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Aperture Priority Exposure Mode

Lesson 17 from: Mastering Your Digital Camera

Chris Weston

Aperture Priority Exposure Mode

Lesson 17 from: Mastering Your Digital Camera

Chris Weston

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Lesson Info

17. Aperture Priority Exposure Mode

Using modes such as aperture priority is often both faster and simpler in manual mode. See why Chris uses aperture priority mode most often.
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Aperture Priority Exposure Mode

when I arrive on location, the first thing I do is work out my fastest and slowest shutter speeds. Given the available light in my preferred I S O, I set the camera toe aperture priority exposure mode and I said the lens aperture to the widest setting and make a mental note of the shutter speed. This is the fastest speed available to me. Then I changed the absence of the smallest setting and again make a mental note of the shutter speed in. This is the slowest speed available to me now. This simple exercise very quickly tells me my shutter speed range for the conditions I'm working in. And that's important because as a wildlife photographer, shutter speed is almost always my dominant variable. Now you're probably confused. If shutter speed is my dominant variable, why don't I work in shutter priority exposure mode? The average lens has between six and eight. Stop variation and aperture from somewhere around 2.8 to about F 22. Most digital cameras have a 19 stop range in shutter speed f...

rom 30 seconds to 1 8000 With so many shutter speed, options is very easy to set a shutter speed for which there is no corresponding lens aperture available. For example, an average lighting. My shutter speed might be from 1/4 of a 2nd 11 thousands in very bright light. That range might be 1/30 June 8000 and in low light, it could be one second 21 2/50 in each of these scenarios. If I said to shutter speed outside of the available range, which is very easy to do when the cameras set to shut a priority mode, the camera will either continue to take pictures, all of which will be either under or overexposed. Or it will lock the shutter button and stop me taking pictures at all, neither of which is good by working an aperture priority mode. Because there are so few lens apertures compared to shutter speeds, there are very few lighting scenarios where there isn't an available shutter speed. Remembering that as I change lens aperture, the cameras automatically changing shutter speed, forming it shut us me that I'm looking at because shutter speed is my dominant variable. Now it may be that the shutter speed I want isn't available, but because I'm in control of the situation. I could make a decision about how I deal with that. So I could, for example, change. I s o I am in control, and that's the reason I almost always shoot in aperture priority exposure mode.

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mark jacobson
 

What a marvelous course! What a marvelous teacher! When I went to college, my father would always ask me about my professors, more than the courses themselves. He was passionate about learning and although too busy with earning an income to go beyond an undergrad degree, continued to read 50 books a year. I still remember how he'd get almost visibly excited when I'd tell him about some special professor who taught with such enthusiasm and, more than just passion, evident delight and joy in the subject. 'Ah they're the best, son. How wonderful you have such a teacher." Well, he passed away decades ago but if he were still around I'd get a kick out of telling him about Chris Weston, the 'Prof' of this course. He's one of the very special ones: a teacher who's loved and lived his vocation--his avocation--since he was a boy--and still is as excited about it now as he was then. The result: a course that seems to be more a labor of love--of pouring far more energy and thought into the details then one typically finds in these courses--than anything else. Bravo Chris! I'm already on to your next one.

user-6402bf
 

Chris is an amazing instructor who dissects theory giving amazing analogies that bring concepts to life. I have rarely been able to sit through most video course for more than a half-hour but watched this one from beginning to end. A good refresher course if you've been away from the camera for awhile or there are some concepts that still illude you. I highly recommend this course and look forward to watching his others. Thank you for the clarity and great explanations.

Sky Bergman
 

This was an amazing class. I have looked at a number of basic photography classes. This one was by far the best I have seen. Chris is an exceptional teacher. He breaks things down into digestible information and then inspires you to be creative. Thank you!

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