Aperature Priority

[r3g]

Ive always had a problem bringing myself to trust it during serious shooting. Ive been reading that the 18-55 kitlens at F8 performs very good, and Id like to be able to set it to F8 and not have to hunt through shutter speeds to get proper exposure. I would hate for pictures come out too under/overexposed due to the camera kicking the wrong shutter speed. Well tomorrow im going to be doing an outdoor shoot for my ex and im kind of looking for some reassurance the Av can be trusted. What has been you guys experience with it?

[VTEC_EATER]

I find it to work pretty well. As most people, I set my EC to -.3 on the D50 and the photos turn out pretty well balanced. Take a look at the histogram on some of the shots to check your exposure. Add or subtract EC to get the proper exposure.

[Rooz]

i use Ap 80% of the time. the rest of the time i shoot in M or Sp.

while i think there is some merit in picking your lens' sharpest point, imo you are better off selecting your aperture to achieve your desired effect. ie: if your shooting a portrait and want the background blur you wouldn;t be shooting at f8, you'd try and shoot a larger aperture. similarly, if your shooting a landscape you want as much in focus as possible so shooting at f11 and smaller is what you want.

[SpecialK]

Av works like any other auto/semi-auto mode that uses a setting based on a meter reading. Once you have determined if/how much you camera over or underexposes, you must still interpret the reading. Some can be used as is, others require adjustments.

[XaiLo]

Reg pick up "Understanding Exposure" Revised Edition by Bryan Peterson I love recommending this book. It's a lite read with a ton of practicle examples. Best of all it does a great job of opening up the possibilities of photography. hth I always shoot in manual.

[K1W1]

Reg pick up "Understanding Exposure" Revised Edition by Bryan Peterson I love recommending this book.

+1 on that. A very worthwhile book for the home library.
I use Aperture Priority virtually all the time except sports when I use Shutter Priority.

[dxrocnxj]

just ordered that book today on amazon after being given a recommendation and seeing a few others also being recommended to it; i hope its good.

[T06]

Yeah I'm exactly what Rooz & K1w1 said too, but I'd be wary of using it in a no room for mistakes situation for the first time. The beauty of digital, it costs jack to experiment.

[coldrain]

I agree with Rooz. While I understand you want things to be as sharp as possible, I would choose the aperture that suits what you want to achieve, not just f8 standard.

So... for instance land and city scapes I would go to F11 or higher for a bigger depth of field most of the time, and with portraits or other instances where you would like a shallow depth of field I would choose f4.5 or 3.5 without hessitation.

[LR Max]

I echo what everyone else says. I just about always use Apeture priority for everything. I definately use it when I am on assignment (only time I don't use it is when I am strobing).

If you aren't familiar with shooting outdoors, go out today and practice. Hard light can sometimes be difficult to work with. Work with underexposing since that usually works good outside.