Read Your Manual, Nobody Wants to Hear It
Okay. I'm going to say the thing nobody wants to hear, and then I'm going to make you actually do it.
Read your camera's manual.
I know. I know that's not why you signed up for a class. You signed up so a person would tell you the important parts out loud and you wouldn't have to sit there with a little booklet full of diagrams that look like they were translated three times before they got to English. I get it. But here's the thing, that manual is the single best resource you already own for your specific camera, and almost nobody ever opens it. I didn't for the first eight months I owned mine, and I regret that.
Every camera is a little different. The dial that controls exposure compensation is in a different spot on a Canon than it is on a Nikon than it is on whatever your camera is. The menu structure is different. Where the ISO button lives, whether you have a dedicated button for it or have to dig into a menu, that's all specific to your body. I can teach you what aperture does and what shutter speed does, that part's the same for everybody in this room. But I cannot tell you which dial on your particular camera does which thing. Only your manual can do that, or a lot of frustrated trial and error, which is how I did it and don't recommend it.
Why this actually matters, not just as a lecture
Let me tell you why this isn't just me being a stickler.
I spent an entire morning up American Fork Canyon one fall, shooting a stand of scrub oak that had turned this deep orange color, the kind of light you get early before the sun's fully up over the ridge. Got home, pulled the memory card, and every single frame was blown out. Overexposed, every one. I'd bumped the exposure compensation dial with my thumb early on, without knowing it was even a dial I could bump, and shot two hours of nothing. If I'd known my camera, known where that dial sat and what it felt like when it moved, I'd have caught it in the first five minutes instead of losing the whole morning.
That's the kind of thing your manual tells you. Not the artistic stuff. The mechanical stuff. Where things are and what they do when you're not paying attention.
What I actually want you to do this week
Here's the practical version, because I'm not just going to tell you to read fifty pages of legalese and diagrams and leave it at that.
- Find your model number. It's usually on a sticker on the bottom of the camera or inside the battery door. Search "[your camera model] manual pdf" if you don't have the paper one anymore. Most manufacturers keep them free online.
- Skip straight to the parts list. Don't start at page one. Find the diagram of the camera body with everything labeled and go find each thing on your actual camera as you read it. Dial, buttons, the little wheel on the back, all of it. Touch it while you read about it.
- Read the section on exposure compensation specifically. This is the dial or menu that got me in that canyon. Know where it is and how to check it fast, because it's very easy to bump without noticing, and it will quietly ruin a whole shoot before you catch it.
- Read the section on your camera's mode dial. You already know M, Av/A, Tv/S, and P from last time. Confirm those letters mean what you think they mean on your specific camera. Some brands label things a little differently.
- Don't try to read the whole thing in one sitting. Same rule as everything else in this class. One section at a time. Do the exposure compensation part this week. Do the ISO menu part next week. Slow and thorough beats a weekend cram that doesn't stick.
An honest aside about not wanting the attention
Last spring I ended up photographing everybody's before-and-after shots for the neighborhood cleanup, for the association newsletter. People kept coming up to me afterward thanking me, and I kept saying it was nothing, and I genuinely wished they'd stop bringing it up. I mention that because a few of you have thanked me for teaching this class in a way that makes me a little uncomfortable, and I want to say plainly, I'd rather you thank yourselves in about six weeks when you're not shooting on Auto anymore. That's the actual goal here. I'm just the guy who shows up early to set out chairs.
Before next time
Find your manual this week, read the exposure compensation section, and find that dial or menu on your actual camera with your own hands. Bring your camera to the next session and I'll walk around and ask you to show me where it is, no pressure, just so I know everybody's got it.