How to control and get the shot you want!

This is great info for Beginners or someone who owns a point and shoot: This will help you get use to your camera:

Understanding and using these modes gives you a little more control over settings like Aperture and Shutter Speed as each of them will trigger different settings in your camera.

If you WANT more control over Aperture and Depth of Field. I’d encourage you to shoot in two modes – ‘Portrait’ and ‘Landscape’at first to get use to your camera's functions.

If you’re looking for Shallow Depth of Field (ie your foreground and background blurry) shoot in Portrait mode as this will trigger your camera to choose a wider aperture.

Look at this picture: Do you see how the camera is focused on my son and the background is blurry.

If you’re looking for a wider depth of field (ie everything in focus) shoot in Landscape mode where the camera selects small apertures in this mode. In this picture everything is visible and the background is not blurry.

If you’re looking for a fast shutter speed choose ‘Sports’ mode as in this mode it’s assuming you want to freeze fast moving subjects. In this picture the girl is going for a shot and her jump was caught in the mid-air.

If you’re looking for a slow shutter speed you’ll have more of a challenge as most cameras don’t have an automatic mode that naturally chooses this. You could try shooting in Night mode (if your camera has it) but this mode will also fire off a flash. Try covering your flash up and you might get the result you’re after.
Of course none of these modes allow you to get specific about the settings your camera chooses but they do give you a bit more control than you might think you have.

LOOK for other posts on the rest of the functions on your camera!