One of the most irritating things about point-and-shoot digital cameras is that sometimes they are really slow. You press the button and by the time the camera takes the shot… the moment is lost. Sure, some cameras are faster than others, but even the fastest cameras can sometimes be slow on the uptake, particularly in low light situations. Read on for some tips to make your camera work a little faster.

SO MANY DECISIONS…

When you keep your camera set to Auto, the computer in the camera has to make a whole bunch of decisions before it can click the shutter. It has to evaluate the lighting, decide where the focus of the shot should be set, determine what the white balance setting should be, decide if the flash should be used, and choose how fast the ISO should be. That’s a lot of decisions to make in less than a second.

The trick to speeding up your camera is to make some of those decisions on your own using the Manual setting.

You may need to consult your camera’s user guide to figure out how to do some of the things listed below, but generally, I’m a fan of the “press every button” way of exploring a camera. Below are 4 steps for boosting the speed of your point-and-shoot.

4 STEPS TO A FASTER CAMERA

1) First, set your camera to M for Manual and explore some of the functions on your camera.

2) Set your ISO. ISO stands for International Standards Organization and refers to the sensitivity of the film or the receptor in your digital camera. The higher the number, the more sensitive the “film,” and the grainier the look of the image. If you generally shoot in daylight, set your ISO to the lowest number, such as 200. If you generally shoot in low light situations, set your ISO to a higher number , such as 800.

3) Set your White Balance. The white balance setting tells your camera the color temperature of light you’re shooting in. Daylight tends to be cooler in color and interior lamplight tends to be warmer. If you like a warm look to your images, set your camera to the Cloudy setting. Play around with the white balance and find a looks that you like.

4) Take your flash off the Auto setting. You can choose to have the flash on all the time, or off all the time, but the auto flash adds time to your picture taking.

Most cameras allow you to switch between Manual, Auto or Scene settings. Auto makes all the decisions for you, and works very fast in bright daylight. Manual allows you to choose your favorite presets. Scene settings allow you to set your camera for the best presets for the kinds of things you’re shooting, such as snow, kids, aquarium, sports, landscape, night.

I like to keep my manual settings at 400 ISO, Cloudy white balance, and I turn off the flash. I use the auto setting for bright light situations, the manual setting for interiors, and the scene setting for specialty situations such as trips to the beach or the aquarium.

These few steps should boost your camera’s speed a bit and allow you to capture things like speeding toddlers or fast moving action.