Camera Modes

Automatic Modes:

Automatic Mode:

Auto mods basically just tells your camera to uses its best judgment to select shutter speed, aperture, ISO, white balance, socks and the flash. Only with some cameras the auto mode will let you override flash or change it to red eye reduction.

Portrait Mode:

When the camera is in portrait mode it will automatically select a large aperture, by doing that it helps to keep the background out if focus. Portrait mode works a lot better when you're photographing a single subject but you have to get close enough to the subject.

Macro Mode:

Marco mode lets you move closer to you subject to take closer up pictures, if you didn't't want it in portrait mode. Different cameras have macro modes with different capabilities that included different focusing distances. While in macro mode it will be more difficult to focus at a short distance.

Landscape Mode:

Landscape mode is the exact opposite of portrait mode because it sets the camera up at a smaller aperture to make sure as much of your scene is in focus as possible. Sometimes the camera will put itself into a slower shutter speed. Landscape mode is ideal for getting wider shots of your scenes.

Sports Mode:

This mode is for capturing moving objects, it is ideal for photographing any moving object including people playing sports, pets, cars, or even wildlife. Sports mode basically attempts to freeze the action by increasing the shutter speed.

Night Mode:

Night mode is for taking pictures in a lower light situations and set the camera to use a longer shutter speed to help capture the details of the background but it also can fire off a flash to illuminate the foreground of the subject. Depending on the situation you're trying to catch in a picture this mode can be fun to play around with.

Movie Mode:

Movie mode can extend the digital camera from capturing a still image to capturing a moving object. A lot of the newer digital cameras come with the movie mode that records both video and sound. The quality is not always up to the normal video standards but can be very useful to have when you come across a super good subject. Moving images do take up a lot more space on the memory storage than just a still image.

Semi Automatic Modes:

Aperture Priority Mode (A or AV):

This mode is where you can choosey aperture and your camera chooses the other setting for you. This is useful when you are looking to control the depth of field in a shot. If you choose a larger aperture it will let less light in.

Shutter Priority Mode (S or TV):

The shutter priority mode is very similar to the aperture priority mode, this mode allows you to select the shutter speed and the camera then chooses all the other setting for you. For example if you are photographing a moving subject you would probably want to have a faster shutter speed to freeze the motion.

Program Mode (P):

The program mode is similar to the auto mode, but program mode gives you a little more control over the other features including the flash, white balance, ISO etc. Only some of the digital cameras have this priority mode.

Fully Manual Mode

Manual Mode:

Manual mode ou can have full control over the camera and all the settings that includes shutter speed, aperture, ISO, white balance, flash, etc. This mode gives you more flexibility to set your shots up as you want.