When do you personally use (if ever) Automatic exposure? (Sony, lenses, adjustment)

[Vectoris]

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.

[Ms_Christina]

If it makes you feel better the Aperture priority and shutter priority modes were added to cameras at the request of professionals. Also, Joe Buissink (Wedding photographer to Jennifer Lopez, Jessica Simpson & Nick Lachey, Brendan Fraser, Kelsey Grammer, and others.) shoots weddings in Program mode. (And before you make the joke, no, it wasn't his photography that made all of these celebrities get a divorce ) It's not the mode you shoot that makes you a good photographer, its your understanding of what each mode does.

I am in the opinion that people should start in manual mode. Once you understand the relationship of exposure and light then you get the luxury of using the program modes successfully.

[timberline742]

Only with a flash.

[mathjak107]

I use program setting many times and adjust compensation via the compensation adjustment wheel.

many times the camera gives me decent settings for the scene and all I need to do is slightly adjust exposure up or down to taste.

I use it when using flash to avoid bumping the sync speed unless I am shooting macro. .

[Jesse69]

My Sony DSC HX300 - i and i++ modes set automatic exposure. But in difficult scenes with a very bright spot that can set other areas underexposed, the camera has a Scene Setting -> Background Compensation mode that makes the camera take 3 different shots at different exposure settings and then it combines it into a HDR image. Other wise, I can set my camera on a tripod and shoot the same scene in Program Auto mode and set the exposure at different values. I did this for 6 shots in my kitchen, and I combined them into 1 high dynamic range photo using Photoshop's Merge HDR command.

Regular exposure kitchen shot:


Photoshop Merge HDR composed image:


So next time I go on vacation and I see a difficult shot with a very bright spot I'll take several different exposure level shots using Program Auto.

[EinsteinsGhost]

Aperture Priority with manual ISO is my go to mode. I will use exposure compensation to adjust shutter speed within thirds or ISO to achieve the same at full stops.

Next most used is Manual Mode again with Manual ISO. This is my go to mode when I need to control shutter speed or if I choose to shoot at a fixed ISO (which allows me to change shutter speed without worrying about changing ISO, also possible with Shutter Priority). When using lenses with aperture ring, I usually go to Shutter Priority with manual ISO (sometimes for constant ISO) or Auto ISO.

On occasions, I will use sone automated features of my cameras (such as hand held twilight which works great for dark indoors, anti-motion blur, multi-frame noise reduction or sweep panorama, and occasionally selective color).

I generally don't use DRO (dynamic range optimizer is Sony's term) and built-in HDR features and dont recall shooting in Auto or Auto+ or P mode in a long time.

I do use burst modes which can be auto, semi or manual depending on settings I choose and usually on Sony A55 which is good for 19-20 frames at 6 or 10 fps with continuous or single AF or MF.

[Army_Guy]

I shoot in P 99% of the time because I don't have the luxury of playing with settings to get a picture. I need a lot of pictures to go through and use them for briefings to the bosses.

[charlygal]

I use Auto when I'm just roaming around places without a plan in mind.

There are many pro photogs who use Auto, AE, or Program.

Also, think about the rise of professional iPhoneography. Technically, all of that is in Auto mode

[Iggier]

Never

[WyoNewk]

I took a job a couple years ago taking pictures of houses for mortgage companies. They're not particular, so I use program mode with everything. Other than than, for weddings, portraits or nature photography, I use manual -- except with on-camera flash, I set the flash on auto but control it through camera controls.