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Why is aperture-priority so popular?

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John Gerlach

John Gerlach

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I am about to begin the second revision of my landscape photography book by Focal Press.? Exposure and metering are important skills to master. Over 40 years of photographing close-ups, wildlife. and countless landscapes for fun and to earn a living, I have found very few situations where aperture-priority works better than the other choices I prefer that include shutter-priority, manual, shutter-priority and Auto ISO, or just manually setting a known exposure for stuff too small to meter like stars. Can any one think of a situation where aperture-priority really works best in case it should be in the updated book. I find few reasons (would like more) to use aperture-priority, but that doesn't mean there aren't more! Thanks for considering this question.

(Just so you know. I asked this on another forum and it seemed most respondents were huge fans of shutter-priority and could find little use for all of the other methods I use that work far better to me for most situations. And one more tip. Before you stress how aperture-priority gives you control over the f/stop you want, please tell me how I don't have that same control with manual when setting the aperture first. I used aperture-priority almost always when I first switched to digital in 2003, and the huge problems it created pushed me into a variety of faster and more accurate methods, at least most of the time. By the way, I just posted a fairly extensive article about aperture-priority that explains many of the problems I found and suggests other solutions. You can read it on my web site listed below under the articles section.)

Many say aperture-priority is faster for landscapes and easier. To each their own, but I shoot thousands of landscape images and find manual exposure is far quicker and more precise than any auto mode, except in the case where ambient light amount is changing rapidly, which usually isn't the case with landscapes, though at times of course it is. Feel free to disagree with me like the other forum. I value differences in opinion!

--
John Gerlach
www.gerlachnaturephoto.com (articles are posted here)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/142501139@N02/ (personal flickr page)
 
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Solution
D
John,

Aperture Priority... I use AP for many reasons.

I want to ensure that I am using the lens at it's best Aperture for the specific subject and conditions (distance, light, movement, camera support). Every lens has its Aperture "sweet spots" for IQ and bokeh. Although sometimes Shutter Speed can be even more important to freeze motion / prevent blur, I still want to control the Aperture to give me the desired aforementioned effects.

Another reason is to let the camera's "system" give me the fastest shutter speed at a desired Aperture.

I don't want the camera to vary my Aperture setting. I can't think of any situation where I would want that to happen.

Macro vs. Long...
John Gerlach said:
Robert Dodson said:
Hi John,

I hope you and Barb are doing well. One situation that I would consider using AP is when I want a large aperture to minimize depth of field. For example, say I am photographing brown bears and the background and/or foreground just aren't pleasing. I want to blur them out as much possible. Opening up the a aperture accomplishes this. As you point out, you could accomplish this manually so let me further complicate the scene a bit. Let's say the light is changing rapidly because clouds are rolling in and out. You're literally going from cloudy to bright sunlight and back. The bears are a fairly neutral tone so in any auto metering mode the camera should make the correct exposure. By shooting aperture priority you allow the camera account for the changing light while still maintaining maximum aperture for minimum depth of field.
Click to expand...
That is the perfect time to use aperture-priority! I will cover this in my book. Of course, being a landscape book, I am not certain that technique would be useful for shooting wide open that often. About the only time I shoot wide open on landscapes is the night sky when you want manual exposure, or doing very selective focus stacking to get only a small area sharp with the rest using very shallow DOF.
Click to expand...
 
John Gerlach said:
I am about to begin the second revision of my landscape photography book by Focal Press.? Exposure and metering are important skills to master. Over 40 years of photographing close-ups, wildlife. and countless landscapes for fun and to earn a living, I have found very few situations where aperture-priority works better than the other choices I prefer that include shutter-priority, manual, shutter-priority and Auto ISO, or just manually setting a known exposure for stuff too small to meter like stars. Can any one think of a situation where aperture-priority really works best in case it should be in the updated book. I find few reasons (would like more) to use aperture-priority, but that doesn't mean there aren't more! Thanks for considering this question.

(Just so you know. I asked this on another forum and it seemed most respondents were huge fans of shutter-priority and could find little use for all of the other methods I use that work far better to me for most situations. And one more tip. Before you stress how aperture-priority gives you control over the f/stop you want, please tell me how I don't have that same control with manual when setting the aperture first. I used aperture-priority almost always when I first switched to digital in 2003, and the huge problems it created pushed me into a variety of faster and more accurate methods, at least most of the time. By the way, I just posted a fairly extensive article about aperture-priority that explains many of the problems I found and suggests other solutions. You can read it on my web site listed below under the articles section.)

Many say aperture-priority is faster for landscapes and easier. To each their own, but I shoot thousands of landscape images and find manual exposure is far quicker and more precise than any auto mode, except in the case where ambient light amount is changing rapidly, which usually isn't the case with landscapes, though at times of course it is. Feel free to disagree with me like the other forum. I value differences in opinion!
Click to expand...
 
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I'm too much of a newbie to have anything intelligent to offer on my own, but I was at the Georgia Nature Photographers Association annual meeting this past weekend. Two of the speakers were Mark Buckler, whose landscape photographs were stunning, and Ken Sklute, whose landscape photographs were equally stunning. Buckler said that shooting aperture-priority had zero advantages and that people who did it were always fidgeting with the EV dial to compensate for AP metering deficiencies, which made the effort identical to shooting manual (which is what he does). Sklute said he shoots AP 80% of the time, which allows him to concentrate on composition, lighting, and the decisive moment, which are the most important elements of his work. So, Buckler then noted Sklute's advice, disagreed with it, and the exchange continued to-and-fro. If there was a persuasive rationale in either side of the exchange, it escaped my (admittedly naïve) ability to discern it.

I'm definitely going to read your chapter on this topic with great interest.

(Incidentally, I'm just about to order your digital landscape photography book, but I guess now I'll wait for the revision.)

Skip
 
The revision will be a couple years away. I got slowed down when I broke my arm and several other bones in Ecuador in Feb. Fortunately I survived this ordeal, but typing with one finger is all i have just now. there is no wrong answer, but at times i know some ways work better than others.
 
SkipRD said:
Buckler said that shooting aperture-priority had zero advantages and that people who did it were always fidgeting with the EV dial to compensate for AP metering deficiencies, which made the effort identical to shooting manual (which is what he does). Sklute said he shoots AP 80% of the time, which allows him to concentrate on composition, lighting, and the decisive moment, which are the most important elements of his work.
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I'd be curious as to what cameras they're using? With my Canon 5D2 there's no difference in the metering between AP, SP and P that I've noticed. You may find this is an argument entirely driven by the hardware they're using! Is anyone aware of a difference on their system?
 
John Gerlach said:
The revision will be a couple years away. I got slowed down when I broke my arm and several other bones in Ecuador in Feb. Fortunately I survived this ordeal, but typing with one finger is all i have just now. there is no wrong answer, but at times i know some ways work better than others.
Click to expand...
Hi John.

Sorry to hear about your broken bones. Have you considered using some voice recognition software? I never used it - however, by now it could be a relatively cost-effective solution?

Glad that you got your thread tile revised.

Wayne
 
The automatic exposure modes generally give the same exposure if all are set to the same metering pattern if no exposure compensation is dialed in. MANUAL EXPOSURE DOES THE SAME THING if the exposure is set to the null position on the scale. But, they are quite different in usefulness for various scenes. If shutter speed is critical, then shutter priority may be more useful. If aperture is more important, then aperture priority makes since. Of course, with manual you can easily lock in the preferred shutter speed or aperture. Having shot millions of images around the world, I can think of situations that are handled best by all sorts of exposure combinations. All exposure options are optimum for at least some situations.
 
Thanks Wayne!

I am healing up nicely after 5 weeks. I feel so fortunate surviving my life-threatening situation. Had it been cooler and wetter, I would not have survived lying all night in the mountains without any protection and unable to move.
 
Sorry for the late reply. Been away. My view is that you control what is important for the photo. In studio situations and to some degree in out door situations, you can control the amount and quality of light. For action subjects, shutter speed is primary. For landscapes, aperture is primary. Sensitivity (ISO) is critical for landscapes and other subjects requiring detail. Of course, all 4 elements are important to all photos at some limit. I used aperture priority for wildlife photos for DOF and BOC. With fixed ISO, sometimes the shutter speed was too slow for the subject. Then I discovered Auto-ISO. Now I can fix aperture and shutter speed. I must, however, watch ISO to see if it exceeds what I prefer. You can never give complete control to the camera, but you can lock down what is critical for the shot and monitor the range of the other variables.
 
John Gerlach said:
The automatic exposure modes generally give the same exposure if all are set to the same metering pattern if no exposure compensation is dialed in. MANUAL EXPOSURE DOES THE SAME THING if the exposure is set to the null position on the scale.
Click to expand...
Thanks John, I'm aware of that. I was just pondering the fact that a pro-photographer seemed to think Aperture Priority was more work than Manual, because of " AP metering deficiencies" - that was interesting because I have a vague recollection in the back of my mind that one of major manufacturers does do something strange with metering in AP. Unfortunately a quick search turned up nothing, so I thought I'd throw it out to the floor :)
 
Lan said:
John Gerlach said:
The automatic exposure modes generally give the same exposure if all are set to the same metering pattern if no exposure compensation is dialed in. MANUAL EXPOSURE DOES THE SAME THING if the exposure is set to the null position on the scale.
Click to expand...
Thanks John, I'm aware of that. I was just pondering the fact that a pro-photographer seemed to think Aperture Priority was more work than Manual, because of " AP metering deficiencies" - that was interesting because I have a vague recollection in the back of my mind that one of major manufacturers does do something strange with metering in AP. Unfortunately a quick search turned up nothing, so I thought I'd throw it out to the floor :)
Click to expand...
It's not a deficiency so much as the way it is designed to work the exposure changes as the metering values change. If your shooting a landscape in AP and you dial in the exposure while your camera is in the horizontal position and you then change to vertical including more of the sky more often then not your image will now be over exposed if you do not compensate for the camera now metering more of the brighter sky. If you were in manual as you change the camera position the exposure stays the same no matter what values the camera is now metering so your image wil stil be exposed the way you want it.

Put in it another way in AP the correct compensation for the horizontal image is +1 and for a vertical image it's -1 if you don't adjust your compensation to get the same shutter speed as the horizontal image your exposure wil be wrong while in manual the shutter speed stays the same the only thing that changes is where th metering dot sits on the scale it would move from +1 to -1.

The same when shooting wildlife if you have a white bird filing a 1/4 of the frame it will meter differently in evaluative or matrix then when itis filling 3/4 of the frame. So if you were in one of the auto modes and the bird was tracking towards you you would need to constantly adjust your compensation while in manual you could concentrate on your subject knowing your exposure was right.

I hope I got this right I am sure if I explained it wrong someone will let me know
 
Don Lacy said:
Lan said:
I was just pondering the fact that a pro-photographer seemed to think Aperture Priority was more work than Manual, because of " AP metering deficiencies" - that was interesting because I have a vague recollection in the back of my mind that one of major manufacturers does do something strange with metering in AP. Unfortunately a quick search turned up nothing, so I thought I'd throw it out to the floor :)
Click to expand...
It's not a deficiency so much as the way it is designed to work the exposure changes as the metering values change. If your shooting a landscape in AP and you dial in the exposure while your camera is in the horizontal position and you then change to vertical including more of the sky more often then not your image will now be over exposed if you do not compensate for the camera now metering more of the brighter sky. If you were in manual as you change the camera position the exposure stays the same no matter what values the camera is now metering so your image wil stil be exposed the way you want it.
Click to expand...
Thank you Don - that makes sense, but in that case I would have thought the logical solution would be to simply use exposure lock; or perhaps spot metering...
 
Lan said:
Don Lacy said:
Lan said:
I was just pondering the fact that a pro-photographer seemed to think Aperture Priority was more work than Manual, because of " AP metering deficiencies" - that was interesting because I have a vague recollection in the back of my mind that one of major manufacturers does do something strange with metering in AP. Unfortunately a quick search turned up nothing, so I thought I'd throw it out to the floor :)
Click to expand...
It's not a deficiency so much as the way it is designed to work the exposure changes as the metering values change. If your shooting a landscape in AP and you dial in the exposure while your camera is in the horizontal position and you then change to vertical including more of the sky more often then not your image will now be over exposed if you do not compensate for the camera now metering more of the brighter sky. If you were in manual as you change the camera position the exposure stays the same no matter what values the camera is now metering so your image wil stil be exposed the way you want it.
Click to expand...
Thank you Don - that makes sense, but in that case I would have thought the logical solution would be to simply use exposure lock; or perhaps spot metering...
Click to expand...
Yes there are ways to lock exposure but that's one more thing you have to focus on instead of the subject. If the light is consistent once you have the proper exposure values in manual you are free to concentrate on your subject does not matter if they change position in the frame or move to an different back ground since your exposure is no longer tied to the meter. You could shoot in one of the auto modes and use spot metering but then you either have to keep the spot on the subject or your always pushing the AE lock when you recompose it is just so much easier to shoot in manual at least for me.

You should know how to use all the exposure modes and why one might be the best choice for a given scenario.
 
Lan said:
Don Lacy said:
Lan said:
I was just pondering the fact that a pro-photographer seemed to think Aperture Priority was more work than Manual, because of " AP metering deficiencies" - that was interesting because I have a vague recollection in the back of my mind that one of major manufacturers does do something strange with metering in AP. Unfortunately a quick search turned up nothing, so I thought I'd throw it out to the floor :)
Click to expand...
It's not a deficiency so much as the way it is designed to work the exposure changes as the metering values change. If your shooting a landscape in AP and you dial in the exposure while your camera is in the horizontal position and you then change to vertical including more of the sky more often then not your image will now be over exposed if you do not compensate for the camera now metering more of the brighter sky. If you were in manual as you change the camera position the exposure stays the same no matter what values the camera is now metering so your image wil stil be exposed the way you want it.
Click to expand...
Thank you Don - that makes sense, but in that case I would have thought the logical solution would be to simply use exposure lock; or perhaps spot metering...
Click to expand...
Having the camera change the exposure because the percentage of tones changes from shot to shot is one of the biggest drawbacks to auto modes for me. Remember the camera's meter is trying to perform an average. Use the Exposure Compensation control to adjust the exposure in the camera. But, here is the problem. Photograph a white wildflower using an auto mode that fills 1/3 of the image. When you get what you want by adjusting the EC, and then compose the flower so 2/3 of the image is white, the camera will average this and underexpose the flower. It seems easier to just do it on manual. Of course, in macro photos, you may be influenced by losing light at higher magnifications or less. There is exposure lock, but the last time I tried it the meter did not lock long enough. I work on tripods and often use a flash and fire the camera remotely with the Canon 600EX-RT Flash and the St-E3-RT.

PS My cast came off today and that is the last of about nine broken bones! Hopefully the impact knocked some sense in to me because I have this unrelenting passion to photograph and travel nonstop - which makes me a hermit most of the time. Now I can shoot pictures again. The doctor said take it easy -- so I shoveled some snow off my driveway. It was easy for me! And thanks for all of the kind words in this forum. You are top-notch! I will start the exposure chapter for the book soon, and provide numerous reasons to do everything - at least at times.
 
John Gerlach said:
PS My cast came off today and that is the last of about nine broken bones! Hopefully the impact knocked some sense in to me because I have this unrelenting passion to photograph and travel nonstop - which makes me a hermit most of the time. Now I can shoot pictures again.
Click to expand...
Glad to hear the cast's finally come off; that must be a massive relief. Thankfully I've never broken a bone yet, but I had some problems with my foot/ankle which kept me off my feet for a while, so I can sympathize fully. All I can say is going stir-crazy is definitely a thing!

Now get out there and take some pictures - not that I should imagine you need any encouragement ;)
Don Lacy said:
You should know how to use all the exposure modes and why one might be the best choice for a given scenario.
Click to expand...
Exactly!
 
If I am tripodded up I usually avoid aperture priority mode and shoot manual. If I am walking around taking photos I use aperture priority all the time. The reason is the camera gets the exposure in the middle of the light meter without me having to read it and adjust my settings.
 
I am nearly always on a tripod, so usually prefer manual. It is just faster for me to shoot manual than constantly tweak the the EV on auto modes when I change the composition. But there are times with auto modes to make sense and I do use them.
 
I know you've said this is more stly for landscapes, but I found a use good use for Av this morning on the lake. I usually shoot handheld in M-ISO or full M but when I got to the lake before dawn today and set up on a tripod for otter and beaver, it was dark enough that shooting wide open with max acceptable ISO gave pretty slow shutter speeds. I threw it in Av, knowing that I wasn't going to want to stop down or drop the ISO for a while, but knew that even on the tripod, I could use as much shutter speed as the camera was willing to give me. I could have sat there in full M and just bumped up the shutter speed as the sun rose, but it's easier to let the camera do that work when I'm focusing on the wildlife.
 
If you'll permit a brief aside, I got Digital Landscape Photography and spent the past couple days reading it cover to cover. Great book--not only a lot of very useful information, but gorgeous images. I thought that Chapter 4 ("Mastering Exposure") was particularly relevant here, and noted your observation: "Well, all of the autoexposure modes have problems we consider so egregious, that we invariably use manual exposure for landscape images..." I guess that comment, and the responses to it, are the point of this thread, eh? Anyway, I'm looking forward to the revised edition.

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