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.