Back when I spent a lot of time flying airplanes, I would never have dreamt of leaving without going step by step through a detailed checklist. Much as you know, without the checklist you’ll forget that fuel tank selector once – and once is all it takes.
Photography is less critical – but not much. So I propose that you use a checklist much of the time.
This checklist depends on what you are shooting. I usually start from standard settings for snaps:
Focus:
- Lens (and camera if it has a setting) on AUTO
- Select one focus point
- Mode: One-Shot/AF-S
Exposure:
- Mode: Aperture, set to f/5.6
- ISO: 200 outdoors, 400 indoors and 800 in difficult light
- Exposure Compensation: Off (Zero)
- Flash compensation: Off (Zero)
- Meter: Evaluative/Matrix (“Smart”)
Other:
- White balance: Auto
- Shutter release: Single
Then I vary from there.
For indoors flash pictures, for instance, it would be as above, except:
- Mode: Manual
- ISO: 400
- Aperture: f/5.6
- Shutter: 1/30th second
- Flash: On, pointed 45 degrees behind me
You can make your own, and I encourage you to. One of my flight instructors once told me: every item on the checklist is there because that feature has killed several people. And for photography, every item is there because it has ruined someone’s wedding pictures.
Really like this idea of a checklist:) Really helps me to think of the settings for certain situations. I think I will be making a few pocket checklists:) Thanks for the post!