At the local camera club a few people have suggested using auto mode to see what the camera thinks is the correct settings and then use the manual (or another) mode to play around with those settings to get what you want. I try to use Aperture priority mostly but for hand held shots the shutter speed is often too slow for me to avoid camera shake so that's when I try the other settings - I'm not ashamed to use auto if I am not getting any worthwhile shots when choosing the settings myself - a whole memory card full of useless shots is not the reason I got a camera for in the first place.