5 Camera Settings Everyone Should Know

Now, we're going to talk about five settings that you should know once ypu get your brand new camera. All camera ship with various default options. That's why we've chosen five settings that just about every modern has and you should know. So let's get started:

1. Image Quality Setting

By default, just about every camera you take out of the box is set to capture photos as jpg. Well, there's nothing inherently wrong with this. Especially if you're looking to store as many photos as possible on your memory card.

If you intent to shoot in raw which is typically the other image quality setting that is found on modern camera. If however you do intend on using jpg, be sure to set the correct image size, which is usually represented as large, medium, small or low, fine and extra fine on camera.

This will determine the quality and the size of the jpg image that you create.

2. EV Compesation

EV stands for exposure value. Think of it as a quick and easy way to either brighten or darken an exposure. Beyond what the camera itself meters for automatically. Some cameras have a physical dial to control this, some present this control digitally and others have both options.

EV compesation is usually represented as a plus sign and a minus sign with stops in one-third icrements.

3. Flash EV Compesation

The Flash EV compensation follows the very same principle as the standard exposure value compensation that we just discussed. This is most beneficial for cameras with built-in flashes, but it also applicable to flashes and strobes that you connect via your camera's hot shoe or wirelessly. Instead of adjusting the exposure of the photo.

Flash EV controls the intensity of the light produced by your flash. Dial up the flash EV to make the flash flare a brigther light and dial it down to back off on that light strenght. If ou don't want any compensation to the flash strenght, you can always set it to zaro.

4. Metering Mode

There are few ways to let your camera determine what the optimal exposure settings would be. This is done using metering modes. Each manufacturer has their own way of referencing these modes but they generally all use the same techniques.

The most common are multi, center-weighted and spot metering.

Evaluative or multi metering is typically the default setting on most cameras, and it tells the camera to analyze the entire scene and use it's best judgement to get a correct exposure.

Center-weighted metering tells the camera to focus on the center of whatever the lens is pointing at and reference a small area outside of that to get the correct  exposure settings.

Spot metering allows you to position a rectangle on a particular area in your scene and instruct the camera to get the exposure setting for that particular spot.

5. Focus Magnifier/Zoom

One of the great advantages of having a camera with an LCD display is that you can leverage digital magnification to zoom in on an area that you want to focus on. Sony camera refer to this as focus magnifier and engaging it allow you to position a rectangle on any area within the frame and zoom in to ebsure sharp focusing.

That concludes the five camera settings you should know when getting a new camera. I hope they help you.