Shooting Modes; Automatic, Semi-Automatic and Manual

The range of modes and settings can seem daunting at first. The best – and quickest – way to become a confident photographer is to experiment with your camera on every setting, so you fully understand how ISO, aperture and shutter speed inter-link. It’s often better to do this exercise without having another person involved – having to worry about your subject getting bored or uncomfortable adds unnecessary pressure at this stage!

In summary, the different exposure modes are:

Programme Mode

In this mode, you only set the ISO – the camera chooses the aperture and shutter speeds according to the amount of reflected light it meters from the scene, as it attempts to render that scene so that mid-tones are exposed correctly. This mode is the quickest and easiest to start shooting with, but leaves all the exposure decisions down to the camera. Even the most expensive camera has no idea what your intentions are, so you risk limiting yourself to decidedly average images if you never venture away from Programme Mode – using it at all is a bad habit!

Aperture Priority Mode

This is the mode to use when depth of field is the most important consideration. If you want a blurred background to your portrait, choose an ISO setting most appropriate for the available lighting and dial in a wide aperture. The camera decides which shutter speed will result in a mid-tone being correctly exposed, according to its internal algorithms. Again, the camera doesn’t know what kind of portrait you are trying to create, so in any scene which has high contrast, backlighting or extremes of light and dark, the final result may not be what you were hoping for.

Shutter Priority Mode

This mode will help you control how motion is recorded, whether you want to freeze it or include it as a blur. Choose an ISO then dial in how long you want the shutter to remain open for, bearing in mind the risk of camera shake if the shutter speed’s denominator is less than the length of the focal length (e.g. on a 50mm focal length, keep the shutter speed above 1/50th of a second). The camera will select an aperture that will result in a mid-tone being exposed correctly.

Exposure Compensation adjustments

When using any of the above semi-automatic modes, you can use exposure compensation to quickly increase or decrease the exposure. Hold down the button marked with the +/- symbols in a box and rotate the dial – if the scene is overexposed dial in around -0.5 to -1.5EV depending on how big an adjustment is required; if it’s underexposed, dial in around +0.5 to +1.5EV, again depending on how much exposure needs adding. This provides a quick fix to your images while you build your confidence to shoot in Manual Mode.

Manual Mode

Only in manual mode are you fully in control of each exposure. You’ll need to select the ISO, aperture and shutter…