Settings for my digital

[Kimberly Dow]

I am going to freely share my ignorance in the hopes of getting an easy answer.

I have my new Rebel and have read the entire book on it. I took a few snaps and have ordered acessories like the remote control to reduce camera-shake, etc.

Now - here is the questions - what do I do? No, seriously - my old camera was a Fuji Finepix and it came free with my computer from Dell. This did not have many controls - I always did the same thing. I turned the flash off (using natural light through a window) and I went to tht EV screen (I am not quite sure what that even is) and lowered or raised it depending on the light. I thought I got fairly good photos with this considering (like the one below), so this new camera should be awesome.

I will learn about all these controls, but for now if there is anyone who can help me do exactly what I used to on the old camera I'd be appreciative. There is white balance, yet it doesnt let me control it on some settings. There are so many settings and many of them seem to describe what I want - so choosing is the hard part. I figure I'll keep a notebook of what I did in which order while I have one of my kids sit there - this way I can look at the finished product and see what works.

I need a dummy book I guess - anyway my question is this and perhaps anyone with this specific camera could help - which setting is best for portrait in natural daylight indoors? And then what do I do to lighten or darken? That's all I need for now to start....

Thank you for not laughing!

[Terri Ficenec]

Hi Kim...
All those settings and controls! I try to keep it very simple and most of the times that seems to work. Here's what I do:

1) Set the dial at the top to 'P' (one notch above the green everything automatic square)... This will let you customize a bit and kill the automatic flash. You may be able to take pictures just like this... to get started. Pressing the shutter button halfway down will focus for you (if you're looking through the view finder it will flash which autofocus points are activating, so you'll know what you're focussing on. ) (I'm guessing it'll automatically be on auto white balance and normal exposure.)

2) Check your white balance on the little screen... it'll be in the little box on the lower left. Usually 'AWB' works alright if shooting with natural light, but you can custom set it for your light conditions using a grey card. The little pocket instruction slip for how to do this was MUCH clearer than the book! The book makes it seem very complicated, the little pocket slip tells you exactly what to do in what order... if you can't find the little pocket slip... or can't follow how to do it let me know to walk you through it. It's easier once you've done it a few times.

3) Check your exposure setting on the bottom right of little screen... you can change it up or down by holding in the button marked AV just to the right of the screen and rotating the ridged gear at the top front right -- near the shutter button. When I first got my camera it seemed to want to slightly over-expose so that some of the lights were washed out. I often set the exposure 1 notch down.

4) If you find that your photos are looking more saturated and crisp than what's really there, you may want to try changing the 'Parameter' setting on the main menu to 'Parameter 2'. It defaults to 'Parameter 1' which bumps up the saturation and sharpness. Sometimes this isn't what you'll want. (The menu button is just to the left of the little screen. If you hit the 'up' button just above the 'set' button, it'll take you to the parameter setting, press 'set' to open that up, press the 'down' button below the 'set' button to change to parameter 2, then press 'set' again to accept the setting. Pressing menu button a second time will turn the menu off...) If you try taking the same shots with parameter 1 and then with parameter 2 you'll see that parameter 2's shots are softer.

Well, hope that's helpful!?!

[Kimberly Dow]

Terri -

Bless you!

This exactly what I needed ! I am going to print this off -
Thank you so much for typing all that out - you are better than any dummy book in my opinion

Kim