How to Use Digital Camera Settings
Unless your a trained photographer, the settings on your new digital camera can be confusing. What all the settings are for and how to best use them may seam to be beyond your abilities. When you first get your new camera you might be tempted to set it to auto and just forget it. After all, isn't that what auto is for? Non- photographers who don't know how to chose their digital cameras settings. The good news is that with a little knowledge, a little practice and a good digital camera, you can learn to take quality photos in full automatic or using your cameras manual settings. All of the top camera manufactures offer settings that you can set and forget, settings that give you some control over the shot, or settings that let you take complete control to get that one perfect picture. In this article I will tell you about some of the common settings available on name brand digital cameras today, tell you what they do and and give you the basics about how to use them.
Automatic Scene Selection
Canon calls them 'Shooting Modes', Casio 'Recording Functions', Nikon 'Scene Auto Selector', Panasonic 'iA Modes' and Pentax refers to them as 'Custom Image Modes'. No mater what your camera manufacturer calls them the automatic exposure controls found with point and shoot cameras allow the photographer to set there camera to predefined settings that help ensure optimized exposure and focus during specific scene conditions. These exposure modes are designed to be foolproof giving you professional quality pictures even if you know nothing about photography. The exposure controls are designed to be self-explanatory (Ex: Night Scene), but you can find additional information and tips for using them in your cameras user manual if you get confused. As you research which digital camera you want to buy, be sure to check what types of shooting modes are present. You will be taking pictures under many different conditions. Indoors, outdoors, bright days and at night. You may be shooting a landscape scene or the kids playing ball so a wide variety of shooting modes is key to getting great shots every time.
ISO
Choosing the correct iso setting is one of the most important manual settings you will make on your digital camera. Once you understand how changing the iso setting affects the exposure of a photo you can adjust it with confidence. The iso setting on your digital camera refers to how sensitive your cameras image sensor is to the light striking it. Changing the iso setting tells your camera how sensitive you want the image sensor to be. The iso setting is useful during difficult exposures such as very bright or very dark lighting. A lower iso setting reduces the sensitivity of the image sensor. This is useful when photographing very bright scenes. When selecting a lower iso setting you must be aware of what impact it has on your shutter speed. Too low of an iso setting will force the cameras shutter to remain open longer to let in more light. If you do not hold the camera completely steady, or have it on a tripod during the exposure, the image will come out blurred. Using a cameras with image stabilization software can reduce the effects of this camera shake to keep your images well focused. A higher iso setting increases the image sensors sensitivity to light. This is useful when photographing in low-light situations. When you raise the iso setting you must be aware of the introduction of digital 'noise' into the image. Noise is a grainy or speckled look that shows up first in the darker areas of an image when a high iso setting is used. This noise occurs most often when you increase the iso setting while using your cameras highest pixel settings.
White Balance
The white balance settings on a digital camera are there to compensate for the color differences of various light sources. As you may recall from science class, a light may look 'white', but is actually made up of all the colors of the visual spectrum. No light source has an even distribution of these colors. With some lights the colors are shifted toward the blue end of the spectrum, a cool light. With other lights the colors are shifted toward the red end of the spectrum, a warm light. With improper white balance settings your camera can pick up these color shifts and give your photo a blue, orange or green color cast. If your photos have a color cast then you will have to set the white balance for the specific light source you are shooting under. The most common white balance settings are tungsten, fluorescent, daylight, cloudy and shade.
There are many brands and models of digital cameras on the market today. Prices range from under a hundred dollars to several hundred dollars. In general, the cheaper models will offer fewer features, including fewer settings for automatic scene selection, iso settings and white balance settings, while the more expensive models will offer more. Knowing what these settings do and how you can use them to take better photographs will help you when its time to choose your next digital camera.
Cool Product Of The Week
Canon PowerShot D10
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