What is Your Favorite Shooting Mode?
Are you an ‘Auto’ photographer? Do you use Aperture or Shutter Speed Priority Modes? Are you one of the few photographers who actually shoot in full Manual mode? Or are you the type of photographer who uses the preset shooting modes like ‘Landscape’, ‘Portrait’ or ‘Sports’?
There is no right or wrong answer on this one - it is possible to take great shots in any mode - but I’m always fascinated to see what people shoot in.
My personal preference these days is Aperture Priority Mode. It gives me enough creative control over things like depth of field but allows me to shoot quickly knowing that exposure will generally be right.
Automatic Modes
Automatic Mode
I suspect no one will need any introduction to this mode (as it seems most digital camera owners use it). Auto mode tells your camera to use its best judgment to select shutter speed, aperture, ISO, white balance, focus and flash to take the best shot that it can. With some cameras auto mode lets you override flash or change it to red eye reduction. This mode will give you nice results in many shooting conditions, however you need to keep in mind that you’re not telling your camera any extra information about the type of shot you’re taking so it will be ‘guessing’ as to what you want. As a result some of the following modes might be more appropriate to select as they give your camera a few more hints (without you needing to do anything more).
Portrait Mode
When you switch to portrait mode your camera will automatically select a large aperture (small number) which helps to keep your background out of focus (i.e. it sets a narrow depth of field - ensuring your subject is the only thing in focus and is therefore the center of attention in the shot). Portrait mode works best when you’re photographing a single subject so get in close enough to your subject (either by zooming in or walking closer) so that your photographing the head and shoulders of them). Also if you’re shooting into the sun you might want to trigger your flash to add a little light onto their face.
Macro Mode
Macro mode lets you move your closer into your subject to take a close up picture. It’s great for shooting flowers, insects or other small objects. Different digital cameras will have macro modes with different capabilities including different focusing distances (usually between 2-10cm for point and shoot cameras). When you use macro mode you’ll notice that focusing is more difficult as at short distances the depth of field is very narrow (just millimeters at times). Keep your camera and the object you’re photographing parallel if possible or you’ll find a lot of it will be out of focus. You’ll probably also find that you won’t want to use your camera’s built in flash when photographing close up objects or they’ll be burnt out. Lastly - a tripod is invaluable in macro shots as the depth of field is so small that even moving towards or away from your subject slightly can make your subject out of focus. (I’ll write a full tutorial on Macro Photography in the coming weeks).
Landscape Mode
This mode is almost the exact opposite of portrait mode in that it sets the camera up with a small aperture (large number) to make sure as much of the scene you’re photographing will be in focus as possible (ie it give you a large depth of field). It’s therefore ideal for capturing shots of wide scenes, particularly those witch points of interest at different distances from the camera. At times your camera might also select a slower shutter speed in this mode (to compensate for the small aperture) so you might want to consider a tripod or other method of ensuring your camera is still.
Sports Mode
Photographing moving objects is what sports mode (also called ‘action mode’ in some cameras) is designed for. It is ideal for photographing any moving objects including people playing sports, pets, cars, wildlife etc. Sports mode attempts to freeze the action by increasing the shutter speed. When photographing fast moving subjects you can also increase your chances of capturing them with panning of your camera along with the subject and/or by attempting to pre focus your camera on a spot where the subject will be when you want to photograph it (this takes practice).
Night Mode
This is a really fun mode to play around with and can create some wonderfully colorful and interesting shots. Night mode (a technique also called ’slow shutter sync’) is for shooting in low light situations and sets your camera to use a longer shutter speed to help capture details of the background but it also fires off a flash to illuminate the foreground (and subject). If you use this mode for a ’serious’ or well balanced shot you should use a tripod or your background will be blurred - however it’s also fun to take shots with this hand held to purposely blur your backgrounds - especially when there is a situation with lights behind your subject as it can give a fun and experimental look (great for parties and dance floors with colored lights).
Movie Mode
This mode extends your digital camera from just capturing still images to capturing moving ones. Most new digital cameras these days come with a movie mode that records both video but also sound. The quality is generally not up to video camera standards but it’s a handy mode to have when you come across that perfect subject that just can’t be captured with a still image. Keep in mind that moving images take up significantly more space on your memory storage than still images.
Other less common modes that I’ve seen on digital cameras over the past year include:
- Panoramic/Stitch Mode - for taking shots of a panoramic scene to be joined together later as one image.
- Snow Mode - to help with tricky bright lighting at the snow
- Fireworks Mode - for shooting firework displays
- Kids and Pets Mode - fast moving objects can be tricky - this mode seems to speed up shutter speed and help reduce shutter lag with some pre focusing
- Underwater Mode - underwater photography has it’s own unique set of exposure requirements
- Beach Mode - another bright scene mode
- Indoor Mode - helps with setting shutter speed and white balance
- Foliage Mode - boosts saturation to give nice bold colors
Aperture and Shutter Priority Modes
Over the last few weeks we’ve been looking at different elements of exposure and how to move out of the ‘Auto’ mode on your digital camera. We’ve looked at Aperture, Shutter Speed and ISO and have discovered what each of them is and what impact changing them will have on your images.
Now that we’ve looked at the theory of how changing these elements impacts an image I’d like to move into how to use them by examining two shooting modes that many digital have on them that allow you to take a step away from the automatic settings that you might be spending a lot of time in.
The two shooting modes are Aperture Priority Mode and Shutter Priority Mode.
A Quick Reviser
We’re looked at how the three elements of the exposure triangle impact one another. This is particularly the case when it comes to aperture and shutter speeds. As you increase the size of your aperture (make the hole that you shoot through bigger) you let more light into your image sensor. As a result you will need a shorter shutter speed. In the opposite way if you increase the length of time your shutter is open you decrease the necessary aperture that you’ll need to get a well exposed shot.
Priority Modes
Aperture and Shutter Priority modes are really semi-manual (or semi-automatic) modes. They give you some control over your settings but also ensure you have a well exposed image by the camera making some of the decisions on settings. Let me explain each separately:
Aperture Priority Mode
(often it has a symbol of ‘A’ or Av’ to indicate it’s selected)
In this mode you as the photographer set the aperture that you wish to use and the camera makes a decision about what shutter speed is appropriate in the conditions that you’re shooting in.
When would you use Aperture Priority Mode? How the main impact that aperture had on images was with regards to Depth of Field (DOF). As a result most people use Aperture Priority Mode when they are attempting to have some control in this area. If they want a shallow DOF (for example in the shot to the right which has the flower in focus but the background nice and blurred) they’ll select a large aperture (for example f/1.4 - as in the example to the right) and let the camera choose an appropriate shutter speed. If they wanted an image with everything in focus they’d pick a smaller aperture (for example f/22) and let the camera choose an appropriate shutter speed (generally a longer one).
When choosing an Aperture keep in mind that the camera will be choosing faster or longer shutter speeds and that there comes a point where shutter speeds get too long to continue to hand hold your camera (usually around 1/60). Once you get much slower than this level you’ll need to consider using a tripod. Also if you’re photographing a moving subject your shutter speed will impact how it’s captured and a slow shutter speed will mean your subject will be blurred).
Shutter Priority Mode
(Often has a symbol of TV or S)
In this mode you as the photographer choose the shutter speed that you wish to shoot at and let the camera make a decision about what aperture to select to give a well exposed shot.
When would you use Shutter Priority Mode? How the main impact of different shutter speeds was how ‘movement’ would be captured in your images. As a result most people switch to shutter priority mode when they want more control over how to photograph a moving subject.
For example if they want to photograph a racing car but want to completely freeze it so there is no motion blur they’d choose a fast shutter speed (say at 1/2000 like in the first shot below) and the camera would take into consideration how much light there was available and set an appropriate aperture. If instead you wanted to photograph the car but have some motion blur to illustrate how fast the car is moving you might like to choose a slower shutter speed (like the second shot below which has a shutter speed of 1/125) and the camera would choose a smaller aperture as a result.
Keep in mind that as the camera chooses different apertures it will impact the Depth of Field in your image. This means if you choose a fast shutter speed to freeze your fast moving object that it’ll have a narrower DOF.
Practice
As you can see - Shutter and Aperture Priority modes do give you more control over your images but they do take a little practice to get used to.
As you use them you need to not only think about the setting that YOU set but also keep an eye on the setting that the camera selects for you.
I find that when shooting in Av or TV modes that it’s often best to bracket your shots and shoot a number of images of the same subject (where you have time) at different settings. This will ensure that you’re likely to get at least one shot which meets your need.
The best way to learn about Shutter priority and Aperture Priority modes is to grab your camera, to head out with it and to experiment. Switch to Av or TV and start playing with the different settings (taking lots of shots as you go). Particularly watch how the camera makes changes to compensate for your selections and what impact it has upon the shots that you take.
In Aperture Priority Mode take some shots at the largest aperture you can (small numbers) and see how it blurs the background (but also increases the shutter speed) and then head to the other end of the spectrum to take some shots at the smallest aperture you can (large numbers) to see how it keeps more of your image in focus.
In Shutter Priority Mode play with fast and slow shutter speeds and see how that impacts DOF.
Don’t be frustrated if your initial shots are not what you’d expect - it takes practice to get your head around these modes. But keep in mind that when you do master them you’ll have a lot more creative control over your shots. It’s really worth learning this.
What mode do you shoot in most?
Grab your digital camera and check something for me. Look at the dial/switch/menu that shows you which shooting mode you’re currently in and let us know what it is.
I’m fascinated by watching how others use their cameras and am particularly interested to see what modes they use by default.
Are you an ‘Auto’ photographer? Do you use Aperture or Shutter Speed Priority Modes? Are you one of the few photographers who actually shoot in full Manual mode? Or are you the type of photographer who uses the preset shooting modes like ‘Landscape’, ‘Portrait’ or ‘Sports’?
There’s no right or wrong answer - but I’d love to hear what your camera is set to right now and whether that’s a ‘normal’ mode for you? Answer in comments below.
Let me share my own preference:
What mode do I shoot in?
I’m an ‘Aperture Priority Mode’ kind of guy.
I personally like it because I find it gives me the type of creative control that I want on how my images look - specifically over depth of field.
The only time that I really switch over to another mode is when I’m shooting moving objects and need a faster (or slower) shutter speed (to capture some motion blur or freeze the motion completely).
