- Auto mode tells your camera to use it’s best judgement to select shutter speed, aperture, ISO, white balance, focus and flash to take the best shot that it can.
- When you switch to portrait mode your camera will automatically select a large aperture (small number) which helps to keep your background out of focus (ie it sets a narrow depth of field – ensuring your subject is the only thing in focus and is therefore the center of attention in the shot).
- Macro mode lets you move your closer into your subject to take a close up picture. It’s great for shooting flowers, insects or other small objects.
- Landscape mode is almost the exact opposite of portrait mode in that it sets the camera up with a small aperture (large number) to make sure as much of the scene you’re photographing will be in focus as possible (ie it give you a large depth of field).
- Sports Mode is ideal for photographing any moving objects including people playing sports, pets, cars, wildlife etc. Sports mode attempts to freeze the action by increasing the shutter speed.
- Night mode (a technique also called ‘slow shutter sync’) is for shooting in low light situations and sets your camera to use a longer shutter speed to help capture details of the background but it also fires off a flash to illuminate the foreground (and subject).
- Movie mode extends your digital camera from just capturing still images to capturing moving ones.
- Aperture priority mode is useful when you’re looking to control the depth of field in a shot (usually a stationary object where you don’t need to control shutter speed).
- Shutter priority is very similar to aperture priority mode but is the mode where you select a shutter speed and the camera then chooses all of the other settings.
- Program mode is similar to Auto but gives you a little more control over some other features including flash, white balance, ISO etc.
- Manuel mode you have full control over your camera and need to think about all settings including shutter speed, aperture, ISO, white balance, flash etc.