Improve your photography! Understand shooting modes!
Shooting modes… what are they?
One of the easiest ways to improve your photography is to know the difference between Tv, Av, P, Auto and M. These are different shooting modes that your DSLR camera can do (individual manufacturers might call them something else, these are Canon’s). Once you understand what each one is, you can then go about using the best one for each scenario you find yourself in. Allowing you to be a more versatile photographer, who can adapt to any scenario.
Auto
Auto is well automatic. The camera controls every setting on the camera for you and all you have to do is point and shoot. All you simply control is when the camera takes a photo and when it doesn’t and what the photo is of. This setting is best for beginners who have absolutely no previous experience with a DSLR or a camera in general. Using this setting for a small period will allow you to grasp some of the concepts of photography while still being able to take photos. However, as soon as you want to learn more about photography or just step your game up in general then you need to be using one of the next few modes.
Tv — Shutter Priority
Tv is a step up from Auto but still a step away from Manual. This is simply because in Tv the camera will let you control the Shutter Speed of the camera. Then from the setting, you choose to have it on, the camera will decide what the best option is for the ISO and Aperture to give you the best image possible. While this does sound great, the camera won’t know what is best in each scenario and it won’t know what type of effect you might be trying to achieve so your results might not be as good as if you did it all yourself.
There is sometimes where Tv could be helpful. For example, if you need to take a photo of a quickly moving object and you don’t have the time to set the camera up manually. Using Tv you can set the shutter speed and take the photo, allowing you to be quick.
Av — Aperture Priority
Av is pretty much identical to Tv except you don’t control the Shutter Speed in this mode rather you control the Aperture of the lens. Therefore, allowing you to control the depth of field in your photos. Therefore, personally, I prefer using Av to Tv. I find in most cases the camera can get a near accurate shutter speed for my images, meaning I’m left to decide how much depth of field I want. Using Av does give you more control over the aesthetic of the image but this is a purely subjective.
For this reason, I believe that Av is good for street photography where you’re always on the move and instead of changing all the settings you change just the aperture and retain control of the depth of field. However, another great time to use Av is when doing portrait shots. If you don’t want to set the camera up manually, you can still get a great photo with a blurry background in Av.
P — Programmed Automatic
P mode or Programmed Automatic is a bit different to Av and Tv. In P, you control the ISO of the camera. While the camera controls the Shutter Speed and the Aperture of the camera. Now, if you don’t know too much about Manual photography then I tell you that out of the three aspects of exposure (shutter speed, aperture, and ISO). ISO is one which barely changes on a photography shoot and it should be the last resort to change as it can introduce digital noise or grain into the photo. Essentially what I’m saying is P is the closest you can get to Auto without being in Auto.
P mode is good for photographers are who looking to leave the Auto world behind and branch into using Manual controls. For these reasons, I think P can be used in pretty much any photo scenario like Auto.
M — Manual
M or Manual mode is the hardest of all the shooting modes to learn but then it does teach you the most about exposure and photography. In Manual, you have control of the Aperture, Shutter Speed, and ISO. These must be balanced to get the correct exposure from photo to photo, if done incorrectly you could end up with an over-exposed or underexposed photo, both of which aren’t too great to look at. Admittedly this does sound scary for a beginner but using this mode you will become a better photographer and can achieve any still of photography you want if you’re prepared to learn.
For these reasons, Manual can be used to take virtually any photo that you would want to but bear in mind it will take you longer to set you’re shot up correctly so if speed is a concern, a semi-automatic mode like Tv might be your best choice. Though, a lot of more experienced photographers can adjust all their settings quick enough so they can stay in Manual.
Conclusion
So, what mode will you be shooting in for the future? Will it just be straight manual all the time? Or, will it change depending on the scenario like I do? Make sure to let me know either in the comments, on twitter or by email. If you want to check out more posts then head over to my blog, if videos are more your thing check my YouTube channel out. And if you want to see some of my latest work, come look at my portfolio or my Instagram. And until next time,
Thanks for reading.
