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When to Use Priority Modes

By Michelle Ecker on May 18, 2018

When to Use Priority Modes
 

If you’ve never heard of shutter or aperture priority mode or you’re not sure the best time to use them, it’s something we highly recommend you explore. Not only is it a super convenient feature worth taking advantage of, working in shutter priority mode is also a great way to get more familiar with concepts of aperture and shutter speed.

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Essentially, aperture priority mode lets you take manual control of your camera’s aperture settings, while controlling the corresponding shutter speed and ISO on your behalf. So basically, this means that you will be able to control the amount of light entering your camera’s lens while your camera does the extra legwork to adjust other aspects of the composition to help you achieve the best final product of a shot.

When to Use Priority Modes

Portrait photography is one of the best opportunities to take advantage of aperture priority mode. Let’s say you want to keep your subject in focus while gently blurring the background behind him or her. To achieve this, you can choose a large aperture (to be sure- when you pick a larger aperture, the actual aperture number on your device gets smaller).

Activating the aperture priority mode on your camera, you can then manually play around with the aperture value required to achieve your desired shot without having to also toggle corresponding settings such as ISO and shutter speed to keep up with any changes.