Hi, everybody. Welcome to Episode 31 of the photography explained podcast. In this episode, what are the different camera modes?
I’m your host, Rick, and each week I’ll try to explain one photographic thing to you in plain English in less than 10 minutes without the irrelevant details. My aim is to explain things in just enough detail to help you out with your photography and no more.
I’m a professionally qualified photographer based in England with a lifetime of photographic experience which I share with you on my podcast.
So what does camera mode mean?
Here is my answer.
Camera modes fall into three categories, automatic modes, semi-automatic modes and manual mode. I say manual mode because there is only one manual mode where you choose all the settings. In semi-automatic mode, you choose one setting and the camera chooses the others. In automatic modes, the camera chooses all the settings.
The settings in the camera modes determine the success (or not) of the image capture exposure.
Now this is a generalisation – of course there are more refinements and subtleties. There’s more to this than just that. But that is the general explanation of camera modes.
You can listen to the episode here
Or keep on reading. Or do both. Entirely up to you!
So on my Canon 6D, which I’ve been using for a long time, now, I have the following modes.
Now this is an interesting one because there is one with three letters called SCN.
What is SCN?
I’ve never used it, and I had to look into this to find out what it was. And do you know, SCN means Special Scene Mode apparently? I’m saying apparently here because even though I’ve had the camera for, I don’t know, seven or eight years and I’ve taken 50-100,000 photos with it, I have never selected this mode.
So like I say I had to look it up.
So what do they have in there? It has these different scene modes.
- Portrait
- Landscape
- Close up
- Sports
- Night Portrait
- Handheld night scene
- HDR backlight control.
How excellent. I might try some of these.
So what else has it got?
The Canon 6D also has, wait for it.
- Scene intelligent auto
- Creative auto
- Programmed auto exposure (Program AE)
- Aperture priority
- Shutter priority
- Manual
- Bulb
- Custom settings
And a few that I forgot too from the podcast
- HDR
- Multiple exposures
Okay – let’s have a look at some of these then.
Going back to the special scene mode
Portrait
This will probably give you a wide open aperture, probably about F5.6 and – it will set an aperture that suits your subject but not so you’re not going fully open. You will want to get a blurry background, but you don’t want just the eyes in focus and the rest of the head not.
Landscape
Landscape is probably looking to set you a wider aperture working with the ISO – obviously, all these modes are using ISO, shutter speed and aperture for the type of photo.
I’m going to come on to genres of photos in another episode.
Close up
Probably sets a small aperture to get everything sharp – this is not what I said in the podcast episode where I got it wrong!
Sports (shooting moving subjects)
Will give you the fastest shutter speed it can by adjusting the aperture and the ISO – this is how the exposure triangle works.
Night portrait.
I don’t really know what this is – I should have looked into this. I don’t take portraits. I certainly don’t take portraits at night.
HDR backlight control.
I have absolutely no idea what this is. So I looked it up for the transcript. It is for shooting backlit scenes!
OK – that was that
Should I know about that last one? No, it doesn’t matter, does it? Let’s not forget this is about explaining things just enough to help you (and me) with your (our) photography. I’m not worried about some of these modes as I’m never going to use them.
But I wanted you to know about them.
And the bit that I missed from the podcast.
These clever modes also change how the image is taken, and how focussing works, changing all these variables to get the best photo for you.
So do you know what – I am going to try them on my personal work.
What about the other modes?
Programme AE
The camera sets the aperture and shutter speed to suit the light.
Aperture priority
This is what I use for my architectural photography and construction photography work.
I first set the ISO to 100. I will then set my aperture to the aperture I need for the photograph (which 95 times out of 100 is F8 or F16) and the camera selects the shutter speed. I don’t care about this (shutter speed) because my camera is always on a tripod and I am photographing buildings.
Keeping it simple
And that’s what I do for 99% of my photography work, and is also how I work when I’m photographing sunrises.
Shutter priority
In this mode, you set the shutter speed and the camera sets the aperture
Manual
You set both (aperture and shutter) but as you’re doing what the camera says you might as well use one or the other ones.
Bulb
This is what I said
“Press the shutter release button the shutter opens, release this, which you need a device to do or press the shutter release again, which you can’t do. If you’re handheld or by hand because you’re going to make the camera move. So you need to use a remote release back in the day used to stick a cable into the shutter release these days it’s a bit more technologically advanced. So if you use remote release or software, if you use a remote release, you press it once the shutter opens, you can press it again after 30 seconds, 60 seconds, 10 minutes, 12 hours, or whatever to get the correct exposure, depending on the darkness of the scene and other stuff around. That on the actually it’s a really good one to use. I’m going to do that on a separate episode.”
And this is Bulb in English.
You need to put the camera on a tripod first, as Bulb uses long exposures. You need to connect a device, be it a remote release or a phone connected by an app. Basically, you need to be able to open and close the shutter without touching the camera. You take the photo using your device, which opens the shutter, and then you do the same again to close the shutter.
Bulb I will cover on a separate episode.
Custom Modes
C1 and C2 – The Canon 6D has these custom functions where you can set things. Personally, I hate them because they’re so complicated and convoluted. So I’ve never really used them other than one that I will add to the list – something called back button focus, don’t worry about it now.
What about other camera manufacturers?
Other camera manufacturers will no doubt have similar modes. Some will have other modes, and there will be more recent cleverer modes too, as the Canon 6D is quite an old camera.
The point of this really is to use these modes to help you take better photos. If you’re not sure how to take a portrait photo, use the portrait mode.
There’s nothing wrong with using these modes.
Learn your camera
What you need to do is study how the camera is selecting the settings and then try and apply them to getting yourself into manual mode, or aperture or shutter priority modes. There are some who say you’re not a real photographer unless you can shoot in manual mode.
Now, I don’t like snobbery like that.
But I agree with the principle that you should be able to take photos in manual mode but this doesn’t mean that you have to. But you should understand enough.
As I say I don’t use manual, I use aperture priority, it works for me. So whatever works for you. So don’t be afraid of using these clever creative modes. And programme mode is fine.
In the Programme Mode (the one with the icon with a big P) you can you can adjust the exposure anyway using the quick control dial. So there’s lots to do.
But if you want to get serious with your photography at some point you should learn how to use manual mode.
Learning your camera properly
It goes back to something that I said in a previous episode. To learn your camera, you have to really learn it. So you have to go through the manual from start to finish. Or buy a book – one book – don’t buy five books – buy one book, work through it, and pick out the bits you need to do, but these modes are fundamentals of the camera that can help you.
I mean, I haven’t used them because I went from a Canon 5D to a Canon 6D. And I was fully conversant with the 5D years and years before because I’ve used that for years. So I didn’t need to use these modes because I’m (I’d like to think) a relatively advanced photographer.
Why are there so many modes?
Well, I’ve spoken for too long about the different modes now. So these modes are here to cater for individual abilities, experiences, technical preferences, time, and convenience. Now I might use Aperture Priority (called AV which is aperture value by the way), on a shoot but I might also use Programme Mode if I’m out and about taking photos.
Nothing wrong with that.
Okay, I’m done here.
Quick recap.
Exposure is the amount of light that reaches the camera sensor. Spot the deliberate fault there. That is from the last episode!
Camera modes.
There are three types of camera modes. Automatic, semi-automatic and manual. Each of these modes is a different way of getting the correct exposure when you take a photograph. Pick the one that works for you and use it. Try all the others out. You never know. In fact, now I have said all this I’m definitely going to give some of these modes on my Canon 6D a go and see what they can do.
Right? I’m done. What’s next? What do I want you to do now?
Try a camera mode you’ve never used before. That was number one.
2 – Tell me how it went on Twitter @rickphoto.
3 – Subscribe to my podcast
If you enjoyed this episode that is – this helps me
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If you enjoyed this episode, that is this helps me too.
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Next episode.
In the next episode, I am going to talk about the different types of photography. Now the title might well be an A to Z of photography genres. But I’m not going to do 26 episodes because Z would be Zoo photography. I’m not going to do that. No, the title is What Are The 20 Most Popular Types of Photography?
So okay, running over here a lot which is a surprise because I thought this was going to be a light episode. That’s good. Enjoyed this.
Thank you for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast. Check out my website, rickmcevoyphotography.com, where you can find out all about me and my architectural and construction photography work, as well as my photography blog where you can learn lots more about photography.
And also now, as of last week, or sorry, of Tuesday, check out the Photography Explained Podcast website. I nearly got there.
Finally, let me know if you want me to explain something. Head over to my website, Photography Explained Podcast where you will find the tile. Click on it – it just takes you to the email link – I’m not gonna lie to you. Let me know. I’ll add it to the list.
You can check the list out and there is lots of other good stuff on there too. And you can read all transcripts. And listen to the episodes.
So this episode was brought to you by the power of, well, incompetence I guess.
I’ve been Rick McEvoy. Thanks again for listening to me and for giving me 10 minutes of your valuable time. I certainly do appreciate it. And I will see you in 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.
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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
