I have a Sony Mavica FD-91 which has "Program AE" modes for aperture priority and shutter speed priority. The f-stop is settable in the aperture mode and the speed is settable in shutter mode. I would like to know how to use these to my best advantage for getting good shots. Are there any good tutorials out there on the web? (If you feel like adding some info about those +/- EV modes that would be nice too.)

-- Richard Legault (r.legault@worldnet.att.net), November 30, 1998

Answers

Basically, aperture priority would be used to control your depth of field. For instance, if you're taking a portrait and want to have the background out-of-focus, set a low aperture of f2.8 or so. If you're taking a landscape image and want the rocks in front of you and the mountains off in the distance all in focus, set a high aperture of f11 or more. In shutter priority, a high shutter speed will tend to 'freeze' the action and a slow shutter speed will blur moving objects. The EV controls are exposure values and could be used to adjust exposure in certain lighting conditons. For instance, if you're taking images at an airshow, the camera is going to 'see' the bright sky and expose accordingly. This will result in a very dark image of the airplane. By adjusting the EV to 'overexpose' the camera can be tricked into correctly exposing the airplane. Any basic 35mm camera book will explain these functions in greater detail.

-- Curt Egerer (cegerer@hotmail.com), November 30, 1998.