Digital Camera Success Card

Digital Camera Success Card
By Michael Huddleston

There are hundreds of thousands of wrecked photos and just as many hurt feelings because the photos did not turn out because of some goofy setting on the camera. When we shell out so much money for digital cameras we make some pretty dangerous assumptions about how they work. Truth is, even if you don’t change any of the settings on your new digital camera you’ll quickly discover it will operate differently in various picture taking conditions. This can be REALLY frustrating for people who just want to “take pictures.” I’ve heard the following comment so many times.

“Look, that’s the reason I bought the top of the line Canon/Sony/Kodak or whatever digital camera because the sales person said it was so sophisticated that 9 times out of 10 all I would need to do is point-and-shoot.” Or, even if there were no salespersons involved because the camera was purchased on the Internet the new owner STILL assumes point-and-shoot means just that. They quickly find out that all is not well in digital camera land.

No matter how much you pay for your new digital camera you’ll discover that it will let you down if you don’t take steps to protect yourself, and your pictures.

Here’s an example.

The other day a friend told me a story about his new digital camera, it’s a sad story.

His new digital arrived and according to all the literature the camera would do everything and he really didn’t have to worry about it. He had a large 1 Gig memory card and a battery that would pretty much let him take pictures all day. The camera was LOADED with all the new bleeding edge technologies including image stabilization, so according to the literature he could practically take beautiful pictures in the dark even without needing to use that distracting flash.

So…

He took his new digital camera to friends wedding and 90% of the wedding was outdoors and the day was slightly overcast so the lighting was perfect - he turned the flash OFF. He absolutely LOVED how the camera handled. It was perfect, it was fast, and it even looked sexy. Guests kept asking him “What kind of camera is THAT?” so he was feeling pretty good about his purchase.

Then the wedding moved indoors…

Not a problem, his new camera had image stabilization and really high ISO settings so he could continue to fire off photos without aid of the flash, he was delighted!

Everyone was so impressed with my friends photographic confidence and his sexy ultra sophisticated digital camera they ALL stopped taking pictures, mainly because he boldly told everyone he would gladly provided copies of the photos on his website.

Then he went home and made a horrible discovery…

While all the outdoor photos were PERFECT, every single indoor photo (group photos) were terrible. He was sick! :(

This is what happened…

When the wedding moved indoors it moved into a VERY dark room meaning the camera adjusted its settings to compensate. What it did was elevate the ISO settings to a point where the resulting photos were filled with digital noise and looked grainy.

Like I said, he was sick! These were all the important photos, bride with mom, cake cutting, family photos, close-ups of the bride and groom etc. etc.

After I listened to him drone on and on about this disaster he finally asked me what he could do to prevent this problem from reoccurring in the future.

I came up with the idea of the “Digital Camera Success Card”

Essentially it is a digital camera check list that you could laminate and keep with the camera. Then every time you pulled the camera out you could QUICKLY peek at the card and make sure everything was set right on the camera so you could be reasonably guaranteed of getting top notch pictures.

It’s pretty basic but it will SAVE your behind.

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Battery charged?

Memory Card OK?

Camera set to auto?

Flash set to auto or on?

Inside Pictures

Dark settings - Camera works slower

Set flash to “on” not auto

Hold shutter 1/2 down wait for green light

Outside Pictures

Close-up people pictures/heavy shadows - Flash On

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Ok, I admit it, it’s pretty basic, but if my friend had used this quick system to make sure everything was OK he would not have needed to be apologizing to all those people who stopped taking pictures and were counting on him.

Make it about the size of business card and laminate it so it’s protected and keep it right with the camera. Obviously you can put anything on your “Digital Camera Success Card” that you want and in my example I covered just a few of the basics.

Think for a moment though, wouldn’t this make a really cool gift for the person in your life who…

* Just bought a new digital camera
* Has a digital camera and is frustrated
* Or.. for you!