Studying Your Options: the Scene Mode Chart

Last lesson we started dwelling into getting the best shot that you through the burst mode. The burst mode is a setting that allows your shutter to shoot continuously. The burst mode is your camera’s rapid-fire mode that will allow you to capture a scene as it develops, thus enabling you to pick the most perfectly-timed photo.

The burst mode is commonly used by sports photographers because it allows them to eliminate motion blur and capture the best angle of a subject. However, as we have discussed, you can utilize the burst mode even though you are just on your usual photo walk just like what I do. As you go along the way you will be encountering subjects that you won’t be able to control but the burst mode will be there to help you to still capture them.

Knowing the burst mode is important for you to be able to apply its concepts as you progress. With that, today we will be talking about the other modes that your camera may have. These modes are usually seen on your digital camera’s dial and we will be learning what those symbols actually stand for.

So shall we?

Choosing for the Occasion

Alright so to start things off, picture me this: You just got your new camera and your friends asked you to take pictures of them so you turn it on and see that your camera has a portrait mode that you can use. You turn your dial to enter that mode and there you have it; a well-taken photo.

What you just used in that situation is an example of what we call scene mode. A scene mode is a pre-set mode that contains a specific setting for specific situations. With the use of scene modes, you can just conveniently switch from one set of settings to another in order to adapt to any given situation.

Now you may be thinking that learning about scene modes is too basic and that all you need to read is the short description your camera manual tells you about the specific mode. Well, that’s not entirely wrong but let me just start off by saying that a camera manual can only get you as far.

Learning about what makes a scene mode proper for a specific situation is what we will be talking about today. By learning the concepts and elements surrounding each of the scene modes, you can set yourself up for a better understanding of how to decipher situations. This will bring you a step forward in manual photography and add a few things to fit your preferences.

The Scene Mode Chart

Scene modes can range from basic modes like portrait and landscape too much more complex ones like the fireworks or sunset modes. Each of the scene modes is customized specifically for a certain occasion and what we will be talking about today are the certain elements inside the common modes and how they were adjusted to fit their respective situation.

Portrait

When you are taking a portrait, you would want your background to be a little bit blurred out to put more focus on the subject. The portrait mode puts your lens and camera to their lowest aperture capabilities.

Landscape

The landscape mode is the total opposite of your portrait mode. Since your subject is the “background” itself, you wouldn’t want any blurred spots in your photo. In order to do this, landscape mode sets your camera to larger aperture numbers.

Sports

Unlike portrait shots, the premise behind the sports mode is that you won’t be able to control your subject’s movements and angles. Sports mode relies on faster shutter speed in order to capture faster objects or movements.

Also, if you remember, sports photography may also heavily use the burst mode which is why this mode may have that automatically set for you.

Night/ Night Portrait

Night photography is one of the harder types of photography to master and I can attest to that. Without a tripod, shooting night shots can be plain hard but the night shooting mode may be able to help you by automatically adjusting the shutter speed and aperture to allow more light to come in. furthermore, the ISO is also something that your night portrait may increase.

Close-up/ Macro

Macro shots can be very stunning due to the level of detail they show and the projected difficulty of capturing a small subject, such as an insect,  in the photo. If you have noticed it already, the closer your subject is to your eyes, the harder it is to focus on it. The same thing goes with your camera which is why the macro or close-up mode switches your camera’s focal length to enable it to focus on nearer subjects.

Full Automatic

The full auto mode is the beginner’s best friend because it basically does all the work which includes determining the scene it is capturing.

These are your common scene shooting modes. Other shooting modes like the fireworks shooting mode simply combine the concepts of sports and night photography to capture bright fast lights at night. Go ahead and try them out to learn how they differ from each other.

Learning from the Modes

As you progress in photography and learn more concepts, you will find yourself slowly deviating from these shooting modes. Although they can be convenient at first, once you learn and master how they adjust your settings, you can gradually transition to the manual modes where you can do the tweaking yourself.

Photography is a learning experience and today we learned about the common scene modes and how exactly they adjust your camera to fit a certain situation.

The portrait mode and landscape modes change your camera’s range of focus to either blur out the background in portraits or completely show the scene in the landscape. Your sports mode and night shooting mode change the shutter speed of your camera to allow more light at night or capture faster movements in sports. Finally, the close-up mode adjusts your camera to enable it to focus on closer objects.

Learning the uses of the modes is great but learning from the modes themselves can give you more substantial knowledge so be sure to do that.

That’s it for today and the next lesson signifies the start of more advanced concepts in photography starting with the depth of field. You’ve actually finished some of photography’s fundamental so I congratulate you on that! Be sure to share this course to help people reach what you have reached already!