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So, the question is: Why use “Aperture Preferred” mode or “Shutter Preferred” mode when “Program” mode or “Automatic” mode works great?
Camera manufacturers have come a long way in making it very easy for the average picture-taker to shoot wonderful photos by automatically setting the proper exposure, easy automatic focus, etc., with no input from the person using the camera. In fact, a very young child can take a perfectly exposed and in-focus picture just by pressing the shutter button. What a change from the manually operated 35 mm cameras of old!
I broke into photography with a Yashica 33mm film camera. All adjustments were manually set. However, it DID have a built-in light meter. So, with a push of an external button on the meter indicator you would turn the aperture ring or adjust the shutter speed until the needle would line up with a particular point on the indicator. This was very convenient compared to having to use a separate light meter. This could be said to be aperture or shutter priority…setting one of them and adjusting the other so the marks would line up on the meter indicator. You can do the same with today’s DSLRs in “Manual” mode but the manufacturers have made it so much simpler and easier with “Aperture Priority” and “Shutter Priority” modes.
Today, if you set the camera in “Aperture Priority” mode, you choose the aperture you’d like to use, aim and press the shutter button. The camera will set the shutter speed to give you the proper exposure. Or, if you set the shutter speed you want, the camera will set the matching aperture to get the proper exposure.
“OK”, you say, “why would I want to use “Aperture Priority” to take pictures?”
My last post showed the difference in the size of apertures…the small numbers are larger openings than the large numbers. Suffice it to say that large openings (F-stops) give less focus than the higher numbered F-stops. Ex.: F-5.6 gives less area in focus than F-16. An easy way to remember that is: Large number gives a large focus area and a small number gives a small focus area. That’s all well and good but it doesn’t answer your question.
Let’s say you’re taking pictures of a person outside. Behind your subject there are all kinds of stuff that you don’t want in your pics. Setting the camera in “Aperture Priority,” you would dial in a large aperture (small number) to make the background less sharp than your subject. This makes the subject really stand out from the background.
For landscapes, you may want to set a very small aperture (large number) to have as much area in focus as possible. Also when you want the entire subject to be in focus.
“OK”, you say, “why would I want to use “Shutter Priority”?
When there’s subject movement involved, you may want to consider setting a certain shutter speed and have the camera set the aperture. Ex.: If you’re shooting sports and want to stop the action, you would set a fast shutter speed such as 1/500th second and let the camera set thee asperture. That would stop most action shots. If you wanted a little blur to show “movement”, you could set maybe 1/60th second shutter speed. Those are just examples that could work for certain situations. To get the effect you want, experiment with different speeds. It’s really all about what YOU like!
Here are a couple of examples of why to choose the shutter speed for flowing water. Notice in one of them the water is stopped (fast shutter speed) and the other the water is blurred (slow shutter speed).
There are no cut-and-dried settings you should use. Each setting will give you different results. I would recommend trying different shutter speeds and apertures to have a variety of pictures to choose from.
Because of the importance of these two settings, I will be mentioning them in future posts.
Shoot, shoot, shoot!
