Moving Beyond Automatic Mode, Part 1

This may seem a little basic to those with more advanced photography skills – in fact, I mean it to be basic. If you already know this stuff, feel free to skip this post.

When I first started photography, the camera was almost always set to Automatic Mode – I’d let the camera make all the decisions for me. I figured the camera was smarter than I was, and Automatic Mode would give me the best chance of capturing the image I wanted. I was also concerned that if I tried one of the other modes, I mess up what could otherwise be a nice image.

Almost all Point & Shoot cameras, and many DSLRs (or regular SLRs, for that matter) have different automated Scene Modes (Portrait, Landscape, Macro, Sunset, Sports, etc.) that give you a little more control and maybe a little more ability to be creative, within some fairly safe boundaries. But i think we might be ready to move beyond AUTOMATIC and Scene Modes.

When I’m out with my son, e usually have a conversation like this:
Son: “What setting should I use?”
Me: “Turn the dial to S* for Shutter Priority and crank it up to-”
Son: “No, that’s not what I mean – I don’t care about that – what did I use the last time?”
Me: “Just set it to the little guy running for the Sports mode . . .” (BIG sigh)

I’m going to suggest that to grow as a photographer and artist that’s it’s time to live dangerously and try something from the *PASM (sounds a little dirty) menu (and, no, I’m not referring to Porsche Active Suspension Management or Practical Applications of Stochastic Modelling). I’m taking about:

P=Program
A=Aperture priority
S=Shutter Priority
M=Manual

Before we cover these modes (we’ll save that for Part 2), let’s quickly review some related concepts. Let’s start with the Photographic Trifecta: Aperture, Shutter speed, and ISO. These elements share a reciprocal or interdependent relationship – when you change one, it has an effect on the other.

1. Aperture – a hole through which light (or whatever) is admitted. Aperture controls HOW MUCH LIGHT IS ADMITTED. In photography, this is usually measured in f/stops, represented by a number. Contrary to what you might imagine, the smaller the f/ number, the bigger the opening or aperture.

An aperture of f/2.8 is wider open than and aperture of f/11.

The wider the opening or aperture, the more light hits the film or sensor. The more light that hits the film or sensor, the less time is required for a correct exposure. The more light that gets in, the faster your shutter speed can be

Aperture can also have an effect on Depth of Field (or DOF). DOF is the area of sharpness in the image. In landscape photography there is usually a deep DOF, with everything in focus, from foreground elements, mid ground elements, and background elements. in portrait photography, a shallow DOF is often used, with only the eyes in sharp focus, and everything in front of and behind the eyes slightly out of focus. In the post SIMPLIFY & ISOLATE, I discussed using DOF as a means of accomplishing both simplification of the composition & isolation of the subject.

2. Shutter Speed – the shutter on the camera allows light to enter and strike the film/sensor. Shutter speed controls HOW LONG THE LIGHT IS ADMITTED. Faster shutter speeds stop action, slower shutter speeds blur action.

To freeze the coyote running across the frozen pond, you would use a faster shutter speed. To blur the water in a cascade so that it appears smooth and milky, use a slower shutter speed (here’s Gary’s recommendation for that).

Shutter speed can also effect the sharpness of your pictures due to camera shake. The longer the focal length, the more pronounced camera shake will be. In general, the longer the focal length (300mm is a longer focal length than 50mm, for instance), the more camera shake will blur images (abnd not in a good way). The general rule is to pick a shutter speed that is at least the reciprocal of the focal length. That’s kind of a mouthful. If you have a 50mm lens, use of shutter speed of at least 1/50th second. For a focal length of 300mm, choose a shutter speed of at least 1/300 second. What can really complicate the reciprocal of the focal length is the crop factor associated with APS-C sized sensors (on a smaller sensor, the effective focal length gets another 50% added to it, so a 300mm lens effectively becomes a focal length of 450mm), so you would need to tack on that to the equation, which would be a shutter speed of 1/450 (basically 1/500sec) second.

3. ISO – ISO is a measure of the sensitivity of the sensor or film to light. The lower the ISO (100, for example), the less sensitive the film or sensor is to light (and longer the exposure time is). The higher the ISO is (1600, for example), the more sensitive the sensor or film is (and shorter the exposure time is).

ISO effect the Image Quality (IQ). Lower ISO generally offers much better IQ, while higher ISO usually leads to more digital noise and image degradation. Fortunately, many newer DSLRs have much improved high ISO performance.

Each of these elements has a direct effect on the other elements. Each of these elements is usually measured in STOPS. For example:

When I go out after coyotes, I usually start early in the morning, when there’s not much light. I might start out with ISO400, an aperture of f/2.8, and that gives me a shutter speed of say 1/60sec. That’s kind of a slow shutter speed to catch a moving animal, so I crank up the ISO by a full stop (that doubles my ISO) to 800. In doing that, I have increased my shutter speed by a stop (doubling my shutter speed) to 1/120sec.

Every time I change one element, it has an effect on the other elements. Understanding these elements and their relationship to the other gives us more creative control of our photography and helps our images turn out they way WE want them too, rather than how the camera thinks they should turn out.

Hopefully this hasn’t been too confusing (or, hopefully, I_ haven’t been too confusing). These can sometimes be some difficult concepts to _get, and I’m probably not the best qualified person to try to explain these things (but I knew it was a dangerous job when I took it). We received enough positive feedback about providing some additional instruction about photography that we’re continuing this series. I hope it’s helpful.

I would like to recommend a book that explains things much better than I – UNDERSTANDING EXPOSURE by Bryan Peterson. It’s an excellent resource and one that I relied upon while trying to take my photography to the next level.

Stay tuned for the next installment – PASM

• Favorite
• Report Concern
• Share This
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Add your comment

You need to login or signup to add your comment to this work.