10 Camera Settings For Beginners – Lets Keep Things Nice And Simple

Written by Rick McEvoy in Photography Explained Podcast Episodes

Hi and welcome to Episode 104 of the Photography Explained podcast.

I’m your host Rick, and in each episode I will try to explain one photographic thing to you in plain English in less than 10 minutes (ish) without the irrelevant details. What I tell you is based on my lifetime of photographic experience. And not Google.

Before I go on I need your help. I need your questions to answer. This is why my podcast exists, so please get in touch with your question and get a shout-out from me in a future episode. Just head over to photographyexplainedpodcast.com/start.

OK – thank you and I really look forward to hearing from you.

Here is the answery bit

Here are 10 camera settings for beginners that will get you going taking photos

  1. Picture-taking Mode – Programme
  2. Autofocus – ON
  3. File format – RAW and JPEG, using the highest quality for each
  4. ISO – 100/ 200 – as low as you can
  5. Metering Mode – Evaluative
  6. Focus Mode – AI Focus AF
  7. Drive Mode – Single shot
  8. White Balance – Auto
  9. Picture Style – Standard
  10. Image stabilisation – on for handheld, off on a tripod

And some other settings that vary depending on what you are photographing

  • Aperture
  • Shutter speed

OK then, that is my answer. Let me explain now. And remember these are 10 camera settings for beginners – I have come up with this little lot to help beginners get out and take photos. I know that there are lots more camera settings, some of which I have covered in previous episodes, and some that I have not.

You can listen to the episode here

Or keep on reading. Or do both. Entirely up to you!

But sometimes we just need some help to get going.

OK then – one by one, quickly, let’s do this. And apologies if all my examples are Canon based but I have been using Canon since I was a teenager, which I can assure is a long old time ago.

1 – Picture taking Mode – Programme

Program mode is smarter than full auto. Program mode lets you choose some settings for yourself, which full auto does not. Program mode works out the correct aperture and shutter to give you the right exposure. On some cameras, program mode takes into account the focal length that you are using and makes sure that the shutter speed is fast enough to get a sharp photo. Some program modes will also adjust the ISO if the shutter speed is too slow to give you a fast enough shutter speed.

Program mode is an intelligent automatic mode, which I prefer to think of as semi-automatic.

2 – Autofocus – ON

Well, why would you turn auto-focus off? I cannot remember when I last focussed manually to take a photo, probably in the mid-1980s.

So no, I trust the tech to get my photos sharp. The bit I do is point the camera at something.

3 – File format – RAW and JPEG highest quality for each

I started off taking photos in JPEG. I did not know what RAW was. And I regret this. So, if you are new to this stuff take both, and when you have learned more, if you want to, move from JPEG over to RAW, as you have taken both. If you don’t you can’t. JPEG gets you started, and you might move on to RAW, but you don’t have to. I shoot all my photos in RAW.

RAW photos involve more understanding and work than JPEGs, but get both and you are covered both ways.

And select the highest quality that you can manage for each – bearing in mind the higher the quality of the image the larger the file size.

And if you don’t want to use RAW just delete those photos whenever!

4 – ISO – 100/ 200 – as low as you can

I use ISO100 all the time. I only choose a higher ISO if I need a faster shutter speed when shooting handheld. The higher the ISO the higher the chance of noise and other bad stuff in your photos. But check your camera manual and other reliable sources, as on modern cameras I am sure that you are fine up to ISO800, maybe 1600, maybe higher.

5 – Metering Mode – Evaluative

Evaluative Metering is the default metering mode on Canon cameras. This is my go-to metering mode, which works for me for my architectural, construction, real estate, landscape, and travel photography. I rarely change from this mode, which is an excellent all-rounder.

And I would like to make a point here – a lot of the basic, default settings on cameras are all we need – you do not have to get everything funky and different, unless you want to that is.

6 – Focus Mode – AI Focus AF

There are two different focus modes on Canon cameras. Single shot and continuous. So why use AI Focus AF? Well, this mode is the one that chooses which of the two modes is best – it does the work for you which is nice! So give it a go.

7 – Drive Mode – Single shot

It is much better to take photos one at a time. Press the shutter release gently once, and boom, one photo is taken. I recommend this to beginners, rather than the much too often spray and pray that certainly, I used to do back in the day!

8 – White Balance – Auto

Yes, Auto. Why? Well as you are now shooting in RAW if you need to change the white balance you will be able to do it when you are processing those lovely RAW images. Cameras these days are pretty good at getting the white balance right to be fair.

9 – Picture Style – Standard

Picture styles can be used to get different combinations of colour tones, brightness, and contours (not sure what they are!).

Start with the standard, but be aware of the others, which are (for the Canon 6D sorry)

  • Auto
  • Portrait
  • Landscape
  • Neutral
  • Faithful
  • Monochrome
  • User Defined

Using standard gives you consistency, if you use auto the camera will be changing stuff and it might get confusing. So starting off with standard is my advice, and what I do. I prefer to make the adjustments in Lightroom myself.

10 – Image stabilisation – on for handheld, off when on a tripod.

I know, it’s an odd one. Image stabilisation helps you get sharp photos, so for handheld photography turn it on, if you are lucky enough to have it.

What this means is this. You can use a slower shutter speed with image stabilisation and still get a sharp photo. On my Canon 70-200mm lens, for example, I get 4 stops of image stabilisation. This means that I can change the shutter speed from 1/250th second to 1/15th second and get an equally sharp photo, which is quite amazing.

But you have to turn it off if you are taking photos with your camera on a tripod!

And some other settings that vary depending on what you are photographing, which are

Aperture

Pick a large aperture (small number) to get a shallow depth of field. Pick a small aperture (large number) to get a larger depth of field. Depth of field simply means the amount of a photo from front to back that is sharp.

Pick a large aperture (small number) to get more light through to the camera sensor, and pick a small aperture (large number) to get less light.

Shutter speed

Use a shutter speed fast enough to capture the subject, or blur it if you want to. But choose a shutter speed fast enough so any movement of you the photographer does not give you a blurry photo.

Change the shutter speed and you change the amount of light that gets through to the camera sensor. A faster shutter speed is less time with the shutter open and the sensor exposed to light so less light, a longer shutter speed means more light.

What do I do?

I will tell you the camera settings that I use in the next episode.

The talky bit

OK – whilst a lot of these settings are auto-ish types of settings I would rather you went out and practiced taking photos, look at what you have got, and over time learn all the settings in your camera yourself.

This episode is all about 10 settings for beginners, 10 settings that will help you get out quickly taking photos, and not have to worry too much about all those other camera settings.

So give these 10 camera settings a go and see what you get – this is the best way to learn trust me.

As I like to say, the number one way for you and me to improve our photography is to go out more and take photos.

Yes of course you have to get things right, but you also have to start by getting some basic camera settings sorted and taking photos. There is plenty of time to learn all that other complicated stuff.

And if you are like me, once you have learned all that other complicated stuff you will be in a much better position to be able to simplify everything, which is exactly what I have ended up doing.

But you need to learn this stuff before you get to that point.

Big takeaway

The big takeaway is this, get your camera set up with the basic settings and go out and take photos. Start now, and get perfect later.

Well, there are quite a few now.

Episode 100 – Why Are There So Many Camera Settings? I Am Confused – Help Me? This is what started this sequence of episodes. And there is episode 101, Camera Settings 1 – Things That You Can Set And Forget. Then there was Camera Settings 2 – Things That You Might Change When Out Taking Photos. And to finish off Camera Settings 3 – The Things That You Set For Each Photo You Take.

Next episode

Photography Explained Podcast Episode 105 – Do You Want To Know The 20 Camera Settings That I Use?

Well having gone through all this lot I will tell you what I do, all together in one episode.

Shout out

Shout out to me and my new course – find out more at rickmcevoyphotography.com/courses. Well if I can’t promote myself here where can I?

OK – I’m done

Thanks for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast. To find out more about my podcast and do stuff to help me check out Photographyexplainedpodcast.com/start.

Brought to you by

This episode was brought to you by a lovely cup of tea.

I’ve been Rick McEvoy, thanks again very much for listening to me and for giving 10 (ish) minutes of your valuable time, and I will see you on the next episode.

Cheers from me Rick

OK – that was the podcast episode.

Want to know more?

Head over to the Start page on the Photography Explained Podcast website to find out more.

And here is the list of episodes published to date – you can listen to any episode straight from this page which is nice.

Let me know if there is a photography thing that you want me to explain and I will add it to my list. Just head over to the This is my list of things to explain page of this website to see what is on there already.

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And finally a little bit about me

Finally, yes this paragraph is all about me – check out my Rick McEvoy Photography website to find out more about me and my architectural, construction, real estate and travel photography work. I also write about general photography stuff, all in plain English without the irrelevant detail.

Thank you

Thanks for listening to my podcast (if you did) and reading this blog post (which I assume you have done as you are reading this).

Cheers from me Rick

Rick McEvoy Photography

Rick McEvoy

I am the creator of the Photography Explained podcast. I am a photographer, podcaster and blogger. I am professionally qualified in both photography and construction. I have over 30 years of photography expereience and specialise in architectural photography and construction photography.

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