Aside from the main modes which control exposure, there are usually other, secondary settings common to digital cameras.
Drive mode "Single" mode will take a single picture each time the
shutter button is depressed. "Continuous" or "burst" mode will take multiple photographs in quick succession as long as the shutter button is held down, and is typically used to capture fast-moving subjects such as in
sports photography. Other drive modes commonly available include
self-timer, which takes a picture several seconds after the shutter button is pressed;
automatic exposure bracketing, used to take multiple photos each with different exposure settings; and remote shutter mode for use with a remote control accessory to trigger the camera at a distance. Some cameras also have an
intervalometer mode for
time-lapse photography, possibly with the option to automatically create a video from the pictures taken.
Autofocus Autofocus (AF) can either activate until a lock is found (single, AF-S) or be continuously active (continuous, AF-C, servo). Single-mode is especially favored for stationary subjects, when focus, once found, should stay fixed, while the continuous mode is used for moving subjects. Some AF systems also include anticipation of the position of moving subjects – Canon calls this
AI servo (for
artificial intelligence) – or can automatically switch between single and continuous depending on whether the subject is moving – Canon calls this "AI focus". A separate but often related distinction is between '
and release priority' – whether the camera will take a picture when the subject is out of focus or not. In focus priority, the camera will only take a picture when the subject is in focus (as detected by the AF system), while in release priority, the camera will take a picture whenever the shutter is pressed. Release priority is particularly used of fast-moving subjects, which may not be perfectly in focus, or by experienced photographers, who wish to override the camera's judgment of whether the scene is in focus. These are usually combined: for stationary subjects, AF is set to single (lock when found) and release is set to focus priority, while for moving subjects, AF is set to continuous and release is set to release priority.
Manual focus is generally in release priority – AF is neither detected nor set. Note that these "priority" modes should not be confused with the same word in exposure modes. Focus priority can also be used for the
trap focus trick: to take a picture only when a subject hits a focus point, by using AF to detect focus but not set it.
Back button focus In most digital cameras, by default autofocus is only activated (AF-on) when the shutter button is pressed halfway down, which helps to preserve battery life. However, some photographers find that having AF-on and the shutter release on the same button makes it harder to establish the correct focus point, or hold it once the desired point is established. By using a separate shutter and focus button, focus can be locked at the same time as shooting without changing exposure, allowing the photographer to focus on the subject through the viewfinder. One technique to make this easier to control is called
back button focus: separating focus from the shutter control button by reassigning the AF-on function to a button on the back of the camera body. Some models of a camera may have a dedicated AF-ON button, and menu options to disable the focus via shutter button half-press. When photographing at golden hour and fighting off sun flare, the back button focus can become an essential tool to use. Back button focus gives the benefit of being able to work with the three main possible focusing modes: manual focus, single focus, and continuous focus. It is a technique favored by many wildlife photographers due to the unpredictability of animal subjects.
Flash Flash modes allow the user to choose between common settings such as:
Fill flash, to always use flash;
Auto flash, which will use flash in low-lit areas;
Red-eye reduction, which may flash once before the actual photo in order to shrink the subject's pupils and reduce red-eye; or,
Flash off, which will never use flash. Flash can have its own exposure compensation–how brightly it flashes–which allows one to independently adjust the exposure of the foreground (lit by flash) and background (out of flash range).
Other modes • Although also sometimes used as a scenery mode, macro modes are often not used with the scene mode and rather only change the focus area and nothing else. • Some cameras provide options for fine-tuning settings such as sharpness and saturation, which may be referred to as "Styles" or "Films". • Some cameras offer color-altering settings to do things such as make the photograph black-and-white or sepia, swap specific colors, or isolate colors. ==See also==