What Are Creative Modes In Photography – And What Are The Other Modes?

Hi and welcome to Episode 107 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.

Here is the answery bit

Creative modes in photography are aperture priority, shutter priority, manual, and program modes. In these modes, the photographer can change most if not all of the camera settings. The other modes are called basic modes, which have picture styles for different types of photos, and a limited choice of camera settings to change.

You can listen to the episode here

Or keep on reading. Or do both. Entirely up to you!

Ok – now let me explain

I want to start off with an apology but I am talking here about how Canon does things. Now I am sure that other camera manufacturers have similar set-ups, and the principles will apply to all camera systems.

There are two broad image capture modes, Creative Modes, and Basic Modes.

Creative Modes allow the photographer to change most of the camera settings. I say most if not all for a reason. Let’s quickly look at the four creative modes, and then the basic modes.

In all the creative modes the photographer sets the ISO, which is the sensitivity of the camera to light (in broad terms).

Aperture priority, or aperture value

You set the aperture, the camera sets the shutter speed.

Now you can change anything on your camera using this mode, apart from the shutter speed that the camera selects to give you the correct exposure for the aperture and ISO set by you the photographer.

This is also known as Aperture Value and has the designation Av on Canon cameras.

Shutter priority, or shutter value

As with aperture priority, but this time you select the shutter speed and the camera selects the aperture to give you the correct exposure.

Manual

You select everything. Aperture, shutter speed, and everything else. So in manual mode, you can change everything.

Exposure triangle

These camera settings that we are changing adjust the exposure that we get and are of course determined using the exposure triangle, which is the relationship between aperture, shutter, and ISO.

Program

I have spelled this programme for years, and only found out recently that there is no “me” on the end! Oh well!

In program, the camera selects the aperture and shutter to give you the correct exposure.

Basic zones

When I say Basic Modes I am talking about these, well these are the ones that my Canon 6D has.

Scene Intelligent Auto

Creative Audio
Special Scene
Portrait

Landscape
Close-up
Sports

Night Portrait
Handheld Night Scene
HDR Backlight Control

OK – some interesting stuff in there then.

The talky bit

Why are there so many different modes?

Well, I have spoken at length about this, so check out the previous episodes that I will mention at the end.

The creative modes give the photographer more control over the camera settings than the basic modes.

I have decided that I am going into each of these in more detail, so the next episode will be about the creative modes, and why you might use each of them. Or not.

And I am going to do the same for the basic modes in the episode after. I listed those earlier, but

I have to tell you that I have never used many of these, so I need to do a bit of work on them. Well, I want to so I can understand them better.

But why so many camera modes?

There are many variables in photography, and people have different levels of technical ability, as well as different levels of interest in such stuff.

If you want to use landscape mode to photograph landscapes, and portrait mode to take portraits then that is just fine.

I don’t mind repeating myself, I would rather that people made the best use of the technology available to them to help them take photos, rather than be put off by manual mode. You know what I am saying here, we have all seen “gurus” (yes I am using air quotes here) tell us that to be a real photographer you have to use manual mode.

Nonsense. These different camera modes are here to help people take photos. These different modes have been created for a reason. And that is to help people take photos. They are not a bad thing.

I have mentioned photography snobbery before…..

Sure I hope that everyone learns how to use manual mode and fully understand the exposure triangle, but we have to remember one thing.

Not everyone is interested in this stuff. And that is fine. Photography after all is drawing with light, so if programme mode is your preferred way of taking photos, and creating new things, then that is just fine.

As I said better than not doing it because you have been told you have to use manual mode but you do not understand it.

And if after all these episodes you are still not sure about this stuff get in touch, tell me what you are not sure of and I will give you a whole episode to answer your question or questions.

Other camera settings

What do I mean by other camera settings?

If you check out episode 105 I tell you 20 camera settings that I use. The point is that in the basic modes, you can’t change as many of the settings as you can in the creative modes.

And there are so many camera settings.

In manual mode, you can change everything.
In aperture value mode you can change everything apart from the shutter speed that the camera picks.

Shutter value mode is the same but the camera picks the aperture.

You get the idea.

And in the basic modes, you can set a few things yourself – there is a table in the Canon 6D camera manual that shows you these.

Yes, the camera manual. You should get one with your camera, and all this stuff is explained in there somewhere in a factual, non-fun kind of way. I know there is a lot to get through but I strongly recommend that you go through your camera manual, if only once, and find out all you can about these camera settings. Whatever your ability level I bet you will find something in there that you did not know – I found all sorts of stuff about my Canon 6D when I went through all 402 pages (small pages) of the manual, which I have in Pdf format on my PC, phone, and iPad.

Yes, I really did that.

What do I do?

I use Av mode, aperture value, aperture priority, call it what you want. I choose the aperture (having already set the ISO) and the camera selects the correct shutter speed. Sorted.

Big takeaway

Use whatever you are comfortable with to take photos – if you are more comfortable using the basic modes fine. But look at the results you get and learn, at your own pace, what the camera is doing.

Plenty of good stuff that you can catch up on if you missed it. Episodes 100 – 106 are all about camera settings.

Episode 100 – Why Are There So Many Camera Settings? I Am Confused – Help Me?

Episode 101 – Camera Settings 1 – Things That You Can Set And Forget

Episode 102 – Camera Settings 2 – Things That You Might Change When Out Taking Photos

Episode 103 – Camera Settings 3 – The Things That You Set For Each Photo You Take

Episode 104 – 10 Camera Settings For Beginners – Lets Keep Things Nice And Simple

Episode 105 – Do You Want To Know The 20 Camera Settings That I Use?

Episode 106 – Program Mode – What Is It? Is It Ok For Me To Use It?

Next episode

Photography Explained Podcast Episode 108 – something about the creative modes – I have not come up with the title yet, to be honest.

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 a shout-out on that episode, which is nice. And better than me giving me a shout-out!! 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 me. Ha.

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