TECHNICAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS 
Especially if you’re a beginner, this list is useful for two reasons.
One, if you’re having problems translating your camera’s instruction manual into plain english, you need to get used to the words and terms used in photography (this stands for film as well as digital). Once you begin to look at what the options are for each topic below, you’ll begin to understand where they all fit in to both the workings of your camera, and also the physics of photography (which is basically as simple as light recording an image on film or a digital sensor.
Two, though you don’t have to use all of these controls, if you know what they are, you can choose which ones to use!
This list is not meant to be exhaustive (!). One thing that would be very useful is to get one of those nifty little ‘Moleskine” notebooks (the smaller the better), make notes in it (start with the ‘golden rules” – I’ll leave you to decide which ones these are), and put it in your camera bag. What do you mean, you don’t have a camera bag? Get one! Tamrac rucksacks are the best, though there seems to be a distribution problem for these in the UK. LowePro are good too.
NB: re. camera rucksacks. Don’t ever put your laptop computer in the pocket at the back of your rucksack and carry it around, or worst still, put the rucksack on your motorcycle and bungee it over your top box. If you do (you have a Mac, don’t you?), the thin aluminium (aluminum to my American friends) will buckle, the whole thing will bend, and even if it’s under warrantee, Apple will tell you to take a hike. Which is probably a good thing to do with your camera anyway!
SHUTTER SPEED
APERTURE
ISO SETTINGS
FOCUS POINT
DEPTH OF FIELD
EXPOSURE
WHITE BALANCE
AUTO FOCUS SETTING
LENS FOCAL LENGTH
EXPOSURE COMPENSATE
FLASH COMPENSATION
FLASH ON OR OFF
AMBIENT / FLASH MIX
SHOOTING PROGRAM
AUTO EXPOSE BRACKET
IMAGE FILE
FORMAT
HAND HELF OR TRIPOD
PANNING MOVEMENT
POLARISING FILTER
ND GRADUATED FILTER
NEUTRAL DENSITY FILTER
VISUAL PARAMETER SET
CUSTOM FUNCTIONS
AUTO EXPOSE LOCK
AUTO FOCUS LOCK
IMAGE REVIEW
EDIT IMAGE FILE SIZE
SINGLE / MULT-FRAME
AUTO FOCUS BEEP
LENS AUTO/MANUAL FOCUS
VIEWFINDER DIOPTER
TIME / CABLE RELEASE
DEPTH OF FIELD PREVIEW
©James Bartholomew
Email: james@jamesbartholomew.com
Photography Made Simple 
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