Know What You Own
You may have a simple point-and-shoot camera, a “prosumer” camera, or even a top-of-the-line digital single lens reflex camera. No matter what kind of camera you have, you will not be able to realize it to its full potential unless you familiarize yourself with its functions and quirks.
A camera that is correctly set and used with the correct accessories will not only let you take a photograph with the proper exposure, familiarity with it will also free you to concentrate on the other aspects of your picture, especially the composition of the shot. Reading the manual is paramount if you want to exploit fully the features of your camera.
Equally important, you should also know the limitations that your camera has (which unfortunately may only surface when you actually start taking pictures with it). Many popular digital “point-and-shoot” cameras suffer from the problem of shutter lag – the delay between clicking the shot, and the camera actually capturing the shot. This is the excuse given by many for not being able to capture those decisive moment pictures or for missing important shots. While true to a certain extent, shutter lag can be minimized in many instances simply by anticipating a shot and prefocusing the camera right before the action moment.
Despite shutter and focusing lag that were the limitations of the camera I used, I was able to capture this scene of a jetty worker in action by prefocusing and anticipating his actions and hence was able to capture this picture.
Many tips on using your camera and overcoming its limitations are available in countless online web forums all over the world. It may be worthwhile to participate in these forums to share your experiences as well as to learn from others.
Again, pre-empting the actions of these birds by prefocusing and setting the correct settings enabled me to capture the exact moment that I wanted.
It is also common among many amateurs to blame poor quality pictures on the lack of features in their cameras. It doesn’t help that major camera manufacturers come out with new cameras all the time, touting better features, higher resolutions and promising you better pictures. From their standpoint, the more cameras they sell, the more money they earn! But before you plonk your hard-earned cash into that dream camera of yours, ask yourself: How much of the features of your existing camera have you actually used? Have you exploited the full limits of your camera’s potential?
In a recent local web-poll conducted on the Internet, close to 85% of amateur digital camera users used semi-automatic to full automatic exposure modes to take their shots, with a staggering 56% using Aperture priority settings and a surprising 20% using the full automatic Program mode for their shots. Only 15% of those polled named the Manual mode as their most often used setting. Yet, many digital cameras these days offer manual settings as an option, but alas, an option that is frequently forgotten about by many. In many instances however, the best pictures that can be taken with any digital camera are the ones that are taken in Manual mode, but provided that you know the basic principles of exposure and how to achieve the correct settings!
Manual mode exposure with prefocusing on these two men gave me the flexibility to snap the shot at the precise moment, in the thick of the action!
All the works that you see here in this article were taken in full manual exposure modes, even for those taken on a simpler 4-megapixel camera that I owned earlier. You may upgrade to a camera that has 100-point focusing, 500-zone metering and super-duper hypersonic fast focusing. This however, will not guarantee that you will be automatically taking award-winning photos. Ultimately it is up to you, the photographer, to frame the shot, to maximize the potential of your camera, and eventually click the shot.
NEXT: Master The Rules…