Camera modes

AUTOMATIC MODES:

Auto — everything is on auto, including ISO, flash and image quality
Portrait — uses a large aperture to shorten the depth of field
Landscape — uses a small aperture to gain more depth of field
Sport — uses higher ISO to use faster shutter speeds
Night portrait — uses long exposures to capture the entire scene, often combined with built in flash
Macro — uses a large aperture to great a softer background

Just Say NO! to Automatic Modes

There is no reason what so ever to use the automatic modes. After you’ve read through this series of articles about photography you should have enough knowledge to control the camera on manual modes — which will result in better photographs.

The Program mode (P) is fine to use, this way you will have the aperture and shutter automatic but still be in control over everything else. Most photographers find a mode that they like and maybe switches between two different modes, this is personal preferences and let me just tell you that far from every professional photographers uses only the fully Manual setting.

I personally use M and Av most of the time, depending on the situation. Av for the situations where I don’t have enough time to set the correct exposure between every shot and then M for the rest.

I usually shoot (perhaps about 80% of my photos) in the Av mode since I use only RAW and I can do some PP if my camera picked a bad shutter speed… and since I have a Canon 40D that’s not the frequent case! Anyway, If I find myself compensating (EV +/-) exposure too often, then I change to M … you need the Av mode if you can’t corrext exposure between every shot, for example if you are taking photographies of (wild) children!