“Go ahead, just push here, I’ll take care of everything, and what I give you is better than anything you could do…
Oh, the lies. The unfulfilled promise of easy auto, you know, the green auto setting on your camera that looks so inviting… so easy, so auto, and it’s green. Not so fast. The devil is inside that setting. Cameras are smart, and they are getting smarter everyday, but you still have one-up on that little rectangle of confusion, you have an opinion. Green Auto, aka Satan, tells you that you’re just not smart enough to adjust anything, and that your opinion of what you’re trying to capture really doesn’t matter.
When you’re under Green Auto’s spell, you are tricked and deceived into believing that you “got” the shot. Trouble is, most of the time we just accept what Green Auto gives us, without realizing that the moment could be captured with our emotion and opinion stamped into the images we create. Do you really want to use the flash for this shot? Maybe not. The terrible lie that Green Auto will take care of everything, to just ignore those other buttons and symbols on our cameras, must be revealed to put an end to bad photos and missed shots.
Luckily, we have options. It’s the letter P.
If you want auto, you can set your camera on P for Program. It’s just as automatic as the dreaded Green Auto, but now you will have the option of turning off your flash, changing your ISO and white balance, and other settings. In future installments of this series, we will explore the settings and functions of your camera, and what those settings will do for your photos. If you’re turning off the flash indoors, and raising the ISO to shoot with available light, then adjusting your camera’s white balance is essential if the colors aren’t looking right, so we’ll look at that next.
Just remember, from now on, if you try to set your camera to Green Auto, your hand will begin to cramp terribly, and you’ll sweat profusely, knowing that deep down you can do better than to accept the lies of what Green Auto has to offer.