On film-based cameras from the 90’s, there was no indication of how your picture would turn out with your given settings in manual mode. So how were these settings determined manually without the convenience of LCD preview screens that we have on modern digital cameras?
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There were still light meters that determined the correct combination of film speed, aperture, and shutter speed to get a 50% gray average exposure. Experience was then needed to apply an offset to compensate for what you actually wanted the photo to look like. Bright snow, etc needed to stop down (more exposure) to look bright, or an asphalt lot needed less to look right. Each shot was an investment in time, film, and thought. It gave a chance for better composition, too.
Before that, it was pure skill/experience.
You could read about it and learn from that and your photos. Or you could get a light meter, read how to use it and learn from that and your photos. Also, BTW, there were automatic exposure cameras long before the 90’s. I had a semi-auto one from the 70’s, the Canon AE-1. You pick the aperture, it picked the shutter speed. OR, you pick the shutter speed and it picked the aperture. Or you went manual mode and did it all yourself. Decent consumer level camera, not a professional camera. There were similar things in the 50’s and 60’s also.
Most of it was the experience of the photographer and yes there were quite a lot of dud pictures.
There were light meters and on an SLR you can see to some extent how much light is being let in as you’re looking through the lens but it was a good guess or lots of practice to get consistent results.
Knowledge and practice.
Photography books had charts which would suggest combinations of ISO, shutter speed and aperture depending on lighting conditions. Incrementing these variables produced predictable results.
Sometimes even math was involved.
Example: Say the photographer wanted to produce images of a helicopter on a sunny day and show the rotors as a blur over an arc of about 30 degrees.
The photographer would look up settings for a sunny day based on their film ISO. Then by finding out the rotor speed of the particular helicopter, the photographer calculates in how much time the rotor turns 30 degrees. Setting the camera’s shutter speed to match this time, they adjust aperture (or even select a different film ISO) to produce the desired exposure and depth of field.
There are some rules of thumb for when you don’t have a light meter. Eg “Sunny 16” (google it for more info). Basically on a sunny day with an aperture of f/16, your ideal shutter speed is 1/ISO. So if you’re using ISO 100 film, you set the shutter speed to 1/100. If you’re using ISO 200 film, you set the shutter to 1/200 (or whatever shutter speed is closest)
If you want to use a wider aperture, you adjust accordingly. One stop up to f/11 doubles the amount of light coming into your camera, so you need to half the shutter speed at the same ISO, ISO stays at 100 and your shutter speed shortens to 1/200. Stop up again to f/8 at ISO100, and you need 1/400.
On an overcast day there is less light available, so your starting point is f/11 or f/8 rather than f/16, but the same principles apply. At sunset, start with f/4
So it is a bit hard to tell the exact scope of what you want to know. On my Minolta Maxxum (1985) you *could* use the sunny 16 rule but, in practice I never do this because it has an arrow on the LCD display in the viewfinder pointing up or down for exposure up or down and left/right for focus in and out so, even in manual mode with manual focus there isn’t any guesswork needed. There is no built in depth of field preview so to know what your aperture looks like you either have to have a lens that has it built in or follow the depth of field guidelines on the lens and imagine what that looks like.
In reality you would find an attribute you care about like shutter speed for sports or aperture for a portrait, set an exposure compensation value if you want to compensate for your emulsion, and just take photos. If the display shows its numbers blinking that means it is beyond the range and other settings have to change to allow the camera to meet the exposure you have set. If you aren’t worried about any particular attribute it has program mode which is good enough. When I was younger I took many photos on film and 99% of them were in a program, aperture priority, or shutter priority. The only time to actually use a full manual mode on a camera like this is if you have a flash that doesn’t have thru the lens compatibility. I have a Nikon SB-26 for example and in order to use it you have to synchronize your settings manually to the flash.
On my Minotlaflex (1936) you use the sunny 16 rule or, if you are using slide film you use a handheld light meter. I am pretty good at figuring out that I want shallower depth of field so I will raise my shutter speed an open my aperture, but not nearly good enough to get dead perfect exposure for slide film. You don’t really have to be dead on for negative film, I will shoot Ektar all day long and just get close enough but the second I have Ektachrome I have to pull out the light meter to be sure.
Also worth noting I have a Sony A99 (2012, uses the same lenses as the Minolta 7000 AF), and I find that on a digital camera the instant feedback isn’t really all that helpful to me, in fact sometimes like when I use a flash I have to turn it all off otherwise I am just looking at a black screen because the camera isn’t aware how bright my Nikon flash will be. I do like having a depth of field preview button though, that is the one luxury that is nice (though many film cameras have this too).
Edit: I forgot to mention, that like say I have a scene that has bright and dark parts, but I want to expose for a portrait on my 7000 AF, I would approach the subject till their head mostly filled the frame hit the exposure lock button, then reposition, I could also focus on the eyes (one central AF point) and reframe the photo while holding the focus button so that it doesn’t change. It occurs to me, that modern cameras don’t usually need this workflow, though I do occasionally have to use my A99’s AEL button with centerpoint metering.
Outdoors in the sunshine there was the sunny 16 rule.
(Set your aperture to f/16 and your iso to the inverse if your shutter speed fir a perfectly exposed image)
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