• About Us
    • Our Blog Story
    • Contact Us
    • Our Contributors
    • Founding Editor

Inspired by Family

brave moms. strong families.

  • home
  • family
    • love & marriage
    • parenting
  • Speaker
    • Speaking Info
  • Faith
  • Book
  • Life Coach
    • Life Coach & Biblical Counselor
  • Shop

daily living encouragement

Check Your Camera Settings- Practical Photo Tip # 7

Welcome to the Tip #7 in our series Life Lessons from Photography School! If you missed tip #6 you can find it here.
Contributing Photographer: Carla Ackermann
Think First!
While I am still learning all that digital photography entails, I am learning to love it.  For years I shied away, being intimidated by anything technical, digital or computerized.  Now, however, I am learning to embrace these “advances”.  The forgiveness of digital photography is wonderful.  You can make a whole lot of mistakes with little to no expense – just keep shooting until you get it right, or fix it in a photo editing program!  Take the following photos for example.  In my hurry trying to capture details of a wedding, I forgot to check my settings.  The  photo below is much too dark, taking away the sparkle of the bottles, thus the appeal  Trusting myself too much, I moved on to the next thing to shoot without even looking at the poor work I had done.  Thankfully, with the beauty of photo editing, I was able to lighten and brighten up the photo.  The result is the second photo, above.  Much better.

Well, not so fast! While this is true to some extent, you can’t edit away every problem. For example, if the next photo I shoot is of a group of people and I forget to check my settings, the open aperture that I had set for the bottles would leave most of the people in the next photo blurry. That is not something any photo editing program can fix (yet, anyway!). If some pictures, or objects in the pictures, are too dark or too light, you will not be able to edit them well enough to make them beautiful. So what do you do? Think first! The few seconds it takes to stop, think about what you are doing, and adjust the camera for lighting, focus, etc. will save you hours of editing and/or sobs of despair if you can’t remedy the problem. Stopping long enough to think – one of my biggest issues with my photography!

It is also one of my biggest issues in life. Just as I need to work to get things right in-camera, I need to work to get things right in life – thinking first. Speaking or acting without thinking can do a lot of damage. Through the grace of God, we are forgiven by Him and can be forgiven by those we hurt. Yet in our humanity, the damage is done. An ill word spoken can remain in the memory of its receiver for life. Just like the limitations of photo editing, we can’t edit away a lot of the damage. We need to stop, think about what we are doing and adjust our attitudes, our words or our actions. Think first – the pictures in our lives will be much more beautiful!


« Simply Stylish Bags- DIY No-Sew Tote Bag
Before You Sew »

Hi, I’m Mari Hernandez-Tuten!

About Me!

I am the heart behind Inspired by Family Coaching & Counseling Ministry. I am a Jesus loving woman who is a certified life coach, biblical counselor, author, Bible teacher, and speaker. I help women anchor their hearts through attachment-based, neuro-science informed, and faith-filled tools so they can walk in faith, truth, and connection.

Click to Follow Me on YouVersion Bible App!

Praying the Psalms for Your Children In English & Spanish on YouVersion

Click to get my Proverbs 31 in 5 Minutes a Day Bible Study!

Search

Copyright © 2026 · Divine theme by Restored 316

Copyright © 2026 · Divine Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in