David Pogue's Digital Photography: The Missing Manual

Chapter 4. The Ten Decisions

Every camera—every camera, from the cheesiest cameraphone to a $5,000 digital SLR—has an auto mode. You point, you click. The end. Next chapter!

But the fact that you've gone to the trouble of reading a book about photography suggests that—just maybe—you're interested in going beyond auto.

That's what this chapter is for. It's the heart of the book. It breaks down that one-second event (point, click) into a many-pages-long sequence of the 10 large and small decisions that go into taking a single picture.

Of course, you'll probably never actually have to make all 10 of these decisions for a single shot. It's just that these are the photographic choices you can make. The trick is to learn when to call up each option.

In other words, read it all anyway. You may discover camera features you didn't know existed, approaches you might not have considered, and a tip or trick that sticks with you for the rest of your life.

Note

This chapter also gives you some insight into why photography is something of a black art. With so many variables at play, it's virtually impossible to say, "These settings are the correct settings." As a result, there are few more opinionated, cantankerous citizens of the Internet than photographers. Canon or Nikon? RAW or JPEG? Auto or manual? It's a parade of religious battles that will never end.

Beep On or Off?

Every camera beeps. At the very least, it beeps at the moment when it's acquired focus or locked in the proper exposure settings. Many pocket models also play a digital recording at the moment of capture. Usually it sounds like a camera shutter (duh!), but it's only a recording of a camera shutter—on these models, there's no real mirror clacking up out of the way in there. (Sometimes, the menus even let you change that sound to something different.)

All of this is well and good—unless you're someplace where those beeps and clicks would be distracting (string quartet concerts, plays, speeches) or frowned upon (neurosurgery, museums, church).

For that reason, every digital camera offers, somewhere deep in its menus, a chance to turn off those beeps. Hit your Menu button and start flailing away on those arrow buttons until you find it.