Hi all.
Was thinking about this the other day and wondered which preference you guys have when out shooting.
Are you an Aperture Priority or Shutter Priority type person?

Me, I'm a Shutter-dude! 

philmac:

Hi all.
Was thinking about this the other day and wondered which preference you guys have when out shooting.
Are you an Aperture Priority or Shutter Priority type person?

Me, I'm a Shutter-dude! 

It all depends, don`t you think

philmac:

Hi all.
Was thinking about this the other day and wondered which preference you guys have when out shooting.
Are you an Aperture Priority or Shutter Priority type person?

Me, I'm a Shutter-dude! 

It all depends, don`t you think

Whilst it would be fair to say that each is used according to the desired outcome for the photograph, i must admit that i approach my pictures with an aperture bias as i wonder how much depth of field is needed to get the image right.

Andrew

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ajb963:

Whilst it would be fair to say that each is used according to the desired outcome for the photograph, i must admit that i approach my pictures with an aperture bias as i wonder how much depth of field is needed to get the image right.

Andrew

If you understand the relationship between aperture and shutter speed it makes no difference which mode you use. It's only a few years ago when there was no such thing as Shutter Priority or indeed Aperture Priority.

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It all depends.  Sometimes I even let the camera do all the work and use programme mode

 

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I use that rubbish m mode.

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TBPITW 13-14th Sept 08

I guess 90% of the time I'm in aperture priority mode.  To me, the fundamental question for any particular composition is: What depth of field do I need here?......if it's a landscape it could be lots, if it's a portrait it will be little.  Then I check the resulting shutter speed at my standard ISO 100 or 200, and if it's too low for hand holding, I decide based on the subject matter do I push the ISO up, or do I compromise a little on the aperture, or do I pull out the tripod.  I also like to use some on-camera fill flash for outsoor people shots, and the Canon handles this automatically in aperture priority mode.

If it's really critical to stop the action (sport), then maybe I'll consider shutter priority, but even then you still need to decide what depth of field you want, so it's usually easier to set the aperture, check the shutter speed & tinker with the ISO.

Standard night time flash shots (parties, footy presentations, etc.) manual mode

 

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90% AP using f8 which seems to be the sweet spot on my 3 main lenses and 10% manual when I need more control. ISO set as low as I can get away with in the available light.
Having IS lenses makes this approach easier to get away with and I review in info mode to see the histogram to check exposure levels.
My feeling is - Keep it simple - think about the picture - not the camera.

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The camera's in Aperture priority most of the time, but I operate in either. That is, if I know I want a specific shutter speed, I twiddle the aperture until I get the desired speed.

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Manual for me - after ages shooting in predominantly AV mode I was speaking to a highly respected portrait photographer who explained to my you should always master your camera in manual mode. Since then I always shoot in manual and it really doesn;t slow me down at all.

I think the AV / TV priority settings are a bit of a comfort blanket that doesn't really have any benefit over using manual once you understand what your trying to do in manual as in effect your doing exactly the same think but with a bit more control.

With the overall metering accuracy of modern cameras I can't really see the advantage of using manual for general photography. After a bit of use you get to know if the camera has any bias to under or over expose. I tend to use P mode with ISO set to 200 or 400 when out and about - that way I can normally get a reasonably fast shutter speed for unexpected stuff. Switching to AP for more control when needed. The exposure compensation button is my friend and I switch metering modes a good deal. Might be different if I used the camera indoors!

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a few mediocre pics

The default setting on both of my cameras is Aperture Priority... Having said that, I'm starting to customise the C1, C2 and C3 modes on the dial of the 40D so I'll have instant access to a specific set of functions which includes the 'creative' modes.

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Si
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Since getting A D3 been using A mode and letting the camera choose the speed between 200 to either 1600 or 3200 and 6400.

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SK
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Silverdale1971:

Manual for me - after ages shooting in predominantly AV mode I was speaking to a highly respected portrait photographer who explained to my you should always master your camera in manual mode. Since then I always shoot in manual and it really doesn;t slow me down at all.

I think the AV / TV priority settings are a bit of a comfort blanket that doesn't really have any benefit over using manual once you understand what your trying to do in manual as in effect your doing exactly the same think but with a bit more control.

Interesting subject. Until recently, I used Shutter Priority pretty much all the time. I now use manual.

I've just been on holiday to Wales. I know that I just don't have the time these days to spend a lot of time with Photoshop for such a large amount of photos, so I decided I'd get it right in camera using manual, figuring I'd just give a brief 'tweak' with a RAW converter (Bibble) to alter levels and curves.

How hard was this? Well, I never realised:

1. how far out camera meters really are - my '3D Colour Matrix Metering II' has a hit rate comparable with the Nikon EM I had nearly thirty years ago
2. the dynamic range of a digital sensor is incredibly shallow (probably relates to the previous point)

I figured I'd take fewer shots (quality time with family was the priority ), and use the LCD display and histogram to get things as 'correct' as possible, bracketing (chimping) to get things bang on. I found that 1/3 stop makes a lot more difference than you might think, especially to colour reproduction.

Anything less than what I wanted was deleted. I took 450 jpegs. I deleted 200 of them. Granted, I was a lot more pedantic than normal, but it was a real learning experience.

I'm now a little better at making judgements about how accurate the meter reading is, according to the subject. Silverdale's point about the portrait photographer is very relevant - adjusting the exposure to get the skin tones as you want them and the eyes reproduced clearly makes a huge difference to a portrait.

The bottom line with built in meters is that they don't actually measure what you want them to measure. They're assessing reflected light, when you actually want to know how much light is falling on the subject (incident). So it'll never know the difference between a black cat in a cellar or a white cat in a snowstorm. Doesn't matter how many segments are used for metering.

Still, each to their own. I've had a shot published which was taken on Program, so it definitely has its uses. 

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Chris Seary

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