Are a student? are you a photographer?
Enjoy this photography guide.
What are the Modes?
Most digital cameras today have several types of camera modes that can be used in various situations. These are usually on a wheel on the top of the camera, which you turn to select a mode. Most point-and-shoot digital cameras just have automatic modes, but DSLR’s have a selection of different ones, like in the image below:
There are four main types of camera modes on modern DSLR’s.
- Program (P)
- Shutter Priority (Tv) or (S)
- Aperture Priority (Av) or (A)
- Manual (M)
Program Mode
Program mode is the DSLR equivalent of point-and-shoot. It decides the shutter speed and aperture for you, so all you have to do is framing the image and press the shutter release button.
If you are a beginner this is fine if you’re in a hurry and just want the photo, but it doesn’t give you any creative controls.
Shutter Priority Mode
Shutter priority mode lets you manually set the camera’s shutter speed on your own, while it sets the correct aperture and for the lighting conditions related to the set shutter speed. In bright light, the camera will make the aperture smaller, so that there is less light coming in, and in darker conditions will open up the aperture to let more light in.
Using shutter priority mode can be useful if you are shooting something in motion, and you want to freeze the action with a high shutter speed, or want to get some motion blur by using a low shutter speed.
There is a risk of under or over-exposure when using this mode. If you set a high shutter speed and the ambient light is insufficient, your camera can only open the aperture up to let more light in to the limit of its capabilities. So, if your maximum aperture is f/2.8, and you’ve set a high shutter speed in poor light, you will get an underexposed image.
On the hand of this, if you use a low shutter speed on a bright, sunny day, your camera cannot go smaller than minimum aperture, so too much light will be let in and over-expose your image.
You don’t have any control over aperture choice for depth of field in this mode, which is another downside.
Aperture Priority Mode
As we have discussed before on shutter priority, in aperture priority you set the aperture that you want, and the camera will calculate and set the right shutter speed for correct exposure.
You have control over the depth of field with aperture priority mode, and because shutter speed ranges from 30 seconds up to 1/8000th second, -which will cover most lighting conditions
Manual Mode
As the name suggests, manual mode gives you full manual control of the camera settings. So you set all settings on your own wishes.
I would suggest you try to learn how to use your camera in manual mode, because you will come to a much greater understanding of how ISO and aperture work with shutter speed. You will also have more creative flexibility than if you let the camera make all or part of the decisions. Remember, though – there is no right or wrong way to be a photographer! If you are happiest staying on program, shutter priority or aperture priority mode, then by all means do so.
As you can see on the image of the mode dial at the start of the article, there are more modes than just the main four. These are the custom modes, and usually cover portrait, landscape, macro, sports etc.
I can’t tell you much about them, because I’ve never used them, but basically, they are supposed to set your camera to the optimum parameters for each different subject matter. Different brands of camera have different modes, but they are all just combinations of the four main modes, with some other in-camera adjustments added, such as sharpening or changing the saturation levels.
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