The program was doing the work for you, doing all the math for you, and making a lot of decisions.
“A program can give you the basics, but I don’t think you can get very creative,” Pidgeon says. “The program is there to keep you within the range of ‘this will be fine.’ But if you’re getting into photography, you want more than fine. You have to use manual mode to get that nuance. And that’s scary — a lot of people think, ‘Hey, this particular program mode works great. I got awesome photos in this situation. I don’t want to let go of that.’ And then suddenly you’re in a different situation, and it doesn’t work. The program was doing the work for you, doing all the math for you, and making a lot of decisions. So then you have to go back and figure out how exposure works.”