digital camera menus

• image size, there will be choice of size here, and if you want to always have the best quality select the biggest file size eg: if you see 7m,5m,3m - select 7m for the best quality image. If you see V.fine, Fine, Normal, Small - select V.Fine. The best quality does mean the largest file size so the fewer photos you can store on your memory card. So alternatively if you know you will only want to print 7x 5 prints select a lower quality for example 5m ( 5 megapixel )

• record mode, which may offer the option to take a single photo with each press of the shutter or continuous which will take several photos while you keep the shutter pressed, you may also see BRK or bracket which means the camera will take three photos at different exposures, one at normal exposure one which is lighter and one which will be darker. Can be useful when photographing a bride in a white dress for example.

• colour mode, you may be offered vivid for landscape,colourful images, natural or neutral for portrait or real life photos, sepia or black and white for that old photo look.If you have a computer always shoot in colour as software can convert to B & W and you can have both options.

• iso, this is the sensitivity to light, if left on auto the camera will decide the best setting. However you understand what ISO settings do to the exposure of a photo you can manually adjust the ISO settings.

• metering mode, such as multi point metering from across the whole scene, or spot metering to correctly expose perhaps an individual in light or dark surroundings or centre weighted metering to concentrate the exposure settings on a group of people for example.

• ev or Oev mode, adjusts the overhaul brightness or darkness levels for all photos, used when spending the day at the beach in bright sunshine the camera will over expose all of your photos so use this setting to reduce the cameras exposure by perhaps .7 of a stop

• focus, options include face recognition,centre focus, multi point focus (several foucus points across the screen) or perhaps focus by distance

• white balance, if left on auto the camera will adjust the the colour balance correctly most of the time however you will be offered manual adjustment for example; daylight, sunny, cloudy, florescent light (perhaps several options) flash and incandescent light bulb options. Dont forget if you manually adjust the white balance you will see the results on the LCD screen, and the settings will need to be altered again for a completely different scene. So leave on auto unless you look at the photo just taken and think the colours look wrong, errors in the camera most often occur on photos taken under artificial light.
  
• flash mode, this option may be on a seperate button however the options useually include, flash off, flash on where you force it to fire, flash auto where the camera decides when to use flash, and red eye where the camera emits a strobe of light from your flash to help prevent red occuring. My advice is not to use the red eye option, as leaving it on slows the camera down so you may miss your photo, and its not always reliable. You may also have the option to increase or decrease the level of flash, so if the photos look too dark or too light here is where you can do something about it. But again beware that if adjusted manually you may have to readjust for a different photo.

• Steady Shot or Ant Shake, you will see options like Anti Shake on when shutter pressed halfway ( the best option ) or Anti Shake always on ( uses camera resources like battery etc ) or always off, which may make the camera quicker to use, and if you are photographing out side on a bright sunny day at normal distances you dont need anti shake, so try switching it off, it uses more battery power anyway.
  

• delete, delete a single image, delete selected images or delete all images

• slide show, plays back all you photos, there are often options to choose effects and speed

• colour, this option may allow you to change the photo with special effects. If you want to use this feature remember that once modified in camera you cant go back to the original photo. So either take two photos so you can play with the second, or simply modify the photo on a computer.

• protect, this will allow you to lock any selected photo and prevent it from being deleted

• retouch or effects, such asoft focus, colour effects, fisheye lens effect, cropping etc etc. don't do it to an original photo, take two to play

• dpof, DPOF stands for Digital Print Order Format It is a standard for specifying, without needing a PC, which images in a digital camera should be printed and in what order. The DPOF information is then written to the storage card together with the picture so that it can later be read by a printing service or a software application. But DPOF can do more than just tag pictures. It also allows specifying the number of prints, thumbnails, rotation, and user and picture information.

• print, speaks for itself really, their may be optons to select photos, please see the dpof item

• rotate, rotates the image you see on the LCD, but again this is usually best done on a computer, but may be useful to take to a high street printer

• folder, your digital camera may be able to create a folder for each day you take photos
  



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