Newbie exploring out of Auto Mode
- Thread starter Elson17
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Shizuma
Senior Member
no disrespect to seniors out there. how i experience p mode is, p mode might suggest a mid range aperture eg f 8 and the user may control A vs T values by scrolling main dial .
you will or should get the same time value under same lighting and iso setting for same aperture value in p or A modes because most cameras calculate correct exposure in these two modes similarly .
'P mode' already exist in full manual Hasselblad CF lens onwards. Hassey users will know what I mean. There's no shame using P mode.
Some reowned pros still shoot in P model if it works for them, ie Joe Buissink, though watching him shoot, obviously he lack the miniscule control over exposure due to inherent flaws in the AE hold method. But it don't matter much to him when he shoots RAW and has someone else headache over the post production process.
Steve McCurry also shoots in P mode, both in film and digital.
I'm a total newbie and slowly learning new things everyday reading from online tips and forums.
Ever since the first day I got my dslr (650D) I have been playing around mostly with the AV or M mode. For sure taking still object (anything that doesn't move) is ok for me since I can play around till I get the best setting and composition I like.
Well when it comes to taking people :thumbsd: 10/10 times I found that pic taken with auto mode looks much better although not the best than me taking with Av mode. Reason being when taking photo of friends etc you can't expect people to pose for you for 5-10 min until u get your right settingso after 1-2 try on av (mostly exposure issue) had to switch to auto to get the shot right.
I figure one way to solve is probably using the live viewfinder to guide but well still need some time to get it right and you may miss the "moment"
Just wondering those who went thru this stage what did you do to improve? Or share your learning experiences, sweet or bitter..
I started trying shooting manual with flash in TTL. In the beginning, the settings were wrong, shots looked really bad. I analyzed every bad shot that I took and understand why and where these shots went wrong and learnt how to improve them. Slowly realized even sometimes flash in TTL mode, it is not constant, the types of flash diffusers we used, and at different focal length affected the outcome of photos.
Good thing about our cams now, we can review the shots immediately and adjust our settings and flash power accordingly. We'll reach a stage whereby 1 look at the ambient light, agar agar we'll know what ISO, shutter speed and aperture to set. whether we need flash, using what diffusers on what flash power. Fire a few test shots to confirm all exposures.
Hope this helps
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ZerocoolAstra
Senior Member
Most DSLRs now allow you to opt for another combination of aperture and shutter speed in P mode.
i have try using AV and M mode, however still can't get nice pix. so I have try A with auto ISO. but pix start to get gainy.the ISO seem to go up high on it own. I use P mode, but it seem i can only adjust the ISO and it seem like using a PNS camera. SO i would like to know more so i could shoot more and can get pix nice.
nitewalk
Senior Member
A nice picture is not decided by ISO, f-stop or shutter speed alone. It requires good composition.
Other than that, I think you need to also be aware of what is the situation, circumstance and what you want to achieve. For example, grainy could be alright to a street shooter who has the intent to convert to monochrome and needs the grainy feel to convey something (eg I've seen people suggesting they want to convey the film feeling). In an outdoor situation, i don't think your camera will choose a higher ISO setting, as IIRC cameras tend to choose a lower ISO. I experimented auto-ISO on 1000D which is barely usable at ISO 800, I don't remember the camera choosing beyond 800.
You are quite vague on what situation you experimented, and what situation or circumstance and what ISO you used.
Shizuma
Senior Member
scroll your main dial if you have one while in P mode ?
i did have a camera which can only adjust iso values in p mode . it was a point and shoot from Samsung back from 2006 . i guess the camera on my mobile phone does more stuff now than it could then
rhino123
Senior Member
Btw... what camera are you using? I believe most camera brand would allow you to adjust your aperture and shutter speed in P mode, maybe you should read your manual in more detail.
as to Auto mode - the camera do most of the calculation for you, and for some cameras, they would excessively increase the ISO so you could have a faster shutter speed... thus resulting in your picture haviong quite a lot of noise. One way (and for some cameras only) you can set the maximum ISO for the Auto ISO, that way you can be sure that the ISO level is the one that you find acceptable.
Oh... there is nothing wrong with shooting with PnS camera, you use P mode, shoot some shots (if you find those shots pleasing) then look at their Aperture Value and Shutter speed, then learn from there. I have been shooting in P mode some time even until now, although I do use Aperture and shutter speed priority most of the time now, because I find that easier to achieve what I wanted.
flame angel
New Member
M mode is very difficult to achieve , u got to take care of shutter speed & aperture. as for Av mode depends on
How u want your background to look, blur or sharp. In Av mode u got to watch the shutter speed, if it is too slow chances your photo going to be blurred. So u may need to pump up the iso to achieve a good shutter speed. I always start with a lowest iso & adjust from there. another useful tip is get good exposure is to use histogram to gauge exposure before taking the shot.
giantcanopy
Senior Member
Read and understand the basics of exposure, experiment, experience from there. With instant feedback, digital has made learning so much easier.
There is nothing obnoxious to M mode, but it is not the one and all for everything either.
All are tools to further assist the user achieve the vision
Ryan
There is nothing obnoxious to M mode, but it is not the one and all for everything either.
All are tools to further assist the user achieve the vision
Ryan
Shizuma
Senior Member
i just pretend my M mode is manual time priority or manual aperture priority .
fix , meaning set to your pre determined value,either one and iso and the other can be adjusted for correct exposure
hi da ge here, I have check my cam, in P mode, it do allow me to set my aper. Howevere, i am confuse here liao. In A mode, i can set the aper and the iso, in P mode, i set the iso and also can set aper. so what is the different betweem P and A mode? thanks.
for programe mode, you decide the ISO value, and let camera decide the aperture and shutter speed combination for you,
but there is a vari-P mode, which you can change either one of the aperture or shutter speed value, and camera will change the aperture or shutter speed value accordingly.
as for A mode, it means you give priority to Aperture value,
and S mode, you give priority to Shutter Speed.
clearly you are shooting at a low light situation here, cameras need adequate light to make decent photos, learn how to see, find and use the quantity of the light first,
to make excellent photos, you need to learn how to see, find and use the quality of the light.
rhino123
Senior Member
In short, P mode is something like Auto mode, in which the camera calculate everything for you, however you have the option to set the aperture and ISO unlike Auto mode. It is a very useful feature in a sense, whereby you can achieve what you want (eg. deeper DOF in your pic).
However, I do believe that you are able to set Shutter speed too in P mode.
Unlike Auto mode (if your camera had a inbuilt flash), the P mode will not trigger the flash, and instead will simply try to up the ISO (if you set the ISO to Auto), in the Auto mode however, flash will automatically be triggered - again this is subjected to different camera brands (and so... without knowing what camera you are using, it is really difficult to explain). In short though, I will use the P mode when I am lazy, the Aperture (Av mode) when I want to control the DOF of my shots, the shutter speed priority mode (Tv mode) when I want to capture moving objects and needed to control my shutter speed.
Seriously though, I seldom use full manual mode (still not good enough, I guess). And frankly speaking... I always set my ISO to Auto mode, unless I require low ISO shots (for whatever reasons).
Edit: look at my 1000D that I happen to be bring with me all over the place recently, I notice that in P mode, I am only allow to tune exposure level and shutter speed, I think it should be the same for my 7D too. Anyway, I never do alot of playing around with the P mode, just turn my dial to P mode and let the camera do the rest... maybe change a bit of exposure setting and thats it.
So my point is... different camera (brand) different working. Mine is a Canon, I believe Nikon had it differently, so was Sony, Olympus and the such.
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