Aperture Priority Is Not Cheating

Somewhere along the way, a lot of photographers were told that “real” photography means shooting in full manual. As if using help from your camera somehow makes your images less honest. That idea has done more harm than good.

Today’s camera habit is simple. Switch to Aperture Priority.

In Aperture Priority, you choose the aperture and the camera chooses the shutter speed. If you enable Auto ISO, the camera helps even more. You stay in control of the creative decisions while the camera handles the math. That is not laziness. That is efficiency. This is how many working photographers shoot most of the time. Not because they cannot shoot manual, but because they know what actually matters in the moment. Light changes. Subjects move. Expressions appear and disappear. Aperture Priority lets you stay present instead of buried in settings.

Here is what to try today.

Set your camera to Aperture Priority. Start at f/4. Turn on Auto ISO and cap it at a reasonable limit like 3200. Now take three portraits of the same person.

Shoot one at f/4. The background melts away and the story is about the person.
Shoot one at f/8. The background becomes readable but not distracting.
Shoot one at f/16. Everything sharp. The image feels more documentary.

Then do one more thing. Without changing your aperture, step closer to your subject and shoot again. Then step farther back and shoot again. You will see how camera to subject distance changes depth of field just as much as the f-stop does.

This is where things click.

Aperture is not just about blur. It controls depth of field. Depth of field controls attention. Attention controls story. The creamy background blur people love has a name. It is called bokeh. But bokeh is only the surface result. What you are really learning to control is what the viewer notices first and what fades into the background.

That is the habit.

Stop fighting your camera.

Stop thinking manual mode is a badge of honor.

Start choosing the setting that lets you focus on seeing.

Control the creative stuff. Let the camera handle the math.

Grab your camera today and build the habit. JC