Addicted to Aperture Priority Mode (a bad thing?)

Zarch

Zarch

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I've had my Nikon D3100 just a couple of weeks now. (first DLSR after owning P&S and Super-Zoom in the past).

I have also bought a prime 1.8G 35mm lens too for chasing the little one around the house. (in lower light) rather than the standard 18-55 kit lens.

In the last 2 weeks I don't think i've come out of "A" mode as I love the Bokeh effects. But I fell foul of "A" mode at the weekend when trying to take pictures of family all sat neatly on the sofa.

I think I was using too high a F-stop and not everyone/everything was in focus. But didn't realise until I got the pics home on the PC. I thought upping from 1.8 to about 4 would suffice, but it didn't seem to be enough.

Should I jump over to Program Auto and let the camera decide what to do in these situations? or is it more that I need to learn which f-stop to use in which situation?

Any help you can give would be appreciated.

Apologies if some of the terminology above is incorrect..... :bonk:
 
The obvious answer is learn the f-stop as knowledge is power :)
 
Zarch said:
or is it more that I need to learn which f-stop to use in which situation?:
Click to expand...

that. Aperture priority is great unless you explicitly need control of the shutter speed, in which case you'd use shutter priority.

I actually find myself using manual a lot these days as I am in situations where the exposure can be thrown off by very contrasting areas in the frame. Be aware of that if you find yourself using exposure compensation a lot.
 
Aperture F4 is fine depending on what ISO you used and what was the lighting like and how far were they.You mention that the family was not in focus.What do you mean by that.It is best if you mention all the settings form the info button of that particular photo.
 
When a lot of us took up photography there was only manual mode and a hand held light meter, so we had to learn the basics.

If you feel inclined to learn all about f numbers, shutter speed, ISO and DOF then do so, it does help to have a basic understanding.

If not, then stick your camera on A, P or even the 'Scene Mode' and get taking pictures.

Learning to 'SEE' pictures is more important IMHO than the technicalities.

But most of all ENJOY it.

D in W
 
nero99 said:
Aperture F4 is fine depending on what ISO you used and what was the lighting like and how far were they.You mention that the family was not in focus.What do you mean by that.It is best if you mention all the settings form the info button of that particular photo.
Click to expand...

indoors
f4
low ISO [200?]
low room light level
no flash.?

could be your camera selected a lower shutter speed and the ''OOF'' was actually movement

just a thought................:shrug:
 
Aperture Priority is a good place to be. I still use it 90% of the time.

Best thing to do re the out of focus issue go back to the pictures and have a look at the shutter speed. If it's under 1/30 it's most likely camera shake. If that is the case, increase the ISO and keep and eye on the shutter speed.

On your D3100 I would keep it to a maximum of ISO800.
 
Aperture is just one variable that controls the light entering the camera but its effect on the dof at various settings is handy to know and use.

Unfortunately, this can't be used in complete isolation of the other factors - shutter speed and iso setting and their effects on blur, freeze, camera shake and grain.

Having a sound overview of each of these will help you determine when to switch settings for some or all of these. Of course using a tripod with a non-moving subject will make a lot of that redundant and then you'll be free choose any aperture you desire.
 
Aperture Priority is fine but you still need to know how aperture, shutter speed and ISO affect eachother. I don't know about Nikons but I assume you can see the shutter speed in your viewfinder when you half press the shutter to focus? That's what to watch, if it gets too low, you need to either raise your ISO or widen the aperture.
 
Thanks everyone, plenty of things to think about there. :thinking:

I'll go back and look at the pictures to see what ISO and shutter speed were chosen.

As well as DOF problems with too high an aperture, I don't think i've quite grapsed the auto-focus on my D3100..... it seems to have a mind of its own sometimes and not picking what i want to be the subject of focus. On a P&S or superzoom, you would get away with this because the lack of DOF ability, so the majority in focus no matter what....... but it sticks out like a sore thumb on my D3100.
 
I'm still a newbie to photography, but I like shooting in aperture priority too. I like the effects I get.

I don't know if anyone has recommended it, but Bryan Peterson's book "understanding exposure" is an excellent resource for understating aperture, ISO, f stops and shutter speed. It's all laid out simply for newbies too. I really recommend it. It's helped me loads!
 
I only got my first DSLR (a D5000) last September (having only previously owned a full auto P&S), so I was in a similar position to you in terms of experience.

I'd recommend sticking with Aperture Priority mode and resist the temptation to use Full Auto, otherwise you'll learn nothing! However, you need to equally resist doing what I did and get over-excited about being able to use a wide aperture and using it all the time. If you're struggling for light, bump the ISO (took me a while to find that in the camera settings, but it's worth knowing where it is!). Shallow DOF can produce great effects, but not if half a person is in focus and the other half isn't. If in doubt, take a few shots at different settings (maybe one on Full Auto if you really, really want to make sure you get something usable).

The great thing about digital is you can afford to trash a lot of your shots without it costing an arm and a leg in processing. Better to make a mistake and learn from it than have the camera do everything for you?
 
I used to use a Canon AV1, didn't have much choice, aperture priority or nothing.

I'm glad I'm old enough to have learnt on full-manual or semi-auto cameras I'm certainly reviving and using the knowledge now I have my first dslr.
 
Zarch said:
Thanks everyone, plenty of things to think about there. :thinking:

I'll go back and look at the pictures to see what ISO and shutter speed were chosen.

As well as DOF problems with too high an aperture, I don't think i've quite grapsed the auto-focus on my D3100..... it seems to have a mind of its own sometimes and not picking what i want to be the subject of focus. On a P&S or superzoom, you would get away with this because the lack of DOF ability, so the majority in focus no matter what....... but it sticks out like a sore thumb on my D3100.
Click to expand...

Are you actually picking a specific focus point or are all focus points active?
 
AndyB1976 said:
Are you actually picking a specific focus point or are all focus points active?
Click to expand...

I've been trying both (auto and single point)........ choosing a single point seems overly tricky as the focus points seem too small.... (coming from a P&S where the centre focus point always seemed huuuuge in comparison).

I think its in "auto" mode where the mind of its own bit comes in. I think should stick to "manual" focus points (i like the centre one) and just get used to it.
 
Zarch said:
I've been trying both (auto and single point)........ choosing a single point seems overly tricky as the focus points seem too small.... (coming from a P&S where the centre focus point always seemed huuuuge in comparison).

I think its in "auto" mode where the mind of its own bit comes in. I think should stick to "manual" focus points (i like the centre one) and just get used to it.
Click to expand...

I think if you stick to manual and learn how to select the individual points is definitely the way to go. Just using the centre point will be much more accurate with regards to the subject you want in focus than using Auto even if you choose just to use that centre point.

Although the focus point may seem small, the actual focus point is more a focal plane - so whether it is indicated with a tiny dot or large square like a PnS it shouldn't really increase difficulty with focus.

http://www.anstendig.org/autofocus_1.png
autofocus_1.png


However Depth of Field does matter where f4 has less DoF than f5.6 which has less than f8 and so on..Sensor size also affect DoF too, so again the point in shoot will be more forgiving in this respect - the smaller sensor has an effective larger DoF.

http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html


Andy
 
Aperture Priority is not a bad place to be. I've been using cameras for the best part of 30 years an it tends to be the mode I use most. Interestingly, one of the pro's on here said a week or two ago that when using flash he often uses Programme mode the majority of the time. There is no right or wrong way, just whatever mode allows you to get the picture you want.

I was doing some stuff yesterday in Av, and when it wasn't going how I wanted, I resulted to Manual, then stuck a flash on too. There are many ways to take a picture, just use the mode that you feel comfortable with as long as you get the result you. Need.

Steve

Sent from my iPad using TP Forums
 
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