IWACA GUEST FEATURE
IWACA | 49
Most often, found in a menu. This is where you set the size to capture the image on the media. Large jpg? RAW? Both? There are several different combinations and while all cameras offer the jpg option, many P & S cameras still don’t allow you to capture a RAW image.
There are many other settings found in the menus on digital cameras. Flash settings, DOF preview, Image Review, and the list goes on.
I will say this again. Know thy camera by reading the manual and using the camera. Try using the different settings. See what works for you. Play! Have fun! Shoot!
somewhere different, but the basic operation remains the same.
Every camera has a shutter button. Yep, the button you press to take the picture. On some P & S cameras, pressing this button causes a momentary lapse of reason as about 3 to 5 seconds can go by before it actually takes the picture. This has been improved over the years, but it is still sometimes frustrating to watch little Johnny leap into the air to catch that fly ball, and be back on the ground while your camera is still trying to capture the image.
Every camera has that dreaded green or Auto zone. Yes the zone where you let the camera decide everything about the image, all you do is press the button. That works great for Mom, who wants to take 400 pictures of you at Christmas.
I consider it similar to learning to drive a vehicle with automatic transmission. You just put it in drive and go!
Usually on the same dial or the same menu as the Auto zone, are other Auto zones such as Portrait, Landscape and Flower. Essentially, what these zones do is adjust the Aperture, the Shutter and the Lens to the correct settings for the subject. In other words, in the Portrait setting for example, the camera will attempt to use an Aperture so that the subject is in focus and the background is out of focus.
There is normally a way to change the ISO setting of the camera. The ISO on digital cameras acts the same way as film ISO did. A lower ISO (100 to 200) needs
more light (lower sensitivity) and is good for non-moving subjects. A higher ISO (400 to 800) needs less light and is good for faster moving subjects. Today’s digital cameras offer extreme ISO settings and the results are quite incredible! The noise (called grain in film) is much lower even with a very high ISO setting.
THE MANUAL BUTTON
OR SETTING
Some P & S cameras do not offer a Manual setting. Sometimes the closest they can get is to give you control of the shutter speed while the camera sets the Aperture, or vice versa. Almost every SLR does. My cameras never comes off the M setting. That is just me. I want full control over my images. I want to be able to take an image, have a look at the Histogram and then bump up or down the exposure for example.
IMAGE SIZE