"P" Mode vs. Av Mode

[Dcanoli]

For just everyday, general shooting what do most of you use?

I almost always use Av mode, but just this week, I've run into 2 girlfriends that are using "P" mode. Both were shooting children in normal, daylight situations.

Any advice here?

[AndrewWG]

I always (well, when I'm not using full manual) use Av mode. It gives you more artistic control of the camera. In normal daylight situations, it probably doesn't make a big difference in the final pic if you just want a snapshot, but to limit depth of field, etc, I like the control of Av.

[Master Mason]

probaby 90% of my shots are done in AV, the other 10% would be divided between Tv and Manual.

[Dcanoli]

Glad to see both of you post here.

I like Av mode too for that control of depth of field; however, both of my friends said they were told to use the "PORTRAIT" mode for taking pictures of children.

Do you ever use the "P" mode? I can't say I've even ever played around with it.

[JR6ooo4]

Av here as well.

But I have to add, I hope you were not going very fast when you ran into you friends...

Mikeeee

[Master Mason]

Glad to see both of you post here.

I like Av mode too for that control of depth of field; however, both of my friends said they were told to use the "PORTRAIT" mode for taking pictures of children.

Do you ever use the "P" mode? I can't say I've even ever played around with it.

When I first got the XT I used P mode because the flash wouldn't pop up. Once I started learning or relearning how to use an SLR, I quickly wanted to control my shots.

P and the other presets are great for folks that don't want to learn, or haven't yet learned how to control their camera, but most often your going to get much better results if you understand how and WHY your making the various changes yourself.

[Blessed99]

I may be wrong but I thought the P was the program mode. :confused3 What I use it for is making the flash work on sunny days to erase shadows on faces and such. Of course I don't think of myself as anything more than a amatuer hobbyist that has tons to learn!

Kelly

Me Kelly princess: and DD 8 Kamryn princess:

[Golf4food]

P is not Portrait. P is program mode. It is a combination of Av and Tv - you control the Av (apeture) with one dial and Tv (shutter speed) with another. It is very, very close to full manual, but the camera handles some of the more complicated work.

I generally use Av but will switch to P if I need to get a little more light into a shot with a longer shutter release.

The flash is probably popping up in P mode for you if you have inadvertnatly moved your shutter speed to something very short and are in a lower light situation where the shutter speed is too fast to properly expose the apeture setting you have chosen.

Then again, I'm not exactly a trained expert in these things. :) Hopefully one of our resident "pros" will chime in and correct me if I am wrong, but I'm 99% sure I have that all correct, lol. :)

[Master Mason]

P is not Portrait. P is program mode. It is a combination of Av and Tv - you control the Av (apeture) with one dial and Tv (shutter speed) with another. It is very, very close to full manual, but the camera handles some of the more complicated work.

I generally use Av but will switch to P if I need to get a little more light into a shot with a longer shutter release.

The flash is probably popping up in P mode for you if you have inadvertnatly moved your shutter speed to something very short and are in a lower light situation where the shutter speed is too fast to properly expose the apeture setting you have chosen.

Then again, I'm not exactly a trained expert in these things. :) Hopefully one of our resident "pros" will chime in and correct me if I am wrong, but I'm 99% sure I have that all correct, lol. :)


P is program mode. You control the ISO, and if the flash is up or not. The camera will then choose Apeture and Shutter speed just as if it was in Green box mode. Essentailly it is green box without the flash and gives you control of ISO if you want it.

In portrait mode, the camera will chose apeture, ISO, shutter speed, and flash with a nod to trying to focus on your subject and blur the background. Usually it looks like a little person on the dial.

[Master Mason]

I may be wrong but I thought the P was the program mode. :confused3 What I use it for is making the flash work on sunny days to erase shadows on faces and such. Of course I don't think of myself as anything more than a amatuer hobbyist that has tons to learn!

Kelly

Me Kelly princess: and DD 8 Kamryn princess:

that can be a good use of the P mode as well as your forcing the flash.

[DVC Jen]

majority of my shots are done in manual unless I am taking photos of some type of action - then i stick with TV (shutter priority).

[Pea-n-Me]

I use Av most of the time.

Maybe I'll tackle this next on the Learning Curve thread - thanks.

[MarkBarbieri]

It is also my understanding that P stands for Program. The traditional four exposure modes for an auto-exposure camera are P (program), Av (aperture priority), Tv (shutter priority) and M (manual). If you adjust increase your shutter speed (allow less time for the light to reach the sensor/film), your picture gets darker. To make it look the same, you need to increase your aperture (make the lens opening wider) so that you let more light in. In Manual mode, you adjust both the shutter speed and aperture yourself. In Av, you adjust the aperture and the camera adjusts the shutter speed. In Tv mode, you adjust the shutter speed and the camera adjusts the aperture. In P mode, the camera sets them both.

It is important to understand that a picture taken in any of those modes will look absolutely identical as long as the aperture and shutter speeds match. One mode is not better than another. Each mode is appropriate for different uses. In all four modes, you can still pick from the same range of values, so you can get the same shot in any mode.

When your primary concern is controlling the shutter speed (perhaps because you want a particularly fast shutter speed to stop motion or a long shutter speed to blur motion), shutter priority is appropriate. When your primary concern is controlling the aperture (perhaps because you want a wider aperture for a very shallow depth of field or a very narrow aperture for a very wide depth of field), aperture priority is appropriate.

Sometimes you aren't terribly concerned about either aperture or shutter speed. It may be that conditions are changing very rapidly (as can happen walking around Disney World). Program mode has some smarts to it that help the photographer. In program mode, the camera will try to pick a shutter speed that is fast enough for safe hand-holding. It will also try to pick an aperture where the lens will be sharpest (usually a couple of stops narrower than wide open). As conditions change, instead of you having to think about whether your aperture and shutter speed are optimal, the camera does it for you. Also, if you don't like the settings that it picked, it is usually very easy to adjust them on the fly to something more appropriate anyway.

Manual mode also has it's uses. One example would be when you are taking a lot of shots in one set of lighting conditions. Perhaps it's your daughter's soccer game and it's uniformly sunny. If you set the proper exposure in manual mode, you won't have to worry about the camera picking different exposure levels for different shots. Another example would be when you are shooting with studio flashes. In that case, you can't rely on the camera's meter (because it has no idea how bright the flashes will be).

There are other times when you want to override your camera's meter. It may be getting fooled by unusually light or dark colored subjects. It may be that you want a lighter or darker than "normal" exposure. In those cases, you can use manual exposure mode to force the exposure setting you want. You can also use the P, Av, and Tv modes and tell the camera to under or overexpose by setting the exposure compensation. Once again, this is all just a process to pick the appropriate shutter speed and aperture for your picture.

Flash throws another wrinkle into the exposure mode you choose. The impact is different depending on the camera. In some modes and situations, the camera will rely on the flash as the primary light source. In other modes, the camera will fire the flash but keep the shutter open longer to allow more ambient (non-flash) light into the picture.

Aperture priority is the most popular mode used by SLR shooters here. I suspect that is because most of the most people are more concerned about managing depth of field over any other element. As long as shutter speed is adequate, the aperture will have the biggest impact on the appearance of the photo.

Let me just emphasize one more time - the exposure mode just helps pick what values the camera will use for aperture and shutter speed. The full range of values is available in all modes, so any normally exposed shot you can get in one mode can be taken in any of the other three modes. Picking the mode that helps you get the shutter speed and aperture values you want as quickly, easily, and consistently as possible for the conditions in which you are shooting.

[Dcanoli]

Here we go.....

I almost always use Av....like the "easiness" of it. If I need to capture motion, I switch to Tv. Those are normally the only two modes I use, HOWEVER....I have two friends that were told to use "P."

....I hope you were not going very fast when you ran into you friends...

...and NO I wasn't going very fast, so we are all okay! :lmao:

I may be wrong but I thought the P was the program mode.

P is not Portrait. P is program mode.

P is program mode.

It is also my understand that P stands for Program.

I've always said P was for Program, but when I turned on one of the girl's Canon's, it said PORTRAIT. I looked at her perplexed and said, "This is normally PROGRAM mode. I don't understand why it's coming up saying Portrait."

That's what really got me started on this Program/Portrait trip. Then, the 2nd girl e-mailed me yesterday and said she had a friend that takes pictures of children and so that photographer told her to use the "P" mode.

So, seeing that I got two "use the 'P' mode" comments in a matter of days, I told them I'd pose the question here and see what everyone's responses would be.

I KNEW THEY'D BE COLORFUL AND GOOD.

Now, all that said--Mark, you are throwing too many factors into this amateur's head!

Your comment about using "P" at Disney is intriguing. Never thought about using it at Disney for the average shot.

Disney is the ultimate learning curve. Seems like you need dedicated (i.e., 50mm or 30mm) lenses for late night or dark scenario shoot situations, tripods and remote shutter releases for firework shots (though I didn't have one on my last trip, so I had to compromise and use the 2sec timer with the Tv mode), macro lens for close-ups, and I'm sure the list could go on and on...

Just when I thought my learning curve was lessening just slightly....

Okay...now, to summarize...I get everything you are saying, but if these women use the "P" mode what is the advantage over them using Auto mode? I think I'm missing something here between the two because you are telling me that "P" picks both the aperture and shutter, correct?

Is the only difference the ability to pick an ISO? :confused3

[handicap18]

P is not Portrait. P is program mode. It is a combination of Av and Tv - you control the Av (apeture) with one dial and Tv (shutter speed) with another. It is very, very close to full manual, but the camera handles some of the more complicated work.

In "P" program mode the only thing you control is the ISO and the flash popping up. The camera chooses the aperture and shutter. If your choosing the aperture and shutter then its Manual. Of the 3 (A, S, & P) it is the furtherst from full manual.


I do most of my shooting in aperture priority. I'll use manual for long exposures. I'll sometimes use shutter priority, but I can generally get the shutter speed I want in A. I'll use Program for a lot of flash work. I never use the pre programed modes. The only time I put it on AUTO is when DW is using the camera or I had it to someone else to take a picture of me it.

[Dcanoli]

In "P" program mode the only thing you control is the ISO and the flash popping up. The camera chooses the aperture and shutter.

The only time I put it on AUTO is when I hand it to someone else to take a picture of me it.

MY SENTIMENTS EXACTLY, "Wait, hang on a second...." (As I'm switching the mode to AUTO!) :lmao:

[handicap18]

Your comment about using "P" at Disney is intriguing. Never thought about using it at Disney for the average shot.


Okay...now, to summarize...I get everything you are saying, but if these women use the "P" mode what is the advantage over them using Auto mode? I think I'm missing something here between the two because you are telling me that "P" picks both the aperture and shutter, correct?

Is the only difference the ability to pick an ISO? :confused3

I have many times used "P" while walking around Disney. Especially when the family is together. Sometimes you just don't have the time to scroll through variouse shutters and/or apertures. People move quick down there and P can help with getting that quick shot on the go.



There are a few differences between P and Auto. You choose the ISO in P, while the camera chooses that for you (and you can't change it at all in AUTO). If the shutter speed is below 1/60th or thereabouts, the flash will pop-up automatically. In P you can pop the flash when you want it. I don't know about other cameras, but on mine you can still choose your focus points in P. In auto the camera defaults to closets subject (though I do think I can change that). Also my metering automatically goes to Matrix Metering. Spot and Center Weight Metering are disabled. White Balance is also set to auto and you can't change it in AUTO (though it can be changed in PP if you shoot RAW). The bracketing feature is disabled in AUTO. Some camera's limit the highest ISO in auto ISO on AUTO. So even if your camera can go to 1600, 800 might be the limit in AUTO. Check your manuals for that though.

One way to check specific's on your camera. Put it on P, then go through the menu. All the options are available to you. Now change it to AUTO and go through the menu again. You'll notice that there are options that you can no longer choose.

[MarkBarbieri]

My 10D also switched from RAW to JPG when you went into Auto. I think it also nixed exposure compensation. It's sort of like a "force everything to defaults" mode. P mode only affects exposure. Auto overrides all sorts of other things. My current camera has no "Auto" mode - just P, M, Av, Tv, and Bulb. Bulb is sort of like M in that you determine both the aperture and the shutter speed. The difference is that the shutter speed is determined by how long you hold down the shutter button. It's great for fireworks and lightening when you don't know how much light there will be until after it starts happening. It's also good for exposures longer than 30 seconds.

[Dcanoli]

Okay, I may try using "P" for those quick shots. Maybe you have convinced me to give it a try.

I'm not sure I've learned (or understand) about all the metering modes so far. I've got mine set on the "top" one...I'm experiencing a brain-fade right now...can't remember what mode that is....sorry...

I've been meaning to read up on those.....

Haven't been shooting in RAW (don't kill me)...takes up WAY too much room on the card, and I haven't seen a tremendous amount of difference in shots yet.

I'm guessing it's great for working on WB and low-light shots....

As for these two friends of mine, I "think" they know less about the camera than I do (though I could be wrong), and so using "P" for the ISO, flash, and metering options is pretty much moot.

If that's the case, then what you all are telling me is there is no difference FOR THEM in using the "P" mode and AUTO. Correct?


I have many times used "P" while walking around Disney. Especially when the family is together. Sometimes you just don't have the time to scroll through variouse shutters and/or apertures. People move quick down there and P can help with getting that quick shot on the go.

There are a few differences between P and Auto. You choose the ISO in P, while the camera chooses that for you (and you can't change it at all in AUTO). If the shutter speed is below 1/60th or thereabouts, the flash will pop-up automatically. In P you can pop the flash when you want it. I don't know about other cameras, but on mine you can still choose your focus points in P. In auto the camera defaults to closets subject (though I do think I can change that). Also my metering automatically goes to Matrix Metering. Spot and Center Weight Metering are disabled. White Balance is also set to auto and you can't change it in AUTO (though it can be changed in PP if you shoot RAW). The bracketing feature is disabled in AUTO. Some camera's limit the highest ISO in auto ISO on AUTO. So even if your camera can go to 1600, 800 might be the limit in AUTO. Check your manuals for that though.

One way to check specific's on your camera. Put it on P, then go through the menu. All the options are available to you. Now change it to AUTO and go through the menu again. You'll notice that there are options that you can no longer choose.

[handicap18]

As for these two friends of mine, I "think" they know less about the camera than I do (though I could be wrong), and so using "P" for the ISO, flash, and metering options is pretty much moot.

If that's the case, then what you all are telling me is there is no difference FOR THEM in using the "P" mode and AUTO. Correct?

Based on what you've said here, for them AUTO is probably correct. They're also probably not getting everything out of the camera that it is capable of and they may think they don't get as many great shots as they should be. Many people in this example think that their old PnS digital took better pictures.

[Master Mason]

Actually as Mark pointed out, at least in Canon products when you move to any of the auto zones you also lose the ability to shoot in RAW. I guess their thinking is if your shooting in Auto, your not going to be post processing. But that's just my guess.

[MarkBarbieri]

These are the shooting modes listed on DPReview's Preview of the Rebel XSi:

Auto
• Program AE (P)
• Shutter priority AE (Tv)
• Aperture priority AE (Av)
• Manual (M)
• Auto depth-of-field
• Portrait
• Landscape
• Close-up
• Sports
• Night portrait
• Flash off



There is a Program mode and a Portrait mode. The former is one of the "Creative Zone" shooting modes and the latter is one of the "Basic Zone" shooting modes. With the "Basic Zone" modes, the camera controls lots of features like the flash, the autofocus mode, and the drive mode. It also disables custom functions, exposure locking, bracketing, and RAW. "Basic Mode" assumes that you want the camera to control most things for you. "Creative Zone" assumes that you want to be in control.

There is nothing inherently wrong with the "Basic Zone" (or spouse modes as they are sometimes called) settings. It makes it much easier to get decent results out of your camera. You are leveraging the expertise of skilled engineers to pick reasonably appropriate settings.

The problem is that those engineers aren't there when you are taking the picture. They don't know what is happening when you are shooting or what you are trying to do. Most people that get even moderately serious about photography eventually switch to the "Creative Zone" modes for most or all of their work. In fact, the professional series cameras from Canon don't even have "Basic Zone" modes.

There is nothing that the "Basic Zone" modes do that is magic. You can do all of the same things with the "Creative Zones" if you know how.

My recommendation to a new shooter is to use the "Basic Zone" only until you learn how to reliably operate your camera in the "Creative Zone." If you are picking up a DSLR for the first time and are shooting something really important to you, it's safer to start with the "Basic Zones." Just don't limit yourself and your camera by staying there.

[MarkBarbieri]

Haven't been shooting in RAW (don't kill me)...takes up WAY too much room on the card, and I haven't seen a tremendous amount of difference in shots yet.

In one sense, you have been shooting RAW and you just don't know it. When you press the shutter, your camera captures a RAW image. If you are shooting in RAW mode, it writes that image to your card. If you are shooting in JPG mode, it converts the RAW image to a JPG and applies some adjustments to things like sharpening, saturation, white balance, and contrast while it is doing the conversion. When you shoot in RAW mode, you do the same thing, but you do it on your computer long after you take the shot.

If you take a RAW picture and convert it to a JPG using all of the same settings that the camera uses when it converts to JPG, the pictures will be essentially identical. What RAW allows you to do is to second guess some of those adjustments. It also allows you to take advantage of improvements in RAW to JPG conversion that get developed later.

So everyone shoots RAW. Some people spend the extra writing time, extra file sizes, and extra processing steps to convert from RAW to JPG on their own terms. Others are willing to give up that extra control and shoot in JPG for the speed and convenience. Even some professionals (usually when timelines are extremely tight) shoot in JPG. Most serious photographers, however, pay the extra price to keep the RAW files.

[handicap18]

In fact, the professional series cameras from Canon don't even have "Basic Zone" modes.

Same is true for Nikon (D100, D200, D300, Dh series and D1, D2 and D3 series) and the Pentax K10D & K20D also don't have those modes.

[AlienBrain]

Doesn't P mode make adjustments to always have your exposure in the middle of the scale? I thought that was one of the complaints with P mode, because sometimes, depending on your metering method, a middle of the road exposure will under or over expose your picture. e.g. a dark object with a bright light surrounding it or vice versa.

[MICKEY88]

Doesn't P mode make adjustments to always have your exposure in the middle of the scale? I thought that was one of the complaints with P mode, because sometimes, depending on your metering method, a middle of the road exposure will under or over expose your picture. e.g. a dark object with a bright light surrounding it or vice versa.

program mode, aperture priority, and shutterpriority, actually any mode other than full manual will expose for 18%grey, so yes in highkey or lowkey situations the exposure will be off,,

snow scenes, the camera will automatically darken to turn the bright white grey...

a portrait of a woman in a black gown in front of a black backdrop, the camera would lighten to turn thigs grey, that's why it's a good idea to know how to use exposure compensation if your camera has it,

with the snow scene you would go +1 to force the camera to give more exposure turning the snow white.


the other scene would be -1 exposure compensation to force the camera to give less exposure to make the dress etc black raather than grey

[MarkBarbieri]

Doesn't P mode make adjustments to always have your exposure in the middle of the scale? I thought that was one of the complaints with P mode, because sometimes, depending on your metering method, a middle of the road exposure will under or over expose your picture. e.g. a dark object with a bright light surrounding it or vice versa.

Program mode doesn't affect the metering. You will get the same exposure level (brightness or darkness) whether you use Program, Aperture Priority, or Shutter Priority (or even Manual if you adjust it to match the camera's meter reading).

Let me try an example with a picture. This picture was taken at an ISO of 400, with a shutter speed of 1/125 second, and an aperture of f/5.6. The "effective" focal length was 45.5mm.
http://photos.barbierifamily.org/photos/117413181_ehdm4-L.jpg

The moment I clicked the shutter, the camera's meter determined how bright the scene was. In order to properly expose the picture, three things had to be weighed - the ISO, the aperture, and the shutter speed. I already set the ISO to 400.

Based on the amount of light the meter determined was present, the correct values for the exposure would be:

f/22 - 1/8s
f/16 - 1/15s
f/11 - 1/30s
f/8 - 1/60s
f/5.6 - 1/125s
f/4 - 1/250s
f/2.8 - 1/500s

If I was in aperture priority mode and wanted minimal DOF, I might have chosen f/2.8. The camera would have picked a shutter speed of 1/500s. I might have wanted a large DOF and picked an aperture of f/22. In that case, the camera would have picked 1/8s.

If I was in shutter priority mode, I might have wanted a high shutter speed to freeze any action and picked 1/500s. In that case, the camera would have picked an aperture of f/2.8. I might have wanted a low shutter speed to allow for some motion blurring and picked 1/15s. In that case, the camera would have picked an aperture of f/16.

With Program mode, the camera has no idea what I want for DOF or for freezing or showing motion. It picks something the engineers thought would be reasonable. First, it determines what shutter speed would let a typical users get a decent shot without using a tripod. The longer your zoom, the higher the shutter speed it tries to pick. In this case, my effective focal length was 45.5mm, so it was trying to get a shutter speed at or faster than 1/45s.

It would also try to pick an aperture that it thinks would be sharp for that lens. It usually likes to pick apertures two stops smaller than the maximum for the lens and tries to avoid apertures smaller than f/11. So for this lens, that would be the range between f/5.6 and f/11.

If you look on the chart, there are two combinations that would make it happy - f/5.6 + 1/125 or f/8 and 1/60. Anything with a slower shutter speed might be too slow for me to hand hold. Anything with a wider aperture would not be optimal for my lens. It can't always pick something optimal, so it picks the most reasonable of the choices that it has.

The important thing is that Program, Aperture Priority, and Shutter Priority are all picking from the exact same list of acceptable combinations of f/stop and shutter speed. They'll all be same lightness or darkness. The metering mode (spot, evaluative, center-weighted, etc) determined how light or dark things should be. With Program mode, it picks from any valid pair of values on the list. With Av or Tv, you pick one value and it picks the other value from the list of valid values.

The list of valid values is different for different levels of light and ISO. If things are brighter or the ISO is higher, you get faster shutter speeds for the same apertures. If things are darker or the ISO is lower, you get slower shutter speeds for the same values.

[Zoesmama03]

I shoot 99% in Manual. I did aperture priority for 2 1/2 years on my p&s when I got my DSLR the first thing I did was turn it to M where it stays. :laughing: I was so excited to have the "control" that I haven't really messed with anything else. I'm working one exposure right now. I've learned to read from the histograms more and picked up the "metering" in camera too, finally. The pieces are coming together.

I do have my lens on auto but at first I was doing it manually but for my dd who moves A LOT it works better.

[SrisonS]

I use Av mode pretty much all of the time; unless I need some stop action shots, or long exposures....then I'll use Tv.

[Dcanoli]

I use Av mode pretty much all of the time; unless I need some stop action shots, or long exposures....then I'll use Tv.

Same here, and I was wondering when you'd pop in and give your two cents! :thumbsup2

This has turned out to be a great thread and has evolved into a learning thread IMHO! I passed the link on to my two friends, one of which I know has read it.

I know they are still thinking that P helps them focus on things in the "front" verses in the background, and that's what their goal was in snapping shots of the children.

However, is that a P mode advantage or is that a function of something else that could be obtained in AUTO mode?

I mean if the advantage of shooting in P mode is control of flash, metering, and ISO, then it seems like beginners and non-serious photo enthusiasts might choose to stay on Auto.

Right?

If these girls shot in AUTO, would the camera still focus on what is in the front of the shot versus the background?

[labdogs42]

If these girls shot in AUTO, would the camera still focus on what is in the front of the shot versus the background?

Yes.

I also think that someone was trying to tell them to use Portrait mode (denoted on a canon by the picture of a person's head), not the Program mode. I know the portrait mode sets a shallow depth of field on purpose to draw attention to the foreground. In contrast, the landscape mode (the mountain scene) has a deep depth of field for landscape shots. If these ladies are amateurs wanting to shoot pics of their kids, the green auto mode might serve them best or the portrait (ladies head) mode. If their kids are running around fast, they should try the sports (running guy) mode.

[Dcanoli]

Okay, you hit the nail on the head. Exactly what I was thinking.

But, I am telling you guys...one of the girls' in-laws had given (yes, I said GIVEN) her a Canon EOS, and when I switched it to P, the screen said PORTRAIT.

Screwy, huh? I'll have to look at that again....just to make sure it wasn't a twilight zone minute!

So, now--I got it...if they want to take normal, every day shots of their kids--AUTO or Portrait, not PROGRAM mode.

Now....I'm gonna try and talk them into Av and Tv modes!

[handicap18]

If these girls shot in AUTO, would the camera still focus on what is in the front of the shot versus the background?

It depends on how the focus points are set. If it is set for something like closeest subject. Then the camera will look for something it thinks is closest. It doesn't always choose the right spot.

[Dcanoli]

I think that's a whole other thread--choosing where the camera focuses and metering.

[jann1033]

Okay, you hit the nail on the head. Exactly what I was thinking.

But, I am telling you guys...one of the girls' in-laws had given (yes, I said GIVEN) her a Canon EOS, and when I switched it to P, the screen said PORTRAIT.

Screwy, huh? I'll have to look at that again....just to make sure it wasn't a twilight zone minute!

So, now--I got it...if they want to take normal, every day shots of their kids--AUTO or Portrait, not PROGRAM mode.

Now....I'm gonna try and talk them into Av and Tv modes!

what screen are you talking about? i just tried p and portrait and it doesn 't say anywhere i can see what mode you are in. i even looked in my manual thinking i've been missing something the past almost 3 yrs i have used this ( rebelxt) camera...and it doesn't say it anyplace i can find...:confused3 :confused3 i don't remember it doing that on my film eos either, maybe it was one of the picture styles you saw rather than the shooting mode??
and not to throw in another subject but it also would depend what focus point or points you have set as to where it focuses, ie if you have the left point set and try to focus on something in the foreground right, it's going to focus on what is behind the left focus point.

[Dcanoli]

what screen are you talking about?

The screen on the back of the camera.

I don't have the camera here with me, and I only played w/her camera once, but when it came on, it was either on P already or I moved it to P and the screen said Portrait mode.

Your screen doesn't show what mode it's in when you change it? When I turn my Pentax on, whatever mode it's in comes up on the screen, sort of a "status" screen. Then, when I turn the dial, the new information flashes on the screen to tell me what mode I'm now in.

[jann1033]

The screen on the back of the camera.

I don't have the camera here with me, and I only played w/her camera once, but when it came on, it was either on P already or I moved it to P and the screen said Portrait mode.

Your screen doesn't show what mode it's in when you change it? When I turn my Pentax on, whatever mode it's in comes up on the screen, sort of a "status" screen. Then, when I turn the dial, the new information flashes on the screen to tell me what mode I'm now in.
no, it tells you the meter, drive, ad, wb, about the card, the image quality, shtter flash, exposure, apertrue battery in the small lcd and on the large lcd in portrait/auto it tells you if the beep is on, red eye and quality ( ie raw) in the first screen, scrolled through the other 3 and nothing about auto mode there either.
nothing in the view finder either..
however it does tell you if you are in B&w mode which is why i though it's possible you saw portrait and thought that was what the p mode meant where in reality it was the picture style "portrait" which basically tells you the sharpening etc. ( that is under parameters in my camera and you scroll to get to it on one of the screens)...unless they changed something in the later models it' doesn't list the mode,av what ever on the screens, guess they figure if you can't tell by looking at the dial you have more problems than an icon in the screen could solve.:rotfl: i know they changed the lcd in some of later models and got rid of the lcd small screen. but don't know what camera you are looking at.
edited as
ever curious i just looked it up on dpreview for the xti it does say av, p on the lcd screen etc but there wasn't an example of what it displays in auto, it also says the picture style which is still what i am guessing you saw if it was in p mode, then you could have a "portrait" and a "p", since i am sure you can set the picture style in the semi-manual modes, not sure about the auto modes. but canon hasn't changed it's dials/ icons for yrs so the p has never meant portrait in recent history.

[MarkBarbieri]

I never did answer the original question.

For most of my shooting, I use Av mode. I use M when I'm going to be in one place for a while or when I'm using studio lights (and often with on-camera flash as well). I use P when I'm moving around a lot and my mind is not on my photography. I use Tv on rare occasions (although I use it about half the time on my video camera with M being the other half).

There is one time when I switch my camera to full auto mode. That's when I'm letting gators use my gear:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2217/2461481975_9837a61d84.jpg

[Dcanoli]

...ever curious i just looked it up on dpreview for the xti it does say av, p on the lcd screen etc but there wasn't an example of what it displays in auto, it also says the picture style which is still what i am guessing you saw if it was in p mode, then you could have a "portrait" and a "p", since i am sure you can set the picture style in the semi-manual modes, not sure about the auto modes. but canon hasn't changed it's dials/ icons for yrs so the p has never meant portrait in recent history.

Well, finally! I guess that's the answer to my original question after all! LOL....If you can set PICTURE STYLES in P mode, then maybe that's why it said portrait mode while the dial was on P.

Maybe the mystery is solved after all!