I am soooo guilty of this it isn't even funny. My wife would say, you're such a guy. What am I talking about? Reading instruction manuals of course. Well except for my camera manuals, those I read until pages fall out.
During the holiday season, people who have gotten those great digital camera gifts are by my consideration, the luckiest people of all. They have gotten the gift that keeps on giving. For years they will be able to produce new photos of their family and friends, make gifts of their own and even create art. What a cool gift. The problem is that most people don't appreciate the full functions of their cameras. Need proof? look no further than the point and shoot section of any camera department. These camera's are designed to allow the shooter to just take pictures. Unfortunately, many of the users of these cameras believe that the camera was designed to do everything for them, so they don't bother reading the manual that came with it. I will even go farther to say that if you have had your camera for more than 1 year, you probably don't even know where the manual is. If you do know, it is still inside the plastic wrapper that it was delivered in. Don't feel bad, you're not alone.
Three times a year we teach a course at the University of Hawaii called Know your camera. This series of classes is designed for those with a digital single lens reflex (DSLR) Camera that want to learn more about it. We instruct them on the manual settings and abilities of their cameras, hopefully teaching them to take their photography to a new level. It's in these classes that we've seen it all. There are those that show up with a completely automatic point and shoot camera, others that have come and never even taken the camera out of the box. The majority of the students though, come to the class after having used their cameras and don't have or know where their manuals are. If this sounds familiar, read on and then go look for that manual.
If you want to be a better photographer, the first step is to know your camera. The way to do this is to go through your manual, front to back. There is some surprising stuff in there from accessories to proper exposure, your manual is more than just an instruction book. Before you jump in though let me tell you the single biggest reason why you should not only read about your camera, but test out the cool examples it contains. In a word MONEY. First of all there's the money you paid for this incredible piece of equipment. Second it's the money you will lose because you didn't properly expose a photo and paid to have it printed anyway. Finally, it's the money you will save and maybe even make if you follow the manual's instructions on proper exposure methods, use of accessories and care of your camera.
Probably one of the greatest things that has come from the digital photography revolution, is the instant results we get. Years ago, to know if you had gotten a properly exposed image, you would have to wait til your film was already processed and printed. Today we just look at the preview on the back of the camera. While this is only a representation of the images exposure, it is close enough to let us know if we need to take the picture again. With this in mind, what do you have to lose? Take your manual out into the field and test out the stuff in there. Find the manual setting on the camera and use it. Check your light meter, make an adjustment to your aperture, shutter speed, ISO setting and see what affect it has on your images. The results are instant, if you do poorly, simply erase the image and try again. Where the learning curve used to be steep and expensive, today you are only wasting unwanted pixels if you make a mistake.
Alright, now I know most of you will read this article and then forget about it. You'll move on, not read through your manual and wonder why you didn't the next time you pick up your camera. Hey we're all human. So I have listed a few things you can look up in your manual below that you may or may not have as an option on your camera, but that will at the very least get you looking through the booklet. If you do this the minute after you have printed out this article, awesome! You are on your way to better pictures. If not.... well I'll see you in my next
Know Your Camera class, don't forget the manual. -Aloha
Things to look up in your camera manual
- Manual camera mode
- ISO setting
- Aperture
- Shutter speed
- Macro
- Self Timer
- Matrix, evaluative, center weighted or spot metering
- Vibration reduction or image stabilization
- Flash ( specifically the f-stop or distance to subject)
