Author: Harry Guinness / Source: How-To Geek
DSLRs and mirrorless cameras have a lot of buttons. If you’re just starting to get the hang of manually controlling your camera, you’re probably wondering what all the—seemingly non-essential—ones do. Let’s take a look at the AE-L, AF-L, AF-ON, and * buttons.
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The AE-L or * Buttons
The AE-L and * buttons are the same. It’s just that Nikon and Sony use AE-L and Canon, inexplicably, uses the asterisk symbol. The AE stands for “Automatic Exposure,” and the L stands for “Lock.” In other words, when you press it, whatever exposure settings your camera currently has selected are locked until you take a picture or release the shutter button fully.
This is incredibly useful if you’re working in one of the semi-manual modes like Aperture Priority or Shutter Speed priority. For example, if you’re trying to take a silhouette photo or working in a tricky lighting situation. Here’s what to do:
- Select whatever metering mode you think will work best.
- Half-press the shutter button to start your camera’s meter.
- Focus your camera on whatever object in the scene will give you the exposure you want. If you’re shooting a silhouette, meter off the bright background if you want your subject well exposed despite a bright backlight, meter off…
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