Three Steps to Buying Your First Digital Camera

Three Steps to Buying Your First Digital Camera. You’ve decided it’s time to buy a digital camera, but which one?  The aisles are full of different brands with different features and a wide variety of prices to match.  The task can be overwhelming.  Following are the three most important things you can do to make the decision easier.:

1. Do your research.  Talk to people who have digital cameras and ask them how they like theirs.  What features do they use often and which ones are “just there”?  Go online and visit sites that review different cameras and read what they have to say.
2. Next, decide how much money you are willing to spend on a camera.  There is no sense going into debt over a camera unless it will be used as your major income source.  Decide how often you will use the camera, what places you will be using it and who else will be using this particular camera. How much money can you reasonably spare?  All these things will help you narrow your choices.
3. Evaluate your needs and experience level.  Do you have experience or is this your very first camera?  Do you have time to learn a lot of features or are you happy with a camera you can just point and click?  Do you plan on growing in photography?  If so, a digital SLR may be your choice so it can be added onto to grow with you. 

Buying a digital camera doesn’t have to be a purchase full of stress.  Do your homework and know what you are looking for, then stick with the decision.  You are the best judge of what you need, trust yourself.  Each of the above steps will narrow your choices considerably and make that final decision easier to make and you can enjoy discovering the wonders of photography with your new purchase.

What Is the White Balance Setting on my Digital Camera?

What Is the White Balance Setting on my Digital Camera? Have you ever taken a picture of a beautiful winter scene and been disappointed to discover the crisp, white snow came out with a bluish tint?  This is the kind of situation your digital camera’s white balance is meant to prevent.

The white balance is a sensor that analyzes the lighting conditions and colors of a scene and adjusts so the white in the picture appears white.  This helps insure the other colors appear as natural as possible. This is one advantage digital photography has over tradition film.  With film, you buy with a certain lighting condition in mind.  If that changes, you need to either change your film or hope you can fix any errors in post-production.

Most digital cameras allow you to use either automatic white balance or choose between several preset conditions such as full sun, cloudy day and so forth.  Automatic white balance will work in most conditions.  There may be times, however when you want to “warm” up a picture to enhance the color, such as for portraits or sunsets.  The best way to do this is  set your camera’s white balance to “cloudy”.  This will deepen the colors and add a glowing quality to portraits.  It will take a beautiful sunset and enhance it to the point of incredible. 

Practice taking the same photo with different white balance settings to get a feel for the changes each setting evokes. Keep notes until you have a good idea of what each setting does.  In time, you will come to automatically sense which setting is best for your particular situation. 

White balance is a small setting that can make big changes in your finished photos.  Make it your friend and you will no longer have to worry about faded sunsets or blue snow.