What mode do you use?

[BlueX]

Hi,

I was just wondering what camera modes people use and why.

For me, here's how it breaks down:

40% in Program mode- What I also call "snapshot" mode. Most of my shooting time is spent walking around on trips with my family or while hiking. I keep my camera in this mode for a quick "gotcha shot" when I don't have much time to think about the settings, then if I have time or the opportunity, I'll go into another mode. This percentage was around 80-90% in the months after getting my d40, but has come down as I understand photography more.

30% in Aperture priority mode- Most of the time I am more concern with controlling depth of field. I also turn to this mode indoors in low light to use the widest aperture I have, although I've learned my camera's p mode also favors wide open aperture in low light.

14% in Shutter priority- Only time I'm in this mode is to use a long shutter speed to get a specific effect, ie. in night shots or photographing waterfalls (or the one time I photographed fireworks).

14% in Manual mode- Again, I'm only in this mode for a specific effect. Most of my night shot are in this mode because I want lots of dof and a long shutter speed. Sometimes when I experiment with my flash, I and in this mode. As I learn more about exposure, I am using this mode more and more, but only when I have the time to really think about my shot.

2% in the special scene mode- I've really only play with these modes. I think if I learned exactly what settings they changed and didn't change and what affects they have, I'd feel more comfortable using them.

That's basically how it works for me.

[Mad Aussie]

I guess this kind of will depend on what people are shooting the most but here's how I think it breaks down for me pretty much ...


40% Shutter Priority (Tv on a Canon) - I shoot a lot of cycling, wildlife, and landscape. Much of the landscape is water. All of there things need me to control the movement to get the effect I want. I use the Tv to achieve this most often and then switch to manual if the effect needs finer adjustment in terms of DOF, exposure etc

39% Manual - After using Tv I often find I need to fine tune my shot so I use manual alot for this. Sometimes I want to be cautious so I use manual to slightly underexpose my shots knowing I can correct them properly in PP.
I use manual exclusively for the more special effect stuff like the extreme lighting/shadow shots and also for portraits.

20% Aperture Priority (Av on a Canon) - For landscapes I often switch to Av to control the DOF and colour intensity I want and then switch to manual if I think the shots needs more fine tuning. Sometimes I'll start with this for portraits also before switching to manual again.

1% Other - on rare occassions I'll use A-Dep, or even Auto as a metering exercise, and bulb for lightning/night shots.

Good question!

[tirediron]

Hmmm... lessee.. a rough guesstimate would be:

70% Manual: Having "grown up" in the day of the fully manual SLR (Heck, most of my early cameras didn't even have built-in light meters!) that's what I'm used to. I shoot mainly still subjects, so it suits me well.

14% Shutter priority: Action shots, especially with long glass. Set my minimum shutter speed and off we go.

14% Aperture priority: Weddings, and people.

2% Auto/program: This is what I leave my camera on if I'm just wandering.

[jjeling]

It depends on what Im shooting.
Manual for sports and wildlife 15%. I get into one spot, set my exposure, then adjust shutter or f-stop depending on what I want or the light conditions. Its more complicated than that but its the short of it
I use aperture priorty almost 85% of the time. Most of the shots I take are of still subjects, buildings, landscapes, glass, or anything else. Usually try and get the highest f-stop possible.
Never use shutter priority.
Bulb for night shots in a moving car or other special occasions. .05%

[Marko]

Ok I'll tell.

I only use 3 modes in these rough percentages

Aperture priority - 60%
Manual 25%
Shutter priority - 14%

1% misc. ( changed it for the one shot on 100 where I might try bulb (stole that one from JJ) )

I NEVER ever let the camera choose the main setting because cameras have no brains.
I would encourage people to never use the fully programmed mode for this very reason. Even when you are wandering, most subjects will benefit from having the aperture pre-selected.

[mindforge]

I usually shoot just in Shutter or Aperture. Probably 70% of the time in A.

Rarely I go to manual. I will do manual in a really controlled environment where I get to manipulate everything... and have time. This is rare for me.

[Ben H]

65% Aperture Priority (basically, most natural light shooting)
35% Manual (basically, most flash shooting, and sometimes tricky situations)
5% Shutter priority (for those special effects)

[Greg_Nuspel]

I am trying to use manual more and more. I'm an old Nikon user so shutter priority is my standby, but I use it with the aperture I want in mind. I have played with program for family snap shots. Percentage wise I'd have to look at my data for that.

BTW bulb is manual, very manual.

[kat]

Let's see. I've had my camera for just over a year now. For the first 4-5 month it was mostly on auto because I just couldn't get things changed fast enough or good enough and really didn't want to ruin my "family outting trips". Then I got to reading and started playing around. Right now I'm between Shutter and Aperture Modes. I've only started using Manual, only really starting to get to that this will do this and this will do that. It's funny how much better photos can come out if you do it yourself (sometimes for me lol).

I have a funny feeling you ask me this question next year and it will be different.

[Iguanasan]

If I am in quick point and shoot mode then I will fall back to Auto but I've been spending much more time in Manual. I haven't quite figured out why I would go to aperture or shutter priority when I can control them myself but maybe that speaks more to my lack of experience in playing with those modes.

[Travis]

I used to use mostly AP and M

but now I pretty much use M exclusively, this is largely due to how the body handles flash/iso in the various modes..

I usually pick the aperture i need to tell the story.. the shutter speed I need to guarantee action freeze... if the selected combo leaves me underexposed i'll use auto-iso or flash depending on the situation to make up the difference.

I'm loving auto-iso in manual mode more and more (i was hesitant at first). I even use +.3exp comp in manual so the auto iso pulls the image to the right of the histogram. Far less noise with this method.

[BlueX]

What a wide range of responses! Thanks for sharing, everybody. I know as I get better in my understanding of photography, my ratios will change even more. I've been using program mode as training wheels or as a crutch because like Kat said, I didn't want to screw up important shots. I must train myself (and trust myself) to think more like a photographer and less like a snap shooter and take creative control.

[Gem]

100% Manual

Because I don't have a dSLR yet, and I need all the control I can gather on the camera. Undoubtedly this will probably change once I do get that camera!

[F8&Bthere]

Even though it is not the cool response, the honest answer is about 50% P mode since I find that in my hurried life with work and kids and household responsibilities I never have a second to think or plan or analyze- I have to just shoot. Even if I'm out and about, I'll have a dog escaping or a baby crying in the car, or an impatient wife rushing my every photo opp.

But I recently acquired a Pentax K10D and am really liking a mode it offers that I never knew of before. TAv mode. I can use the front/rear dials to adjust aperture and shutter independantly, and the ISO is automatically adjusted to the appropriate sensitivity for any given combination of the other two settings to obtain correct metered exposure. And I can specify the allowable range of ISO in this mode. So say limit it from 100 to 400, 200 to 800 or whatever I like.

So basically 50%P, 50% split between Aperture and Shutter Priority according to the situation.

[Marko]

I like the honest answers here, but I fail to see why anyone that understands basic exposure would ever use the program mode when they could use aperture priority. :confused:

[Mad Aussie]

I like the honest answers here, but I fail to see why anyone that understands basic exposure would ever use the program mode when they could use aperture priority. :confused:
Depending on the lens, and in lower light, aperture priority often chooses shutter speeds too low for hand held shots. I think that might make some people shy of it.

[BlueX]

I like the honest answers here, but I fail to see why anyone that understands basic exposure would ever use the program mode when they could use aperture priority. :confused:

The biggest reason why I set my camera on P mode as a "default" setting is because I've been burned a few times when I'm in a rush to take a pic (which is most of the time I pick up my camera) and I for get to change the aperture from, say f/16 or f/11 from shooting outside to something wider for shooting indoors. Then when I take the shot, I get a click, then a long pause because the shutter is still open, then the click of the shutter closing and tons of camera blur. And of course I missed the moment I was trying to get. Stuff like that will happen when I am reacting and taking a picture as opposed to planning things out and making a picture. I forget to check my pre-flight check-list.

As I get more practice in, it will becomes more like second nature and I'll be able to react faster. And this forum has motivated me to use P mode less and less.

[F8&Bthere]

The biggest reason why I set my camera on P mode as a "default" setting is because I've been burned a few times when I'm in a rush to take a pic (which is most of the time I pick up my camera)...


Ditto that for me....exactly. So often I am in a blind rush to turn it on and blast away or miss the opportunity. Keeping in mind that during the long cold Canadian winters my main photo subjects are my kids. And when they're in that moment doing something cute or whatever, I have no time to think at all. And also in P mode on my cameras I still have some latitude to make easy shutter or aperture adjustments with front or rear dials. So I usually keep it in P mode to start with and then, if I have time, I change it from there to where I want to be for the situation. It's like "home base" for me I guess. Other times I just start clicking as fast as it powers up. Some of us even share our camera with someone else in the house that only does point & shoot. And one last factor from my book of excuses is that both of my bodies are fairly new to me and I switch between a Nikon and a Pentax and I find myself needing a moment to get my bearings whereas if I was really familiar with one camera I may be able to get into a habit of using something other than P mode as my go-to no-brainer start & shoot mode....but not quite there yet. Now if the question was what mode do I use for my more artistic endeavors.....

[Marko]

Ok I understand now...I guess for me it's just second nature to always peek at the shutter speed or listen to the shutter on aperture priority.

After you play with the aperture mode for a while you can hear when the shutter is too slow.

[Ben H]

After you play with the aperture mode for a while you can hear when the shutter is too slow.

Yes - I was just going to say this. It doesn't take too long to get a feel for the shutter speed based on the audio feedback you get from the shutter.

Of course, you should also get in the habit of taking note of your settings through the viewfinder before/during taking pics so you know you're in the ballpark (I'm trying to force myself to do this as well), but the audio feedback is a nice extra reminder...

[Michaelaw]

I shoot manual mode always. I vary shutter speed, aperture and ISO all the time to get the shot I want. I've used priority modes but I always seem to do better in manual. I remember when I first started shooting, I was in "Automatic" mode all the time, got some great shots but I always felt like I'd cheated. :yuck:

[Mad Aussie]

I remember when I first started shooting, I was in "Automatic" mode all the time, got some great shots but I always felt like I'd cheated. :yuck:
I remember feeling the same way but these days I think it's not cheating ... it's just not getting the best out of yourself or the camera.

[Michael Van der Tol]

Hi All,

90% Manual
10% Av

Regards,

MikeV

[darkness]

For myself I would say I shoot Manual about 90% of the time AP 5% and TP 5%.
Mostly manual because I want to learn how to do thing myself rather than have the camera pick what it thinks is best.

[sclewin]

I'm very new to photography with a DSL and found that I spend most of my time, around 80%, in shutter priority mode. This could be because I have been shooting a lot of action shots at first and like a fast shutter speed to take the action. I have only used A mode about 1% of the time so far as FOV haves not mattered as much as shutter speed in the shots I made.

When I first got the Alpha 200 I thought the pre-programed modes like portrait mode sounded great, but I noticed I really don't like giving up control to the camera.

I don't mind the Program mode when I need quick shots because I always have the choice to change things if I disagree with the camera. The Alpha 200 allows me to change the shutter speed if I like in P mode. I used program mode about 19% of the time.

I have only played around with manual and have not really used it yet. I expect as time goes on and I learn more I will slowly start using manual more and program mode less.

[jellotranz]

With the exception of concerts, I generally shoot in aperture priority mode. Generally I am looking for a fast shutter speed and a very shallow depth of field, so I will generally run in aperture priority mode and go for the largest aperture I can, which also then gives me the fastest shutter speed. Concerts are full manual for exposure and AF. For most larger venues I shoot with a set shutter speed/aperture and hope for the best. This is generally because most of the time, the actual shutter speed quickly approaches the point where either handholding is tough, especially if there are crowd surfers coming over the wall on top of me, or it would cause the performers to blur (Something I can’t stand).