Manual modes, Overview Automatic or scene modes

EXPOSURE: MANUAL

AND SCENE MODES

The meat of your DSLR’s control options resides within its exposure systems, be they manually controlled or automated. Let us have a closer look at what you have to play with and what they can do

SHUTTER PRIORITY

PORTRAIT MODE

Sets the camera to meter from a smaller, central portion of the frame. A large aperture will be selected to help blur backgrounds, the focus will be switched to use the more central set of AF points (or the central, single AF), and less sharpening will be used to help get more ﬂ attering skin. Colours will

be set to a more muted (or natural) palette and, to help make the most of and get natural skin rendition, white balance will switch over to auto.

SPORTS MODE

The camera’s drive mode will be changed to its continuous setting (as long as you press the shutter button the camera will keep taking pictures), and focusing will be set to its predictive or continuous setting so that any moving subjects in the frame are tracked across the frame, helping to keep them sharp. Metering will switch to evaluative

(or matrix) and shutter speeds will be bumped up to help keep things sharp.

NIGHT PORTRAIT/SCENE MODE

Here the camera will set itself up to take an ambient light exposure and ﬁ re the ﬂ ash at the same time, so that the image provides a combination of a correct exposure for, say, background city lights and any foreground subject, which will be illuminated by the ﬂ ash. A smaller aperture will be used, metering will be set to matrix (or evaluative), focusing will set to single AF mode and the ﬂ ash will switch on. A slow shutter speed is likely, so you will need a tripod or some such support to stop camera shake.

CLOSE UP MODE

APERTURE PRIORITY

LANDSCAPE MODE

Manual modes

Your camera’s manual modes provide you with a set of controls that allow you to tailor photography to the subject at hand or the way you want to take a shot.

PROGRAM MODE

Program mode is similar in many respects to the fully automatic setting, but with a crucial difference. It allows you to change the aperture and shutter speeds, keeping the same overall exposure value, thus overriding the camera’s chosen settings, if you wish. This provides you with a good level of control, even though the camera has done most of the hard work for you. You can also apply exposure compensation and switch the ﬂ ash on or off as required. Think of it as a turbocharged point-and- shoot mode that allows you to snap away happily and still take control if needed.

APERTURE PRIORITY

You can select whatever aperture you wish, it matters not. The camera will automatically select a shutter speed that will provide a properly (as metered) exposure regardless, hence the aperture setting has priority. Aperture priority is ideal for when you need to retain control of depth of ﬁeld and are less

MANUAL MODE

This mode provides the user with ultimate control. Now you have control over both apertures and shutter speeds and you can set them as you like. Typically, the metering system will warn you of over or underexposure, but will not interfere otherwise, leaving you to set everything regardless of whether or not the exposure is ‘correct’. You may want to deliberately underexpose a shot to help boost colours (slight underexposure helps boost colour) while an element of overexposure can be desirable if you are shooting a high-key image or portrait, for example. It also offers more control when subjects typically underexpose (bright scenes such as snow or beach pictures) or overexpose (such as predominantly darker subjects). This mode is ideal for panoramic shots, for keeping exposures consistent.

EXPOSURE COMPENSATION AND EXPOSURE BRACKETING

Exposure compensation and exposure bracketing are two tools you have at your disposal to quickly under or overexpose a shot to a predeﬁ ned level without needing to adjust settings on the camera.

Overview

Automatic or scene modes

concerned over shutter speeds, such as when taking close-up pictures or portraits for

Exposure compensation allows you to set underexposure or overexposure in one-third

Any camera will have a selection of tools to help you control the way it deals with light and getting a ‘correct’ exposure, or the exposure you want to use

–after all, the ‘correct’ exposure may not, creatively speaking, be the one you want to use.

You’ll have a range of automatic options, a selection of manual controls which enable you to wrest control from the camera, and a fully manual setting where you control all aspects of the camera’s exposure for ultimate creativity and experimentation.

DSLRs come with a range of automatic settings that will both do everything (in terms of camera set up) to help you get the best from a shot and, on some DSLRs, they will even pop the ﬂ ash up when it’s needed and ﬁ re it for you. This sounds great, does it not?

But the automatic modes on your DSLR do two other things. First they take away from you an element of control, replacing it with a built-in set-up that tries to get the ‘best’ from a scene without you having to worry about how to set the camera to do so ﬁ rst. Second, it stops you from learning.

However, the auto modes are still useful for a quick and dirty shot or where there’s no time to do more than spin the mode dial to an appropriate setting and snap, or risk losing the shot altogether.

Here we look at a typical set of scene modes and what they can do.

AUTOMATIC MODE

A fully automatic setting that will do its best to make the most of every scene. Basic elements such as focus, metering and white balance are set at camera defaults. This is the ultimate point-and-shoot setting.

LANDSCAPE MODE

Here the camera automatically selects a smaller aperture and adjusts the focusing to achieve maximum depth of ﬁeld. Metering will switch to matrix with a bias on the top two-thirds of the frame – where it will assume the sky to be. Sharpening will be boosted.

CLOSE UP MODE

Similar systems come into play as with Portrait mode in terms of focus, aperture selection and white balance; except that sharpening is increased and colours set to be more vivid in order to boost colours in ﬂowers, for example.

PORTRAIT MODE

example. Here, depth of ﬁeld is vital, but keep an eye on the shutter speed chosen by the camera. If it’s too slow you could get camera shake. You may need to use a tripod if shutter speeds fall too low to handhold safely.

SHUTTER PRIORITY

Just like aperture priority, but the other way around; you select the shutter speed you want to use and the camera automatically sets the aperture to give you a correct

(as metered) exposure for the shot. Shutter priority is an ideal mode to use when shooting fast-moving or sport subjects, where you may wish to freeze the action (or provide some controlled motion blur) and are less worried about the amount of depth of ﬁ eld in use, as the subject focused upon is the key element. Its also ideal when you want to use a speciﬁ c slow speed.

or one-half stop steps (or either on some models) for every shot or just one. You don’t have to do extra shutter or aperture adjustment; the camera does it for you.

Exposure bracketing is similar to compensation except you can set the camera to take a range of images (including a correctly – as metered – shot) both underexposed and overexposed to a predeﬁ ned level. Typically, each time an exposure is made, the camera automatically takes a correct (as metered) image, one overexposed and one underexposed image. Some cameras allow more than three shots and most will allow you to tailor the amount the exposure is bracketed from one-third to two or more exposure steps. This is ideal where you want to quickly get a range of images at a variety of exposures to assess later, and see which has worked best.