Getting familiar with your digital camera

Although we recently had a class on getting to know your digital camera, many in the group have brand new cameras this time.

Since our meeting this month will focus a lot on the individual cameras that people bring to the meeting most of our notes will be posted after the meeting.

Here are a few items I expect to touch on.

You have a camera, now what?

Once you have the digital camera, you will need a few extras.

A 1 gigabyte memory card
At least one extra change of batteries
A nice padded camera case
A memory card reader

Software -

Picasa [1] - my personal choice for organizing and backing up pictures (I expect to do a lot of show and tell of this at the meeting this month).
Adobe Photoshop Elements - the best consumer program there is for manipulating, editing and fixing pictures.

What about a photo printer?

Personally, I have not used a photo printer for at least three years. Photo printers are too expensive when compared to photo labs and online services such as Shutterfly [2] , Club Photo [3] and Snapfish [4] .

One big reason to use a photo service rather than inkjet or die sublimation printers is proven longevity. Photos processed by photo services are actual photos. While Canon, Epson and HP all claim to produce prints that last as long as actual photos, none of these printers have been around long enough to prove their claims.

Picture Taking Tips

Allow the camera to focus and meter - Don't just press the shutter down quickly. Press the shutter down gently about half way to allow the camera to focus and meter. Squeeze the button down the rest of the way to take the picture.

Save batteries - There are three ways to burn down your batteries quickly:

Over using your zoom lens - the zoom lens is powered by a motor. Too much zooming will drain batteries.

Over using your LCD screen - Many camera makers have done away with the optical view finder (hole that lets you look though the camera) but if your camera has one you should use it. Using the LCD screen runs the batteries down faster than any other feature.

Connecting the camera to the computer - Use a memory reader instead of connecting the camera to the computer. Memory readers use no camera battery and the transfer process goes much faster.

Basic Camera Settings

Digital cameras can be a little overwhelming with all of their little buttons, icons and settings, but there are a few things you should know to help you get started.

Shoot on Auto or Program to start with - Today's cameras to a great job of thinking for you. You don't need to understand exposure, metering or any of those other fancy photo terms to get great shots most of the time.

Set your resolution on its highest settings - Lower resolution means more pictures, but it also means poorer pictures. Get a larger memory card rather than lowering the quality of your photos.

Get to know the custom settings - Once you are familiar with how to take pictures using the AUTO or program settings, your camera likely has custom modes that are designed for specific types of shots such as night, scenery, portraits, and macro. These are usually indicated by little symbols [5] on the camera.

If this helped, consider buying me a beer or an Americano! [6]