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Don't Get Stuck on Auto
Joe Charity
August 29, 2007
When I got my first digital camera six or seven years ago, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. It was a one or two mega pixel, which wasn’t bad for the time. I put that bad boy on autopilot and set out to shoot the world. Why not? I could take as many pictures as I wanted and it didn’t cost me a dime in developing costs; the only expense was the digital card.
I started experimenting with my new camera (or so I thought) taking all kinds of pictures, like portraits, outdoor, landscape, indoor and anything else I could think of. The only problem was, I was stuck on auto. I saw all those other settings on the camera and had even spent a little time reading the manual about them, but I figured if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
After about 3 months I started taking a closer look at my pictures and noticed they all kind of looked the same. I also started looking at pictures that other people were taking and reading up a little on those mysterious setting on the dial other than that “Big A”. I also made a decision to get myself unstuck and do some real experimenting.
I started by taking baby steps. I would take a portrait shot in auto and then take the same shot with my camera on the portrait setting. I would then compare the two. After trying this with a number of the different settings I found out that the old saying “seeing is believing” was definitely true. I noticed that in most cases the setting that was specific to the picture being taken looked much better than the picture shot in the auto mode. Not only that, but I started taking more pride in my digital picture taking, it was more fun, and I felt I was finally beginning to grow with this new medium.
 This photo was taken in Auto mode. While still a decent picture, the color and details appear washed out. |  This photo was taken using the camera's "flower" setting. The colors are more vibrant and the textures much more defined. |
I would like to hear from anyone who has had similar experiences, and I challenge you to try taking a baby step and share the results with us.
category: tips & advice
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| Started By | Thread Subject | Replies | Last Post | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| khaley | Camera settings | 1 | Aug 31 2007, 1:13 PM EDT by hpphoto | ||
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Thread started: Aug 29 2007, 2:10 PM EDT
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I did the same thing. I have the hp photosmart R817 camera and have learned to exploit the features - the sunset, portrait and landscapes are great assets when I want my ok photo skills to look great!
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