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Module 1 · Meet Your Camera

Five settings to change on day one

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TechniqueLesson 4 of 8 · 20 min · 5 reading, 15 doing
The short version

Five quick menu changes make every photo after this one easier to take, check and find.

Open your camera's menu. Each setting below is named differently by each brand, so look for the idea, not the exact words.

Before you start: find the menu

Press MENU. Most menus are organised in tabs along the top or side, often by colour or icon: a camera icon for shooting settings, a play icon for playback, a spanner or wrench for setup. Move between tabs with the arrow pad or main dial, open an item with OK or SET, and back out with MENU again. Spend a minute scrolling through every tab without changing anything. You're just learning the shape of it.

Many cameras also have a quick menu (Q, Fn or i). It puts the most-used settings on one screen. You'll use it constantly from Module 5 on.

  1. Date, time and time zone. Usually in the setup (spanner) tab. Every photo is stamped with this. Get it wrong and your photos sort in the wrong order forever, and travel photos land on the wrong day. If there's a daylight saving option, set it now and remember to change it twice a year. Add your name in the copyright or owner field if your camera has one; it's written into every file.
  2. Image quality. Usually in the first shooting tab. Choose the largest size (usually "L") and the finest quality, often called Fine or Extra Fine. Icons vary by brand: on Canon, for example, a smooth quarter-circle means Fine and a stepped one means Normal. If your camera offers RAW + JPEG, that's a good choice too: you'll learn about RAW files in Module 17. Until then, finest JPEG is perfect. On a phone, leave the photo format at its default. If your phone offers RAW or a high-resolution (48MP or 50MP) mode, leave those off for now; the files are large and you'll learn when they help in Module 17.
  3. Grid lines on. Look for "Grid display" or "Grid line" in the shooting or display settings, and choose the 3×3 grid. It helps you keep horizons level and place your subject. It never appears in the photo. On a phone, it's in the camera's settings (on iPhone, Settings › Camera › Grid).
  4. Image review: 2 seconds. Look for "Image review", "Rec review" or "Auto review". It shows each photo briefly after you take it. Two seconds is long enough to spot a disaster, short enough not to slow you down. On a mirrorless camera, you can turn it off later if you'd rather keep shooting through the viewfinder.
  5. Format the memory card. Usually in the setup tab. Do this in the camera, not on a computer, so the card is set up exactly how this camera wants it. Do it at the start of every big outing, after your photos are safely copied off. It's faster and safer than deleting photos one by one.

Three optional extras

These don't change your photos but make the camera nicer to live with.

  • Focus beep off. Quieter at events and around wildlife.
  • Auto power off: 2–5 minutes. Long enough that the camera's awake when a moment comes, short enough to save the battery.
  • Screen brightness: manual, middle setting. Auto brightness can make a photo look brighter or darker than it really is. Module 15 explains why this matters.

How to check it worked

Take one photo. Press ▶ and then INFO or DISP until you see the details. You should see today's date and time, and an "L" or "Fine" or "RAW" marker. If either is wrong, go back to that setting now.

Quick checkYou've just come home from a holiday. Should you format the card before or after copying the photos off?

After, and only once they're safely on your computer and backed up. Formatting erases everything.

Watch out for

  • Formatting erases everything on the card. Copy off any photos you want first.
  • Small or "basic" JPEG settings. They save space but you can't get the detail back.
Back of a camera on a tripod showing a settings menu
A camera menu: tabs along the top, settings listed below. Scroll every tab once before changing anything.
A phone held sideways in camera mode
On a phone, settings live in the camera app's settings, or the phone's Settings › Camera.

Try it now · 15 minutes

  1. Scroll through every menu tab once without changing anything.
  2. Make the five day-one changes, plus any of the three extras you want.
  3. Take one photo of something in the room. Check the date, time and quality marker in playback.
  4. Find your quick menu (Q, Fn or i) and note which settings it shows.
  5. Photograph your menu screens with your phone. If anything gets changed by accident later, you'll know how it was.