I’m sure this will be controversial, because its 2021 and we can’t have an opinion that doesn’t outrage some group of people.

Camera manufacturers need to stop putting an automatic setting on professional cameras.

There are a bunch of different settings on a camera, each with different functions. The five main ones are Automatic, Program, Aperture-Priority, Shutter-Priority and Manual.

If you’re striving to be a great photographer, your camera should be set to Manual. You choose your aperture, shutter speed and ISO settings for your images. You’ll struggle at first, but over time you’ll get better.

Aperture-Priority and Shutter-Priority are essentially training wheels as you learn how to use a camera. When in A-P, you set the aperture as you wish and the camera sets the proper shutter speed. S-P does the reverse.

I honestly don’t know the difference between Automatic and Program. There doesn’t seem to be much. But the gist is that they take all the training out of photography. Don’t worry about learning the math and the science of light. Automatic basically turns a $2000 camera into a fancy iPhone that doesn’t allow you to access Instagram.

I never thought about it much, until recently. I had been noticing an abundance of very bland, but properly-exposed photography on the internet. It all looks exactly the same and I couldn’t figure out why so many people were putting out basically the same work.

Another photographer explained it to me on a comment thread. People are just setting their cameras to Auto and putting the same brown Autumn-themed preset on their images.

Huh.

In an era when photographers are constantly arguing as to whether cell phone cameras will replace our gear and essentially replace us, camera manufacturers still make cameras that take the art and science out of our profession. Why?

First of all, it is so easy in the current era to learn photography if you are willing to work at it. My first camera was a film camera. I never got anywhere with it. Every time I used a roll of film, I had to get it developed to see how it turned out. And it didn’t matter because I had no idea what settings I used on the good or bad images.

Now, I can see in-camera whether my image is exposed properly.

Modern cameras are Easy Mode! And again, you still have A-P and S-P if you’re struggling.

So why are these companies empowering people who are too lazy to put in the least amount of effort?

Additionally, there is a benefit to the cameras themselves. Whatever computational power would normally be devoted to these modes could be put towards other functions, making the cameras even better.

And let’s be clear- because again, its 2021 and I can already hear the morons- this isn’t gatekeeping. I literally teach a basic photography class. I’m all for people who love taking photos getting further in. But expecting you to work at it isn’t the same as telling you that you don’t belong. If you really want to be a photographer, why wouldn’t you want to get better?

There really isn’t a good argument for keeping Auto. If you can’t figure out how to shoot using A-P or S-P and are unwilling to watch youtube videos or take a class, just stick to your cell phone.