LANDSCAPE MODE
CLOSE UP MODE
APERTURE PRIORITY
PORTRAIT MODE
SHUTTER PRIORITY
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
Overview
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.
Automatic or scene modes
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 fi eld. 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 fl owers, for example.
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.
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 fi eld and are less
concerned over shutter speeds, such as
when taking close-up pictures or portraits for
example. Here, depth of fi eld 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.
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.
Exposure compensation allows you to set
underexposure or overexposure in one-third
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.
