Reset your camera after shooting

© 2009 Simon Hucko

I'm sure we've all been in this situation before - you pull your camera out and fire off a few shots before realizing that the settings are where you left them from your last shoot, which happened to be something totally different (low light, macro, etc). You may still get some usable images, but they won't be ideal.

The best way I've found to combat that is to have a standard setup for your camera that you revert to every time. In the case of my DSLR, that means the standard zoom on camera, matrix metering selected, ISO 400, Aperture priority mode at f/8, and white balance set to daylight. Do I always shoot with these settings? Nope. In fact, it's pretty rare that I'll shoot with that exact setup. However, this way I always know what to expect and can quickly make the necessary adjustments.

If you get into the habit of resetting your camera after a shoot, you'll be much less likely to leave it in a strange configuration, and will have fewer "d'oh!" moments. This applies to point n shoots just as much, since even the ones without full manual control have a range of settings that you can change.
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In other news, I finally got all of my pictures uploaded from my weekend in Pittsburgh. Check them out here. Comments and feedback (both positive and negative) are always encouraged and appreciated.

~S