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What Is Aperture Priority And How To Use It?

As you learn and develop your photography skills you’ll discover why aperture priority is such a useful setting in helping you take photos. This mode on your camera is incredibly important, but unless you know when and how to use it it is just another function on your camera. Read on and learn all about aperture priority and the best ways to use it for your next photo shoot.

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What is aperture priority?

This semi-automatic camera mode allows you to set the aperture manually and let the camera selects the shutter speed automatically. While this may sound simple, this is an incredibly valuable setting to have when taking pictures. The reason this is valuable is that it gives you complete control over the aperture which determines your depth of field. This is really important because your depth of field determines how much of your focal plane is going to be in focus. For example, say you had selected shutter priority and you are taking a cityscape shot. The camera might set your aperture is to f/2.8 to allow you to achieve your shutter speed. So you will end up a vast part of your photo blurred. By selecting aperture priority you can ensure that your depth of field is going to be correct for what you are photographing.

This option is also a much faster way to take pictures when you compare it to the manual mode. In manual mode, you need to select all of the settings yourself to achieve perfect shots. If you are shooting any sort of fast-moving scenarios like a street scene, there simply won’t be enough time to do that. If you master aperture priority, you can quickly adjust the settings as you need to, so that you can get the perfect shot every time.

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Advantages of aperture priority

There are a few advantages of using aperture priority. The first advantage as mentioned above is that you can better control the depth of field of images. The aperture on your camera (also known as the f/stop) is what determines your depth of field. If you want a blurry background for your images, you will use a smaller f/stop number (wider aperture). Using a higher number will make your background and the foreground be in focus given you a greater depth of field.

Aperture mode can also give you more creative control over your shots, allowing you to separate background and foreground, depending on what you want the focus to be in your images.

Lastly, you can respond quicker by using aperture priority. You don’t have to stress about your shutter speed (as long as it isn’t too slow) when snapping pictures, which gives you less to worry about.

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How to select and use aperture priority?

First, select aperture priority mode on your camera by moving the dial to A on most cameras and Av on Canon cameras.

Next, select the aperture manually by determining the f/stop number that you need to use for your shots. What’s excellent about aperture priority mode is that the camera doesn’t change this setting while you take your pictures. But this means that it’s crucial that you change your aperture for different scenarios. So if you have just taken a portrait of someone and then you are taking a landscape shot, remember to adjust your aperture.

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There are of course occasions when by selecting your aperture to get the exposure correct, the camera has to select a slow shutter speed. If your shutter speed is too slow it will mean that your photos will suffer from camera shake and look blurred. You have a couple of options on how to solve this issue.

You can either increase your ISO to allow you to have a faster shutter speed. But the higher your ISO is, the more noise will appear in your photos. So for example, if you are able to increase your ISO a bit and achieve the right shutter speed, then that will be fine. But if it means increasing it too high (i.e. above 1000 ISO, you may want to try the solution below).

The alternative to increasing your ISO is to compensate on the exposure by a combination of shutter speed and aperture. For example, you may find that by selecting a slightly wider aperture, even though your photo is slightly underexposed, you can fix it in post-processing. Most of the time the solution is a mix of both. So increasing the ISO a little and selecting a slightly wider aperture.

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When to use aperture priority?

There are a few situations where you should use aperture priority. Generally, anytime that your depth of field is important, you should select aperture priority. But if shutter speed becomes more important than you should select shutter priority. For example, if you are photographing moving subjects that you want to freeze, then shutter priority is what you need.

Aperture priority is also a good mode to select for everyday outdoor photography in travel or street photography. Because most of the time there will be sufficient light, you won’t find your shutter speed becoming an issue. But in lower light conditions it will, so at that point, you need to look to the solutions that I mentioned above.

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What’s excellent about aperture priority is that you can take great photos without having to worry or stress about adjusting all the settings. Your camera will be doing most of the work for you so you can concentrate on seeing the photo opportunities. But its important to know that this mode isn’t the ideal approach for all purposes. If you are working with flash or panorama photography, manual mode is a far better setting to get the best images. But, aperture priority mode can be a valuable setting for you to use in your photography.

Photo credits: Kav Dadfar – All rights reserved. No usage without permission. Dreamstime.

Aperture Priority Or Shutter Priority – Which To Use And When?

Anyone with a DSLR or Mirrorless camera would have probably seen the initials Av or Tv on their mode dial (or somewhere on their camera). But most newbie photographers avoid these elements and just go straight to the auto setting. Whilst auto settings on cameras have advanced a lot in the last few years, they are still no match for actively taking control of the photo taking process manually. After all, that is the whole point of an expensive DSLR camera.  Not only do high-end cameras take better quality photos but they also give you more control. Aperture and shutter priority modes are commonly used by photographers and are very easy to understand and utilize. So, if you are unsure what aperture priority or shutter priority modes are and when to use them, then read on…

The basics

Before understanding and being able to use these modes, you need to have a basic understanding of the photo taking process. There are three main elements that determine how a photo is captured and looks. These three elements are shutter speed, aperture, and ISO. Together they are referred to as the exposure triangle. As the name suggests these three elements of photography are linked together and so a change in one has an impact on another one. On manual mode on a camera, the photographer is responsible for adjusting all three of these elements. Whilst that gives a lot of control sometimes it isn’t feasible and can mean missing the key moment because you are changing settings. This is where shutter priority and aperture priority can help immensely.

Aperture priority

Every time you click to take a photo, the shutter that is situated in your lens opens and closes to allow light to hit the sensor in your camera. The amount that the shutter leaves open is indicated as an f/number. The higher the f/number the smaller the opening for light to get into the camera. This is important because how much this opening is, determines your depth of field. In other words how much of your image is sharp from the foreground to the background.

The higher your f/number the more your image will be sharp from front to back. The lower your f/number is the shallower your depth of field will become. So for example, if you are taking a portrait of someone, you will ideally want their face to be in focus and the background blurred so that they stand out. In this scenario, you would use a low f/number to achieve this. But in landscape photography where you need more of the image to be sharp, you will want to use a higher f/number.

Aperture priority mode allows you to set this f/number so that any photo taken will be at the desired aperture. The camera then automatically sets the other components of the exposure triangle (i.e. ISO and shutter speed) to ensure the photo can be taken at this aperture.

When would you use aperture priority mode?

This mode is ideal when you want to have control over your depth of field. So for example, if you are photographing a person in daylight you can set your aperture knowing that the camera can then do the rest. Or for example in landscape photography, if you are using a tripod, then you can set your aperture as this is a key setting to ensure you have the depth of field required. Another example would be if say you are photographing something close-up like a flower or food where you need a fairly shallow depth of field.

Where you need to be careful when using aperture priority mode is when there is a chance that your shutter speed will end being too slow or your ISO will be too high. For example, if you are photographing in low light condition and have set your aperture to f/18, then the camera will either have to raise your ISO really high to capture the image. Or if you have set a maximum on your ISO setting on your camera it will select a slow shutter speed. Anything less than 1/60 sec and your image will likely be blurred due to camera shake (unless you are using a tripod).

So if you are going to use aperture priority mode, make sure:

  1. Your shutter speed isn’t going to be too high
  2. Your ISO isn’t going to be too high (as this will mean noise in your image)

Shutter priority

The other element of the shutter opening and closing that is vital to photographs is how long the shutter remains open. Naturally, the smaller the opening is to allow light into the camera the longer it needs to stay open. For example at f/22, your shutter will need to stay open longer to allow enough light in to be able to capture the image. How long this time needs to be will be determined by the available conditions. If you are photographing in bright sunshine it would be less time. But in low light conditions, your shutter may have to remain open for seconds or even minutes!

The other factor is what you are actually photographing. For example, a statue will not move so you can use slower shutter speeds to capture sharp images. Whereas if you are photographing a racing car you have to use faster shutter speeds to be able to freeze the action. So as you can see, there may be times where you will be more concerned about the shutter speed rather than the depth of field.

Shutter priority mode allows you to set your minimum shutter speed so that the camera will not select anything slower when you take a photo. But of course, this means that the camera will then select the aperture and ISO automatically (unless you have set a minimum ISO).

When would you use shutter priority mode?

This mode should be selected when your shutter speed is key to capturing a photo. This is generally when you are photographing moving subjects where you need to ensure that you have a shutter speed fast enough to freeze the action. Sport, wildlife and even people moving or dancing are all examples of when you will likely need to use shutter priority mode.

But as per aperture priority mode, shutter priority also comes with factors that you need to consider. For example, if you have set your camera at a fast shutter speed but there isn’t enough light, your camera will raise your ISO. But if it is too high, it will mean too much noise in your photos which will then make them look soft. Or the camera might choose a wider aperture (i.e. shallower depth of field) which might mean that your subject won’t be sharp.

So if you are going to be using shutter priority mode, make sure:

  1. Your ISO is not going to be too high
  2. Your depth of field (i.e. aperture) will allow you to capture the subject or scene in focus

Most cameras will allow you to set various factors such as maximum ISO even when using these modes. So, you can fine-tune your settings to ensure you can capture the image you want. Of course, it will take practice and you have to accept that you will end up with some blurred images. But if you can master these modes it will go a long way to ensuring you can capture great photos.

Photo credits: Kav Dadfar – All rights reserved. No usage without permission. Dreamstime.

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