Go curl up with your manual. Then come back here and let us know something you learned!
I admit it, I saw todays task and I rolled my eyes. "Why do I need to read my manual? What can it tell me I don't already know after using my camera for close to 4 years and managing the occasional decent shot in manual?"
But, of course, 3 pages into the manual I was already I'm kicking myself for not reading the manual 4 years ago! Its not all photo-shattering revelations, but they will make a huge difference to how I interact with my camera and the speed at which I can alter my settings and adapt to different environments, available lights and unruly subjects (my children).
It's taken me 3 days so far to read, re-read, and re-read the manual, and I still have a ways to go. But here are a few of my camera-manual-revelations:
1. I have a playback ZOOM button!!
How often have I sat squinting at that tiny LCD screen trying to see more detail in the photo I just took. Or see if what I wanted was in focus. Or point out to an elderly family member something cute about my boys? I can't believe I have ignored this button for 4 years!
2. I have red-eye reduction, slow sync and rear-curtain sync flash modes!
I have spent MANY hours post-editing red-eye from my shots! I am pretty sure I used to know about these features, but somewhere between pregnancy-brain and mummy-brain I lost this knowledge. As for slow-sync and rear-curtain sync flash modes - I am looking forward to seeing how they impact my photos.
3. White balance matters.
I remember a little about this from the photography course I took before my son was born, but most of that I have never applied to changing any of my camera settings. I am looking forward to fiddling with these settings over the coming weeks and seeing how it improves my photos. I think Days 12 and 13 are going to be big learning days for me.
4. Bracketing - Gulp!
I have read this section 3 times now and I think I have some rudimentary understanding of the concepts - but when to use it...? I think I am going to have to re-read this section again, play around with my camera and the different bracketing options/modes available and work it out via trial and error. Stay tuned.
I could keep listing all the eye-opening lessons I have learned from reading my manual, but you get the point.
READ YOUR CAMERA MANUAL.
Then re-read it regularly to refresh your memory of some of the modes and options available which you may not be using very often. You may be surprised at how quickly you forget something just because your not using it, or applying it, regularly.
Even just re-hashing the simple principles of shutter speed, ISO, and aperture helped me think more intentionally about some shots of my boys that I took on the weekend. We were at the Grand Opening of Jump Squad HQ, Sydney's first indoor parkour facilty. The boys had a blast jumping on the huge trampoline and on the mats and beams. It wasn't an ideal photo-taking environment - the boys were back-lit on the trampoline and under fluorescent lights. But I knew how to easily alter my ISO to compensate for the lack of natural light without having to resort to my flash (which was not going to achieve much given my distance from the boys) and I could change my shutter speed and aperture to gain the sense of movement I was hoping for. The end products - not too shabby.
Have you had this experience - where years down the track you finally got around to reading that manual - and viola, problems solved, questions answered, new possibilities present themselves? What have you learnt?
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