5 settings you should know how to change on your Point & Shoot camera
Most people buy point and shoot (p&s) cameras because they are small, simple, and make pretty decent photos. There are a few options on point & shoot cameras that are easy to access and can help make your photos that much better, but you have to know what they are and how to use them. Keep reading to find out more.
For most p&s cameras you will need to be in Program mode to make most of these adjustments. If the camera is in full Auto mode, it will not allow access in the menu to all of these options.
5. Formatting
Formatting your memory card is a practice that most people don’t do very often, if ever. Formatting your memory cards is one of the single greatest steps you can take towards preventing file corruption, a.k.a losing your photos. You should practice regularly downloading images from your camera to your computer. Once images are safe on your PC, the card should be placed back into your camera and reformatted. This erases the images and rebuilds the file system on the memory card so that all the new photos you take have a nice clean place to be stored. Read your manual to find out where in your camera’s menu the format option is located. Access it and use it regularly.
4. Flash Adjustment
Most point & shoot cameras only have a few flash settings, but knowing where to access them, what they do, and when to use them will go a long way towards helping you make better photos. On my cameras, I only have the option to turn the flash on, off, or auto (which lets the camera decide when it should be on or off). I never use auto, but I will turn the flash on or off depending on when I need it. Some cameras will also let you adjust the power of the flash. This is usually called Flash compensation. It will let you turn the power of the flash up or down dependent on needing more or less light. If your camera has this setting available it can be a handy tool. If not, just knowing how to turn the flash on and off can be really helpful.
3. Shutter Release Setting
The shutter release mode is the setting that tells your shutter how to fire when you hit the shutter release. Typically, cameras will have a single, continuous or burst, and a time delayed mode. In other words, this mode tells your camera when and how many photos to take when you click the shutter release. Single mode is what most cameras are set to by default. In this mode the camera takes one image when you click the shutter button. Continuous mode means that the camera will continue to take photos as long as you hold the shutter button down. The time delay lets you click the button and the camera waits a specified amount of time before taking the image. Some cameras will have more than one Delay mode to allow for a short and long delay. Some cameras will let you specify the amount delay before taking the image. My camera has an additional mode that will take the picture when it detects the subject smiling. What will they think of next?
2. Macro Mode
This mode is incredibly useful, but most people don’t even know that they have it. This mode allows you to take photos very close to your subject. In most point & shoot cameras you must be zoomed all the way out, or as wide as the lens will go, to use this mode. Once in macro mode the camera will focus very close to the subject. I took the image on the left below without Macro mode and the image on the right with macro mode. The camera was in identical positioning for both images. This mode is very useful when taking close up photos of just about anything. I use it a lot for detailed image of items that I sell online.
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1. Exposure Compensation
Your camera is set to meter the light it sees coming into the lens and pick up the correct exposure. In different lighting conditions this can be pretty hard for any camera to do. Usually it will struggle in strong back light or with a strong main light. Exposure compensation will let you tell the camera to make the picture lighter or darker than the meter determines in order to better light your subject. In the first example below my hand is heavily back lite by the light from my monitor, thus making the exposure on my hand too dark. By adjusting the Exposure Compensation by +1 stop I’m telling the camera to make the second image brighter. You can see that this adjustment has made the back ground too bright, but my hand, or in your case your subject, is perfectly lit. Depending on how strong the light is causing your meter to read, you may need to adjust more or less. There is not a correct or incorrect amount to adjust compensation in any given situation. You will sometimes need to make one or two adjustments to get the exposure the way you want it. The important thing is to know the option is there and to use it to help you make better photos. The more you use it the easier it gets to guess the proper adjustment value the first time.
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Bonus – 4 Settings that should be set and left alone
ISO – Set this to Auto ISO and forget about it.
White Balance – This should be set to Auto White Balance. Sometimes called WB. This is a mildly complicated topic, but if you would like to read more about it I wrote this article last year.
Image Stabilization – Some cameras refer to this as IS, or anti shake. You always want to have this turned to the On position with any point and shoot camera. My SD880 has the option to only use IS when the image is taken, vs using IS while composing. You can use either option but the former will help your battery last longer.
Image Size/Quality – Always set these as high as they will go. You want to capture as much data in your image as possible because you never know what you will use it for. Some people think a good reason for lowing the quality is because it will let them fit more pictures on their card. While that is true, it’s to the detrement of the quality of your image. In today’s world portable storage is ridiculously cheap. If you find you keep filling up your memory card then buy another one. You can buy 8G SD cards for less than $10. Better spending $10 than having a ton of images that you can’t print larger than 4×6.
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