Getting that Digital Camera of AUTO
Many of us have a digital camera and are perfectly comfortable shooting all our images on the simple, easy and convenient AUTO setting. For 75% of our picture taking needs this setting gives us acceptable results but once in a while our images would improve if we took a little time to discover what the other settings on the dial will do for us. Let’s take a look.
I am working with a Canon PowerShot A590 but many of the features we will be taking about will be available on Nikon, Samsung, Pentax, Kodak, Casio, Sony, Fuji, Olympus, and Panasonic point and shoot cameras.
Many modern digital cameras have two types of specialized programs Scene Specific and Manual Modes.
Scene Specific
Scene specific settings like Portrait, Landscape, Night, Kids/Pets, Indoor, Sunset, Snow, or Fireworks. You may have more or fewer of these settings than this, but these are the most common. Each of these settings places a difference emphasis on either the shutter speed (how quickly the lens opens and closes), Aperture (how large the lens opens), ISO (how sensitive the camera is to light), White Balance (how the camera treats the light it receives) and Flash (how much artificial light it adds).
Here is what is really going on in these shooting modes:
Portrait: add’s a bit of flash as needed, soft focuses the camera to soften the lines and wrinkles on the face, adds red eye adjustments.
Landscape: puts the emphasis on the aperture setting. The aperture controls the depth of the things in the photo that appear in focus. Landscapes require lots of depth of field so that close items and far items both appear in focus.
Night: puts the emphasis on shutter speed (slower, allowing more light in) turns on the anti-shake feature, increases the ISO making the camera more sensitive to light and adjusts the white balance to colour correct for incandescent and florescent light
Kids/Pets: Places the emphasis on Shutter speed (faster) to stop active children/pets and prevent blurring and capture the moment. This is a good setting for any fast moving sport too.
Indoor: Colour balance is critical here as we are always shooting under artificial light. It also turns on the camera’s anti-shake feature and lowers the shutter speed to compensate for the lack of light.
Sunset: adjusts the overall contrast so that the sunlight is prioritized and the rest of the details go to black.
Snow: Compensates for the blue shift common to snow shots.
Fireworks: Fast shutter speeds capture the action and freeze the fireworks in a black sky.
Manual Modes
Shutter Priority: Gives you control of the Shutter Speed allowing you to stop action (fast shutter speeds) or deliberately blur action for those “arty” shots or to allow you to make very long exposures on a night sky as an example (slow shutter speeds).
Aperture Priority: Gives you control of how large an opening the lens will have. The larger the opening, the shallower the depth of field. The smaller the opening the greater the depth of field or the more of the scene will be in focus and sharp. This allows you to pick what you want in sharp focus and what you want to be soft and unfocused.
Manual: Gives you control over both aperture and shutter speed.
Now that you know how these shooting modes will affect your camera’s controls you can use this knowledge to creatively approach each shot and improve the images you make.
Now get that camera off AUTO and go have some fun!
I am working with a Canon PowerShot A590 but many of the features we will be taking about will be available on Nikon, Samsung, Pentax, Kodak, Casio, Sony, Fuji, Olympus, and Panasonic point and shoot cameras.
Many modern digital cameras have two types of specialized programs Scene Specific and Manual Modes.
Scene Specific
Scene specific settings like Portrait, Landscape, Night, Kids/Pets, Indoor, Sunset, Snow, or Fireworks. You may have more or fewer of these settings than this, but these are the most common. Each of these settings places a difference emphasis on either the shutter speed (how quickly the lens opens and closes), Aperture (how large the lens opens), ISO (how sensitive the camera is to light), White Balance (how the camera treats the light it receives) and Flash (how much artificial light it adds).
Here is what is really going on in these shooting modes:
Portrait: add’s a bit of flash as needed, soft focuses the camera to soften the lines and wrinkles on the face, adds red eye adjustments.
Landscape: puts the emphasis on the aperture setting. The aperture controls the depth of the things in the photo that appear in focus. Landscapes require lots of depth of field so that close items and far items both appear in focus.
Night: puts the emphasis on shutter speed (slower, allowing more light in) turns on the anti-shake feature, increases the ISO making the camera more sensitive to light and adjusts the white balance to colour correct for incandescent and florescent light
Kids/Pets: Places the emphasis on Shutter speed (faster) to stop active children/pets and prevent blurring and capture the moment. This is a good setting for any fast moving sport too.
Indoor: Colour balance is critical here as we are always shooting under artificial light. It also turns on the camera’s anti-shake feature and lowers the shutter speed to compensate for the lack of light.
Sunset: adjusts the overall contrast so that the sunlight is prioritized and the rest of the details go to black.
Snow: Compensates for the blue shift common to snow shots.
Fireworks: Fast shutter speeds capture the action and freeze the fireworks in a black sky.
Manual Modes
Shutter Priority: Gives you control of the Shutter Speed allowing you to stop action (fast shutter speeds) or deliberately blur action for those “arty” shots or to allow you to make very long exposures on a night sky as an example (slow shutter speeds).
Aperture Priority: Gives you control of how large an opening the lens will have. The larger the opening, the shallower the depth of field. The smaller the opening the greater the depth of field or the more of the scene will be in focus and sharp. This allows you to pick what you want in sharp focus and what you want to be soft and unfocused.
Manual: Gives you control over both aperture and shutter speed.
Now that you know how these shooting modes will affect your camera’s controls you can use this knowledge to creatively approach each shot and improve the images you make.
Now get that camera off AUTO and go have some fun!
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