How to take control of your digital camera
By Jack Socha | As written as a special article to the La Crosse Tribune

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’Tis the season to shoot important family shots with your first, or perhaps second, digital camera. If that digital camera seems more complicated than you expected, remember that widespread digital camera use is less than 10 years old.

When traditional cameras were 10, there was no film! Users still coated panes of glass with a mixture of egg whites and chemicals.

Like film cameras, digitals eventually will get easier. In the meantime, learning just a few things will help you get good results.

First, read the manual and highlight important parts. Learn to set the camera for the highest resolution and the highest quality. And learn how to check these settings quickly, especially if someone else has used the camera. You can always make a picture’s resolution smaller later for e-mailing, but you can’t make a low-resolution picture bigger and expect top quality.

Next, find three things you really want to use, learn them and ignore the rest. I suggest the flash on/off settings, exposure compensation and using the self-timer.

Once you have mastered three camera features, learn three more. Ask other camera users for help, buy a tutorial or take a class. And once you learn a new feature, use it every week. If you put down the camera for a month, expect to have to check your manual again for directions.

Understand what your camera can and cannot do. I am frequently asked, “Why are the pictures of my son (or granddaughter) doing gymnastics (or basketball) blurred?” The short answer is your camera is not designed to take action-freezing shots in relatively low light. Shots in sports magazines are taken with large cameras and lenses costing thousands of dollars, and it still takes skill and luck to get the shot. Will this get better? Yes, someday, as cameras improve.

What about camera shopping? Find a model that lets you change settings easily. But before you toss the old camera in a drawer, spend some time learning its features. You may discover you don’t need a new one.

Also, if your camera is a couple of years old, you may need a fresh battery, especially if the camera doesn’t seem to run as long as it used to. And if you shop for a larger memory card, be careful. Some new high-capacity cards may not work in your camera.

Most importantly, whether your camera is new or old, before any big event, take time to go over the controls so you are again familiar with them. Perhaps next year the one-button-does-it-all camera will be here, but don’t count on it. In the meantime, effort expended to learn your current camera’s features will pay big photographic dividends.

Jack Socha is the author of “How to Use the Digital Camera You Just Bought!” (www.acpress.com) and also teaches digital camera use through the Western Technical College Lifelong Learning program. He is a regular guest on Wisconsin Public Radio.

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