Bugfan Loc: Toronto, Canada

I can't answer your questions but perhaps I can give you some suggestions.

When I drive to a shoot and park the car the first thing I do is set my camera. If my anticipated subjects are moving I place the camera in shutter preferred "S". If I am doing macro mostly I place it in aperture preferred "A". If I'm doing landscapes, stuff like that, I set it to "P". If my intent is to be artistic I set it to "M", manual. My internal meter is usually set to centre averaging.

Then I take my expo disk and set my white balance whatever it happens to turn out to be. White balance is different every day and sometimes many times within a day. That set too, I take a few pictures and have a look at them. If I'm happy I leave the car and go to my images. If I'm not happy I will make adjustments to ISO and whatever else until finally I have a setting that gets me what I want.

Alas these settings are only my starting position. If the subject I wanted to do was around I may just take pictures all day and never make an adjustment. But alas there are often different subjects as I hike through the bush. I rarely ever make adjustments to white balance or ISO after that initial setting, I find them to be fairly constant. But I will change my program settings and my exposure settings as needed depending on how my subject is illuminated and I am constantly setting my meter to different settings depending on the subject.

Basically my settings when I head out are based on the state of the daylight or the venue I am in, and the nature of my anticipated subjects and after that I make adjustments as my subjects change. I'm sorry that this doesn't answer your question but then there is no answer to your question, there are too many variables to consider every time you head out to another shoot.

Bobspez Loc: Southern NJ, USA

It's different for everyone. I shoot in manual mode so aperture, exposure and iso are set by me. But I usually know in advance what I will shoot.

Shel B

Seems you got some pretty snooty replies to what seems to be a very good question. If you are just looking to shoot "street scenes" try setting your ISO on auto. The P or auto setting will give you good results. You could use the A setting with an aperture of f5.6 or f8 and get equally good results. Or the S setting with a shutter speed of 125 or 250 and still get good results. I doubt you would be able to tell much if any difference by eye. You only need to really worry about shutter speed or aperture in special situations such as low light, or an auto race, where you want to stop action or a scenic in which you want max depth of field. Some people get too caught up in technicalities. That's not to say that sometimes you NEED a shutter speed of only 1/8 of a second to get the desired effect. Sometimes you NEED to shoot at f22 for max depth of field. But for just walking around, ISO on auto and P or auto will give you good shots. Just have fun, pay attention to your results, and go from there.

martinfisherphoto Loc: Lake Placid Florida

It's not likely anything said has sunk in.. If you don't know the basics your really just wasting your time. Start with a great simple to read & understand book called 'Understanding Exposure" third edition by Bryan Peterson. It explains the Exposure Triangle, which explains how a camera captures the light for the image. You can flounder for years or learn now, it's up to you. Find on eBay for $5.

BebuLamar

You will not find the Exposure Triangle in the book.

rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA

Oh come on folks, what about Basic Daylight Exposure - 1/16 sec, f/16, ISO 200? A great place to start.

http://www.svhsphoto.com/basic-daylight-exposure.html

LoneRangeFinder Loc: Left field

I think you mis-typed.

rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA

No, I don't think so.

threedeers Loc: Northern Illinois

I have my "standard settings" which I reset the camera to after a shooting session.
White balance =Auto
ISO = 100
Metering = Center
Focus Area= Single point
Focus Mode = Auto
Aperture Priority
F Stop - ~ F8
Lens 18-300 (Nikon D7200)
VR = on

From there I reset the camera (or change the lens) to the situation. At least I know where I am at when I start a new session. These "standard settings" has made my life much easier.

David Taylor

So you meant one sixteenth of a second?

Shel B

This started out quite simple. Basic walk around settings. That's why modern cameras have Program or Automatic settings, to make photography simple for those who have not studied it in depth. Either of those settings, with ISO set at 100, 200, or 400 will give good results in normal, walk around situations. As far as the "sunny 16" rule goes: In bright light, set the shutter speed at the setting that most closely matches the ISO number (ISO 100, shutter speed 1/125 or 1/100). Set your fstop at f16. That's it. As the light dims, open up your aperture. But that has nothing to do with just walking around taking photos. We all know that photography is much deeper than that but the question was quite simple.

mcveed Loc: Kelowna, British Columbia (between trips)

No, Jerry. That is only the answer to "life, the universe and everything".