Quercus wrote in message ...
Hi there, I was wondering how do people "usually" set those parameters
in their cameras to get the desired exposure.

I mean, with the camera in full manual mode, do you first choose the
f-stop (looking for depth of field) and then you adjust shutter time
until the exposure will be correct or you do it in reverse order, first
shutter and then aperture to meet correct lighting?

I guess that depends of what is the subject, if it has fast motion
you'll probably set first a lower shutter time, and then check for
f-stop... And so on...

But my question is about "normal" pictures, those without fast motion or
low depth of field required (portraits)...

Which method works best? Shutter-Aperture or Aperture-Shutter? Any
other? Is that just a matter of personal preference?

I own a point and shoot digicam, with shutter and aperture priority
programs, so I don't have all the control over those variables that I
would like to, but I wanna get the best from it while I win the lotto
and get a DSLR ;-)

-Quercus-

Okay, I'm in the minority. I set my camera to 1/250 shutter speed in
shutter priority mode and let the metering system choose the aperture
(f-stop). As a street photographer, I have learned the my selected
shutter speed is the slowest which freezes nearly all pedestrian
motion, but still allows for some vehicular traffic motion blur.
Since I usually have a very sepcific main subject supported by
background elements I don't necessarily care about depth-of-field. I
use background more for framing than identification of my main
subject. In totality, my photographs show that places tend to remain
similar while people are constantly in a state of change, sometimes by
way of different people and sometimes by way of the same person in
about the same place on a different day. So, my camera is set to
1/250 in Tv mode. For those curious, I shoot Tri-X at EI 200.

Michael