What mode do you use most?

[7D user]

Just thought I would add my 2 cents worth. One of my sons is in his first year of a diploma in photography here in Melbourne at the Photography Studies College http://www.psc.edu.au/ in South Melbourne.
Thus far all photos the students take must be in manual exposure and manual focus. If they submit a frame to be assesed and it is found to have been taken Av, Tv or any thing else, they have to go away and do it again.

An interesting discussion none the less.

[BillB]

I shoot Manual 90% of the time, switch to aperture priority for HDR.

[malam]

I use Aperture Priority most of the time (90%) and moving towards Manual Mode. I consider myself a beginner - got my first digital SLR less than a year ago. I do check the shutter speed selected by the camera from time to time and have had to override the setting a few times. Would love to be able to go fully Manual though.

[georgegowan]

I use Aperture Priority most of the time (90%) and moving towards Manual Mode. I consider myself a beginner - got my first digital SLR less than a year ago. I do check the shutter speed selected by the camera from time to time and have had to override the setting a few times. Would love to be able to go fully Manual though.

Why would you want to go full manual all the time? I've just never seen the point of shooting in manual all the time. The camera does a pretty dam good job at selecting the shutter speed in Av for me. Then, if it was a bit off, it's pretty easy to change to EV. (Not trying to be rude )

A friend of mine also always uses manual exposure and focus and just takes a long time to set up for a shot. When you could let the camera do the job at focusing and exposing and fix up anything which is slightly off from there.

[Luke11]

Started off with AV and occasionally Manual but recently using Manual mode more often and feel more comfortable and confident in getting the better shot in this mode.

[StephenM]

About 80% Av (+/- exposure compensation) and 20% manual for me. Manual mostly for dawn/dusk/night sky shots.

Cheers,
Stephen

[Eberbachl]

I have to say I mostly shoot in Program Auto. I can check the aperture and shutter speed selected, and simply spin the dial to adjust the aperture or shutter speed as appropriate whilst retaining the same exposure and remaining in Program Auto. Simple, effective, fast and I have great control.

I do use A, S or M when I feel it's necessary, but for most of the time it's 'P' for me.

[crum]

AV the majority of the time for me

[CraigPauli]

Most of my photography was at night doing shots of the city etc. Once I got a general feel for what settings worked for most it was a case of setting up at a start point check then work from there. Can't wait to go try out new lens bought, a canon 50mm f/1.8 and see what I end up with I use to like going out checking out different effects that can get from changing wb , colour tone etc and using nd filters etc and seeing how much it effected the exposure.

[wolffman]

Aperture for me 90% of the time, with an exposure compensation dialed in if the lighting is tricky.
I've started doing a little more manual now and then for landscapes but only if I have filters with me and the lighting is getting pretty dicey with the sun in the frame.
If I'm shooting with flash then I will normally go either manual to eliminate the ambient lighting, or P to let the camera do the thinking and dial in compensations on the camera and flash to fill or vary the flash vs ambient lighting

[Othrelos]

Pentax DSLR cameras have an incredibly handy TAv mode,I wish other makers would take note of this. All things considered 90% of my work is done in full manual mode, because that is what I grew up with on the Leica M3.

[jetjeep]

AV mode 90%
Manual 10%

[Kerro]

AV 100%

[in2fx]

I use Aperture Priority mode more than anything else and then adjust the other settings to suit what I want, except at night when I go to full Manual

[magfish]

My preference is manual particularly when time is not an issue. I do a lot of photography in the wilderness however and find that the quick changes of lighting conditions often means I miss the shot adjusting exposure and so I mainly shoot in aperture priority in these conditions. I think the main issue with manual versus automatic exposure is the degree of creative control. Yes you can bump exposure compensation up or down a bit and mostly the auto modes can give a reasonable result, the end point of automation however is to have a robot system go out and take all the shots for you and you just wait at home to view the results. Probably not what we want though. Another thing about automatic exposure especially with the evaluative systems is that it is someone else's idea of the ideal exposure for your conditions. Point three photographers at the same scene using the same cameras and lens combinations using manual exposure and you'll most likely get three very different sets of images of the scene. Point three similar cameras at the same scene using the same fully automatic settings and you'll have difficulty telling them apart because they all conform to a theoretical ideal exposure combination for the given conditions. The attraction photography has for me is being able to capture an image of a scene in a way that is just a little bit different to way it has been captured before, to inject a little of myself into the image as it were, this cannot be done using auto settings because you are getting is someone else's ideal exposure settings, and they're not even there so how can they know what the best settings should be.

[maxima]

AV most of the time, manual when I'm doing night shots

[Nicholas Brennan]

Interesting to see so many using Manual, I personally only use manual if there is tricky light, I want a different effect or I am shooting indoors with a strobe.

I did once upon a time use Manual a lot and I found I was spending more time setting up the camera to take the shot, shooting sports and events I found that this was consuming time that I could be better investing in shooting - would hate to miss that great shot whilst fumbling around with settings! Everyone has their way of working - it just doesn't suit me... I did read a great article from Scott Kelby that opened my mind a little... he said why use manual when you can leverage the Aperture or Shutter priority, let the camera work for you... of course this is not always suitable. It changed the way I did things though and have never looked back.

I wish I could reference where I read this as it was really quite interesting and I would be able to share this. Sorry!

[Namus]

Typically use AV the most; may switch to Manual if I need to adjust something (usually shutter speed in changing/poor light conditions)

[William]

For what It's worth, I always shoot manual and in RAW . The light meter is never in the Middle, Just a bit under, I actually go more by the Histogram and adjust the Shutter speed from there, ISO is always stuck on 100, And anything from f8 to f10 , That way I only have to adjust the shutter for the exposure , For Fast action , I just dial the ISO to 160 usually

[Mikepaus]

Manual for portraits and scenic shots, although I do tend to use App for the majority of time. When walking around I leave it in P mode so I don't miss that important fleeting shot.