Master your digital camera, or any other device

It’s the Bible for your gadget, be it a VCR or camera. I’ve been working with technology from VCRs to computers to cameras for several years. The most frequent question I’m asked about any technological device is “How do I do this?” My first answer is almost always this: read the instruction book.

Technology has come a very long way in the past 10 years alone. We expect things to work right out of the box with no fuss. The best products, in my opinion, are the ones that actually do work as soon as you take them out of the box, and last a long time. But few fall into this category. Your digital camera is one. It will take good pictures right out of the box. You don’t have to know anything about photography—most of the time. But when a situation comes up that the camera doesn’t know how to handle, what do you do?

Worst case, you lose the image. But if you know how to react, you can capture something to show your friends and family. This is why reading the instruction manual and practicing the controls is so important, and why I think it’s exciting. It familiarizes you with your equipment. It trains you to react without thinking.

I learn the best by playing, or experimenting, with the technology. If there’s something I can’t figure out on my own, I refer to the instruction book. Many people don’t do this. They learn how to get started but never get into the details. They just want to point and shoot. The point-and-shoot method is ok, but the camera isn’t perfect, and it won’t get a good shot in every situation. So you need to know what to do when that happens when the camera’s brain fails.

I remember when I got my first digital camera, the Nikon D100, which is still a solid workhorse in the professional world, although it’s been replaced by the Nikon D200. I put the battery in and fooled around with all the controls, exploring all the menus. To better understand the camera and prepare for potentially stumping situations, I poured through the manual. “How exactly do you adjust auto white balance? What exactly are all the functions a certain button can perform?” I asked. Don’t be afraid to ask the instruction book. It will make you a master of your machine. After all, even if you had the best gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer in the world, what good would it do you if you didn’t know how to use it?

By combining reading the instruction book and practice, you can master any camera’s controls. You can learn how to adjust aperture, shutter speed, white balance, ISO, shooting mode, metering, anything on the fly. It took me a few weeks to know all the controls of the D100 and be able to use them in a quickly evolving situation. With just a short time investment, you can really understand your camera’s controls, and, when you start getting you’re money’s worth out of every function on that beast, you can really impress your friends!