What’s the priority?

How to decide which element you should adjust first

The combination of aperture, shutter speed and ISO you choose is down to the look you want to achieve. Do you want more of the picture to look sharply focused or less? Should moving objects be razor-sharp or have motion blur?

The trick is to decide what the most important aspect of the photo is, and set that variable first. If you shoot in one of the semi-automatic Creative Zone modes, the camera can set the other elements for you. Once you set an aperture in Aperture Priority, for example, the shutter speed will be set for you. It’s a similar story with Shutter Priority: you set the shutter speed, and the camera attempts to marry this with an aperture. In Program mode, you can shift the combination of aperture and shutter speed with a spin

of the camera’s control dial.