You may have waited months, or years before getting your digital camera, but now that you have it, you don't know what to do. Chances are the camera is too small and light to feel like a "real" camera. What's more, the thought of getting the pictures off the camera and onto the computer, and then editing the images may seem overwhelming.

Thankfully, the new digital cameras and image-editing programs are much easier to use than ever before. And unlike early digital cameras, the box that your digital camera came in likely includes everything you need to get started. If you take things step by step, by the time you finish, you'll find that it's neither hard nor time-consuming.

And within days, the camera that now seems like a plastic toy will likely become your constant companion. Not only do you get the fun of instant gratification, but you have a powerful tool to improve both your pictures and your photography skills quickly and permanently. And you'll soon discover that the amount of control you have over the final images is unprecedented.

While a new digital camera may seem daunting at first, with a few pointers and little practice, you'll be getting great pictures. This picture was taken with a Fujifilm Finepix S2 Pro digital camera.

Whether your digital camera is a point-and-shoot, a semipro-, or a pro-level model, the out-of-box camera experience can be confusing. In addition to the manual, registration cards, and marketing flyers, digital camera boxes come packed with cables, CDs with viewer and image-editing software, and maybe a PC card adapter.

Just the contents of the camera box may seem overwhelming.

First, set aside everything you don't need to set up the camera. Unless you're an old hand at putting cameras together, keep the quick-start guide or the manual nearby to ensure that you set up the camera correctly. If you were fortunate enough to get or wise enough to buy rechargeable batteries, start by charging them. Some batteries require an overnight charging cycle, while others charge in a few hours. All of the new digital cameras I've tested this year include a battery charger in the box. Some also come with partially charged batteries. If so, you can skip this step and recharge the battery when it is exhausted.

Note As you insert the memory card and battery, you'll notice that the covers for battery and memory card compartments are made of hard plastic. If you have trouble closing a compartment cover, do not force it because the plastic hinges will break. Instead, take out the memory card or battery, and then reinsert them according to the instructions. Try closing the compartment cover again. If you still can't get it closed, you may need to return the camera to the store. This, I hasten to add, is a rare problem—I've only had it happen once in testing many, many digital cameras.

If your camera came with nonrechargeable batteries (usually AA), go to the store and buy more, or, better yet, buy two sets of rechargeable batteries. Even with the most judicious use of the LCD on your camera, nonrechargeable batteries will be drained in a few hours of shooting.

Inserting the memory card Virtually all digital cameras come with either internal memory, or an insertable memory card or stick, or multimedia card. It's a good idea to turn off the camera when you insert (or eject) the memory card. Locate the slot that holds the memory card, which often includes a diagram that shows how the card should be inserted. For example, if your camera uses a SmartMedia card, be sure the notched part of the card is inserted according to the diagram on the camera. Usually the camera won't accept the card if you try to insert it backwards.

Become familiar with the camera controls and how they function.

Take a look at the introductory diagram that identifies the basic controls. Once the batteries are charged, insert them according to the instructions. Then become familiar with the controls on the camera body; specifically the switch for taking and reviewing images, the mode control dial (this dial or switch usually has symbols indicating a close-up of a person, mountains, a movie projector, and so on), the zoom control, and the dial, button, or lever that moves forward and back as you review images or make selections in the in-camera menus.

Then turn the camera on, and set the camera to "record" or picture-taking mode, and turn the mode dial to "auto." The camera will likely require you to set the date and time first. That's a good thing to do because it is then recorded as part of the shooting information with the images—something that can help you organise and retrieve images as your collection grows. Use your camera's quick-start guide to set the date and time.

Unlike the instant response you're accustomed to when you press the shutter release button on an SLR or point-and-shoot camera, a digital camera exposure takes longer because of "shutter lag" (the delay between the time you press the shutter-release button and the time the exposure is actually made), and the time it takes to record the image to the memory card. The length of time for each function depends on the camera and the memory card speed. The 2002 model digital cameras I've tested have dramatically decreased both shutter lag and image recording times, but the delays haven't been entirely eliminated.

As a result, you have to factor in the delays as part of your shooting process. Here are the two most important things to remember in regard to shutter lag and recording time.

Using the initial settings on the camera, spend a day or several days taking the type of pictures you normally take. These pictures will become your baseline for making adjustments to the camera settings. This image was taken with a Canon PowerShot G3 digital camera.

Composing pictures An initial impulse may be to use the camera's LCD monitor instead of the viewfinder to compose pictures. Certainly you can do this, it this technique can also result in "soft" focus images; holding a lightweight camera away from your body is an invitation for motion blur. Holding the viewfinder to your eye provides built-in stabilization that helps ensure sharp images. To stabilize the camera, hold it with one hand, and support it with the other. Keep your elbows close at your side. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart to steady the camera.

As you shoot, check the pictures using the camera's LCD monitor. Some digital cameras briefly display the most recent picture on the LCD for a few seconds immediately after you shoot. To get a longer look, you usually have to switch to a playback mode, and then use a dial or joy-stick to browse through the images. On some models, you have to turn the camera off, and then turn on the monitor to view the images. On most other models, you turn the main dial to "playback" mode.

Tip Use the LCD playback of the images to get an overall idea of what needs to be adjusted, but don't count on the image in the LCD as being the proof of the pudding. And it's usually a bad idea to adjust things such as contrast using the LCD as a guide. In most cases, you won't know for sure how to adjust the image until you get it on the computer. Use the LCD image to determine if you should make adjustments such as stepping back, adding more or less light, and so on.

Continue taking pictures using the manufacturer's initial settings until the internal memory or memory card is full. Take a wide range of pictures—take some outside, some inside with and without the flash, and others in the shade or in low light. These pictures will become your baseline from which you can adjust settings for images that were overexposed, underexposed, and so on.

Note Most new digital cameras include a display that shows the exposure information and settings for each image. With some cameras, you can view this exposure information on the computer after you download the pictures, so it's easy to see your baseline. If your camera doesn't display the settings, the camera manual also usually provides a chart showing the initial settings.

Practice shooting using the viewfinder to ensure that your composition comes out in the final image the way you intended. This picture was taken with a Kodak EasyShare LS443 digital camera.

The best way you'll know whether the manufacturer's settings need adjustment is to review the pictures on your computer. First, install the software that came with the camera on your computer. Most cameras come with image viewing programs and basic image-editing programs. However, if you already have or want to purchase a full-featured image-editing program such as Microsoft Digital Image Pro, you can use it to view and edit pictures.

Note Some of the new digital cameras offer the option (though it is not the default option) of shooting images in RAW mode. RAW is a proprietary format that stores images with no in-camera processing. To view RAW images, you have to use the manufacturer's software that is shipped with the camera. The advantage of shooting and converting images taken in RAW format is that, depending on the manufacturer's software, you can correct and tweak camera settings after you take the pictures. For example, with some manufacturer's software, you can correct images that are too light by resetting the f-stop in the manufacturer's editing program, change the colour balance by changing the white balance settings, adjust brightness and contrast, and so on. If your camera offers the option of shooting in RAW format, and if you're new to digital imaging, I recommend that you learn the camera shooting in JPEG or TIFF formats first, and then move on to learning how to shoot and adjust RAW images later.

Getting pictures onto the computer Downloading images from the camera has never been easier. Whether you have a "dock" that plugs into the computer, or you plug the camera into the computer using the supplied USB cord, a (separately purchased) memory-card reader, or a PC adapter card, downloading is a relatively simple process.

For most digital cameras, you just plug the USB cord into the computer and the camera, and then turn on the camera. Or in the case of a laptop, insert the memory card into one side of the adapter, and then insert the adapter into a free slot on your laptop. Then you can choose how you want to view and download the images. Here are a few basic options.

Experiment with cool features and filters. This photo was taken with the Minolta DiMAGE 7 with an infrared filter attached to the camera's lens. The infrared capabilities of the DiMAGE 7 are "experimental," according to a company spokesman.

If you do not have a free or an easily accessible USB connection on your computer, you may want to opt for buying a memory card or stick reader, memory stick reader, or, for laptops, a PC card adapter. With a memory card reader, you plug the card reader into the computer with a USB cable one time and leave it. The card reader provides a slot that you insert the memory card into for downloading images.

Try shots under different lighting conditions. This picture was taken with a Fujifilm Finepix S2 Pro digital SLR under fluorescent light with the white balance set to automatic.

The reader or adapter appears as a drive on your computer, just like your CD-ROM drive and floppy disk drive. To see the drive, just double-click the My Computer icon on the Windows desktop, and then double-click the card reader drive, which usually appears as a Removable Disk with a drive letter designation in parentheses. Select all the pictures, and copy them into a folder on your computer's hard disk.

Tip If you're using Windows XP, be sure to check the camera manufacturer's Web site to see if there is an update specifically for Windows XP. Start by looking in the technical or downloads section of the manufacturer's site. Then download any patches or updates for Windows XP.

Finding your pictures later If you use an image-editing program, the program usually saves images to the My Pictures folder on your computer's desktop by default. You can, of course, choose to save the pictures in another folder on your computer's hard disk. It’s also useful to properly name your pictures so they will be easy to locate. Using a program like Digital Image Suite, you can rename multiple pictures at once making them easier to find. You can also assign keywords to the pictures to help group and locate them by event, location or other category.

Important Resist the temptation to delete or change default folders on the memory card while you're working on the computer. The memory card is formatted to store pictures, and may include information important for camera functions.

Unplugging the camera from the computer To safely unplug the camera from the computer, click the appropriate icon on the Windows taskbar on Windows XP (Safely Remove Hardware), or 2000 or Millennium (Unplug or Eject Hardware). In Windows 98 (SE), in My Computer, right-click on the removable disk for the camera, and then click Eject.

Removing images from memory or the memory card The easiest way to clear the memory in the camera or on the card is to use the format or "delete" option on the camera. The option name varies by camera. Reinsert the card, if you're using a memory card, and then turn on the camera and set it to "playback" mode. Turn on the camera menu and look for a "delete" or "format" option. You can delete one or all images from the memory or card.

Important Always ensure that the images you want to keep are safely transferred to your computer before you delete the images from the camera memory or the memory card.

After pictures are saved to a folder on the computer's hard disk, you can go back to them and do more detailed editing at any time. Just start your image-editing program, and then choose the image or browse for the folder containing the pictures you want. In most programs, and certainly in Digital Image Pro, you can open a picture by choosing Open from the File menu.

Take more than one picture using different white balance and shutter speed settings. Then keep the picture that's closest to what you intended. This image's intense yellows and sharp edges were just what I wanted.

If you didn't rotate the pictures when you downloaded them, choose the appropriate rotation option (clockwise or counter-clockwise). In Digital Image Pro, click the Crop or rotate button on the left-hand toolbar. Once the pictures are in the correct orientation, save a copy of them using a new, more descriptive name. On the File menu, click Save As, and then type a new name for the image.

Tip Camera manufacturers have default naming schemes that are usually less than intuitive, and that do not make it easy to quickly locate a specific picture later. However, there is value to the default naming schemes, because they provide a way to track the number of pictures taken and, in some cases, the date. To get the best of both worlds, when I save a copy of a picture, I just add a friendly name to the beginning of the original file name. Then I have a working copy with a friendlier name, such as FrostyMorningDSC_2766.TIF.

Save the copy of the original image in a lossless file format that retains all image information when it saves images, such as TIFF or Picture It! Photo's MIX format. Lossy file formats like JPEG, by comparison, discard information to save space when compressing images. You want to save all of the image bits you can so that you can get good prints from it later. Even if the original image is in JPEG format, do not edit and save using JPEG format.

Even if there appears to be enough light, check the exposure to ensure that the shutter speed is fast enough to prevent camera shake. This photo was taken with a Nikon D100 digital SLR hand-held at 1/30 second on an overcast day.

Important You should always work on the copy of the image, not the original. Think of your original picture as your "digital negative"—the negative you can always go back to in case anything goes wrong with the copy you're working on.

If there is something that obviously needs correction on the image, such as tint, brightness and contrast, or red eye, use the program's touch-up features to adjust the image.

Most important, look at all of the images to see what recurring correction themes emerge. For example, if all or many of the images are overexposed (too light), make a note to use the camera's exposure compensation option in whatever scenes are overexposed.

Note The previous editing information provides only the basics of image editing. For more extensive editing recommendations, read Digital Image Editing Basics.

Your first foray into using the digital camera should have provided an overview of the camera's capabilities in normal shooting situations using the default settings. Now you know which settings to adjust and which ones to leave as is.

If you're wondering why you should adjust camera settings at all when you can fix so many elements of the picture on the computer, the answer is simple. You want to begin editing with the best quality image you can get from the camera. This saves you time, and it makes image editing much more enjoyable. And while image-editing software is amazingly powerful, there are some things it can't fix, including lousy focus, extremely bad tints, and severe underexposure or overexposure.

Setting the correct white balance assures accurate colour in the final image. This picture was taken with a Minolta DiMAGE Xi in tungsten light with the white balance set to tungsten. The colour matches the original scene very accurately.

Once again, check the camera's instruction manual to find out how to change settings, usually from menus on the camera's LCD. Also, check to see which button you use to confirm and save the changed settings.

Image quality Check the camera's manual to see how to set the image quality. Depending on your camera, you can choose among quality settings such as Basic or Small, Normal, Fine, High or Large, or Super-High. The High and Super-High settings result in larger image files, which, predictably, reduce the number of images you can store on a memory card, but result in higher-quality printed images.

Most cameras use the JPEG format for the basic and normal settings. This file format is widely accepted for storing photographic images using different ratios of compression. While the JPEG format's compression reduces the size of the image file, it is also lossy: It discards some of the information in the original image to reduce the file size. Retaining all of the original image information is important, again to get quality prints. Check the instruction manual for recommendations about the compression ratios such as Normal, Fine, and Superfine, which can be chosen as a subset of the basic resolutions on some cameras.

A classic digital camera problem is losing detail in white areas under strong light, especially a flash. Experiment with your camera's options for reducing the intensity of the flash output to reduce the problem of blown whites

Your camera may also offer the option to store files in TIFF or RAW format, each of which is lossless, meaning that no information is discarded to compress the files. But these types of files are large because they are not compressed. RAW format, which produces files that are considerably smaller than TIFF format, usually requires you to use the manufacturer's software to view and save images. From there, you can save the images in TIFF or another lossless format.

So, what setting should you choose? If you know how you will use the images before you take them, you can set the image quality accordingly. For example, if you're shooting a child's birthday party, and you want to post the images on a Web community, and you're pretty sure you don't want printed enlargements, then the Basic or Normal setting is good enough. However, if there is a chance you'll want to print images, use the highest quality setting on your camera, and take extra memory cards with you.

White balance If you're shooting pictures indoors under household (tungsten or incandescent) or fluorescent lighting without a flash, or you're using a flash, or you're shooting in anything other than sunlight, set the white balance. When you set the white balance, the camera automatically "filters" for the lighting, producing accurate colour in the final image. Setting the white balance is like using an FLD or 80B filter on an SLR when you're shooting daylight-balanced film indoors.

In this picture, taken with a Minolta DiMAGE Xi, the white balance was set to automatic in fluorescent light, and the colour is good. However, the tones would have been more accurate by setting the white balance to fluorescent.

In addition, most cameras have compensation settings for a variety of light temperatures, including shade or overcast conditions. Many cameras also enable you to set the white balance using a white sheet of paper to get the best balance for the conditions. The best advice is to set the white balance so it matches the ambient light, and then check the image.

ISO equivalency ISO indicates a film's light sensitivity, or the speed of the film. On a digital camera, you can set the light sensitivity using the ISO setting. Changing the ISO setting to a faster setting, say, 400 or 800, enables you to shoot in low-light conditions without a flash. For example, doubling the ISO setting is equal to stopping down one f-stop or increasing the shutter speed by one setting. So, if you're shooting at an ISO equivalency of 100 at f/5.6 at 1/100th of a second, changing the ISO to 200 reduces the shutter time to 1/200th of a second at f/5.6.

As with film, however, the higher you set the ISO, the more "grain," or, in this case, digital noise, will be in the image. However, the grain may not be noticeable except in the highest ISO settings. For low-light scenes, set the ISO to 400, 800, or higher if your camera offers it. Take test shots at the high settings and see if the results are acceptable. If they are not, lower the ISO setting.

Red eye can be minimized by not taking the picture with the subject looking directly at the camera (and on-camera flash).

Red-eye reduction Almost all new cameras include a red-eye reduction setting under the flash options on the shooting menus. It's worth noting that manufacturers call this red-eye reduction, not elimination, for good reason. You'll probably still need to use your image-editing software to fix ghoulish-looking eyes. Note also that turning on red-eye reduction may increase shutter lag time. (I discuss shutter lag in more detail later in this article.)

Metering A bevy of metering options give you lots of creative control over your pictures. For general, all-purpose shooting, stick with multipattern metering if your camera offers it. This option meters around the focus area you select, rather than metering the center of the frame.

But don't rule out the other metering options. For example, on macro shots, a spot meter may be just what you need.

Focusing Following the path of SLRs, most digital cameras offer a choice of focusing options. For everyday photos, stick with autofocus. For action shots, experiment with continuous or nearest-subject focusing options. For macro shots, you may want to switch to manual focus, if your camera offers it.

Focusing options vary by camera, so be sure to read the instruction manual to see what your camera offers. For example, some cameras offer focusing modes for capturing action shots where you can't predict the subject's position or the focal distance. In this mode, the camera presets to the maximum wide-angle setting.

In this picture, taken with the Kodak EasyShare LS443 digital camera, I used the Sepia option found in the camera's menus.

Other settings Like most point-and-shoot cameras, digital cameras often have shooting modes that allow you to control depth of field. This creative control is valuable for throwing the background out of focus for a portrait, and for getting maximum depth of field in sweeping landscape shots. Newer cameras offer more modes. For example, many new cameras offers a night-scene mode that illuminates subjects with the flash while capturing the background at a slower shutter speed to correctly expose both.

Experiment with creative controls, including black-and-white, sepia, and other colour effects settings. Play with the movie mode and panoramic (stitch-assist) modes, if your camera offers them.

One of the first things you may notice when you take a picture with a digital camera is the delay between the time you fully depress the shutter release button and the time the exposure is complete. This delay is called shutter lag. The delay may be long enough to cause blur.

To help compensate for shutter lag, it's a good idea to try the following:

Newer cameras, such as the Canon PowerShot G3, do an excellent job in lowlight scenes such as this. For this picture, I handheld the camera in low light and got acceptable sharpness.

That covers the basics for most digital cameras. Remember that the most important thing you can do is to learn the camera thoroughly. The second most important thing you can do is use the camera every day. If you're like most people, you'll find that your digital camera will make a vast improvement in your photography skills, and that the number of pictures you take will double or triple within weeks or months.

Use the camera to shoot pictures that you'd never have taken on film. You're not paying for film or developing, so you can experiment, you can learn, and you can take great pictures that will last a lifetime.

About the author: Charlotte K. Lowrie is managing editor of editorial content for MSN Photos. Her writing and photography have been published in magazines, including Quill (Society of Professional Journalists), Walking, and Texas Highways, and newspapers, including the Dallas Morning News.