The Pluckan easy guide to moving off shooting automatic

Zig Ziglar is quoted as saying you don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.  So when a budding photographer recently asked me how they move from shooting pictures using the full automatic mode to shooting using the manual mode on their recently purchased DSLR my immediate response was almost to say turn the dial until it is pointing to the big M and then take it from there.  Of course there is more to it than that and for many photographers it can actually be quite a daunting prospect moving to the Manual mode on their camera.  Why would you want to move off the automatic mode if the camera manufacturer was kind enough to add in a mode to allow photos to be taken almost as soon as you get the camera?  Photos which are perfectly fine 80 or maybe even 90% of the time. All at the risk of completely spoiling photos that you may not get the opportunity to shoot again.  Because, of course, if you never start, if you don’t move that dial, then you will find it very hard to learn.