Title: READ: Camera Modes
Course: Digital Photography

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Auto Mode

Auto mode puts the camera in control of the picture. Your camera will automatically set the shutter speed, aperture, ISO, and flash so all you need to do is point and shoot. This mode works well for many photos but there are times when you will want to change a setting to get a desired effect and this setting will not work for you. Once you learn how to use your camera to its full potential you probably will not use this setting much except for fast photos that don't matter if they have any creativeness to them.

Portrait Mode

Portrait Mode is great for taking photos of people. This mode will soften the background and place your subject in focus. This makes your subject stand out from the background surroundings. It does this by opening up the aperture so the field of view is lessened. This mode will also gives your subjects smooth natural skin tones.

A hint for taking portraits, fill the photo with your subject and use a zoom instead of getting closer. If you stand too close you will make your subjects nose look bigger than it really is.

Speed/Sports Mode

Most cameras have a speed mode. This is a quick setting you can set your camera to that allows you to freeze motion in a photo with little to no blur. This can gives you a dynamic sport photo. This is mainly a shutter speed setting - the shutter speed is pumped up to be extremely fast.

Have you ever seen a strobe light used in a room with a fan? The light blinks and it looks like the fan is not moving. It is the same idea with a speed mode. The shutter open and closes so fast that it can freeze the movement into a picture. Go take a photo of cars driving past or go to a sports game and photograph someone running. Notice how clear they are in the photo? It is almost like they were not moving at all.

Look at the example here of the water droplet.This shot was taken at 1/200th of a second and it looks like the water has stopped moving.

Most cameras that have speed/sports mode don't allow you to change the speed under that setting. That is why you will want a camera that allows you to control the shutter speed yourself. We will go through shutter speed mode later.

Landscape Mode

Landscapes mode is for landscape and scenic pictures. This setting adjusts the aperture so that both the foreground and background are in focus. Most cameras will also use more vivid colors in this setting.

This is a great mode when you want to have everything in your image in focus. Note - some cameras will turn off your flash in this mode, so if you have something in the foreground you want in your picture that is darker you may need to adjust for this. Go out and take a few photos using this mode as see what they look like.

Macro Mode

Macro is for taking closeup pictures of small objects. This setting will render very high detail on your subject. This is a great setting for flowers and insects. It will open the aperture so that only the subject is in focus which will blur the background. This keeps the subject the only focus of your photo.

Take a look at the picture of the leaf. Notice that the large water droplet is in focus but by the time you get to the edges of the leaf it starts getting blurry? That is what the Macro setting does - it will only focus on a small portion of the subject. For reference, this leaf is only about 1 inch long and less than 1/2 an inch wide.

Try it out. Go find some small things to photograph and see what they look like when you use this setting.

Manual Mode (M Mode)

Manual mode puts you in total creativeness control. It may seem very confusing and complex but manual mode isn’t as daunting as you would expect. There are tools in your camera that help you with using manual mode. The first thing you can do to make manual mode easier is to first take a photo using auto or P mode. Look at the settings it choose for the photo or lock the settings and bring them into manual mode. This will give you a good starting point. Then adjust the settings to your creativeness desire.

If you normally use auto focus don’t be afraid of using manual focus. Your camera may not always focus the way you want it to and manual mode allows you to fix that problem. Manual focus can usually be selected from a button on your lens. Your camera will also have a way to let you know if your subject is in focus although you can usually tell this just by looking through the lens/view finder.

So why would you use manual focus? The most obvious reason is because your camera is only as good as it is programmed to be. It doesn’t know what you want the picture to look like, it only know what it thinks the picture should look like and it could be way off. I have seen many photos that were not very good because the camera choose the settings incorrectly.

Programmed Mode (P Mode)

Programed Mode is a very useful mode and will probably become a favorite for yours as you learn to adjust the shutter and aperture of your camera. For most cameras when shooting in this mode the camera is in charge of the shutter speed and aperture settings and leave the rest up to you. Your camera will choose the aperture and shutter speed for the best exposure in most situations.

Most cameras that have program mode will allow you to control the combination of the shutter and aperture speed within the programs set values. This is called program shift. Adjusting the compensation may be different per camera but you usually move the setting right or left. One way will give you a larger aperture and faster shutter speed while setting it the other way will give you smaller aperture and a slower shutter speed - The different combinations will yield the same exposure.

Most cameras will also allow you to adjust the ISO, color balance, flash, etc. while in this mode. Notice when you play with program shift there is a limited number of combinations your camera allows you to choose from. This is because you camera has locked in the values that will yield the same exposure and lets you only choose from those predetermined values.

You will learn how shutter speed and aperture size affects your photos later. For now just try it out an see what happens.