Hi and welcome to Episode 109 of the Photography Explained podcast.
I’m your host Rick, and in each episode I will try to explain one photographic thing to you in plain English in less than 10 minutes (ish) without the irrelevant details. What I tell you is based on my lifetime of photographic experience. And not Google.
Before I go on I need your help. I need your questions to answer. More on this at the end. Stay with me.
Here is the answery bit
When I say Basic Modes I am talking about these, well these are the ones that my Canon 6D has.
- Scene Intelligent Auto
- Creative Auto Shooting
- Special Scene
- Portrait
- Landscape
- Close-up
- Sports
- Night Portrait
- Handheld Night Scene
- HDR Backlight Control
You can listen to the episode here
Or keep on reading. Or do both. Entirely up to you!
Ok – let’s start by explaining the difference between creative and basic modes.
When using the Creative Zone modes the photographer changes some camera settings. With basic modes, the camera chooses the settings for the thing that you are photographing.
That is the fundamental difference.
When you are starting out in photography you might well start with the basic modes, where the camera does the technical stuff for you.
What you do as the photographer is choose the mode that works for you. And whilst the camera is doing the work for you, by doing this one small thing you are beginning that journey into photography. Yes really.
Now I want to look at these in turn quickly.
Scene Intelligent Auto
This is a fully automatic mode where the camera analyses the scene and chooses the best camera settings, including focus.
Creative Auto Shooting, or Creative Audio as I wrote it in my script!
In this mode, you can easily change the depth of field, drive mode, and choose the ambiance you want.
Special Scene
This is how you get to the scene-specific modes, which are
Portrait
This mode blurs the background and makes skin and hair look nicer.
Landscape
This mode puts more of the photo in focus using a small aperture, and also gives you more vivid blues and greens, with very sharp crisp images.
Close-up
For photographing things close up. Which is not a surprise, is it?
Sports
Makes the centre AF point the one of choice, and defaults to faster shutter speeds and continuous shooting.
Night Portrait
Handheld Night Scene
You need a flash, and a tripod is recommended, and this mode will help you get nice night portraits and keep the background looking nice too.
HDR Backlight Control
The camera takes three photos at different exposures and keeps the image with the least loss of shadows recorded.
Very clever. And I did not know that.
The problem is that you can only get photos in JPEG doing this, not RAW images.
Oh well.
The talky bit
It is important that you feel comfortable using whatever mode you want. There are people out there who will tell you that to be a real photographer you have to use manual mode.
Nonsense. I use AV mode most of the time. I would rather you were out there taking photos whatever your level of ability – that is what matters. Photography is drawing with light, not a technical exercise, not a demonstration of how clever you are, or how complicated photography is.
No – that that is not what photography should be, it should be drawing with light, taking photos, creating new things.
Let’s not forget there are people out there who are just getting started in photography, and we should be encouraging them to get out and take photos and learn while doing this. And if that means using a fully automatic mode then fine.
Taking photos gives us something to work with, and every time we go out and take photos we are building not only a collection of photos but also a collection of data with each and every image which provides information that can be used to help photographers learn.
If you haven’t got any photos how are going to make sense of all these numbers and other things? Much better that you learn this stuff with your own photos.
And another thing that we have to remind ourselves of – not everyone wants to know the intricacies of the exposure triangle and all that complicated stuff. Some people have no technical interest in this technical stuff, and that is just fine.
It is plain rude to assume that everyone wants to be able to have full control of the camera and know the ins and outs of manual mode. Even more so these days, when for many people their introduction to photography is with phones, where you have none of this nonsense to work out.
No, there is probably a generation of people out there now who will buy a camera to get better photos, but use the same techniques that they have learned using their phones. These people will start off by letting the camera and the tech sort out the camera settings.
Some people will get into the creative zone modes some will not. And either way is fine.
As long as we are getting out there taking photos, and people are being given helpful, constructive advice and encouragement photography should, and will, flourish.
But if we keep hitting people over the head with manual mode, Photoshop, and technical complications, photography will decline and the phones will take over. Well, that is what I reckon will happen.
I know that might sound a bit dramatic but these basic modes are clever things that have been created to help people take photos.
The very act of selecting anything other than fully auto is the first step in hopefully getting into photography. It is a conscious decision to do something specific when taking a photo. It is the first step in what could be a long and very special journey.
As you might have gathered I feel very strongly about this, and the fact that we should be encouraging everyone to get cameras, and go out and take photos, learn photography, be the best that they can, take the best photos that they can.
However, people do this is fine. And this should not be condemned or criticised.
Our job is to help, encourage and support new photographers, well any photographers to be honest
So get out there and take photos and use whatever mode you want to.
Rant over.
What do I do?
For my commercial work, I use aperture priority. It works for me. For my personal work, I may use Program Mode, aperture priority, or whatever I feel like doing.
Yesterday I used AV Mode, then spent a bit of time in Program, and then went back to AV. And that is fine.
What mode should you use?
The mode that you are happy with, the mode that will help you to get the best photos that you can.
Big takeaway
Use the mode that works for you. And no you still do not have to use manual to be a real photographer.
Related episodes
Plenty of good stuff that you can catch up on if you missed it. Episodes 100 – 109 are all about camera settings. Blimey – so much good stuff!
Check out the episodes page for more – I am not going to list them again.
Next episode
Shout out
Shout out to me – well why not?
Get your question answered.
This is what my podcast is all about, answering your photography questions. So please get in touch with your question, and not only will I answer your question, but I will give you a shout-out on that episode, which is nice. Just head over to photographyexplainedpodcast.com/start.
OK – I’m done
Thanks for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast. To find out more about my podcast and do stuff to help me check out the podcast website, which is photographyexplainedpodcast.com/.
Brought to you by
This episode was brought to you by Yorkshire Tea.
I’ve been Rick McEvoy, thanks again very much for listening to me and for giving 10 (ish) minutes of your valuable time, and I will see you on the next episode.
Cheers from me Rick
OK – that was the podcast episode.
Want to know more?
Head over to the Start page on the Photography Explained Podcast website to find out more.
And here is the list of episodes published to date – you can listen to any episode straight from this page which is nice.
Let me know if there is a photography thing that you want me to explain and I will add it to my list. Just head over to the This is my list of things to explain page of this website to see what is on there already.
Let me send you stuff
I send out a weekly email to my subscribers. It is my take on one photography thing, plus what I have been writing and talking about. Just fill in the box and you can get my weekly photographic musings straight to your inbox. Which is nice.
And finally a little bit about me
Finally, yes this paragraph is all about me – check out my Rick McEvoy Photography website to find out more about me and my architectural, construction, real estate and travel photography work. I also write about general photography stuff, all in plain English without the irrelevant detail.
Thank you
Thanks for listening to my podcast (if you did) and reading this blog post (which I assume you have done as you are reading this).
Cheers from me Rick
