bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

Yes it is! But my camera has a setting named that. One of my DW's more productive cameras had that and a setting titled "Happy Color". Really!

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

No, it won't. For much of what I shoot.... sports/action... there are no "do overs". You either get the shot right and it's usable... or you don't and it's trash. There may never be an opportunity to correct mistakes and take a second shot.



First of all, I would dispute that really "serious" photographers only shoot full Manual (or even that they only shoot RAW). In my opinion and experience, truly serious photographers know when and how to use Manual, Aperture Priority auto exposure, Shutter Priority AE and possibly even Program AE or Manual plus Auto ISO. They also may use fully Manual. To an extent, it depends upon what they're shooting. Someone who only shoots landscapes and is able to work at a more sedentary pace, has time to make corrections and take a second shot, might use Manual most of the time. A wedding photographer shooting formal, staged shots also might use Manual, but may need to switch to Aperture Priority for shots during the ceremony or Shutter Priority to make candid shots of the dancers at the reception. Manual plus Auto ISO is yet another form of auto exposure... which has it's uses too.

Also, IMO there's no such thing as "semi auto" exposure mode. It's either auto exposure or it's not. There is nothing "semi" about it.



Full AUTO is far more than just auto exposure. It is a "point n shoot" mode that will only allow JPEGs to be recorded (no RAW), won't let you use Exposure Compensation adjustments (which are important and necessary), even forces you to use Auto White Balance, the most fully automated form of auto focus, and possibly more! In other words, it's like using a point n shoot camera or camera phone that has no adjustments at all. The "Scene" modes do much of the same and are nearly as bad... just slightly tweaked one way or another depending upon the type of scene....such as using a higher shutter speed for "sports" mode... or a smaller aperture for "scenic"... or a larger aperture and "faithful" white balance in "portrait" mode. NO THANKS! I never use FULL AUTO or any of the scene modes (in fact, my current primary cameras don't even have scene modes).

My cameras have "picture styles", which it will apply to JPEGs. But that's not "special attention" or a "bonus", IMO.

In fact, every shot done by every digital camera is a RAW, initially. When you save JPEGs, the camera is instantly doing the RAW conversion to make a JPEG... using the set Picture Style parameters as a guide... saving the JPEG and throwing away whatever is left over. I can do the exact same thing in my camera by opening the RAW in the camera maker's software and clicking on "As Shot". Or I can work with the RAW in other ways and develop a final image from it as I see fit. IMO, that's giving and image "special attention".



FULL AUTO doesn't leave focus to the photographer. It forces you to use the most highly automated of auto focus modes (which I virtually never use).

Plus a lot of the creative decisions in photography involve the photographer's deliberate choice of aperture and/or the shutter speed... possibly even the ISO. Your decisions about these factors dictate how the image "looks" in many ways, just as much as composition and other creative aspects.

Automation of exposure is necessary in some situations.... such as when shooting subjects that are moving in and out of shadows or other variable light conditions. Av/A, Tv/S and possibly P all work well at those times.... maybe even Manual with Auto ISO. Further automation than that is much more like using a smart phone to take snapshots, than using a DLSR or MILC to make photographs.

hookedupin2005 Loc: Northwestern New Mexico

Along with the very good responses already mentioned, you said that looking at the LCD(chimping) for a possible, better second shot, is an option. You should know that 'second' shot is not always (usually not) possible. That hummingbird is long gone...That fish has already jumped... etc.

ToBoldlyGo Loc: London U.K.

Auto settings are no good for fast moving animals. Cameras behave differently according to the way they are set up. Do you want the camera to decide how it will focus, whether it will fire on a shutter press or not, whether it will focus on a tree or not while you pan? Who do I blame when my bird is blurry due to slow shutter speed? The camera? I bought a good camera for its focus system, not so that it can guess wrongly over what I want in my images. Just my opinions of course.

JohnFrim Loc: Somewhere in the Great White North.

I love it (NOT!!!) when folks respond without reading the entire post. I guess the last sentence in my original post was just too far down the page.

The whole point of my post was to help the photographer concentrate on composition, allowing the camera to set exposure and save a RAW file that would be quite useable in many situations.

So we actually agree.

JohnFrim Loc: Somewhere in the Great White North.

Alan, I always like reading your detailed responses, and I generally agree with you.

But I believe you have made at least 2 errors. First, shooting FULL AUTO does NOT restrict you to saving only JPEG; you can still save in RAW. Second, I can use manual focus regardless of shooting mode, so I am NOT forced to leave that up the camera.

Other than that, great response.

csmith4math

I shoot in "P" mode, RAW-only or RAW+jpg, most of the time, occasionally using A or T for specific effects. Manual can be best with a technically-knowledgable photographer who has the time to set up the shutter speed and aperture, but--as others have noted--is likely to result in lost shots when rapid reactions are needed. (disclosure: I'm a pretty casual amateur photographer.)

One poster stated there is no such thing as "semi-auto" shots. I think this is unnecessary semantic-purism: I consider my shooting options as Full-Auto, Semi-Auto (P, A, S), and Manual. Using the term semi-automatic makes it easier to distinguish between P-A-S and Auto modes, and seems quite descriptive to me.

BebuLamar

Auto is adequate for RAW but not optimal.

artBob Loc: Near Chicago

Very true. Expression/idea and composition are important. Most other things can be taken care of PP, save action photos. Of course we all have comfort levels. For me, I shoot auto 90% and alter focus, contrast, key, value range PP. The other 10%, even though some think "semi-auto" does not exist, if I know DOF is critical, I'll set aperture priority. Only occasionally do I set shutter priority, for stop-action. I imagine most photographers have some combination that [gasp] works for what they need.

srt101fan

I agree with your definition of shooting options and wish they would become standard language on UHH. I would only add "P,A,S, or M + Auto ISO" to your semi-auto modes.

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

Interesting. I didn't bother to read any of the posts since it seemed to be a futile question. Auto modes and manual focus are independent of image file format choices on any decent camera. Composition is orthogonal to auto choices, except perhaps for focus point selection and metering modes. At least with Canon and Canon DPP the camera settings are passed to the computer, so raw files display just like the JPEG, except for having all the advantages of raw.

Isn't it simply about learning how to use the camera, which has always been required.

jbmauser Loc: Roanoke, VA

I like to simplify explanations if I can. Auto exposure averages the light the best it can. If you have very bright areas auto will try and do the job but over exposed areas or blown out areas have no data recorded to the sensor. In manual you can slightly underexpose the image to expose for the light area (sky in many cases) and with RAW you can adjust all areas you have pixels with data. No data captured nothing there to work with.

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

Does it really work that way? Doesn't that depend upon the metering modes that are chosen? There are many metering modes, evaluative, center weighted, spot, and so on. My 1986 Canon T90 had a multi-point spot metering system option which is something that I guess didn't catch on, but was occasionally useful.

IDguy Loc: Idaho

Also true for Nikons,

Ernie Misner Loc: Lakewood, WA

Raw is just a file type as is jpeg and tiff, and has nothing to do with whether you are shooting in manual or an auto mode. The raw file does contain more information however and is a bit more tolerant to over/under exposure than a jpeg file type would be.