Camera Modes for a beginner

[mahi_Australia]

What advise can you give to a beginner in using Aperture priority, shutter priority and ISO? Also some people online suggested not to use manual or program mode unless a person is very experienced!! Is it true? I believe we can always experiment, no harm in it.

*please keep in mind the advise should relate to point and shoot cameras like canon sx720, LUMIX tz80 etc..




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[Derrel]

Well...one thing is that with small-sensor digicams, MUCH wider apertures work better than "s-slr" sized f/stops...with the small sensor, and small pixels on a digicam, even wide f/stops like f/2.8 can produce ample DOF< and are not plagued with diffraction. Same with f/4....f/4 will have plenty of DOF on that size a sensor at the wider-angle end. So....the Programmed AUTO mode wil tend toward faster speeds, and wider apertures than it would on say, a Canon 6, or 80D.

I dunno...one of the biggest "secrets" is keeping the shutter speed fast enough to stop motion of the camera, and the subject.

I see noting wrong with Programmed, Aperture-priority, or whatever. Use an automatic mode, and look at the Histogram, and add or subtract exposure to get the right exposure.

ISO? The lowest ISO has the best image quality, and is best in BRIGHT light. ISO 200 or 250 or even ISO 400 might be good enough, especially in bright, even, flat light, like on overcast days, or gray days. Higher ISO levels are at their worst in bad lighting...if it is daylight, and the sun is out behind clouds, maybe elevate the ISO a bit if needed. AGAINm though: the digicam and smart phone can shoot at f/2.8 and have ample depth of field, but if the subject is moving runners, or running dogs, or so on, you might want to move from lowest ISO up, one, or even two whole values, to get the shutter speed needed to get a SHARP image.

For close-ups, a tripod can be helpful, to keep things steady.

Biggest advice: learn to use the Histogram, and the "blinkies" to know ehen you are underm dead-on, and also over-exposed. BEWARE setting exposure based on the rear LCD screen, until you know for certain how high the brightness level needs to be to gauge the LCD screen against the Histogram, and the computer.

 

[SuzukiGS750EZ]

Don't be scared of the modes. Aperture priority mode would be good if you want to just control your depth of field and allow the camera to figure everything else out. It will allow you to isolate a subject so that the background is blurry or in focus, as well as the foreground. It would be good to use for taking portraits and such. Shutter priority is good when shooting sports and wildlife on the mood. You set your shutter (say 1/1000) and the camera figures out the rest of the equation. ISO is the sensitivity to light (the sensors sensitivity). Lower ISO will not be as sensitive (say ISO 100) which means you need a lot of light and may need a wider aperture and a slower shutter speed, where as a higher ISO (say ISO 3200) will allow a lot of light to expose the photo. The lower the ISO the less noise (grain in film) the higher the ISO the more noise, depending on the camera depends on how much noise can be introduced. My camera does well up to about 6400 where as my old camera did horrible past 800. Program mode is basically Automatic mode minus automatic flash control and you can change the ISO yourself. You can also use compensation in that mode which allows you to tell the camera to lighten or darken the photo depending on how it perceived the first photo. Experiment in any mode. I personally shoot in manual mostly but if i'm shooting wildlife i'll switch to shutter priority. I only switch to program when i hand my camera off to somebody else and i rarely use aperture priority (i can do this in manual). Manual gives me the best shot at exposing the photo correctly in my mind because i can control the ISO and shutter ALONG with the aperture for the best light/noise control.

 

[photo1x1.com]

What advise can you give to a beginner in using Aperture priority, shutter priority and ISO? Also some people online suggested not to use manual or program mode unless a person is very experienced!! Is it true? I believe we can always experiment, no harm in it.

*please keep in mind the advise should relate to point and shoot cameras like canon sx720, LUMIX tz80 etc..

Sent from my iPhone using ThePhotoForum.com mobile app

I think you mixed some things up: manual mode is for experienced people, while program mode is for inexperienced, or even for professionals having a lazy day .
You are right, experimenting is key to understanding photography and getting better images.

Most has been said already. Similar to Derrel: in my experience with the big depth of field of point and shoot cameras, all you have to worry about shutterspeed to avoid motion blur due to your subjects moving too fast, or due to camera shake. It is rather difficult to really blur the background (e.g. for portraits), so working with different aperture settings won´t change too much unless you have a rather long optical zoom (which would reduce the depth of field).

Do some experiments which shutter speeds work best. You can use Shutter priority. As a rule of thumb I´d say 1/250th to 1/500th for playing kids, 1/1000th and faster for most sports. But everthing depends on the speed your subject is moving - the faster it moves, the faster your shutter speed has to be in order to keep it sharp.

When you are at experimenting you could compare different aperture settings though and check which one produces the sharpest image. Most lenses are rather mediocre at their widest opening (small number) and are best in the mid range. So for the images you want to get the best sharpness, and nothing moves (like most landscapes) you can use aperture priority and set the best aperture for your camera.

I think Suzuki above missed your note about point and shoot cameras the smaller sensors of point and shoot cameras can´t keep up with DSLRs when it comes to high ISO. But you can make your own tests to see what ISO setting is still good enough for your needs. I´d rather go with Derrels ballpark of around 400. In some situations you don´t have no choice though and it is better to have an awfully noisy image than not having it at all.

 

[Light Guru]

Honestly I always recommend someone starting out to force themselves to use FULL manual for 6 months to a year.

Doing that forces you to truly understand exposure and how a camera works.

 

[Bebulamar]

As a beginner it's best to start with manual mode. Manual mode is slow, requires you to adjust the controls, not any more accurate than any other auto modes but it's the easiest mode to understand if you want to understand how the camera works. (if not just put the camera on the green A and leave it there forever). One you get the hang of the manual mode feel free to use any other modes and you won't be asking which mode should you use.

 

[astroNikon]

Many moons ago I started using the SCENE modes. Sport, etc BUT I would look at the image settings and try recreating in manual mode and tweaking it to my liking. I got to a point where I can just do it in manual and get it to my liking without ever trying any auto mode. So no I just use Manual.

but it all depends if the user behind the camera just uses AUTO and forgets it, or tries to learn from it.

 

[jcdeboever]

I use whatever works. Program Auto seems to work well on my point & shoot SX60HS for a couple reason. Mainly, it does a pretty good job and allows me to manage the ISO as Derrel was keen to suggest as well as white balance. Second, I can quickly bump the exposure compensation button to solve the blinkies in the histogram. The manual mode, which I prefer to use on my D7200, is too fiddley on the point and shoot. It's doable but not quick at all and can easily miss shots. In low light shooting or tripod shooting or when I am really trying to be more creative, then manual seems to work fine on the point and shoot. Low light with a tripod works good for manual because you can keep the ISO at base to keep noise away and the tripod keeps the camera steady so you can use the slow shutter speeds. In the end, it's about what works to get it done. The D7200 is way easy not to use manual as you have a front dial to change aperture, and a thumb dial to change shutter speed. The point and shoot has to be toggled with the exposure compensation button for those two which is rather annoying. On older film cameras, it's even easier, set the shutter speed on the dial and adjust aperture on lens ring for exposure and depth of field preview. They really are all the same, just different ways to do it. The P & s is the most cumbersome.

The P&S key for me is distance of lens to subject. It can really give you some nice oof (Blur background) rendering once you find the sweet spots. Get close and let the magic happen, EC is your friend. Small sensor P & S like tripods and or a rock steady hand.

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