Beecher's Handouts /

Setting Exposure / 13.3 - Exposure Modes

Your camera has exposure modes.

Before you learn what they do, let's get oriented a little.

Exposure modes are often located on a knob on the top of the camera.

On Canon cameras, the exposure modes include:

	Auto exposure mode
P	Program exposure mode
Av	Aperture-priority exposure mode
Tv	Shutter-priority exposure mode
M	Manual exposure mode

On Nikons, and many other cameras, the exposure modes include:

Green Camera Icon	Auto exposure mode
P	Program exposure mode
A	Aperture-priority exposure mode
T	Shutter-priority exposure mode
M	Manual exposure mode

Green Box/Camera

This exposure mode does two things:

1) Uses program exposure mode

2) Sets many defaults on the camera

Program

Program, P, is the most convenient exposure mode.

You don't have to do anything.

You can ignore lens opening and shutter speed.

That's a problem.

If we don't have to use these tools, our photographs won't be as good.

Aperture-Priority

Aperture-priority exposure mode, Av or A, is the most useful exposure mode.

Because you have to set the lens opening, you'll use this valuable tool more often.

We'll explore depth-of-field below.

Shutter-Priority

Shutter-priority exposure mode, Tv or S, is useful for freezing or blurring movement.

You choose the shutter speed, and the camera selects the lens opening.

Manual

Manual exposure mode, M, is useful if you want to bracket your exposures.

However, many photographers now use the automatic bracketing feature found on many cameras.

Bracketing is the taking of several photographs of a scene at different exposure settings.

There's another discussion of exposure modes in the Tips section.