Was on a nature hike recently. Wanted to capture things like birds, flowers, naturescapes, etc. Full tree canopy and shaded at times, wide open and sunny at other. Was a guided hike and I didn’t want to hold up the group. Ended up flipping it to Auto instead of fiddling with shutter/aperture. How does an experienced photographer handle that scenario? I feel so dirty for using it on Auto.
Use Aperture priority mode with auto ISO and focus on composition.
Going manual mode creates a lot more unnecessary work with the constantly changing environment. You spend more time focusing on getting the right exposure vs focusing on the composition and miss the shot.
I know how my camera works and I’m quite comfortable using auto settings to reduce the work load.
I do use manual mode when I want a specific aperture and shutter speed combination but leave the camera on auto ISO. I adjust the lower limit of auto ISO to the shutter speed I’m using.
I also use manual mode with TTL flash for indoor shooting.
But 90% of my pictures are shot using aperture priority mode.