Photography Question - How do I shoot in Manual ? Tips/Advice- Cant figure out my Digital Camera?

Question

I have an Olympus SP510
and I have been shooting on Program
I cant figure out how to use Manual Setting
No matter how much I change the settings - like
the ISO and white balance - nothing seems to help
Photos Outdoors are TOO Bright & over exposed
Photos Indoors are TOO DARK - even blacked out !
I cant find where to adjust the Aperture
Help any suggestions / Tips ???

Answer 1

i'm not familiar with your camera but mine have something like a meter that shows me if the picture is going to be over exposed or underexposed... it looks a bit like a bar code without the numbers and if the setting is correct, it would only show one bar... it is on the bottom of the screen... hope this help

Answer 2

According to the Manual: http://www.olympusamerica.com/files/SP-510UZ%20Advanced%20Manual.pdf



Set your dial to "M" for manual mode



Use a combination of shutter speed and aperture for lighting and effect.



I don't know if you have a meter with notches/pegs but on the manual on page 13, there's a note showing Exposure Differential and a number. Maybe 0 means "Proper Exposure"



Shutter Speed and Aperture affects the amount of light on your image but they also do other things.



Shutter Speed: Fast Shutter Speed - Action Shot. Moving Objects that are sharp. Less Light -darker image

Slow Shutter will give you the blur affect. - More Light- brighter image



Aperture - The Larger the #, the smaller the opening.(at least on my camera) 2.8 has a larger opening than 8

2.8 would let more light in and vice versa

What this also does is affect your Depth of Field.

How much the foreground and background is in focus in relation to your subject.

The larger the opening(smaller #) the sharper the area will look and vice versa



You can compensate the shutter speed and aperture with the other's setting.



Say you want a action shot, but it will come out dark according to the meter. Set the aperture to a wide opening to allow more light in.



The meter isn't always right, play around.

Shoot over and under the "0"



smallbluepickles has some good advice, try out the other settings first and then move into manual. Especially the setting that lets you set the aperture.

take multiple shots with diff. aperture settings and compare them.

Answer 3

Good question. Btw, you have a nice camera!



To shoot in full manual, it really helps to understand the amount of brightness (light available) in a scene. Professional photographers who have been shooting for ages may be able to use their eyes and come up with a reasonable close setting for a perfect exposure. However, for the majority of people it helps if the camera measures the lighting conditions for us.



I suggest you not shoot in full manual right away. It might help to shoot with the Av or Tv settings first to familiarize yourself with a less than full auto setting. These semi-manual settings gets you more comfortable with adjusting your camera while at the same time allowing the camera to help you determine correct exposure.



I'm pretty sure your camera has a live histogram. I also have an Olympus digicam and it has this wonderful feature. Get the live histogram to help you with determining exposure. When using it, you simply have to make sure that the majority of the area of the histogram falls in the center of the display. If it doesn't then you could change one of three things (ISO, shutter speed, or aperture value). See your instruction manual for how to use this. When using the live histogram with full manual setting, you are assured correct exposure if you follow it, rather than having to guess.

Answer 4

In Program (P) mode, the camera makes all the decisions for you -- but still allows you to set a few, such as ISO, white balance, exposure compensation. Whichever setting you did not set, the camera does it automatically for you.



To go all Manual, set the shooting mode to "Manual" (M) first. In this mode, the camera hands over all exposure setting decisions to you and you can do whatever you like.



In Manual mode, to change the aperture, you press UP arrow, then press the exposure compensation button. Then use the LEFT and RIGHT arrow keys to set aperture, UP and DOWN to set shutter speed. See p13 in your Advanced Manual..



Going to Manual mode may not help you obtain correct exposure. Understanding how to obtain correct exposure will -- and probably the best book ever written (and illustrated) on this subject is "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson. He uses Manual mode a lot and makes it all crystal clear. Check it out at your local library.

Answer 5

buy a book on photography,

read it, and the manual for your camera

maybe take a course or get some tutoring on photography from a pro (many will take students, as it's harder and harder to make a living taking pictures)

Answer 6

According to this site that reviews that model there is no manual setting. You have auto, aperture priority and shutter priority.



http://www.bizrate.co.uk/digitalcameras/olympus-sp510-digital-camera--pid491874210/information.html