Something I've wondered - Your favorite shooting mode?

[Adam Hicks]

I tend to shoot mostly in Av, but I'm wondering how common this is around the board. I understand that your style or subject dictates your most common shooting mode, but I'd like to see what the consensus is.

Adam

[blackviolet]

av mode -me too, unless i need to slow down the shutter (waterfalls, panning motorsports, etc.)

[TVSET]

I use Av mostly. On the rare ocasions when I need to control the shutter, I use Tv. If I am drunk, I use Auto. If I am completely drunk, I use M. :)

[Adam Hicks]

Lol... well I'm kinda surprised at how many people use P mode. I'll bet my camera doesn't spend over 5% of the time on P mode. Maybe I should trust it a little more!

I wonder what percentage of those who use P mode have a DRebel vs. something more $. I'll save that for another poll!

[MarkH]

Mostly I use P, but if I am shooting motorsports then Tv is better so I can control the motion blur of the background. Sometimes I need a particular aperture or the slowest shutter speed that will give the right exposure, then I use Av. There are times when the metering gets fooled and makes a complete balls up of the exposere, then I use M.

For waterfalls I use ISO 100 and Av with the biggest f-number and a tripod, next time I'll try my polarised filter (should lose me a couple of f-stops).

I never use Auto as it doesn't give me enough control of other stuff like custom settings and ISO and exposure compensation.

For me the approx usage would be (rough guesstimate):
P: 50% (General)
Tv: 35% (Motorsports)
Av: 10% (to get max/min shutter or for DOF control)
M: 5% (The rare times that auto metering is just not getting it)
Auto: 0%
Idiot modes: 0%

If I shot a lot of portraits or if I shot no motorsports then the numbers would be quite different.

Edit: This is on a 10D

[timmyquest]

i pretty much never shoot P. Infact i dont think i ever have.

I made a similer poll a long time ago and raved about manual, most people voted for AV, so i decided to give it a try. Now i'm in AV 99% of the time that my flash isnt in use, then i'm in manual.

[TVSET]

Hmm... you guys made me go back to manual and read that P mode up. Now I think I know what you are talking about. :) Maybe I'll even try it, since it gives the convineince of controlling either an aperture or a shutter without switching from Av to Tv.... That is if I understood correctly. :)

[Adam Hicks]

Mark H I'm with you on the motorsports deal, there's really no other way. For pan shots I shoot from 1/160 to 1/250 depending on the vehicle speed. I did just shoot a drag race though, and I pretty much needed to go full shutter speed. It's hard to get good shots of a car going 0-350mph in 4 seconds!!!!

Adam

A few examples for what it's worth. I'll be shooting the Nascar Chevy 500 Truck series race on Saturday and the IRL race on Sunday. Hopefully I'll get some nice shots. I'll be down in the pits with credentials. Should be a blast!

http://www.golilm.com/images/MiscCar/CMKXracer.jpg

http://www.golilm.com/images/MiscCar/reddragcarfumessmall.jpg

http://www.golilm.com/images/MiscCar/viperdragstersmall.jpg

http://www.golilm.com/images/MiscCar/GT3reduced.jpg

http://www.golilm.com/images/MiscCar/silververycleanpansmall.jpg

http://www.golilm.com/images/MiscCar/dragharley.jpg

[tofuboy]

My typical photography expeditions go something like this...
Walk around in P mode snapping away. As I find something of more interest I'll switch to Av or Tv depending on what is appropriate. And if I find something that really catches my interest, I switch to M so I can get the aperture set just right and the exposure set just right (expose to the right).

Situations where light is a problem I'll usually use M, followed by Av.

[robertwgross]

I had spent many years in the Konica SLR film camera world, and I had learned to do everything in Tv mode. As a result, when I changed to a Canon film camera in 1997, I began doing everything in Tv mode also. Then, slowly, little by little, I discovered the various other modes, but Tv was still my favorite.

When I started into the Canon digital world in 2002, I started with Tv mode only, and I felt compelled to do everything in ISO 100. Little by little, I discovered whole new worlds out there with Av and Sports mode, and all that. When I started shooting weddings, I somehow fell into P mode, and I generally start from ISO 400. Now I rely on P mode mostly.

---Bob Gross---

[wintoid]

I shoot mainly in M simply because M is the most useful mode when using flash.

[davidwegs]

I'm using Av most of the time when I am working *with* light and contolling the DOF, and M when when I'm controlling the light with stobes.

[Paul_O]

Pretty much always Av then Tv or M when I want to slow the shutter down for something more creative. I've never actually used Auto or P, I wonder if I'd get more "keepers" if I did?

[blackviolet]

P? there's a P? :oops: heheheh

90% of the time i use M for flash

[Morden]

I voted 'P', though I use 'M' when using flash.

[ron chappel]

I actually used to use P + the program shift nearly all the time.
The point of that was it gave allmost any option i wanted but didn't cause problems when i would invarably forget to reset all options at the end of each shoot :oops: :lol: :lol:

It was also a simple habit to work into when i was still learning the new digital camera-fewer distractions

Now i allmost allways use Av like most others do with occasional switches over to Tv for panning,motion blur,etc
.... or M when using flash and i want to quickly force it to meter the flash (or partly so) so that the background is the appropriate darkness

I can't ever understand those who use M only :shock:

[RinkRat]

Right now, I shoot almost exclusively in "M".

Why? I don't know. :)

I figured I could understand the camera better in this mode, & at the same time, learn by trial & error.

Guess I could learn to mess with AV & TV. BTW, since I don't have my manual with me here at work, can you shoot in RAW in these modes?

Thanks

[Morden]

Guess I could learn to mess with AV & TV. BTW, since I don't have my manual with me here at work, can you shoot in RAW in these modes?

Yes. :)

[HJMinard]

Av - landscape, wildlife, portraits, misc. (used for about 80% of my photography)
Tv - action, motorsports
M - sunsets/rises, fireworks
P - family/event snapshots or when there is no time to think about the settings

Others - almost never

[Morden]

I see from the poll that Auto is very popular. :lol:

[cmM]

I shoot manual most of the time

[Adam Hicks]

I'm a little surprised at those shooting manual. Please educate me if I'm wrong, but you're going to be setting your camera for one of a few things, depth of field, shutter speed, or max light gathering. If you want good DOF, even if you go and use M and set Aperture to 2.8, the shutter speed will need to be adjusted to the same level as the camera would set in Av mode at 2.8 in that condition... and then you'd just adjust EC from there. If you wanted a really fast shutter to capture motion or deal with bright lights, you'd use your M mode to set the shutter to say 1/4000 and the aperture would need to be manually set to something like f5.6, etc. If you just used Tv mode you'd get the same effect as the camera would set the 5.6 and you can adjust with EC based on the histogram.

I'm not sure when Manual mode is needed here vs. swapping between Av and Tv?

Someone that is a die-hard M user enlighten me...

Adam

[cmM]

Someone that is a die-hard M user enlighten me...
ME :P

Okay.... first of all, I use M because in M mode the metering mode is most appropriate for calculating the correct exposure most of the time. (on the rebel).

Second of all, you have the built in light meter to tell you where you are exposure wise.

Third of all, you have control. If I want to replicate what I see with my eyes, many times I expose "to the right" and sometimes I underexpose a little bit.
Also, there are times when you're shooting a scene with too much dynamic range. if I want detail in the shaddow, I expose more. If I want detail in he bright part, I expose less. AV/TV mode doesn't understand that.

[Jesper]

Most of the time I start in Av mode, and when I know what aperture / shutter speed combination I need for the light I'm photographing in, I switch to M.

[Adam Hicks]

I suppose those are good explanations, but I would still think that Av and Tv with EC would do the same thing. I do use manual on the rare occasion that I have a highly backlit subject and want to get a reading up close and then punch it in at the correct shooting distance. This of course results in an overexposed background, but I can layer that with a properly exposed shot using Tv at the same setting as was in M and letting the camera set the aperture for proper background exposure.

Fair enough...

[MarkH]

I suppose those are good explanations, but I would still think that Av and Tv with EC would do the same thing. I do use manual on the rare occasion that I have a highly backlit subject and want to get a reading up close and then punch it in at the correct shooting distance. This of course results in an overexposed background, but I can layer that with a properly exposed shot using Tv at the same setting as was in M and letting the camera set the aperture for proper background exposure.

I agree and rarely use M.

However when I shot the moon with my cheap 75-300 I found that I didn't have enough zoom and over 95% of the frame was black. My 10D averaged it out and the detail on the moon was completely blown out, by more than 2 stops. M was the only choice to get that shot exposed correctly.

Also: when shooting rally cars in the late afternoon some had their headlights on, if they were coming towards me the cameras metering was fooled and I got really dark shots (I would rather blow the highligts on the headlights). M was the only choice for keeping the exposure consistant for each car.

And then flash: There are some things that will fool the metering when using flash, also the camera may not understand exactly what you are trying to do with the flash. Best setting: Set the 550EX to manual and set the camera to M, shoot and chimp. If I have no time to take a shot and check it to get the settings right then I use Auto on the flash and P on the camera, but when I can use trial and error then full manual control is best.

But I agree, most of the time you can get the right exposure in P, Tv or Av with the aperture and shutter speed you want. In Av you can control the shutter speed by selecting smaller or larger aperture, in Tv you can control the aperture by selecting slower or faster shutter speeds, in P you can control both shutter speed and aperture with program shift. In all 3 modes you can adjust the exposure with up to 2 stops of compensation. You only need M when the camera can't guess the exposure correctly or you need more than 2 stops of compensation.

[Cadwell]

I'm not sure when Manual mode is needed here vs. swapping between Av and Tv?

Someone that is a die-hard M user enlighten me...

Adam

Not a die-hard user but I do use M quite often. I shoot a lot of GT racing and those boys do love to run with their headlights on. Do you have any idea what racing headlights do to the camera's metering system when they are coming straight at you and it's in TV or AV mode? You get lots of nice VERY underexposed pictures... M gets what I want, a properly exposed car and some bright headlights.

[Hatem Eldoronki]

Adam, I have a slightly different approach. I decide what mode to use depending on the lens I have on. If I'm using the 50mm f1.4, I always use M, because it gives me more control over the aperture when shooting a semi-still subject; or control over shutter speed when shooting faster motion, both under unpredictable lighting conditions..or more accurately under highly changing metering conditions...especially that I could easily ruin a shot if I had the P on with this f1.4 factor.
I use Av when using my macro lens.
A-dep to get some car/landscape shots, and sometimes macro.
P mode when I'm not sure about exposure. I don't consider myself to be that great of a photographer, and I use this mode a lot to understand certain shots and corresponding meterings in a "reverse" type of way.
I never use Auto.

[Chazs]

Another excuse for us P users...old habits are hard to over come...new techniques are sometimes a little frustrating.

The one thing I loved about my Olympus OM1 is that the shutter speed ring, focusing, and aperature are all an the lens barrel and easily operated with the left hand - lightning fast. On these DSLRs there's too much button-push-dial-button-push-dial. Aargh. In P mode I can use the dial to simultaneously change the aperature and shutter speed, and my thumb has learned where the +/- button is to tweek the exposure a few stops (although in RAW this is moot). Overtime I'll switch to the other modes. Coincidentally, I do use manual mode about 80% of the time with my OM1 lenses on the DRebel.