Holiday Options

[Bill Pierce]

Today’s digital cameras have certainly made life simpler. The focusing can be automatic. The exposure can be automatic (And the light meter is built into the camera, not held in your hand.). And no film wind. And yet, in the midst of this simplicity, the menu can raise its ugly head offering too many pages and lists of options that test the human abilities of choice and decision. If, as a holiday gift, you were to take one common menu item and guide us towards what you felt was the proper option - what would it be.

For me, it would be to disengage the auto focus from the shutter release and use the AF-ON button. For folks who have grown up in the modern world and never changed the camera’s AF activation as it came out of the box, actuated by a half press of the shutter button, this will be a hard habit to change. But when you don’t refocus with every shot you have a greater unbroken time to spend looking for the right framing and the right moment.

That’s my holiday menu option suggestion. Yours????????

 

[nikon_sam]

Turn "OFF" Dynamic Range
Switch to "B&W"
Use that "M" setting...
Shoot like you're using film...expensive film...

 

[pvdhaar]

Turn "OFF" Dynamic Range

Completely agree.. DRO really kills your images when the background is lighter than the subject. Nothing spoils an image more than a properly exposed background and a subject wrecked from excessive noise..

 

[Out to Lunch]

My suggestion: after buying a high-end digital camera, spend some time studying it's manual. Cheers, OtL

 

[helen.HH]

Yes it's good to have a formula
but sometimes there is Beauty in a Mistake
I've done them, be it running to catch a shot, forgetting to change my Iso,
shutter speed or f stop. To my surprise sometimes it's more Brilliant than a perfectly exposed shot, go figure


Joy multiplies when Shared....
Do it as You deem fit,

As Bill would say: "Ho,Ho,Ho"

 

[Ko.Fe.]

Some booze is on the menu. It's Russian thing. But I'm stoic. I keep it in AV more instead of green box. And AF with eye, face recogn is the blessing. While Auto ISO on my Canon RP is totally fine upto 25600.

While I'm sober I switch to primitive Leica digital M camera. It has primitive WB and metering.
Better do all manual.

 

[Dogman]

Aperture priority. Monochrome/B&W preferred. Matrix metering. AF continuous. WB automatic. ISO automatic with parameter set limits. DR set to ON or AUTO. Adjust exposure to -1/2 stop. ALWAYS depend on post production as the final step in your photography, whether you shoot Raw or JPEG.

And, of course, use BB focus.

Then have a drink. I prefer single malt scotch but to each his own. It's Christmas after all. Enjoy.