero. Is this what you guys do, or simply switch to Tv, set your shutter, set your exposure meter, and let the camera handle the aperture.

I know the answer can vary depending on the media you are shooting, however, when using extended shutters, you usually are not shooting portraits or macros where you are dialing in a specific aperture for foreground/background focusing is of importance.

Any experienced insight would be greatly appreciated. Let me know if I didn't explain well enough and I'll give it another shot.

ciao998

hmmmm, I'll have to play with Tv mode

jezterr

like you said. it varies depending on the situation, but i find most often that i use shutter priority (tv) when i'm shooting sports, specifically motorsports. i have a certain appearance that i go for when shooting bikes, and with the varying amounts of light that could occur on a track (clouds, shadows, trees, color of the pavement, etc) i have to let the camera adjust the aperture accordingly.

for more landscape or experimental stuff, i normally use manual, depending on whether or not i'm getting the specific exposure that i want and/or if the meter may be reading completely wrong.

and you're right, when shooting things like portraits, i'm more focused on the depth of field, which you control with the aperture, as opposed to shutterspeed (excluding special situations, ie low light, special effects, etc).

__________________

eric

+1 to jezterr. If shutter speed is most important for what I'm shooting and I have to shoot fast, yes to shutter priority mode. I shoot manual for shots I'm slowly setting up for one shot, like landscapes.