9 Jul 2009
Why I shoot in Av or Aperture Priority mode
I hear it over and over again “real photographers only shoot in manual mode”, and every time I just shake my head. Yes there are plenty of photographers, real or otherwise that shoot in “Aperture Priority”, “Shutter Priority”, or even (gasp…) “Program” mode.
I, myself, shoot in “Av (Aperture Value, in Canon parlance)” otherwise known as “Aperture Priority” about 95% of the time. There are many reasons for this, but I would like to talk about the single most important reason as it applies to wildlife photographers.
Getting the shot!
Wildlife is unpredictable, and in the outdoors light changes very frequently. Often we have just a few seconds to get the shot, sometimes less, and often times with unpredictable light. This is not the time to be fiddling with and making gross aperture and shutter speed adjustments. If you do, chances are you will miss the shot, or get an image that is grossly out of proper exposure.
My process is to set the aperture appropriate to the image that I am looking to make and for the lens I am using, then set my exposure compensation to the middle or “0″ position. With these settings I am ready to react quickly and trip that trigger at the exact moment, knowing that the exposure may not be perfect, but will be close; I call this my safe shot. Once I get this one, two or three, safe shots, I will then use the exposure compensation dial on my camera, WITHOUT taking my eye off the viewfinder, and tweak the exposure to achieve the look I am after. I will then fire off a few more shots, then “chimp”, that is, look at the screen on my camera and take a look at the histogram. At this point I may make some further adjustments and shoot some more, if my subject is still around that is…
You may be wondering, how do I know how to tweak the exposure without taking my eye off the viewfinder. Well I have gotten to know the metering system on the Canon system pretty well, and can reasonably predict how it’s going to react to an specific scene. This just takes time and practice; it also helps to have used Canon film cameras which did not have a screen and histogram.
I very often also hear how camera meters are dumb and that they try to expose everything to a middle grey…. that was true many years ago, any modern digital camera will have a very sophisticated metering systems on which camera manufacturers have spent millions of dollars and countless hours engineering. Modern metering systems are very smart indeed and they can, for example detect that you are trying to shoot something that is white, such as snow and make sure the snow comes out white, not grey. Many of these metering systems are color and scene aware and in the vast majority of cases will get you within a stop or two of the right exposure; in my personal experience within less than one stop.
I for one want to take as full advantage of all the tools at my disposal, and one of the most crucial to me is the meter in my camera.
Red Fox, Mt. Desert Island, ME
As an example, take the image above of this Red Fox, this was taken on Mt. Desert Island in Maine while walking along the shoreline in search of a Bald Eagle nest that I had been alerted to. As I was walking along looking for the nest, I saw, out the corner of my eye, this fox sprinting along the edge of the water, mostly out of sight as the coast line in this area is very rocky. I noticed the direction the fox was running in, looked further ahead and tried to predict where I thought I may get an opportunity to make an image. I pointed my camera at that location and pre-focused where I thought the fox would make an appearance, I adjusted my aperture to give me some depth of field and waited for the fox. I was extremely lucky that the fox came out exactly where I had predicted and as soon as I saw the composition I was looking for I squeezed the shutter.
As you know, in any SLR, when you press the shutter your viewfinder goes dark as the mirror moves up to allow the light to hit your sensor and capture the image.
Well, my screen went dark as I pressed the shutter and when the mirror went back down and I was again able to see thru my viewfinder the fox was gone! I quickly checked the screen on the camera and saw that I had gotten the image! JUST ONE IMAGE. The cameras metering system did it job, and I would say that the image was dark by 1/3 or maybe 1/2 a stop, something that I can very easily correct in post-processing.
This whole event took place in all of 2-3 seconds!
If I had been relying on manual metering the chances that I would have gotten a properly exposed image would have been very slim, mostly because there would have been NO time for me to do any manual adjustments, I would have had my exposure for a bald eagle nest with the sky in the background, would have rendered this image way over exposed.
This Red Fox image is my second best selling image, and one of my personal favorites. Glad for “Av” mode.
I hope you found this information useful, and as always, if you have any questions or comments use the comments section below or you can reach me via twitter at http://twitter.com/jpons.
Juan
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2nd! Very well written Juan. I couldn’t have said it better and BTW beautiful photo!
Jim Goldstein
July 9th, 2009 at 4:31 pmpermalink
Thanks Jim, your comments very much appreciated!
-J
Juan Pons
July 9th, 2009 at 4:59 pmpermalink
worth reading….thanks
1bluecanoe
July 9th, 2009 at 7:24 pmpermalink
Nice post Juan. I agree, I shoot in AP most of the time and it is for reasons like you described that I do.
Great shot on the Fox!
Take care, Larz
Larz
July 9th, 2009 at 10:49 pmpermalink
[...] Juan Pons has a post on Why I Shoot AV or Aperture Priority Mode [...]
Photography Links – July 10, 2009 « Photo Notes: Photography by Patty Hankins and Bill Lawrence
July 10th, 2009 at 5:12 ampermalink
I am with Jim on this one! Nicely done.
Younes Bounhar
July 10th, 2009 at 11:24 ampermalink
This makes me curious… Which metering system do you use?
Jeroen Berkenbosch
July 10th, 2009 at 12:01 pmpermalink
Jeroen,
I use Evaluative mode 90% of the time, and spot metering the rest of the time, usually under very contrasty situations.
-J
Juan Pons
July 10th, 2009 at 12:19 pmpermalink
Great article Juan. I shoot in Av 90% of the time for pretty much the same reasons you state here!
Tony
July 10th, 2009 at 5:06 pmpermalink
To borrow a phrase from a mutual friend of ours, I “shoot the light”. When the lighting is known and constant (sunny 16, on the water w/no shadows, birds in flight, etc.) then I’m in manual mode to obtain consistent and controlled exposures. As soon as clouds move in, or if I’m in a forest situation where shadows and lighting vary greatly I’m immediately in Av mode as well — for all of the excellent reasons you state — and that’s my “zero mode” for the camera: where I set it when I power down so it’ll be ready to shoot (auto ISO in the newer cameras even makes this more murphy-proof). For constantly fast moving subjects I’ve even started using Tv mode, particularly coupled with auto ISO.
Dave Griffin
July 10th, 2009 at 11:31 pmpermalink
[...] A. Pons: Why I shoot in Av or Ap mode. Yeah, me too, a lot. Nature work is a lot different than studio or landscape work where you can [...]
Some photo link-love goodness.. | Chuqui 3.0
July 12th, 2009 at 3:03 ampermalink
Great Website Juan. Your pictures are excellent!
Tom Guilmette
July 24th, 2009 at 11:35 pmpermalink
Dear Juan A. Pons,
I agree with you in all and I strongly recommend your work method because as you’ve said us is very useful especially when you have one single oportunity to do the shot.
I use the Av (aperture value) mode in the most of cases (others, Tv or M) because you can control de depth of field and also the shutter speed. Is easy to remember. More shutter speed means less depth of field (small Av numbers) and vice-versa.
And the metering system I’m used to shot is in evaluative mode unless there are a strong contrast in the scene (for example landscapes) I want to shot.
And what about the exposition? Well, it’s not a critical parameter. I mean, that if you are shotting in Raw quality you can adjust a fine exposure later in some programs like Camera raw, Lightroom, Aperture… but if you’re shotting in jpg then you should be more accurate with the exposition.
I’m very happy to have discovered your website. Good job!
Greetins from Spain.
Daniel Arenas (Dage)
July 25th, 2009 at 7:34 ampermalink
I’m glad you got the shot of the fox, it’s beautiful.
I hope to capture a picture of a fox one day and whenever I get the opportunity, I’ll make sure I’m in the Aperture Priority mode.
Thanks for sharing your tips.
Rhonda Holcomb
September 7th, 2009 at 10:27 ampermalink
I’ve another question Juan, related to this post and the fact of quickness… Do you separate light metering and focus from the main button? (Canon DLRs can make this with personal functions). It can be a little bit strange on Av mode…
Thanks in advance.
Corpas
September 8th, 2009 at 1:05 pmpermalink
Corpas,
I have shot with the AF decoupled from the shutter since Canon offered this feature, I feel it is an absolute necessity when shooting wildlife. However I do leave the metering coupled to the shutter.
It usually takes a bit to get used to this arrangement but I have found that it works very well for me, additionally most folks that I have shown this and have stuck with it have also found it to be optimal for wildlife shooting.
-J
Juan Pons
September 8th, 2009 at 2:59 pmpermalink
Daniel,
Thanks for the kind words.
-J
Juan Pons
September 8th, 2009 at 3:00 pmpermalink
Hi Juan, thnks for your quick answer.
I asked about decoupling beause I thaught it would be a problem to have the finger over the shutter to lock light metering. Doesn’t it represent a problem when the subject is moving?
Congrats for your fabulous work!
Corpas
September 9th, 2009 at 5:37 ampermalink