Camera Check List

How many times have you picked up your camera, taken a photo and viewed it on the LCD, and then said, “OOPS#*?”. If you’re anything like most amateur photographers, it happens more times than you would like to remember or admit.

The following checklist will help you to prepare your camera before you take a picture. It’s best to do this before you leave home. It is a must do the first time you pull the camera out of your bag and turn the camera on.

Let me add for clarity, I shoot 90% of my photos using aperture mode. I want to control the depth of field to isolate the subject by blurring the background. This checklist is focused on photography that uses aperture mode.

Most check lists provide an easy acronym, useful in remembering the camera settings you need to check: Think: WEBMAILS.PF

I want to say a Special Thank You to one of my students who suggested that a checklist would be a great help. Sorry it took so long to get this put together.

WEBMAILS.PF

W-White Balance: Auto works for most photos. However, there are situations when you need to set a specific white balance. I experienced that recently using photo flood lights, in preparation for my blog post on Understanding Your Camera’s ISO Performance.

E: Exposure Compensation: is a very useful tool for making fine adjustments to your exposure. Make sure it’s set to zero (0) when you start to use your camera.

B-Battery: Fully charged. In addition, I recommend always having a spare battery.

M-Metering mode: Matrix (evaluative), Center Weighted (C-W), Spot. Check what metering mode you are using. Remember Spot or Partial (Canon) are for back lite subjects. Today’s cameras generally yield similar results with Matrix or C-W.

A (Av) – Aperture: Make sure your camera is set in Aperture mode. I highly recommend this mode as it allows you to control Depth of Field.

I-ISO: ISO as low as possible, while maintaining shutter speed (S) so your photos aren’t blurry. With high ISOs your photos are more likely not be as sharp as possible and exhibit digital noise.

L-Lens Focal Length: Be aware of what lens you are using. Remember the longer the focal length the smaller the depth of field for any given aperture and distance to the subject. The focal length also relates to S (Tv)-Speed.

S (Tv) -Speed: Today’s modern digital cameras have image stabilization which helps you with taking sharp photos. However, I have found that being aware of the shutter speed your camera’s automatic setting is important.
My recommendation is to always use a shutter speed that is close to 1/L of the lens you’re using.
For example:
18 – 55 mm: use a minimum shutter speed of 1/50 sec.
70 –200mm: 1/150 sec.
100 –400mm: 1/300 sec.

P-Picture mode: Raw, JPEG. I shoot most of my photos using RAW. However, at times, I specifically choose to use JPEGs. I recommend JPEG for beginning photographers who do not want to get involved with photo processing software.
See my blog post file formats: RAW, JPEG and TIFF for more information.

F-Focus mode: This depends on the photograph you are taking. I shot mostly stills so single-point works best for my photography. However, when shooting wildlife, I often switch to motion tracking focus mode. Be sure you know the correct mode for your photography.

Follow this link for a printable version of the WEBMAILS.PF