From manual to auto?

[Alex Doig]

Hi Fuji folk. I’ve been shooting for 3yrs. Having forced myself to shoot manual from the very beginning, I’m wondering what auto modes you might suggest are worth using. I started on landscape stuff which gives you some luxury with time, but do a fair amount of high action mtb and dog photography now. I find a lot of my shots are out of focus (I do use AF...spot). 

[Olaf W.]

Welcome to our forum! I've moved your topic to the General Discussion section.

[George_P]

Alex, I use only auto-ISO when I find it useful. I almost never use auto-SS or auto-Aperture. For action shots, I don't know what camera you are using or how you have it set up, but maybe zone focusing could help you if continuous focusing does not cope with your situations.

[itchy shutter finger]

Hi Alex,

I've been shooting 42 years now, albeit all amateur. When I started out in 1978, automatic exposure was just coming of age, and most of the major brands were using aperture priority. Canon tried to appeal more to action photographers with shutter priority. Flash guys were relegated to manual only. At least that's how I remember it. Back then, cameras had one auto mode and manual mode. Nearly all formal training was done on manual mode only. Today's phenomenal cameras have it all, and on top of all that, many have the capability to identify scenes, faces, and eyes, and do some subject tracking. Throw in autofocus, and it can be overwhelming at first. Now add video ...........

Today, I think many pro-tographers (see what I did there?) use aperture priority for relatively still subjects, and the action guys use shutter priority. I use flash mostly, so I'm on manual most of the time. 

To actually answer your question, I would use aperture priority for your landscape work, and shutter priority for your action work. It furthermore sounds like you need to get more familiar with the autofocus and metering modes of your camera to capture stellar action shots. I recall watching a few YouTube videos by FujiFilm X-Photographer Dan Bailey on shooting action. I recommend them for your bike work.

[Greybeard]

I'm assuming you mean auto focus mode not auto exposure mode as you mention blur?

I'd agree with George about using zone rather than spot with continuous focus as it can be tricky keeping the spot on an erratically moving subject.

At that point its worth experimenting with the custom auto focus settings depending on exactly what the subject is, how it is moving and how likely there are to be obstacles between you and the subject while shooting.