Lesson 5 - Program Modes

Program modes to the rescue

Let’s assume that you actually do not want to be bothered with setting the exposure yourself. We’re only human and we’re bound to make mistakes in our (manual) exposure setting. Which is why camera manufacturers invented program modes.

These are automatic exposure control settings that allow you to basically point and shoot while the camera selects the appropriate setting to correctly expose for the particular lighting situation.

In short, the program modes tell the camera how to expose in a given lighting situation. Usually, modern digitals have a number of modes, which you will see on a dial typically placed on the top left of your camera.

The symbols or letters P, AV, TV on Canon and Pentax cameras, and P, A and S on Nikon cameras indicates these modes.

Why the different types? They each have their uses. Some control the exposure by setting both the camera shutter speed and aperture (P), some do so by only adjusting the shutter speed while you set the aperture (AV) while some allow you to set the shutter speed while the camera then adjusts the aperture accordingly (TV or S). Let’s look at each option in more detail:

Program Mode (P)
This allows you to quickly respond to any photo opportunity. In this mode, the camera automatically determines the optimum aperture settings and shutter speed according to the situation. It does so by instantly analyzing data such as the amount of zoom you’re using, the resulting magnification ratio of the lens and the auto-exposure sensors' brightness data.

Aperture Priority Mode (A or AV)
When you are shooting landscapes or close-ups, you need everything in your viewfinder to be sharp from back to front. And if you were shooting portraits, you’d want the background behind your subject to be out of focus. This area in focus is called your depth of field and you control it by changing the aperture on your camera. We’ll go into aperture settings in more detail later.

Shutter Priority Mode (S or TV)
When shooting moving objects such as runners or rally cars, you frequently get blurred images because the object you’re shooting moves faster than the camera shutter opens and closes. To "freeze" the action, you need to be able to select a shutter speed that is fast enough.

We'll stop there for today, I will get into other program modes next time... until then, mess around a little with aperture and shutter priority settings...