Hi! I am Sabine from Pangolin Photo Safaris, and this afternoon I am sitting
out here on our beautiful eco pool, at the Pangolin Chobe Hotel. In Chobe National Park, Botswana.
I would like to talk to you today about why manual mode with
automatic ISO is my preferred shooting mode?
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In wildlife photography things are happening quickly. Animals are constantly
on the move with changing backgrounds...and if you shooting outside of course,
the ambient light might also change from moment to moment.
For this reason, I disregard full manual mode as my preferred shooting mode.
Why? By time I would have set up my aperture, my shutter speed, and my ISO - to get the
perfect exposure - my bird would have probably flown off the stick, or my
elephant would have turned his backside to me. So, I need to be much faster.
Other options would be shooting in aperture or shutter priority mode.
Aperture and shutter priority mode will also restrict me in a way that I can either only be in
charge of my creative aperture, or in charge of my motion control.
But, to be honest, as a wildlife photographer, I really would like to be in charge of
both of them at the same time. Of course you could change (indirectly)
your shutter speed, when you shoot aperture priority...or, your aperture when
you shoot shutter priority, by adjusting your ISO.
However, this once again will take some time, and with ever-changing backgrounds
and light conditions, it is a little bit inaccurate. Now imagine a bird flying
against a very bright blue sky, and you were tracking that bird. All of a sudden
he starts flying from the blue sky in front of a very dark green tree line.
If you shoot in aperture priority mode, what will happen is, as you track the bird
from the very bright light conditions, towards the dark green background, your
camera has to adjust your exposure to still give you a properly exposed image.
So, what your camera will do as you track the bird from the bright to the dark area,
it will actually drop your shutter speed. Now if you photograph a animal
that is in motion, a slow shutter speed will give you a blurred picture...
and you probably lost the shot that way. In shutter priority mode, you can
now dial in the shutter speed required for this situation, and you can
track a bird from bright to dark, and your camera will maintain that shutter speed.
However, in shutter speed, you leave it up to the camera to choose your aperture.
That, once again, can be a downside...
because you really - most of the time in wildlife photography - want a shallow
depth of field...to separate your subject from the busy background.
In shutter priority, it could happen that you photograph a moving subject, and all of a
sudden you end up with (for example) an aperture of f/16. Which means that
your background is also in focus and distracting away from the subject.
In Manual with Auto ISO, the shutter speed and the aperture, will stay put.
It doesn't matter if you swing your camera
around into different light conditions, these two factors will always stay the same.
Only now, the ISO will be adjusted to
give you the correct exposure...and in my opinion, the ISO is the least creative
part of your image. So that is okay. Lots of photographers often connect auto ISO
with high ISO numbers and lots of image noise. To be honest, in these days, the
digital cameras are so sophisticated, and the sensors are so good, that you can push
your ISO quite a bit, and lots of cameras can easily do an ISO of about
3200, or even 6400, without being too grainy. You can figure out what works for your own
specific camera model. You can run tests and see until what
ISO you are comfortable to shoot with. So, make a few tests, look back at your
computer screen, and see when the grain is getting too much. And then, if you want
to shoot manual auto ISO, all you have to do is go back to your menu and limit the auto ISO range
to an upper value. So, let's say you don't like to go above 3200. All you do
is head back to your menu, and limit the higher maximum for the auto ISO range to 3200,
which means that your camera will never ever select a higher ISO.
So, to summarise...the different shooting modes, The advantages or disadvantages.
If you shoot in aperture priority, you might risk getting unsharp images, due to not
being able to be in charge of the motion control. If you shoot in shutter
priority, you might end up with a picture that has too much depth of field for
your taste, or it's simply under-exposed, because you've reached the widest
aperture possible, and your shutter speed setting was a little bit too high.
If you shoot in manual Auto ISO, the worst thing that can happen, is that
you might get a little bit too bright, or little under-exposed image.
This is usually very manageable in post-processing, while still maintaining
the creative look that you intended in the first place, once you took the picture.
Which was your motion control and your depth of field. Now what I have
to mention though, is that you have to check if your camera is able to do manual
Auto ISO...and still be able to adjust the exposure compensation.
Not all camera models are capable of that. You might be able to dial in manual mode,
and automatic ISO, but then if you go to your exposure compensation, you will see all
of a sudden, you can't adjust it up and down anymore. If you have a camera like that,
I would probably recommend rather staying in aperture priority mode.
You are then still in charge of the exposure of your image. Whereas Auto ISO
this would limit you, and you then have to rely on your cameras light meter.
However, most modern cameras are able to do Manual plus Auto ISO, and still
be able to adjust the exposure compensation.
Alright! I hope you liked this episode,
and maybe you have got a few tips, and can use this shooting mode for yourself.
If you have any comments, please leave them below...and don't forget to
subscribe to our channel. Hit the BELL button so that you get notified of our new videos.
Thank you very much for watching, and see you soon on safari with us.
Bye bye!