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A rather common advice to UW photo n00bs is to shoot manual. Allegedly, you'll get better results, and you'll learn more. Uh-huh? I can agree that if you shoot macro, and if you want a black background to your subjects, manual is probably the way to shoot. However, having started out myself with an all-manual, all-mechanical camera, more than 90% of my shooting these days is auto exposure. Usually aperture priority auto.
I got my first SLR sometime during the Bronze age (in the late 70s, to be more precise). It was a Nikon FM. Since I didn't start diving until many years later, it was only used topside. The FM was a beautiful little camera, but manual exposure plainly sucked, and it still does for most of my shooting. I was über-happy when I got myself an FE2, and then an F301 (the N2000 for you 'murricans). Going from full manual to aperture priority auto, and later having the option of program auto, gave me the opportunity to focus (pun not intended) on composition and shooting rather than fiddling with the controls.
Now, understanding exposure is good. Understanding the effect of shutter speed on motion blur is good. Understanding the effect of aperture on DOF is good, but if you use a compact, that issue is rather moot. With the small sensors found in compact cameras, you have loads of DOF anyway, no matter which aperture you choose. And you usually have about two apertures' range to choose from before diffraction starts to mess with your sharpness. But if you understand shutter speed and aperture, and you know where to find your exposure compensation setting (I've put it on the wheel that doesn't control my aperture), you usually don't need the hassle of manual exposure. And you don't need to shoot manual to learn that, IMNSHO.
When I shoot pictures underwater, I want to spend my available mental bandwidth (which is limited) on getting the best shot I can manage, not on fiddling with the exposure settings. With the diving experience I have, I'm task loaded enough already. When I started taking pictures underwater I shot only in P auto, to keep my task loading at a minimum. I had enough to worry about with buoyancy control, buddy awareness and learning to shoot underwater subjects. These days I shoot almost exclusively in aperture priority auto, with TTL strobe control. Had I still been using a compact, I'd probably still be shooting in P mode, since aperture is pretty irrelevant on those tiny sensors.
I control the ratio of ambient to flash by dialing in exposure compensation, usually 1-2 EV underexposure on ambient light, with +/-0 on the strobes. I don't need manual. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt. Not going back unless I should start doing macro. In that case I might go manual again, with a fixed ISO setting. But don't bet on it, because I like some ambience in my photos, so I probably won't shoot to get a black background. And I doubt very much that I'll ever run my strobes in manual. TTL works great on my system, giving me the appropriate dose of strobe lighting for the distance I'm at, and if my subject is zone 3 or zone 7 instead of zone 5, I'll just dial in some exposure compensation on the flash metering. Because I know the zone system, and I know enough about exposure to understand when I should tweak the camera's decision on what "correct" exposure is. Besides, shooting raw format gives me some leeway for correcting minor exposure errors when I post-process.
Manual exposure? No thanks. I live in the 21st century, and modern cameras are pretty darned good at calculating exposure. If I want to control motion blur, DOF, or both, I know what kind of auto I should use (shutter priorty, aperture priority or "manual" with auto ISO, respectively). Using automatic exposure in a fairly intelligent way makes life a lot simpler when I shoot at depths ranging from close to the surface to almost 30m, with murky water or poor daylight to add to the light intensity variation.
End of rant, fire at will
I got my first SLR sometime during the Bronze age (in the late 70s, to be more precise). It was a Nikon FM. Since I didn't start diving until many years later, it was only used topside. The FM was a beautiful little camera, but manual exposure plainly sucked, and it still does for most of my shooting. I was über-happy when I got myself an FE2, and then an F301 (the N2000 for you 'murricans). Going from full manual to aperture priority auto, and later having the option of program auto, gave me the opportunity to focus (pun not intended) on composition and shooting rather than fiddling with the controls.
Now, understanding exposure is good. Understanding the effect of shutter speed on motion blur is good. Understanding the effect of aperture on DOF is good, but if you use a compact, that issue is rather moot. With the small sensors found in compact cameras, you have loads of DOF anyway, no matter which aperture you choose. And you usually have about two apertures' range to choose from before diffraction starts to mess with your sharpness. But if you understand shutter speed and aperture, and you know where to find your exposure compensation setting (I've put it on the wheel that doesn't control my aperture), you usually don't need the hassle of manual exposure. And you don't need to shoot manual to learn that, IMNSHO.
When I shoot pictures underwater, I want to spend my available mental bandwidth (which is limited) on getting the best shot I can manage, not on fiddling with the exposure settings. With the diving experience I have, I'm task loaded enough already. When I started taking pictures underwater I shot only in P auto, to keep my task loading at a minimum. I had enough to worry about with buoyancy control, buddy awareness and learning to shoot underwater subjects. These days I shoot almost exclusively in aperture priority auto, with TTL strobe control. Had I still been using a compact, I'd probably still be shooting in P mode, since aperture is pretty irrelevant on those tiny sensors.
I control the ratio of ambient to flash by dialing in exposure compensation, usually 1-2 EV underexposure on ambient light, with +/-0 on the strobes. I don't need manual. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt. Not going back unless I should start doing macro. In that case I might go manual again, with a fixed ISO setting. But don't bet on it, because I like some ambience in my photos, so I probably won't shoot to get a black background. And I doubt very much that I'll ever run my strobes in manual. TTL works great on my system, giving me the appropriate dose of strobe lighting for the distance I'm at, and if my subject is zone 3 or zone 7 instead of zone 5, I'll just dial in some exposure compensation on the flash metering. Because I know the zone system, and I know enough about exposure to understand when I should tweak the camera's decision on what "correct" exposure is. Besides, shooting raw format gives me some leeway for correcting minor exposure errors when I post-process.
Manual exposure? No thanks. I live in the 21st century, and modern cameras are pretty darned good at calculating exposure. If I want to control motion blur, DOF, or both, I know what kind of auto I should use (shutter priorty, aperture priority or "manual" with auto ISO, respectively). Using automatic exposure in a fairly intelligent way makes life a lot simpler when I shoot at depths ranging from close to the surface to almost 30m, with murky water or poor daylight to add to the light intensity variation.
End of rant, fire at will
