The A to Z of Photography: Program AE

Program AE is short for ‘program auto exposure’ and it’s where the camera takes control of both the lens aperture and the shutter speed – the two main ways of adjusting exposure – and balances both to produce a suitable exposure.
What it tries to do is set a shutter speed fast enough to avoid any risk of camera shake and a lens aperture small enough to offer good depth of field. 

Photographers often think this program AE mode is more for beginners than experienced users, but actually, for many everyday photographic subjects, it saves you time with a perfectly good compromise that you’d find it difficult to improve on.

With basic point-and-shoot cameras, this might be the only exposure mode you get. With more advanced models you’ll get shutter-priority, aperture-priority and manual modes too.

If you have a camera with ‘scene’ modes, for example, these are essentially a program AE mode, but ‘tuned’ with different shutter speed and aperture combinations

If you’re shooting an action subject you might switch to shutter priority mode so that you can set a fast shutter speed to freeze the action, while if you’re photographing and landscape or a still life where you want maximum depth of field you might switch to aperture-priority mode instead. If neither shutter speed nor aperture is particularly important, than program AE mode will do the job just fine.

Program AE isn’t always called that. If you have a camera with ‘scene’ modes, for example, these are essentially a program AE mode, but ‘tuned’ with different shutter speed and aperture combinations (and other settings) for different kinds of subject. And full auto modes are simply program AE modes with added automation, such as auto ISO and auto flash.

What does ‘program’ mean?

If you look at a manual for an old film camera you might see a ‘program line’ which shows you how the camera will adjust the shutter speed and the lens aperture in steps according to the light level. 

These days, though, cameras are much more sophisticated and intelligent, and will adjust this ‘program’ according to the lens you’re using, the focal length and whether or not the lens has image stabilisation – the camera gets all this information from the lens via the electrical connectors on the lens mount.

Can you override it?

More advanced cameras will offer a ‘program shift’ function where you can change the combination of shutter speed and aperture settings without having to change modes, usually just by turning a control dial.

Turning the dial one way will give you faster shutter speeds and wider lens apertures to compensate; turning it the other way will give you smaller lens apertures for more depth of field but correspondingly slower shutter speeds – you just turn the dial to get the specific shutter speed or lens aperture setting that you want.

Rod Lawton
Freelance contributor

Rod is an independent photographer and photography journalist with more than 30 years' experience. He's previously worked as Head of Testing for Future’s photography magazines, including Digital Camera, N-Photo, PhotoPlus, Professional Photography, Photography Week and Practical Photoshop, and as Reviews Editor on Digital Camera World.

Latest in Photography
Shooting with a Samsung Galaxy Ultra smartphone
I shot and edited this photo with my Samsung Galaxy Ultra and Adobe Lightroom Mobile – here's how you can get pro results with just your phone
A hand holding the Ricoh GR IIIx camera
My photography resolution for 2025 is to keep a point-and-shoot compact in my pocket, and to actually use it!
Two photos of a girl behind a window, one with reflections removed with Photoshop
Photoshop gets the next big thing in AI photography – a tool that makes your unwanted reflections vanish
A seascape of ice in Jökulsarlon, Iceland
I used Claude AI to plan a photography trip, and it's going to change the way I plan shoots forever
Manchester City forward Jeremy Doku takes on defender Ola Aina
I shot a Premier League soccer game with the new flagship Sony A1 II mirrorless camera – here are 5 things I learned
A woman standing next to a telescope looking up at the moon
How to step up your stargazing game in 2025 on the cheap, according to space experts
Latest in News
Vision Pro Metallica
Apple Vision Pro goes off to never never land with Metallica concert footage
Mufasa is joined by another lion, a monkey and a bird in this promotional image
Mufasa: The Lion King prowls onto Disney+ as it finally gets a streaming release date
An American flag flying outside the US Capitol building against a blue sky
Sean Plankey selected as CISA director by President Trump
An Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 on a table with its retail packaging
Nvidia RTX 5060 GPU spotted in Acer gaming PC, suggesting rumors of imminent launch are correct – and that it’ll run with only 8GB of video RAM
Indiana Jones talking to a friend in a university setting with a jaunty smile on his face
New leak claims Indiana Jones and the Great Circle PS5 release will come in April
A close up of the limited edition vinyl turntable wrist watch from AndoAndoAndo
This limited-edition timepiece turns the iconic Technics SL-1200 turntable into a watch, and I want one