Shooting modes

[TEXASCOOKIE]

What mode do you use to shoot say a birthday party? Do you ever use the auto mode??

I tried using aperture priority at my nieces birthday party at Chuckee cheese and had some difficulty. The colors seemed very flat. When I switched to Auto they were much brighter. I then tried to match the aperture value and iso speed from the auto mode buy they still were flat?

Any hints on what I was doing wrong.

[PhotoByLeal]

I try to be in a happy mode when I shoot.... how were you feeling?

[Tom]

Rarely anything but manual.

[Verist]

Originally Posted by TEXASCOOKIE

What mode do you use to shoot say a birthday party? Do you ever use the auto mode??

I tried using aperture priority at my nieces birthday party at Chuckee cheese and had some difficulty. The colors seemed very flat. When I switched to Auto they were much brighter. I then tried to match the aperture value and iso speed from the auto mode buy they still were flat?

Any hints on what I was doing wrong.

There is nothing wrong with using Auto, and often you can get good results. On some cameras when you are in that mode there is second setting for it i.e. "warm", or "soft" etc. That might explain the differences. I suspect if you shot in both JPEG and RAW that would show the difference.

Although AUTO will shoot a technically correct shot for the most part, If you want some more creative you need those other modes.

[SCone]

When in doubt... AUTO will almost always get good snapshots for you. When you move off AUTO, you are taking control of the camera to create something different. What you are trying to create is up to you.

[Sonny]

99.9% of the time I shoot in Manual mode. The other .1% I should in Aperture mode if I'm outdoors and the environment is sunny and shade.

[KD5NRH]

Originally Posted by TEXASCOOKIE

I tried using aperture priority at my nieces birthday party at Chuckee cheese and had some difficulty. The colors seemed very flat. When I switched to Auto they were much brighter. I then tried to match the aperture value and iso speed from the auto mode buy they still were flat?

Check what else auto mode automates on your camera; ISO and flash settings may also change.

[rbalcom]

Based on your description, the difference is most likely the Picture Style that you have set on your 60D (see page 90 of your manual). The Picture Style function is disabled when shooting with the Creative Zone Modes (P, Av, Tv, M, B), but is enabled when using the Basic Zone Modes which includes auto. Of course, this assumes you are shooting JPEGs.

[GrfxGuru]

For me it really depends on the situation, I prefer manual or Av mode, but if it's not a 'job' and just some family gathering or event like that then I'll sometimes drop to automatic to just get the shot since in those fast changing situations I'm not thinking of anything more than snaps for the family album.

I do however always use a set white balance and raw since that gives me consistency to make life easier in post ( automatic white balance is annoying at best to get matching shots ).

[Outlaw]

I usually start each 'scene' of a shoot in Av mode to get my general settings, then switch to Manual so I can get consistent images between photos. Even covering sports for the newspaper, I rarely use Tv mode. Don't recall the last time I used Auto mode, but if you're not yet comfortable with how the other modes work, Auto is perfectly acceptable - learn how your camera interprets scenes (backlit, snow / beach scenes, white balance) and check your LCD and histogram often to make sure Auto isn't leaving your subject too under or overexposed.

[apollo.11]

Originally Posted by photobyleal

i try to be in a happy mode when i shoot.... How were you feeling?

lol

[apollo.11]

Originally Posted by Thomas Campbell

Rarely anything but manual.

Yeah, but sometimes sometimes you just get sick of taking your kid to another birthday and just go with Av. But never Auto

[KD5NRH]

Originally Posted by apollo.11

Yeah, but sometimes sometimes you just get sick of taking your kid to another birthday and just go with Av. But never Auto

I'd say the exception to this is when you're just getting a snapshot and need the popup flash for fill; Av with the shutter speed topped out at max sync is more like a bad auto mode, and it's quicker to click over to auto than to compensate any other way.

[humminboid]

Lots is being made of the MANUAL mode, and that is fine, It is very useful for learning the fundamentals of this magical pastime.

I used it for 35 or more years, because they didn't have all these marvelous choices on the Graflex 4 X 5 or the Leica M-4, or my Pentaxes, or anything else back then. I still can shoot MANUAL, but WHY? Except for severe backlighting, and a couple of other situations.

That's why I LOVE the features of my digital camera. That's why we paid all that money for our cameras, right? So IT could sweat most of the hard stuff!

Use the features.

Everybody does, but the Manual shooters just won't admit their cameras are better at some things than they ever can be.

For parties of any age people, and/or those not really familiar with their shooting equipment, it is best to try each option before the event, writing down what works, and what doesn't please you.

Pre set everything you can , so you can concentrate on the activity, and not be messing with settings every 90 seconds.
If your camera has them, try the pre-programmed modes,which live on the dial with the PSAM selections, usually marked by clever icons, which the camera manual wil help decipher.. "Party" mode or its equivalent, or "KIDS" are good ones. Nothing wrong with AUTO, either.

Now, go take some pictures; the more we shoot, the better we get!

[venchka]

What type of files did you tell the camera to make? RAW? or JPEG? It matters almost as much as which exposure mode you were using.