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Only on rare occasions do I ever shoot in Auto. I tend to favor P mode because I can easily adjust White Balance and other things not available in Auto. I also like to use Aperture priority a lot. I'm just starting to use the Tv mode more. Never felt comfortable using that one for some reason. Not comfortable in Manual mode either am forcing myself to experiment with it more.
I hardly ever use flash and almost always use exposure compensation and look at the histogram.
If someone's asked me to take pics at a party <groan> I usually just stick it on "A" and don't think about getting any nice shot in particular.
If I pass my camera to a friend for a minute to take a shot of me, I set it to "A".
When I first got the camera it took me a while to not use AE as a security blanket. It wasn't easy to part with it notwithstanding that I didn't like some of the things it did. I am still intimidated by the intricacies of manual exposure and all the variables of shutter speed, aperture, film speed, but find the more I do, and the more I read here, the more it helps.
I use auto in settings as you describe, if I put an item on Ebay, or a quick shot of our skittish dog.
But understand what it's showing. If the scene has no highlights, the histogram shouldn't look like it should if the scene does have highlights. Back in the days before digital cameras we all used a grey card for reflective readings. Now I like to use a white card.
many cameras only have a p mode and no actual auto like mine, so i refer to my p mode as auto.
Mathjak, in cameras that have both, what's the difference between Auto and P? Is it that with P, you get to slide to which combination of shutter speed and f-stop you want? With Auto, how does it decide which one?
Mathjak, in cameras that have both, what's the difference between Auto and P? Is it that with P, you get to slide to which combination of shutter speed and f-stop you want? With Auto, how does it decide which one?
Like Photogal said:
Quote:
Originally Posted by PhotogGal
I tend to favor P mode because I can easily adjust White Balance and other things not available in Auto.
The extra feature I like in P in most cameras and lacking in auto is the ability to adjust exposure compensation.
Only in manual are you able to select the combination of shutterspeed and f-stop.
Sigh. I have so much to learn. I've no idea how to read a histogram, so will do some research on that. And ISO is something that I sort of understand the concept of, in that it lets you use lower light settings if the number is higher, but practically I don't know how to apply it. And white balance, hmm, never played with that. It's just set to auto. I thought it was something that adjusted for fluorescent light but beyond that I don't know.
But understand what it's showing. If the scene has no highlights, the histogram shouldn't look like it should if the scene does have highlights. Back in the days before digital cameras we all used a grey card for reflective readings. Now I like to use a white card.
Another feature that was forgotten (since Sony Cybershot R1 in 2005): Zebra Exposure Warning. It can be a useful tool for those shooting JPEG (and of course, used extensively in videos). Sony has brought it back in its newest photography cameras launched couple of months ago (Cybershot RX10, Alpha 7 and Alpha 7r).
For me, it totally depends on what I'm trying to accomplish. There are times I'll take a shot in Program mode to get an idea of what the camera thinks the exposure should be--and I'll adjust accordingly, both by looking at the histogram and what I want the eye to focus on. When I shoot panoramas I'll swing the camera across the scene taking "readings" as I do so, and then put the values in Manual mode that I think will work best.
Shooting portraits I'm almost always in Aperture mode because I want that short depth of field--shooting moving objects I'll use Tv mode. I have settings programmed into my Custom modes for when I shoot HDR's so that I don't have to worry about all of the variables as much.
But since I do a lot of astrophotography, Bulb setting is where to be since I use an intervalometer. I do the math for the exposure time for my focal length and count in my head---or if I'm doing time lapses then I program the intervalometer for time and intervals.
The beauty of digital photography is that you get immediate feedback. When I shot astrophotography (or any photos) back in the film days I'd have to send the film off to Chicago and then wait for 2 weeks to get them back. Trying to remember my settings--even when I'd written them down and then trying to match them up with the photos--was difficult at best. The learning curve isn't nearly as steep now.
So, to the OP, go ahead and use that Auto mode--or P mode so that you can change a value and the others compensate. But try to pay attention to the light and actually read the numbers that the camera displays, then experiment with the other modes as you learn their function. Learn the exposure triangle (time, aperture, ISO)--and how each one affects the other. The histogram is a great tool and, with many cameras, you can also have a "live" histogram displayed so that you can see how it's affected as you change settings.
Mathjak, in cameras that have both, what's the difference between Auto and P? Is it that with P, you get to slide to which combination of shutter speed and f-stop you want? With Auto, how does it decide which one?
auto usually has presets for different scenes and you lose the ability to adjust much.
p setting picks everything but allows you access to adjust things on your own.
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Agree 1000%! 
