Hi all, Was wondering what "modes" you use with your cameras and in what situations. My Olympus digicam has Auto,Landscape,Sports,Portrait modes (which are pretty straight forward and easy to figure out) There is also Program(P), Apeture Priority, Shutter Priority and finally Manual. When I'm takin candid shot (family and stuff) I usually stick with Auto or Program modes (the camera does most of the work) Times when I'm out discovering STUFF....I'm kinda all over the place....experimenting with EVERY MODE...I've captured some awesome pix, BUT there were MANY TIMES, I missed shots cause I was busy fiddling with this or that setting. I've also taken some pretty lousy shots cause I used the WRONG setting altogether and the pic was just wacked out....too under/over exposed or just plain out of focus. I keep sayin I've got alot to learn (AND I DO) Thought some of ya might have some advice or feedback.... Thanks L8r!

You know, the best way to learn is just the way you're doing. To just fool around, try every ding'a'long, push every button. Photography books gives good technical information how camera works, how different apertures and shutter speeds affect to image. That knowledge is important to know. To know how, you gotta know why. Only one advise, if the place is perfect and its gonna be special pic, shoot as much as you can, and always take few with program or auto-settings. Normally, I shoot with program mode, and slightly modify settings, depending do I want to blur background, do I want dark or bright pic etc. But with crappy Sony DSC-P1, I use auto-settings always and create effects I like with Photoshop. Its not so good camera you know. .n

Ninety percent of the time I use the "program" mode for the baseline, but fiddle with the "comp" setting to add or subtract a bit depending on conditions. [Backlighting, bright snow...] The rest of the time I use a tripod and "aperature priority" mode to control the depth of field. I seldom use shutter priority; maybe once or twice to catch motion trails. [It is funny; I pretty much learned using an old match-needle shutter priority, and now seldom use it. I suspect I'd use it more if I made different types of images.]

I'll always say "Gimme a bare bones camera whose only setting is 'fully manual' than a camera with 50 features I'll never use". Dunno why I used quotes... I'd say the best tip would be to use manual settings as much as possible. The only way to not miss that shot by fiddling with buttons is to miss afew shots fiddling with buttons until you can react faster. Whe I got into a subway station, I immediately set my camera to 1/30 shutter speed, and f-stop 5.6. After that, I might have to adjust the F-stop by one stop, and that isnt even required really, cause I can print it out better later if its over/under exposed a little bit. Personally, I hate priority modes, and even automatic unless Im being a tourist. I'd rather have full control over the exposure, that wawy, if something screws up I have only myself to blame and not the expensive equipment (which will screw up more often than not). advice: shoot shoot shooooooooot

basically, the more you'll shoot, the more you'll understand what your general settings should be in different environments. Its gotten to the point where if my f-stop is around 8 or 11, I can take (for the most part) sharply focussed stealth shots without having to focus with my eye, just by looking at the numbers on the dial and estimating distance. once again, shoot shoot shoooooot

I alway use my digicam (Dimage7) in manuel mode. And like yours it has every mode you could think of (it even has text mode), I've played around a bit with them, but I guess I'm just to used to working with a fully manuel slr to ever use the program modes for serious photography. Even the auto-focus annoys me as I'm used to manuel focus lenses. I'm sure that aperture and shutter priority have a good use when you are in certain situations and don't wish to have to fiddle with one or the other, but it's my personal feeling that they take away from the learning process. The nice thing about digital is that you can play to your hearts content and see right away how aperture size and shutter speed work together, and what effects you will get by changing one or the other. Again all of this is just my personal opinion and to each his own I guess. I'm sure there will be others who may feel differently.

My camera hasn't got zillions of features but if I don't have it on auto, I'll usually just adjust the exposure or white balance in its manual controls...

my camera has features, because I couldn't find an SLR that didn't HAVE them. i can't stand automatic settings. the only mode I use is manual.

The only automated mode I ever use is Aperture Priority
mode. And that's mainly as a convenience because I'm left
handed and it's difficult to manipulate the 4-way switch
on the back of my digi-cam with my right thumb (I'm always
changing the wrong setting, etc.). I don't think I've ever
even tried most of the automatic modes that my camera has.
Most of them just set the camera to typical settings for
a certain type of shot (e.g. Landscape Mode just stops
down the aperture all the way to f8 and locks focus on
infinity), and I can do that myself easily enough.

I learned on a totally manual 35mm SLR, and have started
using it again. It's much easier for me to handle the
very traditionally layed-out SLR than the little digi-cam,
but I'd love to find an SLR that's layed-out for left
handed people.

L8r, like yourself mine has the auto, program, apeture, shutter and manual modes, and I'm learning much in the same way as you by the looks of it. What I'm doing a lot, is taking a pic in Auto but in 'preview' so I have to click 'OK' to save the image - as it previes, it also shows the settings the camera has used. I can then keep that pic, switch over to manual and set it to the same settings as the camera, then alter the settings slightly and see the difference, messing about like this for a few minutes per shot. I'm learning...... Only trouble is, sometimes I miss the shot I really want - I don't see any harm in flicking it over to auto for a few seconds to grab that shot.... use it like stabilising wheels on a bike - it's great to run without touching it, but it's there when you're falling over. (",)

Just my opinion... I know it can be done with experience, but do you really mean FULL MANUAL, like without a light meter? Seems slightly masochistic. Guess with digital you can see the results right away. Don't think I'd survive using film without a meter. Even still carry an incident meter sometime.

Well even my basic bare bones manuel slr has a TTL/Center weighted light meter built in. Inside the view finder the light meter will blink when the light meter thinks the exposure is wrong and I either stop down/up on the aperture or shutter. With the digicam in the viewfinder (i never use that stupid little lcd screen either) as I change either the aperture or shutter speed I can see the actual effect the changes have made, and decide if I want to keep them or not.

PS.....I know you probably knew all that Misha....but I've never owned or used a light meter...other than the one in the camera.

sigh... guess I'm really getting old. Back in my days, young ones, full manual meant no built in meter. [And you'd have to be really careful not to get the glass plates too warm while holding them in the mercury vapor. Mmmm, fumes!] People actually argued at the time that if "you knew what you were doing" a meter wasn't necessary! Never could get the hang of it myself.