TP: What camera settings do you use?

Sony A100

I have a very basic initial set-up, mainly because I work with a team of designers who are fantastic with Photoshop. With this set-up, I generally find that I will get an image that I can use from every batch of three.

Program mode
Bracket:0.7Ev cont.
ISO 100
RAW + fine
AF-C
Spot AF area (otherwise my nose activates the focus area selector!)
Auto White Balance
Centre weighted metering
Eye-start: Off
Focus hold button used as Depth Of Field preview
Flash: Rear sync

5D settings:
Aparature priority
Shutter release priority (i hate when i get focuslock but shutter wont trigger, better get some kind of picture than none..)
Auto ISO (its this or 800 if needed)
AWB
Spotmetering
AF-C
focus area selection
raw+jpg, jpg only used for viewing what raw files to edit.

Edited by Anssisa - 14 April 2007 at 14:24

a100, in all cases:
- RAW only. JPGs would be regarded junk mail on my CF cards.
- AWB most of the time
- everything set to zero. none of this ± stuff
- SSSI on
- Fn dial set to ISO at the ready for the most commonly altered setting
- meter is set to multi-segment
- centre focus point, and often button select it to another point rather than focus and reframe.

With my 16 Fish
- AF (S) or MF
- f5.6-f11 most of the time
- ISO 100 preference, if not 200 or 400.
- if I have a bright yellow building to shoot, drop it to ISO High 200
- Mode .... A or M, more and more i am shooting in M because I shoot off centre a lot, so its either A mode and use the AEL button to spot meter a point and hold it in memory, or I do that and then dial in that setting into M so i can shoot a few frames at different compositions and ignore the meter seeing as its set from the first frame

Using 50/100 macro as normal non-macro lenses
- as above, but tend to shoot at f4-5.6 most of the time. Sometimes f8
- tend to stay in A mode. And again 50/50 AF/MF

Using the 50 or 100 mac as a macro lens, stuff, around the 1/4 to 1:1
- MF always
- f2.8-f11 depending on subject
- often in continous so i can slowing rock into focus and trip a few frames on the way in and out. Hey, we have 2G cards, fill em up be sure to nail one in tight spots.

Studio PackShotType Photography
- ISO Low 80
- WL flash firing 2x 3600HSDs (they point up), on camera flash used as AF assist but covered with my hand for the shot (it triggers the slaves but provides no light itself)
- Flash compensation often at +2/3 ... I prefer to over cook the shots and then darked in LR
- f11 for most of the time. Also use f2.8 and f4 for narrow depth effect

Using the 300 deer gun for stalking
- mode A
- continuous shooting, S focus
- ISO 400, step it to 200 if in a bright spot, up to 800 or 1600 as the light drops
- f4 at ISO 400, 800, 1600
- might pop to f2.8 and ISO 800 before f4 ISO 1600
- final point f2.8 ISO 1600

... and I could do it all in my sleep. Its like settings for the scene/topic

Edited by dCap - 14 April 2007 at 14:41

For my preferences to be useful to anyone else, i think i should make a brief summary of my shooting styles: i'm a full time manual focus and prime lens user. My main interest is street photography (or anything with life in it) i ocassionally do macros too. I shoot JPEG almost exclusively, and post process all my keepers in Photoshop. Finally, i use a 5D.


focus: manual focus all the way, but in case i use it rarely, i always use center spot.

Mode: Aperture priority almost always.

metering: center-weighted all the time, its important to know how your camera will behave with exposure than its hit rate.. this is why i never change this setting, i know how it behaves very well.

AEL button: toggle mode, use it only for adjustments beyond +-2 EV range

WB: mostly preset, regularly sampled and AWB only when i don't care about color consistency between shots, or using flash.
my tungsten preset has +3 adjustment, gives a better atmosphere than unrealistically naturalised colors.

ISO: 200 and onwards, i don't hesitate to use ISO3200

AS: ON all times, don't want to forget it turned off, it doesnt seriously ruin any tripod shot anyway.
Rear sync: ON all times, i don't see a reason not to use rear sync
Priority: always shutter (don't use much AF anyway..)

Image parameters:
Contrast -1, for better DR with JPEGs
Saturation 0, this setting is pretty natural, i always process my jpegs anyway.
sharpness -2, i don't want my files pre-sharpened.. they already come very sharp out of the sensor. If its a necessity, i'll do it myself in post processing



Edited by Turerkan - 14 April 2007 at 16:45

brettania wrote: please read the rules about Dyxum Knowledge Base before posting, thank you. This is another all-time favourite question, especially for newcomers to the digital world, and those who have been exposed to the more vigorous in camera jpg algorithms used by Canon and Nikon. Let's hear how you have set things up using your camera's dials and buttons, and why. Aside from ISO (for which I have no standard preference other than to start with 200), I use the following on my 7D... AFS (but often vary from this) Center-spot or center-weighted metering -0.3 EV +0.66 flash comp (haven't had the adjustment done and this works fine) +1 sharpening (default is a little underdone, and some people use +2) +1 saturation (Minolta gear can take it -- this plays to a strength) -1 contrast (to ease off the shadows, making more detail recovery possible) RAW+fine jpg Aperture priority Focus hold button operating if available. AWB (never worked out how to effectively use it any other way!) (I think that's all I have to declare!) I arrived at these after much reading in the early days of the 7D, and have never felt the need to vary them. Now its your turn! Happy shooting.

I don't have a single set of fixed settings to shoot all my scenes with. I don't belive there is "one killer set of settings" that should be used all the time. AWB is good but can fail in scenes like concerts and cities at night. Portraiture with +1 sharpness is ackward, ditto with landscapes measured by spotmeasurement. Getting movement blur with aperturesetting and -0.3EV doesn't make any sence to me, nor shooting the moon like that. If anything, in my very humble opinion, one should open ones mind to new creative ways to shoot, not try to force a fixed set of settings like -0.3EV on everything.

Edited by Cato79 - 16 April 2007 at 14:58

7D
     Aperture priority most of the time to keep lens in its sweet spot if possible. Occasionally to adjust DOF. Shutter priority only when trying to freeze motion.
     Front wheel adjusts aperture. Exposure compensation via wheels off. I use the ev knob since my usual need is strong backlighting requiring around +2ev.
     AE center weighted most of the time unless specific situation for center or matrix.
     RAW format only unless I know I will want to magnify preview. Then Raw plus JPEG. (5D and A100 will magnify RAW)
     WB auto except for indoor without flash. Then I shoot a white card if possible and it is very effective. Otherwise set color by temp or light source. If I forget, AWB will work indoors if you have good postprocessing color adjustment function. I prefer CameraRaw auto temperature, but photoshop autocolor does well also.          
     Manual focus on anything that is not likely to disappear. AF if the opposite AND in good light.
     When AF I use DMF so I can tweak. (For 7D users this means rotary knob in AFA position with menu selected to AFA =DMF. 5D and A100 select DMF directly from functions.)
     AF wide for speed unless there is specific reason to select center.
     When in MF, I turn on smooth focus setting (only available on 7D), which reduces focus resistance significantly for some lenses.     
     AS on and viewfinder AS indicator on.
     My eyes seem to vary during the day, so I recheck viewfinder diopter setting occasionally using the indicators at the bottom. Important for Manual Focus.
     All the processing functions (sharpness, contrast, etc. set at 0). My camera doesn't seem to have any biases, and it is far easier to make these adjustments in postprocessing. I do use the ev adjustments on camera as noted when lighting dictates, which yields better results than PP for large adjustments.
     MF/AF button toggle.
     Adobe RGB color space.
     Usually leave shutter on continuous, but often just shoot one frame if subject is still.
     Annoying electronic sound effects off.
     I rarely shoot flash, so no opinion offered.

But I am perfectly willing to change the set up for a specific situation. Knobs are good.

Edited by analytical - 18 April 2007 at 00:04

I usually go with RAW, aperture priority, ISO 100, auto white balance, DMF with spot automatic focus, and release priority.