Why Do My Photos Look Bad in Auto Mode? (And How to Fix It)

Why Do My Photos Look Bad in Auto Mode? (And How to Fix It)

You buy a nice camera.

You leave it in Auto mode, because that seems like the safest (and let’s face it, easier!) option.

You take some photos…and the results are a bit all over the place.

Sometimes the camera gets it right. Other times the photos are dreadful. The camera focuses on the wrong thing. The exposure looks completely different from one photo to the next. Sometimes the picture is too dark, other times far too bright.

If this sounds familiar, don’t worry. I see this all the time when people arrive at a beginners training session.

It’s one of the most common frustrations beginners experience but there is a fix.

Why Auto mode can feel so unpredictable

Your camera is actually doing exactly what it has been designed to do.

The problem is that it’s only a tool, a machine.

It might have cost you a fair bit of money, but it isn’t clever enough to understand what you’re photographing or why. It can’t read your mind.

It doesn’t know whether the most important thing in the scene is:

• the child running across the garden

• the bird on the fence

• the person standing in front of a bright window

• the sunset behind the trees

All the camera can do is measure the light and make a technical decision based on that information.

In other words, your camera is working with averages and maths.

But you didn’t take the photo because of the maths! You took the photo because something caught your eye and you wanted to capture it.

Why the camera sometimes gets it right

Auto mode works well when the scene is simple and evenly lit. For example:

• a bright sunny day

• your subject standing clearly in front of the background

• plenty of light available

In situations like this, the camera’s guess is often good enough. But once the scene becomes a little more complicated, the camera has to start guessing.

And sometimes those guesses are wrong.

A better place to start

The good news is that you don’t need to jump straight into full Manual mode.

A great next step for many beginners is Aperture Priority mode (often shown as A or Av on the mode dial).

Aperture lets the light in. (just like Harry Styles said!). It’s basically an adjustable hole in your lens. As well as letting light into the camera, it also affects how blurry the background of your photo appears.

Aperture Priority lets you choose the size of that opening, while the camera automatically adjusts the other settings to give you a well-exposed photo.

A simple rule of thumb is:

• choose a lower number if you want a blurrier background

• choose a higher number if you want more of the scene to be in focus from front to back

It’s one of the easiest ways to start taking control of your camera; while still letting it help with the technical side.

If you'd like to understand how this all works

If you'd like to understand why this works and learn more simple, professional techniques for getting the most out of your camera, that’s exactly what I teach inside my Get Camera Confident course.

It’s designed specifically for beginners and helps you move beyond Auto mode so you can start taking the photos you actually imagined when you picked up your camera.

EXPLORE GET CAMERA CONFIDENT

Sarah Lester is a professional photographer with over 20 years of experience behind the camera. She specialises in helping beginners feel confident using their cameras in a clear, simple and jargon-free way.

Her Get Camera Confident course has already helped more than 1,000 students start taking photos they’re proud of.