Digital Photography What is Automatic or Manual camera mode setting

October 12, 2008 by Vp

: Click picture for details on this guide.

Digital Cameras Manual or Automatic?

What type of digital photographer you are can be determined with a quick glance at your camera most of the time.

This won’t be because of the type of camera you own, or the expense or quality of it. This can be determined by the simple expedient of looking at the settings mode on your camera.

If you’re any kind of serious photographer then you should really be using your camera in manual mode. And if you’ve yet to get started or aren’t all that much of a dedicated photographer, then you might find that your camera is in automatic mode.

No serious photographer worth his salt will keep their camera in automatic mode, unless of course they only just bought it two seconds ago.

However, you might be stuck in automatic mode for the longest time if you don’t know what to do and if you’re scared or unsure of how and what to do as well.

Before I went digital I was carrying around my film camera and for the longest time ever, I was stuck on the automatic setting.

And even when I did start the switch to manual mode I didn’t go the distance, and stayed somewhere in a semi-manual mode.

I never fully changed over to manual until the day that I bought my digital camera.

Since I had to put down the camera for at least a few seconds without taking photographs to learn how to take photographs with it, I also came across the ways and means by which I could go fully-manual if I wished to.

The rest, as they say, is history. I changed over to fully-manual and haven’t looked back since.

Oh, it wasn’t as easy as all that, it took a time and little bit of adjustment on my part to get the whole show fully on the road, but it finally did happen.

The reason it was easier in part for me to change over to fully-manual with my new digital camera was the reason it was popular in the first place, the lack of expensive film to process.

Like I said, I was working in color positives by that time although I wasn’t a truly great photographer. I knew I wanted to be one, so color positives it was.

The expenses associated with processing, and the desire to stay comfortably ensconced in my familiar little world, were what kept me from going to fully-manual mode.

However, since shooting digital is great on the budget, at least in the long run, I turned over a new leaf, and along with learning that manual was where I wanted to be and should have been all this time, I also learned all about my new digital camera.

It’s a touching story you must admit, but there was a moral behind it too. Don’t be afraid to use the manual settings on your camera, they can give you greater control and depth over how your photographs turn out.

If you’re still unsure how to go about getting yourself locked into manual mode, then might I suggest that you take the time out from your photographic efforts and learn all about the ins and outs of manual mode?

And there’s no better place to start than in your house or back yard where you can play to your heart’s content.

If you start off with one small item or subject which catches your interest and start off with your camera in automatic setting, you can get a feel for the way the photographs normally look when you take them.

Don’t delete these images however, and just keep them either on your memory until you’re done or upload them to your computer.

Next, I would suggest that you keep the same subject as your main focus just for you to be able to tell the difference between shots, and switch to a semi-manual mode.

This will involve you going over to either shutter priority, or to aperture priority mode.

With shutter priority mode you retain control over what your shutter speeds are. This is basically how long you want the shutter to stay open.

The rest of it, principally the size of the aperture, is decided upon by your camera depending on a number of factors.

With aperture priority mode you retain control over the size you open the lens aperture to.

If you read one of following sections, on depth of field, you will know that the size of the aperture at the time of taking the photograph determines how much light is let into the camera.

This in turn, along with the shutter will determine how well-lit your photograph is. If you let in too much light you’re overexposing your shot, and if you don’t let in enough light, you’re underexposing the shot.

This is what has happened if you find that in the end your pictures are too brightly white, or are too dark. And that’s why you would ideally want to control either the shutter or the aperture settings if not both.

Click on the link below for a Lot More Information on the Digital Photography Mastery Guide:

http://www.verticalproducts.com/digitalphotography

Have a great day!