The joy of photography has been renewed with the instant gratification of digital cameras. Many snap-shot photographers and many who seldom took pictures find the convenience and instant satisfaction and personal printing with digital equipment a great allure .

Even with all the convenience and handy equipment, many digital shooters have discovered, the road of instant gratification is full of confusion, insecurity, and temptation. As numerous photographers who had been shooting with film cameras for years have discovered, a digital camera can be intimidating with its unique set of button, dials, switches, and gizmos. For many, digital photography remains a frustrating experience, but the good news is that it no longer has to be. Lets tackle the twists, bobbles, and differences to navigate the simple path to making digital photographs.

Are you confused by RAW verses JPEG? Where and when to use which white balance? Are you baffled by ISO and noise? What about those funky icons - that flower setting, that people setting, that mountain setting and even a sports setting? When do you use these settings? Or should you? Is the histogram, or euphemistically 'hysteria-gram', all that important? And of course we can all agree that those camera menus will exhaust even the hungriest of appetites.

Despite all the ‘Newness’ in digital photography I believe in having fun and keep the ‘joy’ in photography! Learn to streamline your camera settings for simplicity and you will know exactly the result without having to constantly refer to your LCD monitor. Replace that frustration with the joy that was intended!

Shooting Modes
Many digital cameras come equipped with a ‘Mode Dial' which has several automatic settings designed to produce acceptable results when make certain types of pictures. These automatic settings are useful for average or ‘normal' conditions. More advanced cameras also offer settings for the photographer to make more of the ‘Mode’ settings manually. Manual control allows greater creative potential for the photographer to make deliberate choices beyond the averaging process built-in camera programs can perform.

Auto Mode  
Lets start with the fully automatic mode.  The fully auto setting uses a program in the camera designed to measure the light level, light color, and subject distance to apply an average shooting adjustment for the camera. The camera sets all parameters for you, providing point-and-shoot simplicity so you can concentrate on your subject.

Manual
This allows you complete control over exposure, selecting both aperture and shutter speed manually. You might consider this the ultimate in creative control, you set ISO speed, exposure compensation, white balance, and focus.

Aperture Priority
The user sets the aperture, controlling depth-of-field. The camera automatically selects the appropriate shutter speed.

Shutter Speed Priority
The user selects the shutter speed, and the camera automatically selects the appropriate aperture.

In addition to the standard shutter priority setting, some manufactures also provide special shutter priority settings suited to specific subjects. These include High-Speed Shutter Priority which tailored for sports subjects. This setting uses high shutter speeds to stop the action of fast-moving subjects.

Another Shutter Priority setting might be Slow Shutter, which sets a slow shutter speed to intentionally blur moving subjects or otherwise create dramatic long-exposure effects.

Program -
Set almost all camera parameters yourself, while the camera selects the aperture and shutter speed combination based on shooting conditions.

Custom -
Define and store your own settings to achieve the effects you regularly prefer.

People Setting -
The camera sets a large aperture, focuses the subject and artistically blurs the background to make your subject "pop."


Mountain Setting -
For front to back sharpness, the camera sets a small aperture.

Stitch Assist -
Easy-to-use guidelines simplify the shooting of aligned multiple frames that can later be combined (using bundled software ) to create panoramic photos. This helps build inspiring panoramas by neatly aligning sequential images.

Night Scene or Back Lighting -
Get natural looking pictures with brighter backgrounds and subjects lit by flash. For impressive sunset or nightlife shots, the camera properly exposes the background and uses slow-sync flash for the foreground subject.

Fast Shutter or Sports -
Ideal for sports, this setting uses high shutter speeds to stop the action of fast-moving subjects.

Flower Setting – Close-up or Macro -   
Shoot larger-than-life close-ups with one-button simplicity. The camera automatically switches into an ultra-close focus mode with emphasis on a small lens opening to maximize depth of field.

Movie -
Shoot in XGA (15 fps) or VGA/QVGA (30/15 fps) full motion video.

Some new point and shoot digital camera models also offer a few additional pre-programmed settings designed to aide casual photographers in making good images in difficult shooting situations.

Indoor
Reduces blur and improves color accuracy when shooting handheld indoors.

Foliage
Capture brilliant shots of autumn foliage, greenery or blossoms.

Snow
Shoot clear snow scenes without darkened subjects and bluish tint.

Beach
Get clear shots of people at a sunny beach without the darkened faces.