G Brown Loc: Sunny Bognor Regis West Sussex UK

Short answer and bearing in mind your age YES auto is fine to use.
I mention your age (as you did) because a) your eyes and reflexes aren't as sharp as they were, b)You are probably not looking to be a professional and by now you probably 'know what you like'. Also what is more important is 'creating memories' rather than getting published. (feel free to shoot me down in flames if I am wrong)

The areas PP will not address EASILY are slow shutter speed for implying movement and depth of field with a blurred background (it can be done in layers).

I would concentrate on composition and enjoying the 'experience'. As well as the excuse to disappear for hours without working too hard!

Have a great christmas.

yssirk123 Loc: New Jersey

One suggestion to get out of full auto is set you aperture and shutter speed manually, and your ISO to auto (with upper limits). Steve Perry has an excellent article and video explaining this if you're interested. Just search "Steve Perry Auto ISO". BTW, this technique will work with other camera brands beside Nikon.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Learn the principles. Read The *Fine* Manual for your camera, with camera in hand. Read *Understanding Exposure” by Bryan Peterson. Read *Stunning Digital Photography” by Tony Northrup.

Without the principles, you’re just randomly playing with it.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

To answer your question, one must decide what a great photo is, and that definition may be different for different people. From my point of view, you cannot get a great photo after post processing if you do not start with an very good one. Using full auto presents you with many photographic limitations. The best that you will likely come up with much of the would be an acceptable version of a mediocre photograph.

Auto often doesn't know exactly what you are focusing on, especially if your intended subject is near an unintended subject. if you want to capture sharply a bird or other animal sitting amongst branches in a tree, auto will not do it. Auto doesn't know how fast a shutter speed to use when capturing fast moving subjects like sports, wildlife and children without blurring them. Auto doesn't know what aperture to use to isolate your subject from the background with blur or when to use a wide depth of field, to keep everything in reasonable focus. These are only a few of the reasons not to use auto.

Additionally, if you are editing jpeg files in ON1 you are limiting the quality you can achieve in post processing. Programs like ON1 are really geared to getting the best from raw files, not jpegs. However, In the end none of this matters if you are content with the final images you get. That's all that counts.

A camera is a creative tool and full auto takes over all the creative responsibility except for composition. If you are content with that limitation and just want to tweak your auto images a bit in ON1, there is nothing wrong with that. But if and when you question why your images don't look as compelling as those others post you may want to reconsider your decision.

I shoot in raw only, mostly in manual mode and aperture priority mode. I shoot carefully to ensure I get the best shots I can straight from the camera and then process every single image that I decide to keep in DXO Photolab Elite, which is my post processing program of choice. My goal is to control as much as I can the images I end up with.

PHRubin Loc: Nashville TN USA

QUESTION: "Can I get a great photo after pp that was shot from auto mode?"

ANSWER: Probably 85% of the time

Experienced photographers learn the exposure triangle to recognize and take control when encountering the other 15% of the types of shots.

For example:
1) A snow scene will be underexposed. Snow should be white, but the camera wants scenes to be 18% grey (as the majority of scenes are, approximately). This will cause detail in shadowy areas to be lost.
2) A moon shot will be overexposed, losing all detail. Too much black sky fools the camera.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

I think suggesting 85% of the time is way too generous. That suggests that controlling the shutter speed and aperture of 85% of your images is not necessary. Maybe for some that's acceptable, but for me I would reverse those numbers and suggest that perhaps 15% of the time, at most, auto would give me close to what I want. Plus, I'm not sure one can generate raw files when shooting full auto. If not, then using a post processing program like ON1 will introduce additional limitations to your final output when editing jpegs rather than raw files.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

What do you mean bearing in mind your age? I'm 73 and shoot in manual mode 75% of the time and aperture priority 25% of the time. I also manually focus 10% to 15% of all my images. I also shoot in raw and process every image I think it's worthwhile keeping. I have no intention of ever shooting any other way.

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

CamB Loc: Juneau, Alaska

I would suggest that if you are going to shoot in AUTO, that you also shoot jpegs. The camera will do some PP for you and I bet most of your photographs will look just fine. As you want to try more complex shooting you can begin to slide into other modes.
...Cam

PHRubin Loc: Nashville TN USA

I meant to imply that 85% of the time the exposure will be adequate. However if one considers other characteristics like DOF, or stopping action for example, then I agree that 85% is generous.

My 80D can generate a RAW file in Auto and I expect most digital cameras that support RAW can.

Bill_de Loc: US

Nice balanced article from B&H

The Benefits for Using Auto Modes on Your Digital Camera

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/explora/photography/tips-and-solutions/benefits-using-auto-modes-your-digital-camera

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burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Raw is the BEST way to record images in an auto mode. It has +/- two stops latitude. JPEG has + 1/3, -1/2 stop latitude. And a correctly exposed raw file lets you adjust highlights and shadows to compress the tonal range for a better print.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

You are preaching to the choir. I was not sure if all cameras, especially the unnamed one used by the OP, are capable of outputting raw files when shooting in full auto. In any case, my guess is that the majority of those shooting in full auto are most likely unaware of the option to shoot in raw or the benefits of doing so.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Raw and JPEG are completely different, just like color negatives and color slides.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

I am well aware of that although I don't think I would use that specific analogy. But, in any case, have a great Christmas!!