Manual Mode vs Aperture Priority
What’s the difference between manual mode vs aperture priority? When learning photography, it’s helpful to start with understanding your options when choosing camera modes. These different modes affect how your camera measures light and chooses (or doesn’t choose) exposure settings. As I have mentioned in previous posts, as a portrait photographer, the first setting I like to choose is aperture. Should you just make it easier on your self and use aperture priority mode? Let’s discuss!
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Manual Mode vs Aperture Priority – What’s the Difference?
Let’s start the manual mode vs aperture priority debate by first digging into the how these two camera modes function. While I certainly have a preference between the two camera modes, can there really be a wrong answer in art? If you are getting the outcome that aligns with your artistic vision, then you’re using the correct camera settings! However, I do think it’s important to educate yourself about the functioning of your camera in order to be prepared for any scenario.
Aperture Priority
Let’s start with Aperture Priority. Most cameras have a dial on the top of the camera that controls camera modes. Aperture priority is denoted by an “A” on the camera mode dial on most cameras. When in aperture priority mode, the photographer chooses the aperture or f-stop that the camera will use. The camera then uses its internal light meter to choose the other settings of the exposure triangle: shutter speed and ISO.
Why is this camera mode appealing? It takes the pressure off of the photographer to choose all three of the exposure triangle settings for a correct exposure. The portrait photographer can just choose their desired aperture and the camera does the rest of the work to create a balanced exposure! This can be a good starting point for beginners who are trying to figure out some baseline exposure settings, especially if the light for your subject and background are similar and even.
What are the cons of using aperture priority? Your camera may not always make the right decision when choosing settings, especially in tricky lighting scenarios. Your in-camera light meter can be fooled by some lighting, such as back lighting and highly contrasted scenes. This is especially true if you don’t use spot metering mode. With spot metering you aim a small circle in the center of your frame at your subject This tells your camera to meter the light based off of that particular area of light. More on this pitfall below. I’ll share some images from a tricky lighting scenario where I attempted using aperture priority.
Manual Mode
So what is manual mode? Manual mode is usually denoted by an “M” on your camera mode dial. When using manual mode on a digital camera, the photographer chooses all of the settings of the exposure triangle: aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. If using a film camera, the ISO is dictated by the film stock.
Using the manual mode camera setting puts the photographer in full control of how the camera will function to create an exposure. In manual mode, the photographer can either rely on the internal light meter of the camera or use an incident meter in order to choose the right settings. (I personally prefer to use the ExpoDisc which is an incident meter you use in conjunction with your camera’s light meter.)
What are the cons of using Manual Mode? You need to understand the exposure triangle and how to achieve the look you are going for! If you dial in the wrong settings and don’t meter your light correctly, your exposure could be way off. Looking for help understanding the Exposure Triangle? Check out my free guide!
So Which Do I Prefer in the Manual Mode vs Aperture Priority Debate?
For me, if you’re debating between manual mode vs aperture priority mode, my recommendation is that it is worth your time to learn how to shoot manually. It may seem confusing at first, but with a little time and practice, you can learn how to choose the correct settings. Practice enough and it will become second nature!! I promise: you are smarter than your camera. Your camera can be more easily fooled than you can.
A Real Experience
Let me give you an example: My family recently took a little New Years getaway to Opryland Hotel to see their Ice! exhibition. Going into the exhibit, I knew I would be faced with low, artificial lighting and crowds. I didn’t want to be that obnoxious mom blinding everyone with a flash, so I decided to just embrace my camera’s low lighting capabilities and leave my trusty speed light behind. Since these photos would mainly be displayed in our family’s yearly photo book and possibly on a blog post, I wasn’t worried about decreased image quality from using a high ISO.
Manual Mode vs Aperture Priority
I initially set my camera in aperture priority mode. The exhibit was crowded and I reasoned that I wanted to focus on being present with my kids rather than on my camera settings. I took a few initial shots and “bleh”! For this trip, I used my older Sony a7iii, which provides an instant playback. I immediately didn’t like with the results.
The camera chose exposure settings based off of the bright, well lit ice sculptures, leaving my kids’ faced underexposed. In my camera’s defense, I had the metering mode set to “wide zone”. It probably would have chosen better settings if I had set the metering mode to flexible spot. However, that setting would have required me to move the spot to their faces for every shot. That would have somewhat impeded my goal to take quick snapshots of candid moments. Also note that I was wearing thick gloves because the exhibit was literally 9 degrees. I wasn’t really interested in trying to deal with the tiny joystick button.
Unhappy with the results I was getting, I quickly abandoned aperture priority mode and switched to manual mode. I dialed in a higher ISO and was able to quickly choose settings that better illuminated my family. The ice sculptures are cool, but what I really wanted to remember was the delight and joy on my kids’ faces! Sure, a few of my shots were a touch over-exposed, but they were generally much closer to an even exposure and could easily be adjusted in Lightroom.
Conclusion
So there you have it! In my opinion, aperture priority mode is fine to experiment with if you are shooting in even light and are first trying to figure out what exposure settings you like. However, unless you a very careful about how you are metering your light, you can get wacky exposure settings in difficult lighting scenarios.
Ultimately, my recommendation for every photographer is to take the time to learn how to shoot in manual mode. This will require practice and trail and error with the exposure triangle. But with time, choosing your aperture, shutter speed, and ISO will become second nature! In the end, you will have better control over your camera. You’ll tell it what to do in order to achieve your vision, rather than allowing your camera to make its own guess, which may be right or may be wrong.
Have you tried using manual mode on your camera yet? How did it go? What questions do you have? How do you feel about the Manual Mode vs Aperture Priority debate?