Most people don't want to mess with a digital camera's settings. Manufacturers realize this and are making it easier to get a great shot every time without a lot of adjustments. It's done with presets called modes.

Let's say it's your child's birthday. The lights are low and the candles on the cake are glowing. You'll want a slow shutter speed to capture more light to get the right shot. But when the kids go outside and play in the sunlight, you'll want a faster shutter speed.

Professionals and amateur enthusiasts can make these adjustments without pause. The rest of us don't want to study photography and learn to figure out all of those settings. The answer is scene modes.

You'll find scene modes on most cameras. Generally, they are accessed through a knob or dial. Or, they can be found through a menu on the camera's LCD screen.

Following are some of the most common scene modes.

Portrait: This mode is best when photographing one thing — your mom, your dog, a sculpture. It focuses entirely on the subject; everything behind it is out of focus. Pictures turn out best when you move in close to the subject. You also can use the zoom, but the picture could be blurry. A tripod could cure that.

Landscape: Use this when you have a really large subject, such as a mountain range or cityscape. The camera uses a smaller aperture, increasing field depth and bringing more into focus. Landscape often uses a slow shutter speed. Holding the camera still in that situation is difficult. Set the camera on a tripod or other steady object.

Night: Have you tried to get a group shot of friends at night while out on the town? Often, the flash overexposes the faces, and the background is blacked out. Night mode uses the flash to light your subject, while capturing background lights with a slow exposure. Again, set the camera on a tripod or solid object.

Action: Have you ever snapped a sports picture only to get a blur? How about a small child who always moves? Use the action (sometimes called sports) mode. Press the shutter button halfway down to focus on the subject. When you're ready to take the picture, press it all the way down.

Manufacturers have become increasingly competitive over scene modes. Casio released a series of cameras that offer an eBay Best Shot mode. This mode takes photos at a size optimized for display on eBay. Canon's cameras have My Colors modes that allow you to isolate, swap and manipulate the colors in the picture.

Some camera models offer as many as 20 different scene modes. Some of the self-explanatory modes you might find are: auction, beach, behind glass, candle, cuisine, documents, fireworks, museum, self-portrait, snow and sunset. Hewlett-Packard even offers a mode on its R-series that shaves 10 pounds off the subject.

Read the owner's manual for instructions on each mode. Most of the modes are for very specific conditions and probably not entirely common ones. However, you're pretty much guaranteed a great looking shot each time.

Contact Kim Komando at gnstech@gns.gannett.com.