Couple of pointers:
- use a tripod where possible
- turn the flash off . . . that lets the camera record all of the ambient light and more approximates what the human eye sees.
- for overall shots, use an f-stop/aperture that it about one or two stops from wide open, that's the camera len's sharpest, most optimal setting. For instance, if the maximum/widest/fastest aperture is say f4 or f3.5, set the lens at say 5.6 or 8. At this point, if you're shooting indoors, you will likely need a tripod.
- If shooting with a tripod, you can set the camera to the slowest iso (equivalent of light sensitivity), something like iso 80, 100. The slower the iso (smaller the number) the finer resolution you'll get from the sensor and smoother the picture.
- Unless you want to shoot manually (picking f-stop and shutter speed), I'd shoot in aperture priority mode which lets you pick the lens opening (say 5.6 from above) the camera picks the appropriate shutter speed.
- if you are shooting a closeup of something and have some sort of zoom function, zoom in and use the fastest aperture you have. This will limit the amount of acceptably sharp focus to just what you want to show, adding emphasis to it and blurring less important objects.
- if doing an overall shot, wider angle view, whole shop kind of vantage point, you could stop down to something like f8 or even f11. Most everything will be in focus but a tripod might be required to avoid camera shake and blur while the shutter is open.
-in most cases, auto white balance is probably your best bet since there may be a mix of daylight, 100 watt bulbs, fluorescents, etc. Each registers a different color of light on the camera. If there is one dominant source you can pick that one on the camera for a more natural rendering but often auto white balance comes out to be the best choice.
- if possible, shoot in the camera's highest resolution and save your files in raw format and convert them to tiff's or jpeg's when you import them into a computer. If you do save them as jpegs, pick the option with the least amount of compression. The trade off is that you'll have larger file sizes on your camera's memory card.
- shoot often, try different angles and camera settings, take notes of techniques you like and notice what you like and dislike about certain photos. It's about being able to take shots predictably and consistently.
