Shooting Mode Preference

Which Shooting Mode do you use most of the time?

  • Aperture

    Votes: 144 60.0%

  • Manual

    Votes: 78 32.5%

  • Programme

    Votes: 14 5.8%

  • Shutter

    Votes: 4 1.7%
  • Total voters
    240
BarryG

BarryG

I'll stick to my 2 inches
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You see a lot of questions in the Basics section where people feel the need to use manual settings when they start out. I assume it is because they want to use a "real camera" properly.

While I like the sentiment, I solely use Aperture priority for all my shooting.

I thought an honest poll might be interesting...
 
Full manual, after getting my first dslr and playing with it on auto just to learn how the lens works, the next stage was to see how shutter, aperture and iso affected the picture and balancing the three. Since then I've tried using Av (canon) but it didn't speed up my shooting much.
 
Aperture Priority, with the second (rear) dial set to Exposure Compensation.
 
P Mode, becuase it stands for Profwessional.
 
AV for me, but one day when I'm bigger I'm going to be a Profwessional too and use the P on my dial. Lol
 
manual almost all the time .. started as i mean to go on :) if i wanted to use auto i would've stuck with my old p & s
 
Most of my shooting is on shutter priority.
 
Manual mostly, but I have Av set to something sensible when I'm out and about, so if I see something I want to quickly get, I just switch to Av.
 
Manual. Every time. Except for those times when some other mode will give a better result which can be quite a bit of the time as I never ever use AV unless it is the best setting for the subject I am subjecting to my sensor in which case I will always use AV apart from when I use TV which I always do as long as I am not photographing a landscape or a portrait or some other thing that would be better if I didn't use TV in which instance I will without exception use manual or possibly some other setting.

Hope this makes things more clearer.
 
Usually manual unless I'm in a situation where Av's better for me (eg motorsport).

The wife will also use the camera although she's an Av kinda girl.
 
I'm still relatively new to the DSLR world so go easy on me. Basically the majority of my photography is of my kids (both under 5) and as most kids they don't sit still.

When I started to move away from Auto mode, Aperture priority just didn't have a high enough shutter speed and I was apprehensive of manual mode as I wanted to get lots of usable shots of the kids. Also with kids you don't get to retake a shot if you've missed it (by getting a wrong setting) as the facial expressions/actions will be different each time.

Basically since then it's stuck, as I know I can leave it on 1/125 shutter speed indoors and higher outdoors if I need it and let the camera do the rest. If I ever wanted group photos or landscapes I would stick it into Aperture mode.

Also if I wanted more Bokeh, I would just stand further back from the kids and zoom in more. So it was a nice easy way for me to move off of Auto mode.

However now, I'm starting to think I need to progress to M mode. For my type of shots (not portraits of kids, but active, running around etc), what do you think is the best mode?

Question for you A modes guys/gals. With all the different stops, how do you decide what to use for a shot? Understand that a low aperture means more will be in focus and visa versa, but how do you quick choose on the spot. For example for landscapes, as I don't own a tripod yet, I just stick it into f13. However, how do you decide on what to set for the higher settings i.e f1/4, f1/8 etc?
 
n2desilv said:
I'm still relatively new to the DSLR world so go easy on me. Basically the majority of my photography is of my kids (both under 5) and as most kids they don't sit still.

When I started to move away from Auto mode, Aperture priority just didn't have a high enough shutter speed and I was apprehensive of manual mode as I wanted to get lots of usable shots of the kids. Also with kids you don't get to retake a shot if you've missed it (by getting a wrong setting) as the facial expressions/actions will be different each time.

Basically since then it's stuck, as I know I can leave it on 1/125 shutter speed indoors and higher outdoors if I need it and let the camera do the rest. If I ever wanted group photos or landscapes I would stick it into Aperture mode.

Also if I wanted more Bokeh, I would just stand further back from the kids and zoom in more. So it was a nice easy way for me to move off of Auto mode.

However now, I'm starting to think I need to progress to M mode. For my type of shots (not portraits of kids, but active, running around etc), what do you think is the best mode?

Question for you A modes guys/gals. With all the different stops, how do you decide what to use for a shot? Understand that a low aperture means more will be in focus and visa versa, but how do you quick choose on the spot. For example for landscapes, as I don't own a tripod yet, I just stick it into f13. However, how do you decide on what to set for the higher settings i.e f1/4, f1/8 etc?
Click to expand...

Someone is probably answering this as I type so be ready for a double up on someone else.

To get the fastest shutter and correct exposure going for Av is the easiest option. The reason is you can set the widest aperture (small f number) and then there is no way to get any more light in. The shutter speed will be as fast as possible. If you need it faster then boost the ISO.

With shutter priority, you can set a shutter speed that is too fast for the ambient light and then you get an under exposed shot, this is why I would go with aperture priority.

The usual time to use shutter priority is when you actually want to bring the shutter speed down from the faster settings, such as is used when shooting motor sport. The reason for doing that is to get some motion blur in the wheels and background.

Give it a bash and see how you get on :)
 
Started with P but now it's almost always Av unless I'm shooting motorsports then I'll use shutter.

Occasionally I'll dabble with manual! :)
 
I like to shoot manual, It was the best way for me to shoot as I could understand what each affect each setting had on the outcome.

It's interesting to shoot in auto mode and just look at the setting the camera used to see how you can manipulate those results to see how creative you can become.
 
jon ryan said:
Manual. Every time. Except for those times when some other mode will give a better result which can be quite a bit of the time as I never ever use AV unless it is the best setting for the subject I am subjecting to my sensor in which case I will always use AV apart from when I use TV which I always do as long as I am not photographing a landscape or a portrait or some other thing that would be better if I didn't use TV in which instance I will without exception use manual or possibly some other setting.

Hope this makes things more clearer.
Click to expand...

Yep...exactly what I do....I think...
 
I use what ever mode is best for the shot i want. Either aperture, manual or shutter
 
Manual for me, I shoot a lot of live gigs and shows (especially burlesque) and need to control I get from it, rest of the time I'll slip into shutter priority to get sharp enough shots at badly lit venues.

RwD
 
99% Av but not sure if I should go to manual and see how auto iso works with the 7d to take care of the rest (although the few times I've tried it i always end up with iso 3200 hence I scuttle back to av again).
 
Rajkay said:
99% Av but not sure if I should go to manual and see how auto iso works with the 7d to take care of the rest (although the few times I've tried it i always end up with iso 3200 hence I scuttle back to av again).
Click to expand...

Doesn't the 7D allow you to use auto-iso within a defined range in Av mode then? :thinking:

I shoot most of the time in Av mode - so I can set the depth of field - with Auto-Iso 200-800.
If shutter-speed still ends up too slow I'll manually bump the iso to 1600 or 3200, but generally I can anticipate this anyway and don't need to review to know...("its dark in here!")
 
flossie said:
Doesn't the 7D allow you to use auto-iso within a defined range in Av mode then? :thinking:

I shoot most of the time in Av mode - so I can set the depth of field - with Auto-Iso 200-800.
If shutter-speed still ends up too slow I'll manually bump the iso to 1600 or 3200, but generally I can anticipate this anyway and don't need to review to know...("its dark in here!")
Click to expand...

No don't think it allows you to restrict within a certain range (not sure if that delight belongs to the nikons?). To be honest I think I'll be more better in manual once I've moved onto using raw so I'm in a better position to do exposure corrections in the begining.
 
Manual around 90% of the time. Av when the situation warrants.

Ian.
 
Manual unless the lighting is all over the place - like on a bright day with very variable cloud cover for instance. Then I use shutter priority.

When I was learning it was always aperture priority mode.
 
Stupid question but what's AV mode?

I just have Auto, P, M, S and A, for the semi/manual modes, then the scene modes, like landscape, macro, portrait etc?

So I normally use S and occasionally switch to A as mentioned before.
 
n2desilv said:
Stupid question but what's AV mode?

I just have Auto, P, M, S and A, for the semi/manual modes, then the scene modes, like landscape, macro, portrait etc?

So I normally use S and occasionally switch to A as mentioned before.
Click to expand...

AV is aperture priority - Nikon call it A, just to be...different...
 
^ Actually, Canon called it AV to be different.
 
It really depends on whether the background is having an effect on exposure. If a moving subject is passing a background that varies between bright then dark then I use Manual to control exposure on the subject. If there's a constant background but changeable light I'll use Aperture Priority. In either mode I add under/over exposure as I see appropriate for the result I'm looking for.
 
I seem to be with the majority, the vast majority of the time I'm in aperture priority. If I'm not in AV mode, I'll usually use manual.
 
Recently switched to shooting mostly on manual. Prior to that usually a mix between Av, Tv and P depending on the subject and how much time I had to consider and compose the shot. Now that I've become proficient with manual I can set up the exposure fairly quickly so the other modes are used less.
 
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