Apurture / ISO / Shutter speed | Event Photography | Photo Forum

First of all it all comes with experience. The more you shoot and experiment with settings, the better you will know what settings you need in each situation. 

If you need to make fast decisions, you can use Aperture or Shutter Speed priority mode instead on Manual. 

You should think this way:

1. Is your camera on the tripod or you are holding it?

– If on tripod shutter speed doesn’t matter (Unless your subject is moving). 

– If holding you don’t warn to shoot slower them 1/focal length of the lens to avoid camera shake. But some lenses have VR, so with VR you can shoot about 3 stops slower. Also some people can be more steady them others. Once again test yourself. 

2. Is your subject moving or not? 

– If it is you will need faster shutter speed to frieze it. Ones again you will know better when you go out end make some test with different shutter speed and subjects. In my lesson I do have approximate chart.  

3. Do you want shallow (blurry background) DOF or not?

– If yet use bigger aperture (smaller F-number)

– if not, use smaller aperture (bigger F-number) – you don’t have to put it to the limit of the lens so (watch my lesson 23) 

See what is more important in certain situation: 

If you shoot portraits/people, most of the time you want shallow DoF, so use Aperture priority. This way you can control your aperture and shutter speed adjust itself. But you still need to watch it, so it doesn’t get too slow at desired aperture, because you can get camera shake or blur. If it does, increase your ISO and shatter speed will become faster.  

With sports for example shutter speed is more important, because you need to stop the auction, so you can use Shutter Speed priority mode to make sure you shutter speed in fast enough. 

But even in this mode, you still need to check what happened with your aperture and adjust your ISO to give you desired result. 

Honestly if I need to use any auto more, it would be Aperture priority most of the time. I just watch my other setting and adjust them accordingly. Let say I shoot sports. I still want shallow DoF, so I set my aperture, but I am watching if my shutter speed in not too slow. If it is I raise my ISO. This is just the way I like doing it.

You know the main principle, so you know what to looks for and expect from different settings. Now go out and practice a lot and it will become easier and more intuitive to make decisions!  

OR take Mandrake advise: “Ohhhhhhh, Just spin the dials, snap the shutter and hope for the best”. It has been working for him somehow, lol