I just came back from a week long backpacking trip. I downloaded my photos onto the computer and almost right away was shocked by the amount of digital noise. Then I looked at the EXIF data (and the camera itself) and I had taken all the photos for the trip at ISO 800 !!

The moral of the story is check your camera settings before every shoot.

I have a set of 3 books that I like a lot by Scott Kelby entitled "The Digital Photography Book" volume 1,2,3. In book 2, on page 184, he has a little essay entitled "WHIMS" will keep you out of trouble.

• W - white balance
• H - highlight warning enabled
• I - ISO
• M - mode (aperture priority or whatever)
• S - size (raw/jpeg capture size)

Another very similar tip is before leaving your studio or home on a shoot, to take one picture. This checks that the battery is OK, card is in the camera, the camera is really in the bag, etc.