Improving My Pics

Pic of a sleeping Mew ( ISO 400 F/2.8 )
Taken with my new Canon Ixus 95 IS and reduced in size

I just realised I’m an infant on digital photography techniques and have much to learn.  With my former Olympus, all I did was point and shoot on auto mode and had hardly used the various settings.  I’m not sure why I did not think to find out what these were for and probably had naively thought auto mode means auto settings.  No wonder my pics turned out the way they did.      

As I had just got my Canon IXUS 95 recently, I’m still trying to figure out the various settings and programs in its menu.  Since Canon offers a complimentary product training session at its Digital Lab located at Harbourfront, I decided to sign up for it.  I hope I will at least be more familiar with my camera and know how to use it more effectively. 

To get more photography tips, I tried googling and came across this great site Digital Photography School which is a boon to beginners like me.  Its editor Darren Rowse patiently explains the basics of exposure triangle (ISO, aperture & shutter speed), the various camera features & settings and composition tips.  These might be the bare basics to the pros but I find this information very enlightening.  I was so engrossed with the various articles in this site that the afternoon just flew by.  I’m definitely subscribing to its RSS link ……… and want to say thanks to Darren and his team for sharing with us their expertise.   

Wouldn’t it be just great if I could find a mentor who could guide me on the best settings for the optimum shot?  Though my compact digicam has its limitations and cannot compare with the flexibility of a DSLR, it does offer a program mode for different ISO selection and white light balance as well as the usual programmed mode.  Practice makes perfect and this shall be my new resolution ……… to improve on my digital photography.   

Added note:  I was just going through the camera user guide downloaded from the cd and realised that there are quite a number of other functions I wasn’t aware of.  A bit inconvenient whenever I need to do a quick reference as I will need to access the PC.  I suppose I could compile a mini hardcopy.  Just reading through these 136 pages is giving me that ‘saturated brain’ feeling.