September 2022

Modern cameras have plenty of modes that you can use to try and get the best shot for any given situation. They range from fully automatic where the camera makes all the decisions for you and guesses at the type of shot you are wanting to achieve, right through to fully manual where all the decisions are down to you. There are of course, combinations of modes in between where you make some decisions and the camera does the rest depending on your choices.

This section will describe the most common modes – note that some of these might have slightly different names depending on the camera make and model.

Shutter Mode

In shutter mode you have total control over the speed of the shutter. You set the speed depending on what you are trying to achieve and the camera makes decisions for the other parts of the exposure triangle – ISO and APERTURE.

If you want to capture something static select a fast shutter speed and the moving object should be caught nice and still – if you’ve set it fast enough.

If you want to portray movement then slow the shutter speed down and you get motion blur of moving objects in the image.

Depending on what you select the camera will choose the aperture and ISO to suit the available light in order to attempt to capture a balanced, well-lit image. It can’t always do it right but it tries to do a good job using the information it has by sampling the scene.

Other factors will come in to play too and if you’re looking for a pin sharp image you should always be using a tripod and perhaps a remote to minimise camera shake. But that’s for another day.

To use this setting, turn the mode wheel of your camera to ‘S’ and then there is another wheel (usually near the picture trigger) to rotate to change the speed of the shutter. Remember it is shown on the camera display as either a number in seconds – 1″ is 1 second, 5″ is 5 seconds, etc. Alternatively for speeds of less than a second it is shown as a fraction – 1/2 is half a second, 1/8 is an eighth of a second, etc.

This image from the centre of Bangkok, Thailand had the shutter speed dialled in (2 seconds) and the camera decided that the aperture should be f6.3.

Depending on the camera make and model you can range from something like 1/10,000 of a second right up to 30 seconds. Beyond that there is something called ‘BULB’ mode where the shutter stays open for as long as you keep the picture trigger button pressed.

More on that in a separate section but essentially BULB mode takes exposures and shutter lengths to extreme times – above 30 seconds into minutes and in some cases hours. In this mode the shutter stays open for as long as the shutter button (or remote release) is depressed but be wary – this can dramatically drain the camera’s battery as these long exposures can demand a lot of juice!

Aperture Mode

This mode is the opposite of shutter mode (S). Here you select an aperture (the size of the hole in the lens when taking the image and the camera determines and appropriate shutter speed by sampling the light available in the scene.

The most important effect that changing the aperture can have on an image is to vary the DEPTH OF FIELD. This is the amount of the image that is in focus from the nearest element in the image right through to that part that is furthest away. Landscape and portrait images demonstrate this the most by having the main subject of an image in pin-sharp focus whilst anything in front or behind blurs as they are not the main element.

In fact, this mode is most used by these two types of photographers as it gives them excellent control of how their images are represented.

Consider the image below:

Your eye should be drawn to the centre of the main flower with the stamen (the bits that have the pollen) in good, clear focus – the focal point – and as you move outwards towards the edge of the image it blurs, with those elements farthest away from the focal point subject to the most blur. To make more of the image in pin-sharp focus, change the aperture so that the hole is smaller – i.e. step up and increase the f-number.

Auto Mode (A) and Programmed Auto Mode (P)

When most people purchase their first DSLR camera they may feel overwhelmed with all the buttons, dials and settings so most will start on the AUTO mode – and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. I still use it – sometimes I want to see what settings the camera will use for an image. Other times something might be happening really fast and I want to make sure I capture a half decent image before the moment passes. This stops me messing up and losing the opportunity for ever.

I might say that this way, effects that are created using other modes might possibly be created afterwards using software such as LIGHTROOM, LUMINAR or PHOTOSHOP… but I’ll never admit it …

With this mode the camera takes care of everything. All you have to do is point and press – well press half-way to allow the camera to focus and then all the way to take the image. The image below was captured on full AUTO mode (camera derived settings shown underneath:

Aperture and shutter speed are calculated and depending on the focus mode the camera will work out some depth of field details.

With PROGRAMMED AUTO (P) mode the camera will work in exactly the same manner and choose (what it thinks is) the best aperture and shutter settings. However, different combinations of these can be selected to give a different effect to the final image – alter the depth of field for example and all combinations will produce the same exposure.

Manual Mode

Your road to professional quality pictures starts here! MANUAL mode is where all the big guns live – you have complete control over every setting of your camera and can use them all independently of each other to produce exactly the image you were intending.

Set the aperture and shutter speed and as you become more confident in your craft this will start to become easier and easier. It’s not like the old days when you had to wait for film to be processed to see the results! Check your image in the preview window and if you don’t like it, change those settings and try again!

Normally, as you look through the viewfinder you will see somewhere (normally at the bottom) some indication of whether the current settings will result in a good or bad exposure, displayed as a scale of exposure (under or over). Change the settings whilst you look through this and you can see this slide-scale change to what the camera thinks is the correct setting. But remember – this is your image and you are attempting to create a particular look so don’t always rely on this in just the same manner as you don’t always trust the settings on the full AUTO mode. This is your image after all!

Manual mode gives access to super-long exposures for night time photography (or astro photography). The image below was taken in Bangkok using fully Manual mode. Note how most of the image is static (buildings, road, etc.) but the moving traffic is caught as a blur with their lights being the predominant element captured but you can see some ‘ghost’ parts of the car bodies. This type of night image is known as a ‘light trail’ image:

I have been mad keen on photography now for most of my life. as a kid we had a cheap analogue point and click camera that took a roll of film that had 24 exposures and no manual adjustments other than flash on/ off – so you had to be pretty sure of a shot when you were taking it. Then there was the weeks wait while the films were sent off for processing only to find that half of them were blurred or had fingers in the way! I still have a lot of those old photographs as prize possessions of youth and there are many memories contained within them.

As an adult I’ve been lucky enough to progress from analogue to digital and seen plenty of innovations and upgrades along the way. I’ve had Olympus (previous) and a few Nikon (current) cameras and am currently shooting with a D7200. I’m a gadget person so I’ve got allsorts of tools, add-ons, gizmo’s to help me get that perfect picture.

But what makes that perfect picture? I often look at others work and am amazed by the composition, subject matter, colours (or tones of a black and white image), technical ability and often wish that I was as accomplished as that person. But, if I’m being honest with myself, I might not be as accomplished or had pictures published or as recognised as others but some of my images (I think) are pretty good. I wonder how much of success is down to opportunity presenting itself (or being self-made)?
Looking back, if you are serious (or semi-serious) about your photography there are some basics that you need to get your head around to get you on the right road to success. Some of these might seem impossible to master or seem like a nonsense but give them a go, they might not be as tough as they appear at first.
Just for a while, forget all those text books on Amazon and all those other blogs that go into so much detail, forget YouTube for now, (sorry guys, you can still be there waiting but just hang on for a while). Let’s start with something straight-forwards.

Basics to start with are the exposure triangle, aperture, shutter speed and ISO.

All of these go together to form EXPOSURE – without the right exposure your image is going to be too bright and blown out with too much white or on the flip side it will be dark, dingy and with too much black and shadow. You’ve got to try and get the exposure (using the three things above) just right – or as right as you want them to be for the image you are trying to achieve.

Beginners start with their camera on auto mode – which I was stuck on for a long time where the camera makes all the critical decisions on these three for you. But beware! It’s not perfect and sometimes (often?) it just doesn’t do what you want it to do and the final image isn’t what you were trying to achieve. So, if a job needs doing, you have to do it yourself!

Getting off auto and onto manual mode can seem scary and an impossible barrier to achieving great shots. But, with practice you can get there. Heck, if I can do it then anyone can! Getting these three things right (or at least understanding them) will get you starting to use that mystical manual mode more and more…auto is always there as a safety net!