23/10/2026
Know your camera modes
● Auto — green A+ symbol
The camera chooses most settings, including shutter speed, aperture and ISO. It may also activate the built-in flash. Useful for quick, simple photographs, but it gives you limited control over movement and background blur.
● P — Program mode
The camera selects shutter speed and aperture while you can usually adjust ISO, white balance, focusing and exposure compensation. Many cameras also let you shift to a different shutter speed and aperture combination. Useful for general photography when you need to react quickly.
● Av — Aperture Priority
You choose the aperture, and the camera selects the shutter speed.
A low f-number, such as f/4, helps blur the background.
A higher f-number, such as f/8 or f/11, brings more of the scene into focus.
Useful for wildlife portraits, birds perched on branches and landscapes. Watch your shutter speed: in poor light, it may become too slow to prevent blur.
● Tv — Shutter Priority
You choose the shutter speed, and the camera selects the aperture.
A fast speed, such as 1/2000 second, helps freeze action.
A slow speed, such as 1/60 second, can create movement blur when panning.
Useful for running animals, birds in flight and creative movement photographs. The camera still needs enough light to achieve the exposure.
● M — Manual mode
You choose both shutter speed and aperture. With a fixed ISO, you control all three exposure settings. With Auto ISO, the camera adjusts ISO to help achieve the exposure.
Useful when you want consistent control over movement and depth of field. For wildlife, Manual with Auto ISO can work well as animals move between sun and shade.
● SCN — Special Scene mode
You select a scene type, and the camera chooses settings suited to it. The available options depend on your camera model and may include night portraits, handheld night scenes or other specialised situations.
● Sports — running-person symbol
The camera favours faster shutter speeds and usually continuous focusing and burst shooting. Useful for moving subjects, although it cannot guarantee sharp action photographs in low light.
● Landscape — mountain symbol
The camera favours settings intended to keep more of the scene in focus. Useful for scenery and wider habitat photographs. In low light, a tripod or firm support may be needed.
● Close-up — flower symbol
Designed for photographing small subjects such as flowers and insects. It does not increase your lens’s magnification or let it focus closer than its
minimum focusing distance.
● Portrait — head/profile symbol
The camera favours settings that help separate the subject from the background. Background blur also depends on your lens, focal length and the distances between you, the subject and the background.
● CA — Creative Auto
A beginner-friendly automatic mode that lets you adjust effects such as background blur through simple on-screen controls. The available controls depend on your camera model.
● Flash Off — crossed-out lightning symbol
The camera selects exposure settings automatically but prevents the built-in flash from firing. Useful where flash is unsuitable. Watch for slow shutter speeds in dim light.
● Movie — video-camera symbol beside the power switch
This switches the camera to video recording. Video exposure and focusing controls depend on the camera model.
For your wildlife photography, Av gives you straightforward control over background blur, Tv gives you control over movement, and M gives you control over both.
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