Aperture priority vs. shutter priority

[scythefwd]

Ok.. aperture priority does everything the camera can to get what it thinks is a properly exposed imaged using that stop setting yes?
This means it slows shutter or ups the iso as need be in order to keep the aperture setting the same... What can the unintended consequences of that and do yall have any examples where this has happened (pics or it didnt happen )
Use this for forced DOF type shots?

Shutter priority does everything it can to keep shutter speed yes?
This ups the iso or adusts the aperture to keep shutter speed.. You'd use this for sports events, etc. yes? Any negative or unintended consequences of this (and of course pics or it didnt happen again )

Thanks.

Also, seeing all sorts of different flash options... I cant even rattle them off I'm so lost on them. Anyone want to break me off a bit of knowledge on that as well?

Thanks,
Alan

 

[robbins.photo]

Aperture priority you select the Aperture, the camera picks a shutter speed and the lowest iso combo it can unless you tell it otherwise.

Unfortunately this often leads to a slow shutter speed that can introduce blur/shake into the photo, so when I use it I usually up the iso or setup a minimum shutter speed so the camera will up the iso accordingly.

Shutter speed you set the shutter, and again the camera tries to find the best Aperture combo in conjunction with the lowest iso it can.

In good light this works pretty well, in low light it tends to go with the lens wide open pretty quick so again a lot of times I find myself upping the Iso to stop down the lens a bit and get more dof and a sharper image.

 

[dennybeall]

Yes, properly exposed as determined by the metering choice you've made. Shutter speed and shutter aperture are the ying and yang so they adjust first, whichever one you tell to stay fixed will while the other adjusts. If the camera computer program can't get proper exposure and the settings of the camera allow it, then the ISO will be adjusted.
All the elements work together based on settings made by the operator. That's why a person needs to know how to operate the camera and why. One of the joys of the hobby/business is solving the "take the photo" puzzle with the tools at hand.

 

[Ysarex]

Also, seeing all sorts of different flash options... I cant even rattle them off I'm so lost on them. Anyone want to break me off a bit of knowledge on that as well?

Is the flash physically attached to or in any way part of the camera?

If yes, then find the on-camera-flash-mode which will be designated by this symbol:

Make sure to always use the flash in the on-camera-flash-mode for best results.

-----------------------------------------

As you have already figured out and others have noted you set the shutter to determine how motion is rendered in the photo and you set the f/stop to determine depth of field. Both alter the exposure. You have to get the exposure right -- you can't compromise the exposure.

ISO is involved as a third determinant of exposure. You can raise the ISO if the light level is too low to keep the shutter where you want it or the f/stop where you want it. Raising the ISO underexposes the sensor and that has negative side effects. Those negative side effects are progressive in that a little underexposure is only a little harmful and so it's worth it in trade say for an action stopping shutter speed -- a compromise. Whenever possible get the shutter speed you want and f/stop you want with the ISO at base value. Compromise the ISO as necessary because getting the shot is better than not getting the shot.

As you underexpose the sensor (raise ISO) you record less data. The camera compensates electronically by amplifying the data you did record but there's ultimately no fix for recording less data. The amplification that takes place is likewise a compromise but again better to do it than not. As you continue to record less data and amplify the data more (keep raising the ISO) the quality of the photo continues to degrade progressively. How much? How bad is it? You have to decide that for yourself. Put your camera on a solid surface and take the same photo over the entire ISO range. Look at the results and make the call. Are you happy to have the photo or not given the quality at each ISO level.

Possible alternatives to raising the ISO:
1. Tripod.
2. Monopod.
3. Body brace.
4. Camera VR, IS, OIS.
5. Turn on the lights.
6. External flash.
7. Come back at a different time when there's more light.

When you're able, start taking responsibility for all the options. Over time as you practice you will become more skilled at making the best compromise and you will surpass the camera's programmed capability. That doesn't mean you have to use the camera in manual mode. I rarely take my camera off program mode, but I never take a photo without purposefully selecting the ISO, shutter speed and f/stop.

Joe

 

[Big Mike]

Ok.. aperture priority does everything the camera can to get what it thinks is a properly exposed imaged using that stop setting yes?

The problem with that, is that it's the exposure that 'the camera thinks' is proper....and the camera is just a dumb device. It will actually only give you proper exposure if your metering target/area happens to be the same tone as middle grey. If you are metering on something brighter or darker than that, the camera's suggested exposure will be wrong and you'll have to compensate if you want it to be 'proper'.

This is true in any mode.

As for aperture priority vs shutter speed priority, you have the general idea, but really, they are just mirror images on one another. And if you keep your camera steadily pointed at a scene, there is little difference because if you change one, the camera changes the other value in the opposite direction...so really you are changing both settings at the same time.

 

[lambertpix]

For any camera mode where it's making decisions for you, you might find it helpful to get in the habit of monitoring the settings the camera's changing and be aware when it starts getting out of your comfort zone. For example, when I use Av, you might imagine that I'm doing so because I only care about the aperture setting for the shot, and I'm ok with the camera changing shutter speed and (in the case of Auto-ISO) ISO in order to come up with the right exposure. In fact, though, I think it's more correct to say that I care about aperture the *most*, and I'm comfortable with shutter and/or ISO varying within certain ranges. If I'm hand-holding the camera, for instance, I'm in trouble if the shutter speed slows down to the point where it affects sharpness, and I'm concerned if ISO rises too high because I'll have a lot of noise in the photos. As long as I'm setting one of those exposure components myself, though, and the other two are varying within acceptable ranges, I'm happy.

In practice, this means that I'm not necessarily looking at those other settings on each and every shot, as long as lighting conditions aren't changing dramatically, but I keep an eye on what the camera is using for its settings at least as often as I "chimp" a shot to be sure the camera hasn't decided to go in a direction I wasn't expecting.

Re: the flash stuff, depending on your questions, that could easily wind up being a whole other thread or two, but if you haven't already checked out strobist.com, there's a wealth of info there.

 

[shaylou]

Aperture priority you select the Aperture, the camera picks a shutter speed and the lowest iso combo it can unless you tell it otherwise. Unfortunately this often leads to a slow shutter speed that can introduce blur/shake into the photo, so when I use it I usually up the iso or setup a minimum shutter speed so the camera will up the iso accordingly. Shutter speed you set the shutter, and again the camera tries to find the best Aperture combo in conjunction with the lowest iso it can. In good light this works pretty well, in low light it tends to go with the lens wide open pretty quick so again a lot of times I find myself upping the Iso to stop down the lens a bit and get more dof and a sharper image.

This is very accurate and to the point. I use aperture priority a lot and it works well. Both priority modes work well with enough light and are very useful when you simply do not have enough time to make a lot of adjustments.

 

[Vince.1551]

I highly recommend that you do some reading on the Exposure Triangle. From there you'll have a better grasp of exposure settings and the pros can cons of different exposure modes. Also, there is such a a thing as Auto-ISO settings in modern day cameras. [emoji6]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Derrel]

Ok.. aperture priority does everything the camera can to get what it thinks is a properly exposed imaged using that stop setting yes?

The problem with that, is that it's the exposure that 'the camera thinks' is proper....and the camera is just a dumb device. It will actually only give you proper exposure if your metering target/area happens to be the same tone as middle grey. If you are metering on something brighter or darker than that, the camera's suggested exposure will be wrong and you'll have to compensate if you want it to be 'proper'.

This is true in any mode.

As for aperture priority vs shutter speed priority, you have the general idea, but really, they are just mirror images on one another. And if you keep your camera steadily pointed at a scene, there is little difference because if you change one, the camera changes the other value in the opposite direction...so really you are changing both settings at the same time.

The above description is the way dumb, color-blind light metering systems in outdated CANON cameras work. It's not at ALL the way Nikons have worked for the last 15 years. Nikons uses 3-D, color-aware, distance-aware, reflectance aware light metering, and can determine the actual COLOR of objects based on 420 to 2,015 to tens of thousands of individual pixel readings that compute the COLOR of objects, using Red Green Blue analysis, focused distance, time of day based on the in-camera clock, and overall EV brightness level. This system, which Nikon invented in the mid-1980's leads to almost perfect exposure, even of tricky lighting.

This whole "middle gray thing" us wayyyy out of date, and frankly, inaccurate. This is NOT how modern metering works in Nikon cameras. The 3-D, color aware, distance aware, reflectivity aware metering has an on-board computer modeling system that has been programmed into the exposure system, and has over 100,00 actual, real photographs that have been shot under a huge range of conditions. You POINT and shoot. The meter KNOWS what COLOR every single subject is.

 

[Ilovemycam]

Alan, all those settings you mention are for camera fondlers. I shoot manual most of the time. I could never shoot the way I do if I was a camera fondler. I'd spend too much time fondling the cam and miss the shots. With my Leica and Fuji's I can adjust them without even looking at them. I just count the clicks if I need it fast.

One time Travelr tried to school me in the 'cult of the dials', adjusting the cam with all the screwy dials and screens the camera fondling engineers have devised. But, I've been freezing time for nearly 50 years, so I know how it goes....manual is king for my type of work. Sadly the trend of the camera fondling engineering has been to dumb down the camera and remove manual controls.

Now, I shoot specialized work that is hard to expose for. There are uses for the auto settings you mention like tele work for sports or birds or a mom shooting a kid on the grass. But for fast shooting street work with extreme lighting, esp in the dark, they don't work best.

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https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/...ggalos_Copyright_2014_Daniel_D._Teoli_Jr..jpg

 

[CameraClicker]

Read the manual for your camera, then experiment. Knowledge will come.

Nikon has a metering mode they call Matrix, Canon calls that mode Evaluative. That's the mode that looks at your scene and guesses which combination of shutter, aperture, and ISO might do a reasonable job based on a database of photos. Spot, Centre-Weighted and Partial all seem to compare light coming into the lens with 18% grey (middle grey).

I like Ilovemycam's "camera fondlers"! Will have to remember that phrase! Anyway, he has a point. Automatic modes have their place and if all you are doing is twiddling the knobs until the meter is in the middle, you might as well use the automated modes because otherwise you are just working hard for no reason.

If light is changing frequently, aperture priority/shutter priority can be a blessing. You set what you feel is important and the camera keeps up with the changes to provide a decent exposure. You still have a say because you can also set exposure compensation. But you can run into problems. Set aperture priority and add a set of studio strobes for instance. The camera has no idea there will be a huge flash of light while the shutter is open! As the operator, you know what to expect. That is an excellent time to set the camera to manual exposure. There are lots of other times when manual mode also makes a lot of sense.

Nikon and Canon also offer their small flash with a lot of smarts. TTL or ETTL mode. Wonderful options sometimes. Not so much other times. Once again, unfortunately, it takes some experience to know when to use the automated mode to save effort, and that experience usually comes at the expense of messing up some photos.

Full manual mode, be it the camera or the flash, is probably the best mode when learning because while it is time consuming to set everything, you get consistency. If the camera's computer is doing the work, you will get the photo the computer thinks you should get, and sometimes circumstances conspire to confuse the computer. With everything in automated modes, you can take three photos in quick succession while panning slightly, and you get three different exposures with different colour casts -- and most novices have no idea why. By themselves, each might be a perfectly reasonable photo. Viewed together in a gallery or album, the differences can be distracting.

 

[robbins.photo]

Alan, all those settings you mention are for camera fondlers. I shoot manual most of the time. I could never shoot the way I do if I was a camera fondler. I'd spend too much time fondling the cam and miss the shots. With my Leica and Fuji's I can adjust them without even looking at them. I just count the clicks if I need it fast.

Manual mode is great - if you have a camera with multiple command dials (I don't) or if you have a month of Sunday's to setup your shot (I don't). Using either Aperture or Shutter priority mode gives you plenty of control but still allows you to take shots on the fly without spending a lot of time on complicated adjustments. Granted, you do occasionally have to endure snobbish comments from folks who think manual mode is the only acceptable way to shoot, but once you shoot for a while and realize that the important thing is the end results, and not what the dial was set to when you pressed the shutter button - well then you sort of get over it and move on.

 

[Big Mike]

Ok.. aperture priority does everything the camera can to get what it thinks is a properly exposed imaged using that stop setting yes?

The problem with that, is that it's the exposure that 'the camera thinks' is proper....and the camera is just a dumb device. It will actually only give you proper exposure if your metering target/area happens to be the same tone as middle grey. If you are metering on something brighter or darker than that, the camera's suggested exposure will be wrong and you'll have to compensate if you want it to be 'proper'.

This is true in any mode.

As for aperture priority vs shutter speed priority, you have the general idea, but really, they are just mirror images on one another. And if you keep your camera steadily pointed at a scene, there is little difference because if you change one, the camera changes the other value in the opposite direction...so really you are changing both settings at the same time.

The above description is the way dumb, color-blind light metering systems in outdated CANON cameras work. It's not at ALL the way Nikons have worked for the last 15 years. Nikons uses 3-D, color-aware, distance-aware, reflectance aware light metering, and can determine the actual COLOR of objects based on 420 to 2,015 to tens of thousands of individual pixel readings that compute the COLOR of objects, using Red Green Blue analysis, focused distance, time of day based on the in-camera clock, and overall EV brightness level. This system, which Nikon invented in the mid-1980's leads to almost perfect exposure, even of tricky lighting.

This whole "middle gray thing" us wayyyy out of date, and frankly, inaccurate. This is NOT how modern metering works in Nikon cameras. The 3-D, color aware, distance aware, reflectivity aware metering has an on-board computer modeling system that has been programmed into the exposure system, and has over 100,00 actual, real photographs that have been shot under a huge range of conditions. You POINT and shoot. The meter KNOWS what COLOR every single subject is.

I've had people ask me how color aware metering works, and why it would be better....and I have no idea what to tell them. As for distance, I can see how that would be helpful for the metering mode to pick a subject and give more metering weight to that area, but I can't see that being any use when using spot metering or centre weighted etc.

I guess all these bells & whistles could increase the chances of getting a good exposure when in 'camera controlled' exposure modes. But the way I teach exposure & metering, is to use the tools available to work backward and determine settings that work in the light that you're shooting with (works best in manual mode). Of course, the next step is to check the histogram and determine if the exposure needs to be adjusted.

At the end of the day, we only adjust exposure in 1/3 stops...and if you're settings end up being ISO 200, F8 and 1/125....you should get the same exposure, in any mode with any brand of camera.

 

[dennybeall]

Looked at the shot examples posted by Ilovemycam. I'd love to have been standing beside him for each of those shots with my Nikon set on Auto. I think Ilovemycam would be surprised at how close my shots were to his. I've also been clicking shutters for many years, starting when you had to pull out the slide on the Speed Graphic to take a shot and I'm constantly amazed at what the D5300 set on Auto will do.

 

[robbins.photo]

Looked at the shot examples posted by Ilovemycam. I'd love to have been standing beside him for each of those shots with my Nikon set on Auto. I think Ilovemycam would be surprised at how close my shots were to his. I've also been clicking shutters for many years, starting when you had to pull out the slide on the Speed Graphic to take a shot and I'm constantly amazed at what the D5300 set on Auto will do.

I don't really use auto much myself, I've found that it usually selects a shutter speed too low for my liking, so mainly I use shutter priority for most things, aperture priority for some shots and occasionally manual but generally I use manual only when I control the environment, lighting, etc - which is a pretty rare thing for me indeed.

But it is rather funny to me how some folks get this notion that manual mode is somehow the only "acceptable" way of doing it. I also hear some folks say that you should only use manual focus on your lenses, etc. Well I guess I'm just lazy or something, I figure I bought a camera with a really fantastic autofocus system that has great metering abilities, etc - why not let it do a lot of the heavy lifting so I can just concentrate on getting the shot I want?

I know.. they really should lock me up.

Again.

Lol