How well do you know your camera?
Can you change on the fly without looking:
- Your ISO
- Exposure compensation
- Switch between AV or TV mode quickly
- Know when your shutter speed is too slow by listening to the shutter?
- Change the zoom on your camera for the composition you want before you even have the camera to your eye?
- If shooting mutliple bodies know which one to grab with which lens combination.
Learn your camera intimately and know how it operates quickly & easily. While some cameras look very intimidating with all the buttons & dials on them they all come down to a few basic controls:
- Shutter
- Aperture
- ISO
- Lens
- Lighting (flash)
Take out your owners manual and try the various settings and controls in controlled settings. Go outside in your own yard and shoot close objects with the background blurred, background objects with the foreground blurred, and with both in sharp focus. Try panning passing vehicles or your dog running in the yard. Pan the dog running with the dog in sharp focus and the background blurred, and then again with both blurred but keeping the dogs eyes in sharp focus. A challenge? Yes… but practice will get you in tune with your camera.
But most of all… carry your camera with you at all times and shoot everyday!
Have fun…
~RoTP Team