Own a Digital SLR? Learn how to really use it!

SLR cameras are great.  But so often now I meet people who own an SLR who only use it on ‘auto’ mode, a trend that seems to be getting ever more popular. Is it that people think that a big professional looking camera must surely be better because it costs more money?  OK to be fair, an SLR camera on auto mode might take slightly better photos than a compact (a bigger and better image sensor and a huge choice of lenses are two things that immediately spring to mind).  But to me, the differences are slim and probably not worth the hassle of lugging around a much bigger camera for theslightly better photos that will essentially look the same.

The thing is, photography is an art form and as a photographer, you are the artist.  But to be an artist, you must be able to create or control the image that you are taking; and this is my point.  SLR cameras on auto mode will do an acceptable job of taking a photograph but the camera doesn’t know what you want the end result to be – what should be in focus? How much should be in focus? Is there any movement? If so how should this movement be captured? All these key points are lost on ‘auto’ as the camera will just take an image the way it wants! In short, the camera will pick some settings but will not be able to think or create and, as a result, may not convey the image or emotion that was in your mind.

This all might sound a bit dramatic but my point here is simple. By learning some basic camera settings and getting of 'auto' mode, YOU control everything in the photo just the way you want. If a part of the image is important then YOU can choose to have this part in focus and nothing else, YOU can control how to capture movement and, to some extent even how fast you want to make it look! In short, you choose how the image will look and you become the artist.

Doing all this is really not as difficult as you might think.  If you went out and bought a digital SLR, you probably did so in the hope that you will be able to take the photos that you want and become the artist.  But you’ll only do this if you take the step learn.  Go on…..become the artist you thought you were and learn - use that camera to its full potential!

Click on the LEARN tab above to find out how, in just a day, you can begin to understand photography and finally get off auto mode!