I’ve casually mentioned about exposure settings when I discussed about exposure in one of the camera basics articles. There are four basic exposure settings that camera users can choose from: Auto, Manual, Aperture Priority, and Shutter Priority. But I’ll talk about Auto and Manual for this blog post. More on Aperture and Shutter Priority on our future post.
Auto
When you set the camera’s exposure setting to Auto, you pretty much let the camera decide on the basic factors necessary to get the best photo possible for the given lighting situation. The camera’s built-in processor will decide on the best film speed, aperture size, and shutter speed for the present lighting conditions.
Depending on the brand, some cameras have presets for different kinds of lighting situations. Some of them you’d have to tinker with under the menu settings while on the Auto exposure mode, while some already have an allotted button or dial designation for the different presets.
The name a few of these presets, you have:
- Landscape – This is great when taking outdoor photos. Pretty much, the camera uses a smaller aperture opening to take in more details of the landscape you’re capturing. Best to be used in bright lighting situations as there’s a tendency for this setting to put out a slower shutter speed if you use it during night landscape. You can use this for night landscape photography, but it is wise to set the camera on a tripod so as to eliminate blur and shake which is common when you hand-hold a camera during long exposures.
- Macro – A great preset to use when you wish to zoom in on a specific detail or a really small subject. It tells your camera that you want to shoot the subject from a close distance. It uses a wider aperture opening, so the depth of field can be quite shallow.
- Portrait – This works when taking photos of people. However, this is more specific to head shots which only includes from the head to the shoulder. The camera slows down the shutter speed and uses a bigger aperture opening, causing a grainy effect and a shallow depth of field. However, contrary to the Macro mode, the Portrait present doesn’t require you to capture the subject in short distances.
- Sports – Also called in other cameras as the Action mode, the Sports preset is great when taking pictures of subjects who are moving fast. A good example would be a basketball, hockey, or soccer game where subjects don’t usually stand still. It usually sets the shutter speed to a higher number so as to freeze the action. However, in some cases, photos turn dim because it focuses more on stopping the movement than lighting the subject properly.
- Night – Also known as the Night Portrait Mode in some cameras, this works well for night photography or for shooting in dark places. The only drawback to using the Night preset is that you need a tripod for it because it slows down your shutter speed to take in more light for a longer period of time.
These presets, although present in all point-and-shoot digital cameras, are still present in some digital SLRs. These are commonly used by people who’d like to take photos without having to think of what proper settings to use or people who don’t like tinkering with their camera settings.
Manual
Considered a more advance exposure settings, using the Manual mode lets you play around with all the different elements that make up a good exposure. That is the ISO, aperture size, shutter speed and white balance. I’ll be tackling more on white balance in the days to come.
As we’ve mentioned in the previous post on exposure, the right blend of the settings make up for a good photo. And for aesthetic purposes, you can tinker around with it to make it brighter, darker, grainier, finer, more detailed, or less detailed intentionally.
Said to be something that only professional camera users can master, the Manual mode really is a fun setting to use. You can play around with different combinations of ISO speed, shutter speed, and aperture openings to come up with different photo effects. Pair them with your desired white balance and you can get great photos or artistic shots.
Words from the wise, don’t let the technicality of the terms scare you from exploring this settings as this helps you learn more about your camera than any manuals can ever teach you.
Any who, more on Aperture and Shutter Priority modes on the next post. For the moment, I leave the floor open to everybody who’d like to share their thoughts on this post. Which do you prefer, Auto or Manual mode?
