Today we are going to look at some of the built in functions of a digital camera. All consumer model digital cameras have built in automatic functions called shooting modes. These modes are meant to allow the camera to make all of the decisions so you don’t have to think, you can just fill frame with your favorite person, animal or flower and click away. I think some of these modes are fine for beginners, but having an understanding of how these modes work will allow you to take control of your camera and take better digital pictures once you realize the limitations of “shooting modes”. Let’s take a quick look at a few of these basic modes and what the camera is trying to accomplish…
Shooting Mode Functions of a Digital Camera
1. Portrait mode. This mode usually has an icon of a woman on the mode select dial of your camera. Why is it always a woman? Who knows, maybe because most men hate getting their pictures taken. Anyways, this mode simply attempts to create a shallow depth of field (see previous lesson for more details on depth of field) and blur out the background of an image, making the subject stand out as much as possible in the photo. The problem is, the camera doesn’t always pick your widest aperture and often pops up the built in flash to compensate. We already know that creates unflattering and unnatural light. A better idea than portrait mode would be to use Aperture priority and select your widest aperture to blur out the background even more and control the use of your flash. Better yet, use an external flash!
2. Landscape mode, the mountain icon on your dial. Why do people typically take landscape photos? They are usually trying to capture the beauty of their surroundings at the time, so they can later brag about their vacation to their friends that work too much! So in this case, the goal of a landscape photo is to show as much detail of the entire photo as possible. Therefore th function of a digital camera’s landscape mode is to set the aperture small and capture greater depth of field. In other words, think of landscape mode as the complete opposite of portrait mode.
3. Close-up mode, the flower on your dial. To be honest, I have no idea why manufacturers put in the close-up, or macro shooting mode. Macro mode again attempts to create shallow depth of field through larger apertures, just like portrait mode. True macro photography though requires getting closer to your subject, and that is more of a function of the lens than the camera.
4. Action mode, usually an icon of someone running. Action mode give priority to shutter speed so that you can “freeze” the action. Hmm, priority….shutter, HEY that sounds like shutter priority! You are right, action mode and the ‘S’ on your dial do pretty much the same thing, though the ‘S’ mode allows you to choose your own shutter speed and the action mode does it for you. So the next time you are 2 hours into your kid’s tee ball game, experiement with shutter priority instead of the action setting. Setting that shutter priority higher creates a faster shutter speed does a better job freezing the action. Then try setting it lower and pan your camera while your kids runs down to first for the 12th time today. You will get some nice blur as you lower that shutter speed, creating some cool effects.
5. Night portrait mode, icon of a person with a star behind them. The goal of night shooting mode is to show more of the background in a dimly lit scene. In order to do this, the camera must pump up your ISO (what’s that? Read more here…) to let more light in and brighten the background. Unfortunately, if you are just using the built in pop up flash, night portrait mode is probably going to create a lot of grain in your photo with that higher ISO setting. To take better night portraits, you really need an external flash. You will get a much better bight portrait by shotting in Aperture priority mode, selecting your widest aperture and then pointing your flash at the ceiling to bounce the light. You will brighten up the background with that bounced light and create much softer, more natural and flattering light for your subject.
Experiment!
So now that you know what the camera is trying to do, go out and experiment with these modes. You bought a digital camera because you wanted instant feedback on each photo. You bought a digital SLR because you knew it would make you look like you knew what you were doing! In my opinion, buying a digital SLR and letting the camera make all of the decisions is a waste. Step out of your comfort zone, take that camera out of auto pilot and experiment with your aperture and shutter speed!