Is it really worth all the trouble to adjust the aperture and the shutter speed?

Question

Can't you just use automatic and still get good pics?

Answer 1

For special effects yes.
And yes.

Answer 2

99% of the time it does not matter. A good digital camera is very good at getting these settings right. For situations where you want to emphasize an effect, use the corresponding mode on your camera. For example, use portrait mode on your camera if you are zooming in on someone's face so that it emphasizes them and not the background.

There are some situations where you might want more custom settings. But doing this is hardly a chore. Many cameras allow you to work with the important setting for your shot and then choose the other settings correctly to make the shot turn out. For example, if you are photographing moving vehicles, you want the shutter speed to be set way low, in order to freeze the action. The rest of the settings compensate to make sure your picture isn't underexposed.

Answer 3

For a compact digital camera- it almost doesn't matter. For a larger format camera, photographers adjust the aperture to control depth of field. i.e. do they want just the subject in focus or do they want everything in focus. Plus image quality improves with smaller apertures.

For a compact digicam- depth of fields are so large and image quality actually decreases with the very small apertures, that it's often best to let the camera decide.

However! you may want to use Exposure Compensation. i.e. tell the camera that you want to expose the image a little lighter or darker than it thinks. For instance- taking shots at night, you may actually want the photo to look dark. the camera doesn't know it's nighttime and will try to make everything look light- so you'll want to dial in some negative exposure compensation. Or, for shots on the beach or in snow, you don't want the snow to look medium grey- it should be white, so you dial in a bit of positive exposure compensation.

This allows you to use the cameras automatic features which it does so well, but then add your knowledge of the scene to the camera - which it can't possibly know. (although modern image processing is getting there)

Answer 4

yes, most of the time. The problem with automatic is that sometimes the camera doesn't know that you want to capture a fast moving object in the photo sharply (shutter speed) or that for example you want the background less or more in focus (depth of field-aperture). Usually automatic is fine.

Answer 5

Is it worth it to learn "photography"... YES. If all you plan to do is take "snap shots", then no. The auto mode will do fine unless you know what you are doing. Once you know what you are doing there are all kinds of functions (bells and whistles) on even the moderately expensive cameras. There are basically three classes of digital cameras, consumer cameras (about $100-200) prosumer cameras ( $500-1000) and professional cameras (over $1000). They will all take "pictures". I use a Pentax DSLR 6+ meg/pix ($599.95 with a $100 rebate 3 mos. ago) along with my Miranda 35. The one nice feature there is I can share several accessories between them, filters, some lenses, etc. My Toshiba viewfinder 2.3 meg/pix ($ 125 at Walmart) does a good job for snap shots but I do a lot of semi-pro work and that calls for the DSLR.

Answer 6

"Automatic" is usually adequate for average picture-taking needs. If it's working for you 98% of the time, don't even worry about setting the aperture or shutter speed. If you find that you want to control how sharp or blurry your pictures are in various conditions, you will want to learn how to use "A" and "S" modes. It's not all that hard, really.