Photo Friday- Zero out the Camera

It's another Photo Friday and today I want to share a quick tip with you that I learned in a photography class.  Zero out your camera.  Now you might be wondering what that means.  Basically it means setting any settings you might have changed back to a 'normal' setting so the next time you pick up your camera you can just point and shoot.  Still confused?  Keep reading. 

I love shooting in Manual mode.  I'm usually the happiest with my shots there.  I can change tons of settings there too from white balance to exposure compensation.  Sometimes I just love to play around with different settings and see what I get.  Being a mom though, I need to be able to grab my camera and also catch those quick fleeting moments without having to worry about what settings I have changed.  That is where zeroing out your camera comes in handy. 

Say you've been shooting outside in bright light and changed your White Balance to reflect that.  You put your camera away and don't change your White Balance back to auto.  The next time you grab your camera and go to take some photos inside it's still set for bright light.  If you don't realize it right away you can get some crazy color casts.  (Trust me.  I learned this the hard way). 

Here are a few easy things to set back to 'normal' every time you are done shooting:

• Set your camera to P (Programmed Auto) or A (Aperture-Priority Auto) mode. 
• Set White Balance to Auto.
• Set Exposure Compensation to 0.
• Set Flash Exposure Compensation to 0.  (I prefer to leave mine at -1). 
• Set ISO to Auto.  (I usually set mine to 400). 

Everyone will have different settings that they like to 'start' with, so change this list to fit your preferences.  This is just a jumping board and with these settings in place you should be able to grab your camera and get those quick shots without too much hassle.  Then you can branch out from there to get creative.   

Thanks for stopping and don't forget to zero out your camera the next time you shoot!