Shooting Intelligent Auto Mode

From the Best Mark Toal

After la previous blog about how I’ve started using Auto ISO somebody made a lighthearted comment on Facebook asking if I was going to start shooting in Program mode next? The correct answer that I’m more often shooting using the Intelligent Auto Mode or IA with my Panasonic mirrorless cameras. You’ll find a similar mode, called iAuto, on Olympus mirrorless cameras on the mode dial.

The longer that I make photographs the more I realize that a good photograph is not how much I know about using my camera settings, it’s all about capturing what I see when I see it. Of course there are times when I want a certain depth-of-field affect but frequently the photo is gone by the time I can make the settings.

All of these portraits were all shot in IA mode. Except for framing the scene, the camera had complete control. All I did was lift the camera to my eye, compose and press the shutter. I directed the subjects to move in order to better capture the light or to look a certain way—that’s it. The IA mode freed me to concentrate on the person and the image I was making. The black and white effect was done in post processing.