I have to prepare a bank reconciliation and unlike most problems i'm given pictures of the books rather than a list of the items, so i was wondering how do you find the deposit in transit and the error in deposit? i'm given the bank statement, cash payments journal, and cash receipts journal.

In bank reconciliations there are two positions:-

1) Your books; and
2) The Bank's books.

They each show their positions.
What you need to do is update both books to portray the same positions.
This means you update the information in both.
When you do this you find that they show the same position.

I don't understand. Does that mean I have to subtract the amount of deposits the bank made by the total amount of the cash receipts journal minus the outstanding check to find the error in deposits?

From the bank statement you add deposits that were made to the bank that have not been recorded on the bank statement.

Next you subtract the $ amount of checks that are still outstanding.

This is your adjusted bank bank balance.

From the company's balance per their books you have to add deposits that were recoded in the bank statement that do not appear in your books. An example is interest received or a CD that has matured, etc.

Next you subtract expenses that are in the bank statement that do not appear on the company's books. An example is monthly bank fees, automatic payments, etc.

This is your adjusted book balance.

Also you need to check that the amount of your individual deposits and checks on your books equal the amount of the individual deposits and checks per the bank statement.

If your book adjusted balance per your books equals the adjusted balance per the bank statement then your books and the bank statement are in agreement. If they do not balance then you have a error somewhere.

Also you need to post things to your books that are in your bank statement but are not yet on your books and you need to do a correcting entries or adjussting entries for any errors made by the company to get your book balance to agree with the bank balance.