Experimenting

Even though camera manuals can be overwhelming, make sure you go through them with your camera close by. You can either read them straight through, or skip around to the functions on the camera you're most interested in. Whatever you do, don't be scared to experiment while photographing. Take pictures of anything and everything making subtle changes or not so subtle changes simply by using the variety of buttons and functions located on your camera. One exercise I find rewarding and fun is changing the metering system. Take a picture of the same subject three times, each time setting the camera metering to three different settings. Try it on "center weighted metering," "spot metering," and "matrix metering" (over all metering). Most of the time you will have your camera set on "matrix metering" simply because it works most of the time. For a more dramatic effect, try the others. I personally like what I see when I use "center weighted metering." Go ahead, give it a try and let me know what you think. Most of all, have fun!