Is shooting in "P" mode ok?

I'm still learning about how to shoot in Manual..

Shooting in "P" mode all you have to change is ISO and the camera automatically does the f/stop and shutter speed. Is this better than shooting in Auto?

P = Professional. It is one of the three Auto modes.

P is okay is it is a "flexible" Programmed setting, which most are these days...it allows you to use one dial to select different equivalent exposures, thereby allowing you to select a faster shutter speed and a wider aperture for action-stopping, or a smaller aperture, like f/11 and a slower shutter speed for when you want greater depth of field.

MLKstudios wrote: P = Professional. It is one of the three Auto modes.

I may still be learning my camera, but I know P does not = Professional.

It's actually Program mode, but many professionals use it.

It's basically the same as Green, but it won't pop up the flash unless you ask it to.

With my Canon the Program mode is sometimes useful indoors, for ambient light shooting (no flash). Otherwise I use Aperture priority more often than Program. I noted "Canon" here because this reflects control setup and AE programming that may be unique to Canon. Other brands may be different.

Kelly Cook

I like shooting in P mode. Be careful when you shoot into the wind though...

Good tip from Chas

P will pick BOTH an f/stop and shutter speed for you based on the ISO setting and the amount of light. You can later adjust both settings using the wheel (or command dial).

Tv (or S) lets you set the shutter speed, and it picks the aperture (the f/stop). This is OK with plenty of light, but it will underexpose in low light when a fast shutter speed is chosen.

Av (or A) lets you pick an aperture and it will chose the shutter speed to get a good exposure. Good for a beginner, as it lets you pick the Depth of Field you want and there is ALWAYS a shutter speed that will give you a good exposure (no problem with underexposure), but beware a small ap, and low ISO will give you some really sloooooooow shutter speeds in low light levels.

M is all manual and requires you to set both the f/stop and the shutter speed using the built in meter.

HTH

MLKstudios wrote: It's actually Program mode, but many professionals use it.

It's basically the same as Green, but it won't pop up the flash unless you ask it to.

I know very little professionals who uses Program mode.

I do.

chasrich wrote: I like shooting in P mode. Be careful when you shoot into the wind though...

Then I guess you should learn to shoot away from the wind....make sure no one is around too. Ready, Aim, Shoot.

D5000 wrote: I'm still learning about how to shoot in Manual..

Shooting in "P" mode all you have to change is ISO and the camera automatically does the f/stop and shutter speed. Is this better than shooting in Auto?

There is very little in photography that is always "right" or "wrong," "ok" or "not ok." Shooting in Program mode is fine if that's how you choose to shoot and if it doesn't get in the way of what you are trying to do. As with any photographic tool or technique, however, I'd always recommend that the photographer understand what the camera is doing and be able to express the reasons they are choosing to use that particular mode over another one.

I primarily do landscape work. Back in the days of shooting color transparency film, virtually all of my work was spot metered and shot in manual mode, because film was unforgiving and that level of careful precision was how I achieved the best possible results. Now, with digital, the way the medium responds to light is different, so calculating optimal exposure is different. The color Matrix meters these days are quite good at evaluating not only overall luminance, but also the tonal range of each color channel (red-green-blue), so they have certain advantages over traditional metering methods when it comes to exposing to match the performance of the sensor in the camera. We are also able to confirm the exposure we want with the histogram, so for many types of photography there is a good argument to be made that shooting in an automatic mode makes the most sense most of the time. It is always possible to bias the exposure one way or the other using exposure compensation, and to shift shutter speed and aperture as desired.

There are certainly exceptions, but since going [almost] all digital, I am mostly using aperture priority, auto white balance, and Matrix metering. I shoot RAW 100% of the time, expose for maximum data/minimum noise (biased toward overexposure without clipping color channels, otherwise known as exposing to the right), and set correct tonalities, color balance, black point, etc. in post processing. I could achieve the same results in Program mode, but it would require the extra step of shifting the exposure to the aperture or shutter speed I wish to use.

At the end of the day, it's important to identify and understand a simple set of camera settings, tools, and techniques that are legitimately helpful in making the images you want to create, and then concentrate your attention on concepts, themes, light, composition, color, and gesture. As a photographer, one of your goals should be to get the camera out of your way.

Thanks everyone for your help.

I've actually never used P mode.

It's auto with benefits.