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Comment by thomasgerbe | Hacker News Reader

"Forget about everything you've read about aperture settings and exposure. Leave that stuff for the people that depend of their photos for their income."

I couldn't disagree more with this. I'm not a professional photographer but knowing basics about aperture/shutter speed/ISO is pretty important to knowing how to get the right look that you want.

At the very least, just put it on Apeture Priority and set the ISO/Aperture manually because then you'll develop an instinct as to how to adjust to certain light settings, and how well your lens does at specific depths of field.

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I agree with both of you. I shoot in both auto and aperture priority modes. I've lost good shots by monkeying with settings, and I've also lost good shots because auto didn't cut it and I wasn't quick enough at picking the right aperture and exposure compensation. For a beginner who wants to get good but also doesn't want to completely whiff on important moments, they're both essential.

I make a lot better pictures since I set everything to automatic. In fact, I really love the Smart mode in my Samsung WB600. It is now basically a point-n-shoot camera.

It enables me to focus on the subject: family, animals, plants, landscape, whatever. The algorithm has a lot more patience and competence for the secondary details.

Isn't the WB600 a point-and-shoot camera anyway? I haven't used it but just looked it up briefly.

People CAN basically use Full-Auto on a DSLR which wouldn't hurt their images but I think that they miss the nuances of a lens or how making slight adjustments to the settings will create a different effect. I don't see any personal benefits from ignoring details of the craft.

The WB600 is really from the lower-end, but has modes to control ISO, aperture and bracket size.

I didn't deny people can use these settings to make the photos really shine, but for non-professionals, it is -- from my point of view -- wiser to focus on the people you're taking photos of. Amateurs should really master angle, position and so forth before diving into the world of technical minorities - which is often not the case.

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