shooting modes

Almost every camera has several different shooting modes to help assist you in getting the right exposure for your photos.

Usually, they are:

AUTO – or automatic which is the easiest for beginners. Simply set the dial to “AUTO” and blast away and the camera will figure everything out for you, including whether or not you need to use flash. You’ll lose all control over the settings, but you’ll also have nothing to worry about.

P – or program which is the next easiest mode to use. Normally, when you set the dial to “P” the camera will do most of the work for you, but you get to decide whether or not the flash is used or not.

S – or shutter priority. This one gives you the ability to select the shutter speed and the camera will set everything else. This is good for when you want to keep the shutter speed up high to freeze the action or move it down low to blur the motion.

A – or aperture priority mode and, you guessed it, the photographer has control over the aperture and the camera picks everything else. This is best used when you want a large – or small – depth of field for your photo.

Scene Selections – which are usually denoted by icons of flowers, portraits, nighttime or landscapes.  A scene selection mode generally presets
the flash, shutter speed and aperture as well as various other
settings. Your camera may have any number of special modes for special
shooting conditions, including portrait, nighttime or landscape.

M – or manual mode. Here you have complete control over everything. Wanna make the shutter speed slow down, then go right ahead. Same with aperture priority. This is a great place to experiment.

The photos above were all taken on full manual because of difficult lighting conditions. In the top one, I set the shutter speed to two seconds and fired the flash at the beginning of that time period (while the camera was securely placed on a tripod) in order to get the streaking lights effect and a good exposure. With the red tulip against the blue wall, there was too much light bouncing off the wall some I had to adjust the exposure downward and in the silhouette I had to exposure for the sun, not for the girl.

Here is a website with a little more info.

Today’s advice: To master your camera, you need to play around with each of the settings and see what they accomplish. I mean, just because the manual tells you to set your dial to the flower for closeups of daisies, doesn’t mean you can’t try the same thing with a closeup of your two-year-old.