Shutter Priority There are some situations where you want to be sure that you are working at the same shutter speed to create motion blur or freeze action. In these cases you will want to use Shutter Priority. When in Shutter Priority you choose the shutter speed and the camera chooses the aperture. One thing you have to keep in mind with Shutter Priority is that your depth of field will change when the aperture changes. Most of the time this will not be a problem. You will have to… Read more Taking control of your camera step by step Part 8 →
Program Mode To get away from the “Green Camera” mode and Scene modes that your camera offers, while still letting the camera make most of the exposure decisions, switch to Program (“P”) mode. Program mode is very similar to the “Green Camera” mode in that the camera is choosing the aperture and shutter speed. Where these two modes differ is in the amount of options that you have to choose from in the menus once you switch to Program mode. The limited control over the camera that you gain by… Read more Taking control of your camera step by step Part 3 →
Scene Modes Many of the cameras available today, from Point and Shoots to DSLRs, have several “Scene” modes. These scene modes let you tell your camera what lighting conditions exist or what what you would like to make an image of. The different modes have names like: Portrait, Landscape, Sports, Night Portrait, Indoor, Beach, Snow, Sunset, Museum, Close-up, Fireworks and Food. For the specific scene modes you can choose from and a description of what they do, check your camera’s owner’s manual under scene modes. All you need to do… Read more Taking control of your camera step by step Part 2 →
“Green Camera” Mode When a camera comes from the manufacturer, it is most likely set to “Green Camera” mode (some manufacturers also use a red camera or other icon) if the camera has any modes other than full auto. This is so that most anyone can open the box, charge the battery and start making images without reading much about the camera except for the “Quick Start Guide”. The quick start guide is intended to do just that, get you started making images as quickly as possible. With very little… Read more Taking control of your camera step by step Part 1 →
