5 simple steps to optimize your digital camera

This article contains a few tips for making the most of your digital camera. This page doesn’t provide advice on how to take better pictures (there are plenty of sites for that), but rather how to use features common to most digital cameras. I do not intend to provide user manuals for all digital cameras…so please don’t expect a long list with camera manufacturer and camera types. I am describing tips that would apply to all (almost) digital cameras. These tips are simplistic in nature but very useful.

STEP 1: Read your manual.

Duh! Don’t expect to go around this one. If you don’t read your manual you’re going to use the factory default settings and even though you might have bought a great camera you’ll be using it most likely as a really cheap camera because you won’t use any of the special features.

STEP 2: Set your camera’s date and time.

I can’t emphasize this enough. Most of the times, the camera you buy has the wrong time zone set and probably the wrong time also…with most cameras being made in China, who knows what time zone you have by default? So, make sure you read your manual and set your camera’s date and time now. If you have one of those cameras that reset the date and time whenever you replace the batteries, then set the time as soon as you put new batteries in.

STEP 3: Set the resolution and compression levels.

The picture resolution gives you the picture size (usually in pixels). For example you can have: 1600×1200, or 1024×768…obviously this depends on your camera. The picture compression has to do with how much space on the memory card each picture takes. Depending what compression rate you’re choosing you can fit more pictures on your memory card. Most cameras have preset level of compression, something like: Very Fine, Fine, Normal, Low. A picture size of 1.5 to 2.0 Mb should provide great quality and space saving for most users. Obviously if you’re taking professional pictures and you want to print large prints you would have to use your camera at the highest resolution and no compression (RAW).

STEP 4: Learn how to turn your display off and on.

You will need to know this because inevitably you will get close to running out of batteries at the worst time. Turning off your display will give you a lot more pictures on the same dying batteries. This assumes that your camera has the ability to turn the display on/off.

STEP 5: Learn how to turn your flash off and on.

This is also very important many times. When you’re trying to get a close up of your subject and you’re coming very close, the flash is useless and will distort your picture. Also, when your subject is in the shade and you’re in the light (assuming you’re close enough) forcing your flash to go off will make your subject appear great instead of being in the shade.

Essentials for organizing your digital photos

Here are the essential products and services I have come to rely on for many years to keep my media collection organized and safe. Even though these are affiliate links, I wholeheartedly recommend them.

Excellent Lightroom and Picasa alternative. If you need a cheaper and simpler photo manager then ACDSee Photo Studio for Mac (save 50% until Nov 8th) or ACDSee Photo Studio Professional for Windows (new version) is my preferred solution for organizing all my media. It has a very fast browser, great image editing and it's simple to use.

If you do a lot of image editing like I do, I recommend using Adobe Lightroom Classic CC via the annual Adobe Creative Cloud subscription. Lightroom has best photo editing capabilities even though it comes with a steeper learning curve. If you do image editing, Adobe Lightroom is my favorite.

I recommend Backblaze Personal Cloud Backup for affordable & reliable unlimited cloud backup. I have been using Backblaze for backing up all pictures & videos for more than 5 years now. All my invaluable digital memories are safe and secure. This is the best solution especially if you have a large quantity of media files.

Use a reliable & affordable external hard drive for backing up everything on your computer. It is absolutely essential for keeping all your memories backed up and safe.

Start organizing now using detailed, step-by-step instructions and videos:
Personal Coaching (closed) Independent Course Private Lessons
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YOURS FREE! 10 crucial steps most people miss when organizing their digital photos

Most people want to just organize their digital pictures and ignore these crucial steps right at the beginning...when they are shooting and transferring their digital pictures. Then they wonder why they can't organize their digital photos! Avoid most people's mistakes and start on the right track!

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