Thanks to wildlife and landscape photographer John Dominick for his lesson and photos.
In the previous article I touched on what are generally accepted to be the more advanced modes on a camera. In many respects and situations, they will certainly give you more control over the look of the final image and therefore offer more creative control.
The three modes are shutter priority, aperture priority and manual, often represented by the appropriate S, A and M letters on the camera’s mode dial. Each are listed below with a summary of how they work and in what circumstances you might consider using them.
Shutter Priority
Generally accessed via the “S” setting on your camera or “Tv” if you are a Canon camera owner. In this mode you decide the shutter speed you would like to set and the camera will choose the aperture. This is useful for action photography when you are trying to achieve images with less movement blur and more sharpness. Often the camera will choose a larger aperture to allow more light to reach the image sensor which will lead to less depth of field. I will often use this for capturing images of birds in flight, close-up images of fast-moving insects such as bees and dragonflies and to arrest movement in water.
In the example below I was following a hawking dragonfly that was constantly returning to the same spots. By selecting a shutter speed of 1/800th of a second I was able to capture it as it hovered, whilst still showing some blur in the wings and recreating the impression of movement.
Aperture Priority
Represented by “A” on the mode dial or “Av” on a Canon camera. In this mode you select your chosen aperture and the camera will select an appropriate shutter speed to render a correct exposure. You need to be aware that if the ISO setting is low there is the probability of camera shake and blurred images. This can be rectified by selecting a higher ISO setting or using Auto ISO settings and selecting a minimum shutter speed. From a creative perspective selecting the ISO will determine the depth of field in the image or roughly speaking the range of elements in the image that will remain in focus. This is useful in such instances as close-up and landscape photography when selecting a smaller aperture brings a greater zone of sharp focus. Equally, selecting a larger aperture reduces the focus zone and is useful for isolating subjects such as in portraits.
For the close-up image below, I selected a larger aperture of f5 for a very limited depth of field.
Fully Manual Mode
Manual mode is found via the letter M on the mode dial and, as it suggests, in this setting it is left to the user to select both the aperture and shutter speed values. This is my personally preferred mode for landscape photography as it gives me total control. Used in conjunction with the camera’s exposure meter I can ensure a correctly exposed image. The desired aperture or shutter speed can first be set and the other settings adjusted accordingly. In landscape photography I will ordinarily select a smaller aperture, in the f11-f16 range, to render complete front to back sharpness. I will usually use an evaluative (or matrix) metering mode to determine the correct shutter speed. The meter is represented in the viewfinder as a bar with “+” and “-“ either side of a “0” which will represent the value the camera evaluates to be the correct exposure. I will set the shutter speed so the arrow of the bar sits under the “0” or in the middle of the range, as illustrated below. As an advanced user mode, I can make adjustments I feel appropriate at this stage. As always, practise makes perfect and will lead to a very intuitive way of working.
In this image of the sand dunes above Harlech Beach, Wales, I have used an aperture of F14 to ensure sufficient sharpness throughout.
Metering Modes
I’ve touched on the use of metering modes to determine the correct exposure for an image, especially when using fully manual mode. Above are common symbols used to show the selected mode that is in use. They are fairly self-explanatory as both matrix and evaluative use most of the image area to determine the correct exposure values. This is generally all I will use as most modern cameras are very sophisticated and reliable in this area.
Centre-weighted is just that, in that the meter reading is biased towards the central area of the image, assuming the subject is fairly central. Spot metering is ordinarily to be avoided for most instances as it will take a reading of a very small central area of the frame. It certainly does have its uses but takes many hours of practise to master.
As with all these modes I recommend choosing what works for you, for me, imaging is more about creativity that craft. It is always worth having a good understanding of their uses and the interplay they have. This will undoubtedly free you to hone compositional skills and learn to read light, therefore ensuring your images reflect your creativity. We will look further into these essential and rewarding skills in the next post of this series.