Pixiq

It's important to familiarize yourself with your digital camera's different exposure modes in order to get the most out of your camera and your photography. While the exact names of the different exposure modes will vary depending on the camera manufacturer the basic concepts are the same. Each mode will control, in some form or fashion, the aperture, the shutter speed, and the ISO using various pre-programmed settings and algorithms based on the readings given to the camera from the light meter. These modes can often provide optimal results in a number of different shooting and lighting conditions.

Here are some of the most commonly used terms for the exposure modes:

Automatic (Auto) Mode

Just as the name suggests, the auto mode will use the readings received from the camera's built-in light meter to adjust the shutter speed, the aperture, and often the ISO to give an overall good exposure. Basically, it let's you shoot without having to worry about the settings and allows the photographer to concentrate strictly on composition. If the camera reads a lower light scenario the it will activate the flash automatically unless the photographer has disabled this setting manually.

Aperture Priority Mode

Again, as the name suggests, this mode puts the aperture in priority. This is how you can control the depth of field and let the camera figure out the shutter speed. Set your f-stop and let her rip. Generally you'll want to use this mode when depth of field is most important such as portraiture.

Shutter Priority Mode

See a pattern? Here the shutter speed is the camera's priority. This allow you to select a shutter speed so you can either freeze the action (fast shutter speed) or get some deliberate blur in the movement (slower shutter speed) and the camera will adjust the aperture appropriately. Great for action settings like sports.

Program Mode

Program mode is a funny little fella that gets a bad rap from the "purists". It's like a flexible Auto Mode. Found on almost all DSLRs it will control the aperture and shutter speed without controlling the flash. The difference is that you can "tweak" the settings by taking control of the either the aperture or the shutter speed and the camera will adjust the settings accordingly. It's great for grab and go photography where timeliness is of the utmost importance but you still want some control in the creative process.

Manual Mode

Do you have control freak tendencies? If so then this is your setting. You control the aperture, the shutter speed, and the ISO. You need a full understanding, or a willingness to learn, the basic premise of the exposure triangle and how making an adjustment to the aperture requires an adjustment to either the ISO or the shutter speed in order to keep a good exposure.

Scene Modes

This is sort of catch-all for the cleverly named camera's pre-selected settings. There are a few that come with DSLRs and several extra scene modes found on compact digital cameras. This can include anything from landscape, portrait, sport, night, party, group, etc. Camera manufacturers are coming up with some crazy presets all in the name of helping camera enthusiasts get better pictures. Usually the name of the setting tells you what scenario you should be using with each scene mode and often they work quite well. I do encourage you to try using them in unorthodox ways to get interesting results. Who knows what kind of cool results you'll get when shooting a soccer match in party mode? I don't even know what party mode does! But who doesn't love parties?

Photograph: day 57 - macro squared by JudeanPeoplesFront (@headcrabs on Twitter)