Congratulations, you just purchased your first DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) camera; you are about to enter a new and exciting world. It really doesn’t matter whether you have used any camera before; you are about to embark on an entirely new learning experience. If you have used a film SLR in the past much of what you have already learned about photography will carry over to the digital world but the way you apply that knowledge will have changed. It doesn’t matter if you have never used any camera before; the ten tips that I’m about to share with you here will get you started out on the right foot.
After removing your new camera from the box and reassuring yourself that everything appears to be undamaged, read the user manual that came with it. That slender volume will contain a wealth of vital information that you will need to know to use all the many features that a DSLR has to offer you. The user manual will also tell you all the things too not to do to keep from causing serious damage to your camera. Things like never inserting or removing a memory card while the camera is turned on because doing so can cause irreparable damage to the cameras onboard computer.
The very first thing that you should do after unpacking your new camera and assuring yourself that everything appears as it should is to locate the batteries and the battery charger. The batteries can be charging while you are reading the manual. If you bought a hotshoe mounted external flash unit with your camera, get those batteries on their charger as well. Just make sure that the batteries that you bought are rechargeable.
Learn to talk the talk. If you are new to photography, or if you haven’t used anything other than an instanmatic, you’re about to encounter many new terms that may sound confusing to you at first so spend some time studying the glossary of terms in the back of the user manual. You really need to know and understand terms like “Shutter Priority,” “Aperture Priority,” “Aperture,” “Shutter,” “Shutter Speed,” “f-stop,” “Metering Modes,” “ISO,” etc to understand what the manual is explaining to you. Then as you study the rest of the manual you can always refer back to the glossary for clarification if you need to.
When studying, yes, I said studying, not just reading, your users manual pay particular attention to the control layout of your camera and the steps you must take to access the various menus. When in the field you aren’t going to have time to pull out your manual to review the steps you need to take to switch from auto focus to manual focus. You need to know how to switch from “Aperture Priority mode” to “Shutter Priority Modes” and how to manually select the correct lens aperture and/or shutter speed without having to consciously think about the steps you are taking.
Turn your cameras manual into a textbook and make it your goal to master one new feature that your camera has to offer you every time you take your camera out to shoot pictures. The key to progressing from a snapshot taker, using your camera in one of it fully programmed modes to becoming a photographer and making great pictures is mastering the equipment that you have. The things that we have talked about here will get you started out on the right foot but there are still much more to learn about photography.
