Even when they buy cellphones, it must have built-in camera in it. Not only in the Philippines but world-wide that people wants to have a digital camera because it has lots of uses. Taking time to learn how your camera works and making sure you have the equipment you need will help ensure your first photo shoot is a success. Maybe it’s your first digital camera, or maybe it’s your seventh. Whatever the case, if fate or good fortune has left you holding a nifty new camera, you’re probably jazzed about seeing what it can do. But before you get going, take time to get acquainted with your new pixel-producing friend.
When it comes to cool technology, it’s hard to beat a digital camera. With a digital camera you can preview pictures right after shooting them. You can drop them in an e-mail and inflict them on friends and family. Editing them on your computer is so easy you may decide you actually share a gene pool with Annie Leibovitz.
However, before you embark on your first glorious photographic outing anywhere in the Philippines or abroad with your camera, make sure you and your equipment get started on the right foot. Here are five things to do before you go on your first photo shoot.
- Push the buttons.
Your camera probably came with way more buttons and settings than you care to know about. But don’t be nervous about diving in and learning how everything works. Budget an hour or two on a Saturday morning to push all the buttons and review the small-print instructions in your user guide. You don’t want to get bogged down figuring out how to use your camera when it’s time to take pictures. - Move some photos to your PC.
Getting your photos onto your computer is half of the fun of having a digital camera. From your computer, you can edit and e-mail photos as well as store and organize them. Don’t wait until you return from your vacation to Fiji to figure out how to transfer your image files from your camera to your PC (usually via the cable that comes with your camera). When you connect your camera to a computer running Windows XP or Windows Vista, your computer will typically “recognize” the camera and automatically walk you through the steps to save your photos. - Get backup batteries (lots of them).
One way that your digital camera can thwart a blissful photographic moment is to run out of battery power. Figure out what type of battery your camera uses and get a backup or three as soon as possible to carry in your camera case. If you find your camera is a power hog, there are ways to help conserve power. For instance, if it has an optical viewfinder, you can preserve battery life by shooting with the LCD screen turned off. - Get more memory.
Digital cameras store pictures on a media (or memory) card, a small chip that you can easily insert and remove from your camera. New cameras typically come with small media cards that don’t hold many photos. Figure out what kind of media card your camera uses and then upgrade to a 1 gigabyte (GB) card. Having a backup card available in your camera case is a good idea. - Take a class.
If digital photography is new or mysterious to you, find a class, book or Web site that teaches the basic terms and concepts. For instance, it really helps to understand stuff such as pixels (the smallest part of a digital image) and resolution (the number of pixels in an image). Resolution will affect the overall quality and amount of detail in your image. It will also affect how much camera memory each image consumes.
Finally, if you want your new camera to produce good pictures, become a good photographer. Seek out some advice about how to take better photos. Digital photography is no different than any other type of photography when it comes to capturing the subject. A little attention to composition, lighting and foreground and background can make a huge difference in how your images turn out.
