marciamyers wrote:
New to group and photography...am 67 and purchased an entry level (1st DSLR) Nikon D3400 in December. Having a great time with it, have shot exclusively in manual mode to learn how to use the camera and maneuver the different settings and have learned more than I ever realized I did not know, but still lots to learn. Am wondering when and why you would use shutter priority or aperture priority over manual mode.....I can guess it would speed things up but if that is the case when would you know to use those settings? Thanks for any input you can give.
New to group and photography...am 67 and purchased... (
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Some folks think that manual mode is the only one you should use. Like any form of automation is a bad thing.
Fact is, all of the exposure modes are useful for certain situations.
Manual is great when you have the time to set it up and the shooting situation allows it to be used. When lighting is consistent, why not lock down your settings and be certain of your results?
But when lighting is variable... or when a subject is moving in and out of different lighting conditions... sun one moment, shade the next, something halfway in between a second later.... it's pretty much impossible to use manual mode. At least, if you want accurate exposures in all the different lighting, M won't work.
That's when the various auto exposure modes are useful or even necessary... and why you should learn how they work and practice with them.
Shutter priority is useful when your most important consideration is stopping subject movement... or deliberately blurring it in your images. You select the shutter speed and the ISO, the camera selects what it "thinks" is an appropriate aperture, based upon the meter reading of the scene in front of it. A fast shutter speed will freeze movement while a slower one will let it be blurred in an image. The speed and direction of a subject determine what speeds are needed, and that comes with practice and experience.
Aperture priority is important when you want to control depth of field in your images... shallow effects that make a subject stand out against a blurred down background or very deep DoF that renders everything crisply sharp from near to far.... it's your choice. You set the aperture and the ISO, the camera selects a shutter speed it "thinks" will render an accurate exposure based upon the meter reading of the scene. Lens focal length, distance from you to the subject and from the subject to the background, etc. are the determining factors how DoF will be rendered and how strong background blur, for example, will be.
Program mode is sort of a "point n shoot" auto exposure method. I use it when I need to make a very fast change and simply don't have time to stop and thing about it.... such as I've been shooting an event indoors and need to step outside and make one or two shots, then return to what I was doing. No time to meter the scene and decide what the outdoor lighting requires.... so I switch to P, leaving the ISO where I already had it set and let the camera choose both aperture and shutter speed. I know that in reasonably good light it will default to a shutter speed fast enough to freeze moderate movements and that it will usually use a middle aperture where there will be plenty of DoF... but I'm not too worried about either of them. One nice thing about using P this way, is that when I'm done and return to the mode I'd been using and the shooting I'd been doing, the settings I was using are still there... I don't need to reset things other than shifting the mode dial from P to whatever I was using.
On many cameras today there is now another auto exposure mode... Manual + Auto ISO. Some folks go on about how they "only shoot manual" (like that's a good thing), then I find out they are using Auto ISO with it. They're fooling themselves. Using Auto ISO with M is no longer manual. It's just another auto exposure mode. The photographer gets to select the shutter speed and the aperture, but the camera will choose what it "thinks" is an ISO that will make a correct exposure based upon metering the scene in front of it. That can have it's uses, too... though I think Auto ISO is massively over-used by folks who really don't understand it. There can be times when you want control over both shutter speed to stop movement and aperture to control DoF.... but are less concerned about the ISO that's used.... say if generally adequate lighting will not cause ISO to be too high, where images would become unacceptably "noisy" (high ISOs also reduce dynamic range and resolution.... but most folks just fret about noise).
Auto ISO can be enabled when using the other AE modes... aperture priority, shutter priority and program. I really can't think of any instance where that would be helpful and useful, though. In fact, seems to me it would be sort of a gamble what an "auto auto" mode would do. So I only ever use Auto ISO with M... and probably a lot less frequently than some people.
Your camera's mode dial probably also has a series of "scene modes".... a little icon of a "running man" for sports, a "mountain" for scenics, etc. Those are sort of super-auto modes. They not only automate exposure, using what the camera designer thought was appropriate from the above AE choices for different types of photography, but also forcing you to use particular autofocus setups, controlling image factors such as contrast & color saturation, selecting the frame rate that will be used, even only allowing you to save a certain type of file or forcing the flash to operate, and more. Frankly, these are all things I want to choose for myself. So when I use a camera with "scene modes", I never used them. Some more advanced cameras don't even have these modes or they hide them in a menu instead of cluttering up the mode dial with them.
There may be some other things on that mode dial.... such as "Auto" (on Nikon... "A+" on Canon... others?). Most cameras have it and it's like a "camera phone" or "point n shoot" mode... let the camera make ALL decisions. Just point n click. (And pray it works.)
Some cameras have user definable custom settings, video mode, or other functions on the mode dial.
I don't know about Nikon, but many Canon also have a "CA" mode, which is "creative auto" and is sort of built in learning tool. It provides a "wizard" on the camera's LCD screen that guides you through making settings. Of course, doing that is slower, but it's a great way to learn how things work and the effects different adjustments will have on your images.
But the "real" exposure modes on that dial on a Nikon are A, S, P, and M... plus Auto ISO, which probably in a menu instead. (Canon calls them Av, Tv, P & M... others may label differently)
This is really just scratching the surface of a complex subject. I highly recommend you get a copy of Bryan Peterson's "Understanding Exposure"... read it, study it, learn it. Might be the best $15 or $20 you ever spend on your photography!