Digital Camera – Special features

Most digital cameras have a variety of in-camera special features. Some allow you to take short QuickTime clips, some allow you to record sound, and some allow you to experiment with special effects, such as shooting black and white or sepia-tone images. I personally recommend that you ignore the special features until you learn the basics.

Keep in mind that some of these special features can be accomplished with photo editing software, such as black and white or sepia-toned images. Simply open a normal color image in Photoshop and, in a few minutes, you can have perfect black and white or sepia-toned photos.

Basically, if you can easily accomplish it in Photoshop, you might be better off concentrating on taking a good color photo, and worrying about special effects later.

However, you should try out other special effects. For instance you can pan your camera to track a car moving at high speed; the car will be in sharp focus but the background will be blurred, making an interesting picture.

Or you can do the opposite: focus on a particular stationary object — a child flying a kite, a freshly-painted fire hydrant — and allow a speeding car to enter the frame. You’ll then have a sharply focused center of attention with the added benefit of motion.