FIX YOUR PIX—

(Another in a series of brief articles on developing new skills with your digital camera.)

Learn your camera’s capability!

Some of you probably have very fine digital cameras. But, let me guess; you learned it will do extremely nice pictures if you put it on “automatic” mode and shoot away. Consequently, that’s all you know how to do. That’s fine. However, you may be missing some marvelous picture opportunities.

Here’s how to fix that problem. Keep your camera’s instructions handy and learn one new thing each day. That will take a little effort, but, in a very short time, you will be rewarded with some photographs you earlier thought impossible.

For example; the “Script Ohio” sparkler photo published July 4th would have been impossible to do with the digital camera set on “automatic”. To do that picture I used the manual setting and did a test exposure to determine the correct aperture or “F” setting.

Using a tripod, I also used manual focus and a bright flashlight to pre-focus the camera. The shutter was opened long enough to write the image in the otherwise after-dark, outdoor setting; about 20 seconds.

Remember, with digital cameras “film” is cheap. So, practice and practice some more!

Like most things in life, reward is usually the result of effort.