Friday, April 27, 2012

Camera Mode of Shooting

What mode should you shoot in?

 

Program (P)


When you shoot in Program (P for both Canon & Nikon)) mode, the camera pretty much makes all the decisions for you by automatically choosing aperture and shutter speed. However, it will not pop up the flash (unless you tell it to).
What it’s good for: not much for nature photography & dance photography
There's never a good use for program mode when shooting nature or dance photos, but it’s great for street photography, when the perfect moment may only last a few seconds and you don’t have time to fool around with camera settings.
This may lead you to believe Program mode would also be good for shooting wildlife, but to ensure you get your whole subject in sharp focus, you’ll usually need to control the aperture yourself.

 

Aperture Priority (Av or A)


With Aperture Priority (Av for Canon)/(A for Nikon) mode, you choose the aperture and the camera decides the shutter speed.
What it’s good for: landscapes
I shoot almost all my landscape photos in aperture priority mode. It's because, with landscapes it’s important to have everything in sharp focus, so you’ll want to manually choose a small aperture.
Landscapes are usually most dramatic during sunrise or sunset when the light conditions are constantly changing, so it’s difficult to determine the correct exposure on the fly. Not only that, but you may also be using a polarizer or graduated density filter that complicates the exposure calculation even more.
So, what’s worked for me is to shoot in Av mode, with exposure bracketing at -1/+1, because when you shoot landscapes at sunrise/sunset you’ll often experience harsh shadows and strong contrast between elements that are sunlit and those that are shaded. You’ll want to take multiple exposures to blend them later in post-processing.

 

Shutter Priority (Tv or S)


With Shutter Priority (Tv for Canon)/(S for Nikon) mode, you choose the shutter speed and the camera decides the aperture.
What it’s good for: dance, waterfalls, streams (kind of)
When I first started photographing waterfalls, I experimented with shutter priority mode, since the most important thing was to get a long enough shutter to make the water silky looking. I then switched to this mode for my dance photography, as I can adjust quickly with just one dial instead of 2 when I was using Manual mode. Stage lighting changes during a concert or performance. However, I quickly switched to manual after shooting more and more  in brighter lighting conditions. Not only is a longer shutter necessary for waterfalls, but a somewhat small aperture is also important to keep everything in focus (f/11 or smaller). So although I was able to choose a long shutter with Tv or S mode, the camera didn’t always automatically select the aperture I wanted. 

 

Manual (M)


With Manual (M for both Canon & Nikon) mode, you choose the aperture and the shutter speed. This mode gives you complete control of the camera.
What it’s good for: everything (but difficult for landscapes)
I use manual for almost everything now (except landscapes, which I do in aperture priority mode). I’ve found that it’s most critical for photographing wildflowers and wildlife. With wildflowers, the camera’s auto exposure will rarely guess a good exposure (regardless of metering mode). And, with wildlife, since you’ll probably be shooting in JPEG, it’s critical to get a good exposure. As for dance, unless I know the story of the dance or at least watched the full dress rehearsal/s & conclude that the show will have a more steady lighting, I will not select M.

Kuda Pasu New Creation


The Grand Prize for "Dance With Us: Motion Across Cultures" Photo Contest organized by an International Social Network ExchangesConnect dated 17Nov, 2011; Winning photo: "Kuda Pasu" choreographed by Suhaimi Magi and danced by ASWARA students during their Malam Kreasi Baru 2011 concert.