Know thy Camera Part-I

The world of photography has undergone a massive change in the recent years. With the advent of digital cameras having one of those “auto” modes, anyone and everyone can become a photographer. There is no need to know anything about cameras or even photography (for that matter), just pick up a camera, aim and shoot.. That’s it!! And trust me most of the times the camera will do its job pretty well giving you a splendid shot that you always wanted. But I will not be wrong either in saying that sometimes the same “auto mode” hampers your capability to take some shots which could have been much more stunning.

In some pictures not everything needs to be sharp, some parts can be blurred for the better...

Or sometimes we would like the image to be a little brighter or may be less..

But unfortunately cameras cannot perceive that; only humans understand and appreciate those differences. At the same time, sometimes your camera might actually outsmart you by having the capability to add a special effect to make the image look like it was taken in the vintage years...

But how many of you do know how to achieve these effects; or how many of you even know that these effects can be produced using your very own camera? I was myself surprised to know that the same camera which I have been using for over so many years and presumed to know pretty well could help me do so many more things when a friend of mine introduced me to it again! Moral of the story is, not all of us know our cameras well and herein lays the key to good photography. Know thy camera well to get stunning shots.

The aim of this blog post is to do the same that my friend did to me, re introduce you to your camera. The first step to do so is to read or at least glance through the user’s manual that came with you camera once. Not reading it at all just means that you won’t be able to take advantage of many cool and useful features your camera offers. Not only does reading the manual help you to more fully enjoy your camera, but it also enables you to take better pictures. When reading the manual, keep your camera besides you and keep trying the various steps, adjustments and changes described there. This will not just avoid the monotony of the process but will also help you remember well how to change a particular setting so that you don’t keep fiddling with the camera searching for a particular setting that you want and ‘once in a lifetime’ shot is missed. Trust me, putting in some time to read the manual will be worth every second spent when you actually take pictures.

If you are still not convinced that reading a manual is that important, allow me to illustrate how much a digital camera is worth knowing. Go through the list below and see how much you know about your camera.

1. Manufacturer and Model No.

2. Maximum Resolution and other resolutions at which photos can be taken

3. Image formats supported (JPEG, TIF, RAW etc)

4. Compression level

5. ISO Settings

6. White balance

7. Other exposure modes like Sepia, B&W available?

8. Photo storage media and capacity

9. Picture review: Histogram?

10. Lens: Aperture range, Shutter speeds, F Stops

11. Focus: Auto, Manual, Macro (available), continuous shooting (FPS)

12. Flash: Built in or not, Flash modes (Auto, Forced, Off etc)

13. Battery and duration of activity before recharging is required

14. Time lapse shooting (Present or not)

15. Panorama mode (Present or not)

After you are done, just find out how much you know by checking the same from the user’s manual. Knowing these basics about your camera will not just help you boast about its features to your friends and make you sound like a pro, but also at times help you find out some surprise features in your camera that you didn’t know about at all. Now tell me, did this small exercise help you discover something that you didn’t know about the camera? Do let us know.

Take home message: To know thy camera, read thy manual.

In the next round of Know thy Camera we shall talk a bit more in detail about these settings and how to use them.

Till then, Happy Clicking!!!

The Guild

During this week, we will be putting up a video podcast on "Know thy Camera".. So keep clicking into us or just subscribe to our feed!