Using Shutter Priority and Aperture Priority

Adler Planetarium
Chicago, IL United States

Canon 5D Mark II
Focal Length 24
Aperture 14
Shutter 1/180
ISO 400

Since there was so much ambient light in this shot I could have brought the ISO down to 100, or perhaps even 50, while keeping a shutter faster than 1/60 of a second.  1/60 of a second is a good rule of thumb to use for handholding your camera to avoid motion blur.

For a shot like this the aperture isn't all that important.  A shot like this would be safe to use autofocus on, since there are no other objects in either the foreground or background that could be accidentally selected.  However, if you are rather close to your subject there is a greater chance that you might isolate the tip of the sword for example, which may leave other parts of the horse, namely the ones farthest away like the bottom of the horse, out of focus due to a large aperture (a number less than F10).  I shot this picture from rather far away, perhaps 30 feet away, and later cropped the picture.

I would not advocate using autofocus, but if you must, it's good to use it to focus the point of the shot that you are most interested in, and then lock focus by switching it to manual.  By switching to manual at this point you are eliminating that chance that the camera will refocus as you reframe your shot.

I won't lie, the Canon 5D Mark II takes fabulous shots with all auto settings, but I like to tweak my shots a little.  There are also, quasi-manual settings like Aperture Priority and Shutter Priority, which allows the user to manually set the aperture while the camera automatically sets the Shutter.  Shutter Priority allows you to manually set the shutter while the camera automatically sets a corresponding aperture.  A benefit of this is that you don't have to be constantly fidgeting and trying to properly expose the photograph.  Also, you are able to manually set the ISO.  Using these quasi-manual functions serves as a great bridge from learning the camera and shooting in full auto to shooting in full manual.

With a smaller aperture you may see a little variation in the colors of the shot, but it will be negligible.