One of the advantages of all this progress is the program modes that are available.\u00a0 In this photography tips article we’re going to take a look at some of these modes and get an idea of what they can do for us.<\/p>\n Often the program functions are accessed via a dial on the computer.\u00a0 In other cameras they are accessed from the menu.\u00a0 Or, some cameras use a combination of both.\u00a0 Your camera manual will spell this out for you.<\/p>\n The modes are divided into three broad categories – automatic, semi-automatic and manual.\u00a0 Let’s look at each beginning with Automatic.\u00a0<\/p>\n In the automatic modes, the camera makes all the decisions about exposure, focus, shutter and other functions.<\/p>\n The most frequently used mode by most everyone is Auto.\u00a0 That’s the green setting in the illustration above.\u00a0 In this mode the camera makes all the decisions.\u00a0 It will give you a good exposure in most circumstances.\u00a0 It will automatically set the shutter speed, aperture, ISO, white balance, focus and flash.\u00a0 You will be able to take one picture at a time.<\/p>\n The drawback of Auto mode is that you’ll get the average image.\u00a0 That is to say, the camera will choose settings that are generally suitable for the average photograph.\u00a0 There will be some situations where you can improve the quality of the image by giving the\u00a0 camera an\u00a0 idea of the\u00a0 subject your shooting.\u00a0 This leads to the other automatic modes.<\/p>\n You’ll want to move in close to your subject so that you get just the head and shoulders.\u00a0 You can do this by physically moving or by using your zoom lens.\u00a0 Portrait photography is best done in open shade.\u00a0 Move out of the sunshine and into the shade of a building or large tree.\u00a0 Make sure your background is also in the shade.\u00a0 You will be very pleased with what the soft light does to facial features and your subject won’t have to squint.<\/p>\n One thing to be aware of when shooting in Landscape mode is the camera my need to select a slow shutter speed.\u00a0 This will tend to occur if you are using Landscape mode during those situations where there’s not a lot of light.\u00a0 If your camera has some sort of image stabilization function built in (as many cameras do these days) then you might be able to get a sharp image as long as it’s not too dark.\u00a0 The other alternative is to use a tripod, set the camera on a solid surface or brace yourself against a solid surface.<\/p>\n One of the challenges of taking action shots with many cameras is the time it takes to get your initial focus.\u00a0 Sports mode may be able to help.\u00a0 Just keep your shutter button pressed half way down to get your camera to continually refocus.\u00a0 Then, when you get the great action shot, press the shutter the all the way down and click off three or four pictures.<\/p>\n When doing close-up photography like this you’ll need to focus very carefully.\u00a0 The biggest problem is getting so close to your subject that the camera can’t focus.\u00a0 Each lens has a minimum distance at which it can focus.\u00a0 If you’re hand holding your camera, image stabilization technology won’t help you keep the subject in focus.\u00a0 Just be extremely careful or use a tripod.<\/p>\n You can play around with Night mode and get some interesting effects.\u00a0 Because of the longer exposure you can try moving the camera, especially if you have colored lights in the background.\u00a0 Give it a try.\u00a0 You could be really pleased with the results.<\/p>\n More and more automatic program modes are being added to cameras.\u00a0 There are modes for shooting in the snow, at the beach, fireworks, sunsets, underwater, foliage and more.\u00a0 Look these up in your camera’s manual and experiment with them.\u00a0 It will be a lot of fun.<\/p>\n The semi-automatic modes allow you to make some of the decisions while the camera handles the rest.\u00a0 The decision that are semi-automated relate to exposure.\u00a0 You are free to make all the other decisions such as ISO, white balance, metering mode, focus mode, etc.<\/p>\n P mode lets the camera determine the aperture and shutter speed.\u00a0 You have control over the ISO and white balance.\u00a0 This mode is very close to fully automatic.\u00a0 The reason for controlling the ISO is to control the amount of noise in your images.\u00a0 Low ISO values produce low noise.\u00a0 The higher the ISO, the more noise you will have, especially with digicams.<\/p>\n You can also control white balance in this mode, allowing you to adjust to situations like open shade, indoor lighting, etc.<\/p>\n Aperture Priority mode lets you control the aperture in addition to the things you control in P mode.\u00a0 The camera determines the shutter speed.\u00a0 The chief reason for using Aperture Priority is to control your depth of field.\u00a0 Increasing your aperture (smaller numbers) decreases your depth of field and vise versa.<\/p>\n When you want to emphasize your subject and de-emphasize your background you can use a wide aperture (small numbers).\u00a0 When you want to have near and distant objects in focus you can use a small aperture (large numbers).\u00a0 I prefer Aperture\u00a0 Priority for 90% of my landscape photography.<\/p>\n Shutter Priority mode lets you control the shutter speed.\u00a0 The camera determines the aperture.\u00a0 The reason for using Shutter Priority is to control moving subjects.\u00a0 If you’re photographing a soccer player you’ll want a short exposure (like 1\/500 or 1\/1000).\u00a0 If you’re photographing a waterfall you’ll want a long exposure (like \u00bd to several seconds).<\/p>\n In Manual Mode you control everything.\u00a0 You make all the decisions and are in control of every one of your camera’s functions.\u00a0 I use manual mode when I’m shooting panoramas, taking very long exposures (over 30 seconds), using my camera’s built in light meter in spot metering mode or using specialized filters like graduated neutral density filters.<\/p>\n So there you have it.\u00a0 Today’s cameras produce excellent results in most all of the situations we encounter.\u00a0 But, we can take our photography to the next level by using\u00a0 some of these program modes.\u00a0 Play around with them and I think you’ll like the results.<\/p>\n (1282)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Photography Tips – Your Digital Camera’s Program Modes \u00a0 Modern digital cameras are in reality complex computers.\u00a0 They have memories, processors, input and output devices.\u00a0 And, like computers, their capabilities (read \u2018processing power’) doubles every 18 months to 2 years.\u00a0 One of the advantages of all this progress is the program modes that are available.\u00a0 … Continue reading “Digital Camera Program Modes”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,4,6],"tags":[240,83,238,242,239,234,236,235,241,237],"class_list":["post-497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-how-to-articles","category-journal","tag-aperture-priority","tag-digital-camera","tag-macro","tag-manual","tag-night","tag-photographic-tip","tag-portrait","tag-program-mode","tag-shutter-priority","tag-sport"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9Nl7-81","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=497"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":505,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497\/revisions\/505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/digital-camera-modes.jpg\" "\\"digital-camera-modes\\"")
<\/a>Modern digital cameras are in reality complex computers.\u00a0 They have memories, processors, input and output devices.\u00a0 And, like computers, their capabilities (read \u2018processing power’) doubles every 18 months to 2 years.\u00a0<\/p>\nAutomatic Modes<\/h1>\n
Auto<\/h2>\n
Portrait<\/h2>\n
<\/a>Use Portrait mode when you are taking photographs of people.\u00a0 Portrait mode works best for head and shoulder compositions so it works well for a single person or a very small group of people, say no more than three.\u00a0 It adjusts the camera so that the subject(s) will be in focus but the background will be out of focus.\u00a0 It does this by increasing the aperture (lower numbers) and decreasing the length of the exposure.\u00a0 This produces a very nice effect, one that is desirable when photographing people close up.\u00a0 Some cameras will soften the subject as this is often more flattering.\u00a0 You’ll be able to take only one picture with each press of the shutter button.<\/p>\nLandscape<\/h2>\n
<\/a>Landscape mode tries to get as much of the picture in sharp focus as possible.\u00a0 It does this by decreasing the aperture (higher numbers) and increasing the length of the exposure.\u00a0 It is particularly useful when you have scenes that have objects that are both close and far away.\u00a0 Because this mode tries to keep everything in focus it’s useful for more than just landscapes.\u00a0 You can use landscape mode whenever you want as much as possible to be in focus such as the group picture at the family picnic.<\/p>\nSports<\/h2>\n
<\/a>Sports mode is great for action shots.\u00a0 It is designed to give you sharp images of moving subjects.\u00a0 It does this by decreasing the length of the exposure and increasing the ISO.\u00a0 In addition, Sports mode lets you take multiple pictures with one press of the shutter button.\u00a0 Finally, Sports mode changes the way the camera focuses.\u00a0 It adjusts the focus to keep the subject in focus, even when they’re moving toward or away from you.<\/p>\nMacro<\/h2>\n
<\/a>Macro mode is perfect for taking extreme close-ups.\u00a0 Not all digital cameras have the same macro capabilities.\u00a0 With this mode you will get effects similar to portrait mode.\u00a0 The difference is with Macro mode you’ll be inches from your subject.<\/p>\nNight<\/h2>\n
<\/a>Night mode uses the flash to illuminate your subject during twilight or at night.\u00a0 But it does more than that.\u00a0 It also increases the length of the exposure to capture more of the dark background.\u00a0 This works because the flash correctly exposes the subject while the longer exposure adds detail to the dark background.\u00a0 You may need to turn on the flash function of your computer.<\/p>\nOther Program Modes<\/h2>\n
Semi-automatic Modes<\/h1>\n
P – Program AE<\/h2>\n
Av – Aperture Priority<\/h2>\n
Tv – Shutter Priority<\/h2>\n
Manual Mode<\/h1>\n