11
Chapter 1: Getting Up and Running
the viewfinder.) Now rotate the dial until the data appears sharpest. The
markings in the center of the viewfinder, which relate to autofocusing,
also become more or less sharp.
That ’ s all there is to it—the camera is now ready to go. From here, my rec-
ommendation is that you keep reading the rest of this chapter to familiarize
yourself with the main camera features. But if you’re anxious to take a picture
right away, I won’t think any less of you if you skip to Chapter 3 , which guides
you through the process of using the camera’s automatic shooting modes.
Just promise that at some point, you’ll read the pages in between, because
they actually do contain important information.
Exploring Basic Camera Features
If you’re new to dSLR photography, some aspects of using your camera, such as
working with the lens, may be unfamiliar to you. But even if you ’ re a seasoned
pro—it pays to take some time before your first shoot with a new camera
to get familiar with its controls. To that end, the upcoming pages provide an
overview of the D3300’s main features and also offer a primer on working with
lenses and memory cards.
Checking outexternal controls
Scattered across your camera’s exterior are numerous controls that you use
to change picture-taking settings, review your photos, and perform various
other operations. In later chapters, I discuss all camera functions in detail
and provide the exact steps to follow to access them. This section provides
just a basic “what’s this thing do?” guide to each control. (Don’t worry about
memorizing the button names; throughout the book, I show pictures of but-
tons in the page margins to help you know exactly which one to press.)
Topside controls
Your virtual tour begins with the bird’s-eye view shown in Figure 1-5 . There
are a number of features of note here:
✓ On/Off switch and shutter button: Okay, I’m pretty sure you’ve already
figured out this combo button. But you may not be aware that you need
to press the shutter button in two stages: Press and hold the button half-
way and wait for the camera to initiate exposure metering and, if you ’ re
using autofocusing, to set the focusing distance. Then press the button
the rest of the way to take the picture.
✓ Exposure Compensation button: This button activates Exposure Com-
pensation, a feature that enables you to tweak exposure when working
in the P (programmed autoexposure), A (aperture-priority autoexpo-
sure), or S (shutter-priority autoexposure) modes. (I cover this feature
in Chapter 4 .) To set the amount of Exposure Compensation, press the
button while rotating the Command dial (the black dial on the upper-right
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