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Point and Shoot Month Round 2 - Scene Modes by Russ Burden For the last installment of this month's point and shoot tips and techniques, Russ Burden delves deeper into your camera's scene modes. Article rating: 9.18

For those of you who are regular readers of my weekly photo tips, you know the vast majority are written for users of 35mm SLR’s.  Last July I deviated from this trend and presented a month’s worth of tips for all you point and shooters. It was so well received, I’m doing Round 2 for the month of October. Now before all you regular readers grab the mouse and click on another link, read on. Isn’t it about time you had some fun with a point and shoot? Wouldn’t it be nice to get some great shots and not have to lug around your 35mm equipment? Haven’t you thought about getting one or using the one you already bought that is reserved for the others in the family?  So spread the word to your point and shoot friends, spouses, and significant others to read the tips each week in October. I also encourage you to look into classes sponsored by the Panasonic Digital Photo Academy. They offer an array for all levels, including one solely dedicated to teaching students how to use their digital point and shoots. Check out www.digitalphotoacademy.com for more information.

Scene Modes are pre programmed settings placed into the camera’s memory that tell it to fire with specific parameters given specific situations. They  allow the photographer to not have to think about settings as all the thinking is already in the memory bank of the camera. As the level of your photography progresses, learning and understanding what goes on behind the scenes will bring you to the next level, but for now, simply match the scene mode to what you’re photographing and let the camera do the work.

Night Portrait Mode: The portrait scene mode is convenient for when you’re making night time shots and want to illuminate a foreground subject with flash. In that the shutter remains open for a long period of time, it’s necessary the camera is supported on a tripod or other surface to keep it steady. Use this scene mode in conjunction with the 2 second delay on the self timer to allow the camera to settle down after pressing the shutter. Try to include as  many lit areas as possible into your composition so the overall light is even. In that the flash will fire, including an interesting subject in the foreground is advantageous.

Sports Scene Mode: The sports scene mode can be used whenever you’re photographing a fast moving subject. It doesn’t even have to sports related. The goal is to try to stop the action so every detail is rendered sharply. While sports is the obvious choice, think about using this mode when photographing crashing waves against a rock, a bird in flight, a child jumping off a diving board, etc. Learn to think outside the box if it’s applicable. The camera automatically choses the highest possible shutter speed and  biases to a higher ISO setting.

Snow Scene Mode: Snow is white and therefore reflects a lot of light. When a camera sees snow, it logically thinks the scene is very bright resulting in an exposure where the snow is rendered darker than it should be. It often winds up looking gray and dingy. By setting the camera to the snow scene mode, the snow magically comes out white. The reason this happens is the mode tells the meter to brighten up the scene. As a result, more exposure is let in so the instead of the snow turning out gray, it’s recorded as true white. Have a look  at last week’s tip on Exposure Compensation. Basically, by setting the camera to the snow scene mode, PLUS compensation is automatically dialed into the exposure.

To learn more about this topic, join me on one of my Photographic Nature Tours. Visit www.russburdenphotography.com and click on the NATURE TOURS button for more information. Also, pick up a copy of my new book, Amphoto’s Complete Book of Photography. You can purchase a signed copy directly from me or visit your local book store or Amazon. Contact me at rburden@ecentral.com to order your signed copy

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This is a great article, it would be fantastic if every scene setting was explained as to what situation to use and what it is actually doing in the camera. Thank you again Posted by: Robert Dean Jul 7, 2009 @ 11:26 PM EST

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