Knowing Your Digital Camera

Read the manual. You’ll never know all the things your camera can do if you don’t read it. Go through all the menu items so you’ll know where things are and can easily access them.

Buy an extra battery and keep it charged. Carry your batteries and extra cards with you at all times.

Use the preset modes. Most cameras come with all the basics such as action landscape, macro, night, and portrait. They generally work wonders. Some cameras have many more modes. For descriptions of digital camera icons, click here.

Macro lenses have a “sweet spot” where you get razor sharp images. To get the most out of your lens, shoot perfectly straight at the subject, not upward or downward.
For great flower shots, get down low and shoot the flowers so they’re backlit, with the sun shining through the translucent petals. It works every time.

Turn off the date stamp. It’s unsightly on the picture and you don’t need it. If you want to know when a picture was taken, click on the picture in Picasa, and the date will appear below it.

Turn the digital zoom off. Optical zoom uses the lens of the camera to bring your subject closer, which is what you want. On the other hand, digital zoom causes the camera to crop your image inside the camera, which decreases image quality and is not what you want. Use digital zoom only when you absolutely have to have a picture and cannot move any closer to the subject.

Locking focus and light: Sunsets can be difficult because you’re shooting into the sun, and it can throw your camera’s built-in light meter way off. There’s a simple trick to getting perfect sunset shots. Aim just above the setting sun itself making sure you can’t see the sun thrown the viewfinder. Then hold your shutter button halfway down, and move the camera to recompose the shots as you’d like it to look. Press the shutter button down the rest of the way and take the shot. Use the same method to hold the focus. Place the focus icon over your subject, press the shutter button half way, then recompose the picture before clicking it all the way.

Learn how to use the self timer. It’s a great way to get everyone in the picture. Have a small tripod ready to go.

Use the highest image size on your camera even though it takes more room on your card. (With some exceptions) Cards are inexpensive and you should have several.