Your Controls: Aperture Priority and (Gulp) Manual

So, last post we covered the Automatic and Shutter Priority modes on your camera.

This time, we look at two other controls you will find on cameras that offer the operator the ability to change how the photo is taken.

Aperture Priority on a Canon

Aperture Priority: This allows the user to set the size of the opening on the lens while the camera’s controls adjust the shutter speed to ensure the proper exposure. Aperture size is expressed on cameras as the F Stop, with the lower number equaling a larger opening in the lens.

Why on earth would you want to adjust this? First, just as the pupils in your eyes widen in a dark room to allow more light to strike your retina, a wider aperture (lower F Stop) will allow more light into the camera to strike the sensor without running the risk of blurring as you would have by extending the time the shutter is open. So, with a wider aperture, you can shoot photos in a darker setting without having to resort to using the flash, making you less conspicuous. Think of shooting inside of a dark museum, concert arena or some other place. 

Another interesting thing changing your aperture can do is adjust your depth of field. This is a powerful tool for photographers to master.

Say you want to take a photo of something, but you don’t want everything to be sharp in the background. One way to do this would be to open your aperture (use a lower F Stop) and focus on your subject. By doing this, you can get a very sharp focus on what you are shooting, and the background items will become blurry, taking away from their focus and really encouraging the viewer to lock in on what you wanted them to see. This background blurriness, especially when done in portraits of people, is known by the Japanese word bokeh, and it makes your pictures look like a million dollars.

On the other hand, if you are shooting sweeping landscapes and you want everything to be in focus, from the nearby wild flowers to the mountains in the far distance, using a smaller opening (higher F Stop) will accomplish this task.  Your depth of field will stretch to near infinity.

There is a great pearl of wisdom that was given to all photojournalists when they were first hired at newspapers when it came to F Stops. “F/8 and be there.” Setting your camera to this middle-of-the-road F/8 gives you the ability to have a broad depth of field, allowing you to simply worry about getting your main subject in focus. Of course, with automatic mode on your camera, this may be outdated advice, but it still shows how crucial aperture settings are to getting that all important shot.

Manual Mode on a Canon

Manual: For many rookie photographers, here be dragons. When you engage manual mode, the camera’s computer turns control of both the shutter speed and the aperture size to you. By manipulating the settings, you can get some interesting effects, such as silhouetted buildings against a sunset, a very shallow depth of focus, whatever you desire. 

Keep in mind that back before the mid-1980s, every camera that had adjustable controls was – by default – in manual mode. Photographers had to study hard to understand which shutter speed went with which F Stop to capture the shot properly. They brought reference cards and cheat sheets with them so they knew how to adjust their cameras as lighting and shooting conditions changed.

They were also doing this in on film, so they had absolutely no idea until after it was developed if everything came out the way they wanted.  In fact, if you are interested in learning the details about shooting in manual mode, I would suggest going to your local library and checking out a book on photography. The older, the better. After all, they were written by the experts!

In the day and age of digital cameras, manual mode isn’t quite as intimidating. Photographers can look at the LCD screens on their cameras to see what they will get before they take the picture. And, if your test shots don’t look good, that’s fine. Just keep adjusting and snapping away until your pictures impress you.

Does this mean that professional photographers only shoot in manual mode? Absolutely not. Getting that shot is what’s most important. But, by getting to better understand the controls on your camera, you can take photos that go much beyond simple snapshots!