I just bought a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ8, I'm venturing into theworld of photography for the first time. Basically, I know which endto point towards my subject and which end I look through, other thanthat I'm pretty new. I'll be going to the Caribbean soon and want toget alot of practice with my camera to replicate the enviroment thebest that I can before I get there, so my pictures will hopefullycome out good..

My questions:.

1. should I mainly leave the camera on simple mode?.

If you are not familiar with how aperture and shutter speed work and combine to give the correct exposure, then using the fully automatic mode will give you pretty good results. if you want to understand a bit more about how to use manual settings, have a look at.

Http://www.fredparker.com/ultexp1.htm.

If you want to have a bit more control about how your piectures come out - e.g. getting a large depth of field for landscapes, with everying from just in front of you to the horizon in focus (which needs a small aperture); or how to freeze the motion of something moving so that it isn't blurred (which needs a fast shutter speed), you'll need to get to grips with the basics of manual control..

2. should I shoot subject matter in open fields with bright sun?.

Bright sun is surprisingly difficult because you get very bright highlights and very dark shadows, and it is asking a lot of a camera to get both just right at the same time. A little bit of cloud cover to diffuse the light makes things much easier, especilaly for pictures of people (who squint in bright sunlight, and will have ugly shadows on their faces). If you need to shoot under these conditions, a good idea is to take three pictures with different exposure settings (i.e. what the camera says, then plus and minus half a stop) and see which looks best later..

3. I'm sure there is more just cant think of them right now.

For bright sunlight, blue skies, and sea, you might want to consider a polarising filter which will cut out glare from the sky and reflections from the water and give both rich, deep blues. It will make a big improvement to pictures taken under the conditions you describe..

Best wishesMike..

Practice a lot before you go. If nothing else, learn how to use 'focus lock', how to set the ISO, and how to adjust exposure compensation while looking at the histogram. In fact, learn how to 'read' the histogram..

When you can do all this, you can go on to learn about aperture and shutter priority, even manual..

Another tip: use the camera for a few weeks then read the manual all over again. It will suddenly make sense and you'll find new things to try..

I think there will be a mode (Program?) on your camera that lets you adjust some basic features like ISO while leaving aperture and shutter to the camera. Use that mode for now. Simple mode, if it's like the one on my Panasonic camera, is too simple.Androohttp://Androo.smugmug.com..

The people on the Panasonic Forum are very nice and will help you with all of the specifics to the camera..

No, you don't need to leave it on heart mode all of the time. You can also do well on Program mode when you set the ISO or put it on auto ISO and the camera will set both the shutter speed and the aperture. Auto ISO keeps the ISO low and doesn't go over 200 so nothing to worry about using that. If you get into the evening where you are unsure about the light iISO looks for movement of the subject matter and will adjust the ISO higher. The reason people like Auto and iISO is the camera will pick some intermediate values that you can't get on your own. I don't want to bog down in the details here..

Keep the Image Stabilization on mode 2 unless you are shooting video where mode 1 is better..

Use the EV compensation that is the arrow up button. If you hit it once you are in EV for some of those bright days -1/3 to -2/3 will keep you from over exposing. If you are unsure of using EV even better for you would be exposure bracketing. This is where the camera takes 3 shots with different exposures. You get to that by pressing the EV button 2 times and then you set the range for the bracket you could -2/3, 0, +2/3 or something like that. If you press that button 3 times you get to flash compensation which allows you to change the flash output for nighttime..

Set the camera to single area focus and you will have an easier time it is the single square without the H. You can get there by pressing the joystick..

Also use center weighted metering again the joystick will take you there and looks like ()..

Best way to shoot is half press shutter, get focus (square turns green) the press shutter the rest of the way..

There is a scene mode for beach which is pretty useful as it will use a flash to shots and make people not be dark vs, bright background..

Finally, if you are going to be out taking a lot of water pictures a polarizing filter could be useful..

Also, go on line and print a backup copy of the manual and throw it in your suitcase in case you want to read something..

Terryhttp://tbanet.zenfolio.com/..

I have a FZ-5 (a predecessor of the FZ-8) and my wife mainly uses it right now..

Since she's also new to photography she likes setting it to Simple Mode (Heart icon)..

Simple mode is basically the same a Program mode except that the back LCD shows only the basic needed info including:-big green dot for focus confirm.

-direct access to backlighted (sp?) photos allowing you to shoot photos of subjects with the lighting behind them...can be useful in the Caribbean, beach settings.-flash settings..

Don't set your ISO to anything higher than 200 (a bit noisy), you should be safe working with the Simple Mode under most conditions..

You might also want to try shooting as often as possible with your flash up for fill-in even in daytime due to the harsh lighting of the sun in the Islands..

If you have the time do look into the manual and experiment with the other settings for more flexibility..

Equipment in profile...

Thank you everyone for the tips and information, The Fredparker.com website is an excellent read. Now to just get away from work for a day and start taking some pictures...