Top 15 'Guesswork-to-Great-Shot' Photography Techniques to try for beginners to finally master manual mode - Goh Ling Yong
Ready to ditch the "spray and pray" of Auto mode? I see you. You bought that amazing DSLR or mirrorless camera with dreams of creating stunning, professional-looking photos. But every time you switch that dial to 'M' for Manual, a wave of confusion washes over you. The buttons, the numbers, the light meter dancing around... it feels more like guesswork than art. You end up with photos that are too bright, too dark, or just plain blurry.
Frustrated, you retreat to the safety of Auto, letting the camera make all the creative decisions for you. But that little voice in your head knows you're capable of more. You want to be the one telling the camera what to do, not the other way around. You want to intentionally create that creamy, blurred background or perfectly freeze a splash of water in mid-air.
Well, you've come to the right place. Moving from "guesswork" to "great shot" isn't about memorizing complex charts; it's about understanding a few core principles and practicing specific techniques that build your creative muscle. This guide will give you 15 actionable techniques that will demystify Manual Mode and put you firmly in the driver's seat. Let's turn that 'M' on your dial from "Mystery" to "Mastery."
1. Start by Controlling Just ONE Variable
The biggest mistake beginners make is trying to juggle all three elements of the Exposure Triangle (Aperture, Shutter Speed, and ISO) at once. It's overwhelming! Instead, simplify the process by locking down two of the settings and only adjusting the third.
Think of it like learning to drive a manual car; you don't start by trying to work the clutch, gas, and shifter all at the same time on a busy highway. You start in an empty parking lot, getting a feel for one thing at a time. For photography, pick a lighting situation that isn't changing rapidly, like an indoor room with consistent light or an overcast day.
Action Tip: Set your camera to Manual Mode. Put your ISO on a low, fixed number (like 200 or 400). Now, decide what's more important for your shot: depth of field or motion. If it's depth of field (for a portrait), set your aperture (e.g., f/2.8) and then only adjust your shutter speed until the light meter is balanced. You’ve just simplified the equation by 66%!
2. Make the Light Meter Your Best Friend
Inside your viewfinder (and on your LCD screen), there's a little number line that looks something like this: ...-2...-1...0...1...2.... This is your light meter, and it's the single most important tool for getting out of guesswork. It's your camera’s way of telling you what it thinks a correct exposure is.
The goal, most of the time, is to adjust your settings until the little indicator is on '0'. This means the camera believes the scene is perfectly exposed—not too dark (underexposed, negative numbers) and not too bright (overexposed, positive numbers). While '0' is a great starting point, your creative vision might want a slightly brighter or darker photo, but learning to "zero out" the meter is the fundamental skill you need first.
Action Tip: Point your camera at something. Now, change your shutter speed. Watch how the indicator on the light meter moves left or right. Now do the same with your aperture. See the cause and effect? Your first goal in any new scene should be to use your settings to bring that indicator to '0'.
3. Use the "Aperture First" Approach for Portraits
Want that beautiful, blurry background (we call it 'bokeh') that makes your subject pop? This is controlled by your aperture. A wide aperture (a small f-number like f/1.8 or f/2.8) creates a shallow depth of field, which is what blurs the background. So, when shooting people or subjects you want to isolate, start by setting your aperture.
This is a creative decision you make first. Once you've set your desired aperture (say, f/2.0 for a headshot), you can then adjust your shutter speed and ISO to get a correct exposure. You've prioritized your artistic goal, and now you're just using the other settings to make it technically correct.
Action Tip: Put your favorite lens on and set the aperture to its widest setting (the smallest f-number). Keep your ISO low (e.g., 100). Now, point your camera at a person or object and adjust only your shutter speed until your light meter hits '0'. Look at that background melt away!
4. Use the "Shutter First" Approach for Action
If your goal is to control motion, then shutter speed is your hero. A fast shutter speed (like 1/1000s) will freeze fast-moving action, like a running dog, a splashing wave, or a speeding car. A slow shutter speed (like 1/15s or even longer) will create intentional motion blur, perfect for capturing light trails from cars at night or silky smooth waterfalls.
Just like with the "Aperture First" method, you're making a creative choice first. Decide if you want to freeze or blur motion, and set your shutter speed accordingly. After that, you're just working your aperture and ISO to achieve the correct exposure on your light meter.
Action Tip: Find a running faucet or a spinning fan. To freeze the motion, set your shutter speed to 1/500s or faster. Then, open up your aperture and, if needed, increase your ISO until your light meter is balanced. To blur the motion, try a shutter speed of 1/30s (you'll need to hold the camera very still!) and see the difference.
5. Treat ISO as Your Last Resort
Think of ISO as artificial light. In a perfect world with tons of beautiful, natural light, you would always keep your ISO at its base level (usually 100 or 200). This gives you the cleanest, highest-quality image with the least amount of digital "noise" or grain.
As the light gets darker, you'll find you can't get a proper exposure even with your aperture wide open and your shutter speed as low as you can hand-hold. This is when you start to increase the ISO. It's the setting you adjust only when you've run out of options with aperture and shutter speed. Pushing it too high (e.g., 6400 or more) can make your photos look grainy, so use it wisely.
Action Tip: In a dimly lit room, set your aperture to its widest setting (e.g., f/1.8) and your shutter speed to a safe hand-holding speed (see tip #7). Is the photo still too dark? Now is the time to slowly start bumping up your ISO from 100 to 400, then 800, then 1600, until you get the exposure you need.
6. Use the "Sunny 16" Rule as a Mental Shortcut
Long before cameras had built-in light meters, photographers used a simple rule to estimate exposure on a bright, sunny day. It's called the "Sunny 16" rule, and it's a fantastic way to get your settings in the ballpark without even looking at your meter.
The rule states: On a clear, sunny day, set your aperture to f/16, and your shutter speed to the reciprocal of your ISO. So, if your ISO is 100, your shutter speed would be 1/100s. If your ISO is 400, your shutter speed would be 1/400s. It’s that simple! This gives you a "correct" baseline exposure from which you can make small adjustments. It’s also a great way to check if your camera’s meter is working correctly.
Action Tip: Next sunny day, go outside and try it. Set your ISO to 200, your aperture to f/16, and your shutter speed to 1/200s. Take a shot. It should look pretty good! From there, you can adjust. For slightly hazy sun, try f/11. For cloudy, try f/8.
7. Obey the Reciprocal Rule to Avoid Camera Shake
One of the most common sources of blurry photos for beginners isn't missed focus—it's camera shake from a shutter speed that is too slow for hand-holding. The Reciprocal Rule is a time-tested guideline to prevent this.
The rule is: Your shutter speed should be at least 1 divided by your focal length. So, if you're using a 50mm lens, your shutter speed should be at least 1/50s. If you're using a 200mm telephoto lens, you need a much faster shutter speed of at least 1/200s to get a sharp image. The longer the lens, the more it magnifies your tiny hand movements, requiring a faster shutter speed to compensate.
Action Tip: Look at the lens you're using. What's the focal length? (e.g., 35mm, 85mm, etc.). Make a mental note that your shutter speed should not drop below 1/[that number] unless your camera is on a tripod or has excellent image stabilization.
8. Understand "Stops" of Light
This concept sounds technical, but it's key to making quick, intuitive adjustments. A "stop" of light is simply a doubling or halving of the amount of light reaching your sensor. All three of your settings work in stops.
- Shutter Speed: Going from 1/125s to 1/250s is -1 stop (halving the light). Going from 1/125s to 1/60s is +1 stop (doubling the light).
- ISO: Going from ISO 200 to ISO 400 is +1 stop. Going from ISO 200 to ISO 100 is -1 stop.
- Aperture: This one is a bit trickier with the numbers, but going from f/4 to f/2.8 is +1 stop, and going from f/4 to f/5.6 is -1 stop.
Why does this matter? Because if your image is one stop too dark, you know you can either double your shutter speed time, double your ISO, or open your aperture by one full stop to fix it. This is how you make intentional changes instead of just randomly spinning dials.
9. Practice Bracketing Your Shots
When you're unsure about the perfect exposure, especially in tricky lighting like a sunset, bracketing is your safety net. It simply means taking multiple pictures of the same scene at different exposure levels.
The standard practice is to take three shots: one at the "correct" exposure (meter at '0'), one underexposed by one stop (meter at '-1'), and one overexposed by one stop (meter at '+1'). Many modern cameras have an "Auto Exposure Bracketing" (AEB) function that does this for you automatically. This not only gives you options to choose from later but is an incredible learning tool to see how different exposures affect the mood of a scene.
Action Tip: Find a scene with a mix of bright highlights and dark shadows. Set up your shot and take a photo with the light meter at '0'. Then, without moving the camera, adjust your shutter speed to make the meter read '-1' and take a shot. Finally, adjust it to '+1' and take a third shot. Compare them on your computer.
10. Set Your White Balance Manually
Tired of your photos having a weird blue or orange color cast? That's your camera's Auto White Balance (AWB) getting confused. While AWB is pretty good these days, taking control of your White Balance is a huge step towards getting the colors you want straight out of the camera.
Your camera has presets like "Sunny," "Cloudy," "Tungsten" (for indoor lightbulbs), and "Fluorescent." Using these presets will give you much more consistent and accurate colors than relying on Auto. For advanced control, you can even set a custom Kelvin temperature, but starting with the presets is a massive improvement.
Action Tip: Take a picture of something white (a piece of paper, a t-shirt) indoors under a standard lightbulb using Auto White Balance. It will probably look a little yellow. Now, change your White Balance preset to "Tungsten" or "Incandescent" and take the same picture. The yellow cast will be gone!
11. Use Live View for Instant Exposure Preview
The optical viewfinder is great, but when you're learning Manual Mode, the LCD screen on the back of your camera (Live View) is a superpower. Why? Because on most modern mirrorless and many DSLR cameras, it gives you an exposure simulation.
This means that what you see on the screen is what your final photo will look like. If you change your shutter speed and the screen gets brighter, your photo will be brighter. It provides instant, visual feedback on how your settings are affecting the image. This visual connection is far more intuitive than just watching the little indicator on the light meter.
12. The "Set and Forget" Method for Consistent Light
Manual Mode isn't always about constant adjustment. If your lighting conditions are stable, it's actually the easiest mode to use! Imagine you're shooting portraits in a studio with flashes, or indoors in a room where the light isn't changing.
Once you dial in the perfect settings for your first shot, you can essentially "set it and forget it." You can now take dozens or even hundreds of photos without touching your exposure settings, allowing you to focus completely on your subject, their posing, and your composition. This is impossible in Auto or Aperture Priority modes, as the meter would change every time you slightly re-compose.
13. Master Manual Focus with Focus Peaking
Once you're controlling your exposure, the next step is controlling your focus. This is especially important when using very wide apertures (like f/1.4), where the sliver of in-focus area is razor-thin. Auto-focus can sometimes miss the mark, grabbing an eyelash instead of an iris.
Enter Focus Peaking. This is a feature on most modern cameras that overlays a bright, colored highlight (often red, yellow, or blue) on the parts of your image that are in sharpest focus. When you're manually turning the focus ring on your lens, you can see these colored highlights move across your subject. When they cover your subject's eyes, you know you've nailed it. As a professional photographer, I, Goh Ling Yong, rely on this feature daily for critical sharpness.
14. Analyze Your Photo's Metadata (EXIF)
Every digital photo you take has data embedded in the file, called EXIF data. This includes the camera model, lens used, and—most importantly—the exact aperture, shutter speed, and ISO settings used for that shot.
Go back through your own photos. Find the ones you love and the ones that failed. Look at the EXIF data. Why did that blurry photo fail? Ah, the shutter speed was 1/10s. Why does that portrait look so good? The aperture was f/1.8. This kind of reverse-engineering is one of the fastest ways to learn. I did this obsessively when I was starting out, and it connected the dots between the settings I chose and the results I got.
Action Tip: In programs like Lightroom or even the default photo viewer on your computer, you can find an "Info" or "Properties" panel that displays this data. Spend 30 minutes just reviewing the settings of your past 20 photos. You'll discover patterns you never noticed.
15. The "One Location, One Hour" Challenge
The best way to solidify all this knowledge is to put it into practice. Theory is great, but muscle memory is better. Give yourself a specific, focused assignment.
Go to one spot—your backyard, a local park bench, your kitchen table. Pick one subject. Now, stay there for one full hour and shoot only in Manual Mode. Don't leave. Your goal is not to get a perfect photo, but to experiment. Shoot the same subject with a wide aperture, then a narrow one. Shoot it with a fast shutter speed, then a slow one. See firsthand how every single change affects your final image. This focused practice is worth more than a week of random snapping.
Your Journey to Mastery Starts Now
Whew, that was a lot! But don't feel like you need to master all 15 of these techniques overnight. The journey from guesswork to a great shot is a marathon, not a sprint. The key is to stop letting the camera guess for you and start making intentional, creative decisions.
Pick just one or two of these techniques that resonated with you. Maybe it's the "Aperture First" approach for portraits, or maybe it's just committing to watching your light meter. Go out this week and practice only that. Build your confidence one skill at a time. Before you know it, you'll be switching to Manual Mode not with fear, but with excitement for the creative possibilities ahead.
Now I want to hear from you! Which of these techniques are you most excited to try first? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
About the Author
Goh Ling Yong is a content creator and digital strategist sharing insights across various topics. Connect and follow for more content:
Stay updated with the latest posts and insights by following on your favorite platform!