Comments on: What Camera Mode Do You Use?

By: What Photo Editing Software Do You Use?

What Photo Editing Software Do You Use? — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 06:05:24 +0000

[...] Wow! Definitely check out the results from last week’s poll titled “What Camera Mode Do You Use?” We had nearly 460 votes on that one, which is the most votes any of the polls have had. Out [...]

By: Lisa

Lisa — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 15:44:58 +0000

Either Aperture Priority or Manual. Like you, I’m particular about controlling DOF the most.

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 15:03:44 +0000

I mostly shoot available light snapshots of my family, so I’ll vote for shutter priority. It’s just easiest to set the shutter for the lowest handheld speed for the lens and let the camera pick the aperture based on the light. (For really bright scenes I need to adjust of course.) Sometimes I’ll use the exposure compensation to bias the meter.

I think “P” mode is too biased toward wider apertures. If the light level suggests 1/60@F16, P will try to set it at 1/350@F7.2 or something like that. Maybe there’s some reason F7.2 would produce a better image than F16, but I don’t know what it is.

I’ve never gotten into the “pictogram” modes. I don’t know what they do, or why they do it, so I don’t know why I would use them.

Of course, for the occasional formal portrait with off camera lighting, I use full manual.

By: Gowri

Gowri — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 11:01:18 +0000

Hi Brian,

I have voted for Aperture Priority sinec that’s the mode I use always when I am shooting Macro and I shoot Macro the most. However when I do use my 70-300 telephoto for bird photography I prefer Program Auto mode for the convenience it provides.

Thanks for putting up this post. Would be interesting to know your views.

Cheers,

Gowri

By: Helen

Helen — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 09:27:17 +0000

For the last couple of years I used Av pretty much all the time, however in the last six months or so I have been using M pretty much all the time as I have become more aware of light and been able to read the scene.

By: Stephen gray

Stephen gray — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 21:42:18 +0000

I think a poll allowing us to rank the various modes in terms of use would be cool. I’m curious how it breaks down.

For me–I shoot aperture priority almost all the time. Sometimes I shoot in shutter priority when i’m shooting handheld in low light and want to make sure I don’t go below the lens’ “shake threshold.” Then of course there’s manual when the first two don’t give me what I need.

Can’t remember the last time I shot in program mode.

By: Denear

Denear — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 21:29:30 +0000

I am in full agreement with the majority of the comments you have received so far. I too needed a button with more options….
I shot mostly in Av, followed closelly with M, and Cn (Custom Function on the 40D). I will even admit to shooting at times in full auto, but less and less these days. These days I shoot almost exclusively in RAW, which is causing me all sorts of other issues, but that is another matter all together….
Thanks Brian for the great job you are doing with this site. I visit daily (RSS), and often pick up great tips from your site.

By: Steve Crane

Steve Crane — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 20:41:32 +0000

It depends on the camera I’m using. When shooting with my Canon 30D I use aperture priority mostly, sometimes full manual or less often shutter priority. When shooting film with either my old Praktica or even older rangefinder, it’s manual all the way. The odd one out is my compact digital (a Canon A540) where I started out trying to use aperture and shutter priorities or full manual. I was less than happy with the results though and have been using full auto or programmed auto more lately.

By: Tris Hussey

Tris Hussey — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 18:04:07 +0000

I, like most folks, started in full auto, then worked from the presets on my point-n-shoot. I read somewhere (or was told) that I could do cool things in program mode … did that for a while and got great results. When I got my D80 I just tried out the settings to see the results I would get. I liked the program mode for a while, but after being told that aperture priority is where you can do cool stuff, that’s what I stick with most of the time.

I have switched to shutter priority when doing night shots (long exposure), waterfalls, etc. Something where I wanted to control that aspect.

My pics are all on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tris/

By: Brian Auer

Brian Auer — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 17:59:20 +0000

Wow gang! Geat set of responses! It’s interesting to hear how many of you actually use manual mode on a regular basis. For me, it’s Aperture priority. I absolutely need that control over the DOF, even when I’m doing street photography. I’ll use full manual at night or on a tripod, and I rarely use shutter priority. Program priority and auto? I can’t remember the last time I used them.

For those folks who wanted an anwer along the lines of “it depends” — I intentionally left that off the poll. I fully recognize that most of us don’t use a single mode 100% of the time, but “it depends” doesn’t tell us much — that’s what the comments are for. The poll is intended to capture what you “typically” use for a majority of your shooting.

For the folks who are still new to photography, the poll results and all the great comments should give you an idea of which camera modes you ought to be preparing to explore (if you haven’t already).