Camera icons explained

Posted by karfeef

Jul 12

When i bought my first DSLR, i admit i was more than a little intimidated by all the settings, icons, knobs and buttons. Now, it’s mostly second nature, and largely, once you know what’s going on one camera, the rest are pretty similar.

Firstly, we will look at the letters and icons you would normally see on the main dial on top of the camera. This is the dial where you choose which mode you wish to shoot in. These are from the Canon 350d, but most ‘prosumer’ dslr’s have the same ones.

ADEP	Automatic Depth-of-field mode. When using this setting, all the subjects covered by the AF (auto focus) points flashing in red (when half pressing the shutter button will be in focus
M	Manual exposure mode. This allows the photographer to change any setting to achieve the image they want, rather than what the camera might think are the best settings. This frees you from the shackles of ‘correct’ exposure and lets you run into the fields of ‘creatively correct’ exposures (more on this in another tutorial)
AV	Aperture priority mode (Aperture Value). This setting allows you to set the preferred aperture, to gain a specific depth of field, and the camera sets the shutter speed and ISO to give a ‘correct’ exposure.
TV	Shutter priority/Action shot mode (Time Value). The same as AV mode, except you control they shutter speed you want and the camera does the rest. so if you want to freeze action, set a high shutter speed for example.
P	Program AE mode – shutterspeed (exposure) and aperture set automatically. you are still in control of the flash, the ISO value, and the white balance – allowing some creative control while the camera sorts the rest out
	Full Automatic mode. This setting takes care of everything. you just point and shoot. It will fire the flash if it feels it needs to. This is good if you want to just fire off some quick shots of something that might be happening, but generally it’s a good idea to stay away from this, after all, why buy a dslr to use as a point-and-shoot?
	Portait mode. This is an automatic setting which will adjust skin tone colours to give a ‘pleasing’ result.
	Landscape mode. This setting is best used for, you guessed it, landscapes. It will ensure that the image is in focus from the forground to the background (small aperture) and emphasize blues and greens.
	Close-up (Macro) mode. Macro, for those that don’t know – is the world of close-up photography. This mode will allow you to get very close to the subject. There are many lenses dedicated to Macro use and these are preferable due to image quality and capability.
	Sports mode. Good for capturing shots of stuff on the move, like your kids, cars or sporting events. The camera will be in AI Servo focus mode (explained in more detail later) – which will continually adjust the focus of the subject as it moves, providing you keep the subject on track
	Night portrait mode. This setting is used to take portraits at night, a situation that can be problematic. It uses a slower shutter speed coupled with flash to catch ambient light of the surroundings and to light the subject. A tripod is generally advised as camera shake can occur due to the slower shutter speeds.
	Flash Off mode disables both the internal flash head and any external flash unit that may be connected. The focus is set to AI Focus mode, drive mode is set to Single (explained later), and metering mode is set to Evaluative (more later). The camera also controls ISO and Auto white balance.