How I Shoot with My Camera

Setting Exposure - Automatic  Aperture Priority mode is my preference

For my creative work - I often isolate the subject with narrow depth of field by setting the aperture as large as the lens allows (smallest f-stop value). To complete the exposure triangle, I then consider what I should use as the minimum shutter speed - generally 1 / 2x the focal length of the lens.  For a 50mm lens, this is 1/100 (or 1/125) of a second.  Lastly, I dial the ISO setting to ensure that I can achieve my desired shutter speed under my shooting conditions.  With the aperture and ISO set, I set the shutter speed to automatic achieving what is call Aperture Priority mode.

There are various means by which the camera can evaluate the scene and chose an optimal exposure (in my case setting the shutter speed) - including Spot, Center Weighted, Multi, and Highlight.  I use Center Weighted which evaluates approximately the middle third of the image both vertically and horizontally directions.  When there is a wide range of lighting that falls across the scene and the subject is not centered, I momentarily center on the subject, half press the shutter release to set the exposure, then reframe the image as desired for the shot and press the shutter release completely to take the picture.  An alternate approach is to dial in exposure compensation.

Unlike shooting with film, with a digital camera it's easier to recover the shadows than blown highlights, so when in question, have the exposure tend towards the highlights in the image.  

There are times when I do switch the shutter speed from auto to a set value.  One case is ensure constant exposure when I capture multiple images that I subsequently stitch together to create a panorama shot.

Setting Focus - Manual is my preference

Autofocus has become the default mode for most photographers and clearly there are situations where autofocus is required.  This includes sports and bird photography, and capturing kids at play - where everything is in constant motion. There are, however, many other areas of photography where manual focus operation is quite effective, and even preferred by many photographers.  Examples are when shooting city and landscape, portraiture, still life, and travel photography to name a few.  

With the advantages of using Autofocus comes two considerations.  First, you do need to understand and become proficient with the various autofocus modes.  This includes both "continuous" and "single" operation as well as how to maximize the use the subject aware modes.  In addition, with multiple subjects, it is also necessary to be able to quickly select the desired subject where focus will actually be set.  Secondly, when adding autofocus to a camera, one can generally expect that the camera and more specifically the lens size to increase.  

Because most of my shooting does not require autofocus, I've opted to build out my camera equipment around manual focus lenses.  The major camera brands also support manual focus, but more as an after thought.  With Leica, and in particular, their legacy "M" rangefinder cameras ("M" for Messucher - German for rangefinder) have always been manual focus, including the film camera versions going back to the 1950's and screw mount lens versions going back to 1925.

Focusing manually, is easier than you think.  You actually have three options as to how you set the lens focus.  

Manually set the distance to the subject on the lens. All rangefinder lenses have a distance scale on the focusing ring.  Turn the focus ring to set the distance to the subject and you shoot.  This works great for landscapes, and for shooting with a small aperture and wide depth of field.  With a 28mm wide angle lens - equivalent to the standard smartphone field of view -  and the aperture set to f/8 everything is in focus from about 4.5 feet to infinity.  Just set the focus once, forget about focusing and shoot away. 

Use the camera display or EVF.  All mirrorless camera have either a rear display or an electronic view finder (EVF) and most have both.  As you turn the focus ring on the lens the subject of interest comes in and out of focus.  While either the rear display or the EVF can be used, I generally prefer using the EVF, particularly when shooting outside in bright light.  The EVF also offers a much sharper view.  Besides just assessing the image sharpness to set focus, you can also turn on "focus peaking" which highlights the image with points of high contrast - coincident with coming into focus.  

Use a rangefinder camera.  A rangefinder camera is based on focusing through an optical viewfinder  When you look through the viewfinder you see the entire scene before you plus a superimposed frame which is scaled to the lens size that is mount on the camera - this shows you exactly what will be in the picture, plus you can also see what's about to come into the picture as well.  In the center of the viewfinder is a small rectangular patch.  Here you see two images superimposed - as you turn the focus ring on the lens, these two images come together and become one when proper focus is reached. Because it's easy two watch these two images come together, with practice it's also very quick and accurate.  Many serious photographers - including myself - love shooting with the a rangefinder camera.  What's more all current digital rangefinders also support the option to mount an accessory EVF in the camera hot shoe allowing you the chance to also directly view the image and optionally use focus peaking as well. 

I'm a big fan of Leica rangefinder cameras as they offer widest set of manual focus options, and the smallest size full frame camera system, including both the camera body as well as a very wide choice of lenses.  Of course, these are only two factors to be considered and each photographer approaches this decision in a unique way.