Got my camera, 1st thoughts, So what would you do today

Started 5 months ago | Discussion thread
John Deerfield
Senior MemberPosts: 1,525
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Re: Got my camera, 1st thoughts, So what would you do today
In reply to Jasonsmom, 5 months ago

First, read the manual. Not all of it is going to make sense. But over time it starts making more and more sense. Sometimes you have a desire to learn something. Perhaps in this case it is how the camera focuses, so you might want to start there with the camera's auto-focus system. The default for most camera's is the "auto" AF system. And if all you do is shoot in the "green" auto mode, you might not be able to change this. You would need to move to at least the Program mode. In the auto-AF, the camera decides what to focus on. Most of the time, this is going to be whatever is closest to the lens (but far enough for the minimum focusing distance). This can make it difficult to get the camera to focus on what you want to focus on. I usually suggest getting out of auto AF and choosing single point AF using the center focus point. Now you know where your focus will be: just the center focus point. At which point, you might want to learn to focus and recompose. And all of this should be in your manual.

Next, learn how to control your ISO. As others have suggests, indoor shots are usually going to have slow shutters. The slower the shutter, the more likely you will have blur due to motion (either yours or the subjects). The only way to get a faster shutter speed is to increase the ISO (or get a faster lens!). How to do this will be in your owners manual.

And then yes, practice, practice, practice. Learn to read the metadata of the image. Again, as example, learn to read the shutter speed of the blurry image. Then you can decide if it is the shutter speed that caused the blur, or simply out-of-focus.

Edited 5 months ago by John Deerfield
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