Week 18: Recommended camera settings

This the final post in this 15 week free photography course.
Start at Week 1 and work your way through.
To find Week 1, use the navigation panel over there on the right, or search through "Older Posts" at the bottom of the page.

So, for those readers who have done all the work and got this far:
This might seem an odd place to finally get around to spelling out all the camera settings that I recommend...And it is! But in my defence, if I did this right at the beginning, before students had a grasp on the fundamentals of photography and why things work they way they do, it might seem a bit arbitrary and meaningless. Anyway, we've had plenty of other stuff to get our heads around. So, here goes...

Week 1: Drive the camera. Camera Modes

We're going to start by learning how to drive the dslr camera:
Many camera users (as opposed to photographers) leave their camera in one single mode, Auto mode and don’t get any further than that. Sure, the camera will produce good exposures for you most of the time in the Auto mode but it's no thanks to you. You are locked out of the process, you play no real part in the decision making and when the camera doesn't get you a good result you may not know how to fix it.