I read the manual for mine (Nikon D3000) because they're ridiculously complex, and it's true they encourage laziness.
I've seen pictures on eBay where people have a satin sheet as a backdrop and another as a tablecloth. My first thought was "They must be charging a lot" (they weren't): It sure looked nice though.
I can't be bothered with that sort of thing and fall back to trying to make sure there's nothing too embarrassing in the shot. Professionals get paid to bother.
So the upshot of all this is you should read your manual, particularly if you don't know what the symbols mean. I fooled around with all the settings, then set it to auto after I briefly set it to manual focus then all my shots turned out looking as if my camera wasn't wearing its glasses.