Camera settings for outdoor Christmas Lighting

Tonight might be my only chance to take some outdoor Christmas lighting.
It's warm ... 40 degrees (C). No time for trial and error.
What is recommended for manual settings on a D70 or such? I might give the "Night Lighting" setting a try also.
Marty Landolt

Marti
Settings are often very flexible and depend on the type of lights, how many
and yadda, yadda, yadda. I would start out in manual mode at the widest if
setting and a shutter speed of 1/30.
A couple of things to try if you want to get different effects. Adjust the
colour balance between day light and incandescent light this will give you a
slightly over all warmer or cooler colours. Tapping on you tripod when
you use longer exposures will create some very interesting light "trails".
Finally breathing on your lens will fog it up and the resulting images will
be wonderfully hazy.
While I say finally it really isn't as there are hundreds of ways to
approach any scene.
Grant

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For my power shot S5IS, best camera settings for 4 X 6 prints?

for my power shot S5IS, best camera settings for 4 X 6 prints? I would like to have the best setting so when i print out the photos,i do not need to crop or trim. It is close, but i feel it can be better.

The bad news is that you can't do anything in camera to get that result. The good news is that once you understand the possibilities you'll appreciate being able to control how your prints get framed (cropped). Your camera produces images in a 3:4 ratio while a 4 X 6 is a 2:3 ratio so if you don't know in advance that you need to crop some from the top, bottom, or both to make your image fit the 2:3 ratio & frame too tightly when taking the photo you're in trouble. Learn to shoot in a way that allows cropping to match common print sizes, and find a simple editing program to crop in computer. This should be standard practice because even though you may want a 4 X 6 now down the road you might want a 5 X 7 so keep your options open.
If you don't have an editing program that easily does this & you're on a PC download Picasa which is an excellent program for this & it's free. Once you have it running select one of your existing photos, select "crop" from the menues on the first tab & then play around with the different options Picasa has built in to see the effects to your image. NOTE that it won't throw away the data outside the crop box even though it may look like it has. You always have the option to "undo crop". Once you get a result you like you "export" & create a new file cropped as seen on screen WITHOUT modifying the original file.
"A skill is developed through constant practice with a passion to improve, not bought."

Best lens/settings for outdoor shots (high contrast) with 6D?

I have a 6D I'm just getting started with. When I get a perfect shot (perfect lighting, color saturation, depth of field, etc), I LOVE it! The trouble is, I'm not getting enough of them. Not capturing what my eye sees with good repeatablilty. I have the following lenses for it: The 70-300mm zoom that came with it; a 24-105mm; a 17-40mm ultra wide angle; and a 50mm 1.4 fixed (dumb impulse purchase that I haven't found too useful). I am planning a trip to our tulip festival, and there will be loads of colors and likely high contrast as it will be a mostly sunny day with some clouds. PERFECT, right? Except I find that many times, particularly on my full auto settings, I am not getting the exposures I want! The photos often turn out kinda washed out, without the full saturation I want. And sadly, I'm just not able to compensate for that with the photo editing software I have. As I said, I'm just a beginner and don't want to lug around a manual with me to read while trying to get a good shot, so...anyone have any quick and dirty advice for which of my lenses will be the best to use for distance vs closeup of the flowers, and what settings to use with it? Full auto vs A, AV, or full manual? And if I use full manual, what priority do I want to get the best saturation? Urgh, I hope this isn't too crazy wide-open of a question to be able to get good helpful responses, it's hard to know what to ask. I just want to get some really good, color-rich, good depth and texture photos without a lot of thinking, lol. Thanks! PS-- I'm thinking of selling my 50mm and maybe one of my other ones to get a different one with better ranges. Any suggestions? I tend to do a lot of wildlife and landscapes, if that's any help, and find sometimes that the 300mm doesn't cut it.
Thanks again!

FIrst of all, it takes time to learn how to use a complex camera system well, so don't beat up on yourself a lot or give up on the gear you already have too quickly. Keep taking lots of photos, analyzing them and how you might have made them better. All cameras and lenses have their ideal uses and limits, it's just a matter of learning them and there's no substitute for experience. Get the book "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson and read it, study it, learn it. That's the best single book every semi-serious to serious photographer who wants to improve their skills should read.... Might turn out to be the best $18 you ever spend on your photography.
The various exposure modes each have their uses. I see some people suggest using M (manual) only... but that's slower and limiting and there are times it will prevent you from "getting the shot". Av (aperture priority), Tv (shutter priority) and even P (program) all have their uses. I like to set my camera to M and forget it, but that's really only possible when lighting is very steady and consistent or I have time to carefully set up each shot.
Much of the time I have to use Av or Tv because of variable lighting conditions. This can be because of intermittent clouds changing the intensity of light itself, or because I'm trying to capture shots of a subject that's moving in and out of different lighting. I tend to use Program when I just need a quick shot in different light than I've been working, and don't have time to calculate my exposure and am not very concerned about depth of field (aperture) or freezing or blurring subject movement (shutter speed). All three of these auto exposure modes (as Canon calls them) require experience with and knowledge of how subject tonality effects the camera's reflective metering system and how to use Exposure Compensation to correct for it.
There's a "tool" built right into your camera that can help you learn about the exposure controls and how your choices with them effect your images.... On the top dial there's a "CA" setting, which is a great learning tool that will give you feedback on the LCD screen about your settings. This might take the place of carrying around the manual and consulting it before each shot. Try it!
Personally I don't use the "SCN" or "Green Box/A+" modes, both of which are super auto exposure... That dictate a lot more camera settings than just exposure. These also limit focus modes, file types, color rendition, and more. Av, Tv, P are plenty of automation for me.
A lot of your questions seem to be about lighting. If you ever watch a movie being shot or a pro making still portraits or macro shots, you are likely to see them using some sort of light modifiers.... reflectors to "bounce" more light onto a subject, fill flash to open up shadows, flags to block light, diffusers to reduce contrast and more. Monte Zucker was a master portrait photographer who specialized in available light (no flash) and made use of what he found on location and modifiers such as these... even invented a few of them. These are tools that you might use, or you can learn to look for similarly "ideal" lighting that's naturally occuring and will give you the effects you want. For example, if shooting close-ups and macro shots of flowers, insects and such, I often look for light shade to work in... or pray for a moderately overcast day (all too rare here in Calif.). Same can be done with portraits and many other types of photography.
To get great color in your images, you should get set up for and learn to do a Custom White Balance. This will insure optimal color in a wide variety of situations. Auto White Balance is very usable, especially in full sun. However, shade or indoors/artificial lighting comes in a wide spectrum of colors and can challenge AWB, or you might prefer it be rendered differently than the auto mode will do. There are a bunch of "preset" White Balance you might use - flash, tungsten, shade, etc. - but setting a Custom WB can very often give more accurate results. There are WB targets (usually white or neutral gray) that can be used to quickly set up a Custom WB simply by taking a test shot and telling the camera "this is what you should use" to set WB. There are even "warm cards", which are lightly tinted to cause slight bias toward a little warmer looking image, or in some cases cooler.
Shooting digitally, a lot of what you want to do can be, or might would even be better accomplished in post-processing..., i.e. at your computer at home. Today with digital photography we all are essentially our own "photo labs", too. More to learn, I'm afraid. There are various image editing and optimization softwares, as well as very helpful things like graphics quality computer monitors and calibration devices. It's hard to take your images to their "best" without some additional "development" at your computer. Shoot RAW for the maximum ability to make adjusments to your images in post-processing. This includes the ability to change White Balance quite freely. But a RAW file is sort of like a negative from the days of film... taking the shot is just the first step, the post-processing is necessary and an important part of creating the final image. (Note: Shooting RAW + JPEG is a good learning tool.... once you can make finished images from your RAW files that are better than JPEGs it's producing itself, you can stop shooting JPEGs at all.)
Sorry, but you aren't going to be able to do this "without a lot of thinking"
However, over time you will find that working with your camera and lenses... as well as everything else that's part of the process... becomes easier and eventually a lot of it will be second-nature. You'll need to do a lot of practice and study at first... and may feel overwhelmed at times. But gradually and eventually you'll realize that you know exactly what to do to get the images you want in many different situations. Don't be too quick to change or add more gear, because that just means starting some of the learning process over again.
With respect to wildlife photography, yes a 300mm lens on a 6D may not be enough reach a lot of the time. You have several possible solutions: get a longer focal length lens (Canon 400/5.6L is reasonably priced and quite good, but lacks IS so plan on using a tripod or at least a monopod... Canon 500/4L IS is fantastic, but pretty expensive and quite large... think "tripod only").... Or, get a crop sensor camera (70D for example) to complement your full frame camera. The 300mm will "act like" a longer focal length, when used on a crop sensor camera.
Be warned, though, small wildlife, birds and such, there is no such thing as a "long enough" telephoto. If you have 300mm, you'll want 400mm.... But once you get that 400mm, you'll want a 500mm, etc., etc. Eventually the lenses get very pricey and large, hard to hold steady and even shooting through a lot of atmosphere will reduce image quality. So other solutions you'll probably want to learn inlude stalking skills, use of blinds, calls, decoys, baits to bring subjects closer.
A lot of patience is needed too. There are times the subject is just too far away and all you can do is sit back and enjoy the show, hoping they'll come closer. Sometimes I've spent weeks or even months acclimating animals to allow me to approach close enough to get the shots I want (Canon EF 135/2L lens on Canon 7D)...
Other times I've found locations where the critters are already relatively accustomed to people and will let me get close (EF 300/4 IS USM lens on 7D)...
Hunger sometimes outweighs shyness and fear, too (EF 300/4L IS USM on 7D)...
While some wildlife could care less about you and may even give you repeated opportunities to get a good shot of them (EF 300/4L IS USM lens on 5D MkII)...
Hope this helps!
Alan Myers
San Jose, Calif., USA
"Walk softly and carry a big lens."
GEAR: 5DII, 7D(x2), 50D(x3), some other cameras, various lenses & accessories
FLICKR & PRINTROOM

Can Bridge report in-camera settings for White Balance?

No matter what settings I choose in Bridge Preferences, I cannot get it to tell me what was the White Balance (WB) setting of the camera when raw images were shot.
This seems an odd omission because Camera Raw is passed this information and displays images correctly, although it doesn't report what WB value it was given, only that what you are viewing, prior to any editing, is the default "As Shot".
I'm referring to raw files shot on my Canon 300D, Nikon D700 and Canon 5D Mark II.
Currently I'm using PsCS6 (13.0.1.2 x64), Bridge CS6 (5.0.2.4 x64) and ACR 8.1 on a Windows 7 x64 8GB system, but the same omission existed on the same Windows system with ACR 7.x in CS6 and all releases of PsCS5, Bridge CS5 and ACR 6.6 and 6.7.
On the opening dialog of Bridge Preferences, at the bottom you can choose whether or not you wish to 'Hide Empty Fields'. Selecting or unselecting this option does not have any effect upon Bridge's inability to report WB when, from within Bridge, you select File Info from the File menu or by hitting Ctrl + I.
The only locations in Bridge Preferences I can find that need selection (and which I have selected) for Bridge to supply WB information upon invoking File Info are here:
Preferences\Metadata\Camera Data (Exif)\White Balance; and
Preferences\Metadata\Camera Raw\White Balance
I have also selected Preferences\Metadata\File Properties\Supports XMP, and yet Bridge fails to give the in-camera WB in the Camera Data tab of File Info.
I have been able to locate references to WB in the following tabs of File Info:
File Info\Advanced, where there appears, under the sub-tab 'Exif Properties (http://ns.adobe.com/exif/1.0)', an entry such as 'exif:White Balance:1'; and
File Info\Raw Data an entry such as '<exif:White Balance >1< /exif:White Balance>'.
However, these are just code numbers, not names like 'Cloudy' or 'Shade', and they are not only inconsistent (both showing the code 1 for an unedited image I know was shot with Auto WB and another unedited image I know was shot with Flash WB) but also it would appear that the codes may refer to the WB as modified by ACR - because an image I know had its in-camera WB of Auto altered in ACR shows a code of 'Custom' rather than 0, 1 or some other number.
So what am I missing? Does anyone know how to make Bridge Preferences display the in-camera setting for WB, and if so, under which tab of File Info do you look for the answer once you have set up Preferences properly?
Message was edited by: Andrew_Hart
Just corrected my current Photoshop version

I'm afraid that you just haven't addressed the question that I asked in my original post.
I still like to think I have but if you for whatever reason need this info showing in the metadata you probably be better of trying to alter it your self or find a way to address Paul personally (maybe via a private message).
I have not heard from him for a long time and a small google search provided me with this forum post, hope it helps you, maybe you can also persuaded Paul to come back, he is very missed!
http://www.ps-scripts.com/bb/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=5508

RAW Native Camera Settings for Nikon - do they convert?

Question on RAW processing in Lightroom. Can Lightroom show ALL of the the in-camera settings (WB, saturation, etc.) selected when the shot was taken? I prefer not to have to re-cook the RAW photos from scratch on every picture. Nikon NX2 provides this option (i.e. the RAW and JPEG can look identical as starting points on your screen) which I find helpful versus dealing with uncooked RAW images to start with each time. I am considering Lightroom for lots of other good reasons but this is a threshold issue for me due to time, etc.
Would love to hear anyone's experience on this. I use a Nikon D80.
Thanks much.
Gary

Robert,
Specific camera settings,etc, are in fact stored in Nikon Nefs and can be read by NX2--or changed, if one wishes in NX2, but nowhere else, as has been stated.
Eric,
Presets, or profiles, may come close in some instances to reasonably good starting points for NEFs in LR2, so if that is all you need or use NX2 for, then your advice is reasonable.
However, at this point in time, NX2 has some distinct advantages, most notably much more advanced and faster local corrections tools than LR2 and soft proofing, to name two.
However, LR2 editing is integrated with a catalog database, and NX2 is browser based, and that may make LR2 worth the tradeoff for some users. Both, of course, offer non destructive editing.
Each has it strengths and weaknesses, so I use both to take advantage of the unique tools each offers.

Camera settings for making youtube videos

I have a Canon 60D and CS4 master collection with Premiere Pro and Encore. What settings should I shoot video at in order to get the best youtube output? My choices are 1920x1080-30; 1920x1080-24; 1280x720-60; 640x480-60; crop-640-60

Thanks Bill, that's a most honest answer. I also found this tv segment to help in the camera settings. http://tv.adobe.com/watch/shooting-and-editing-hdslr-video-using-adobe-tools/-setting-up-t he-camera-correctly-for-dslr-video/ This is most exciting challenge and a healthy switch from my traditional photo skills.
Bob.

Special camera settings for green screen

Are they any special camera settings when you shoot in Green Box???
e.g. special white balance or special iris usage??

What's a Green Box? (other than something that'll show up under my Christmas Tree sometime soon)
Patrick

Nikon camera settings for an adobe only workflow

If I use a Nikon D70, shoot raw, don't use Nikon nx, and want to import into Lightroom as dng--are there certain in-camera setting to use or avoid? Use to think only decision was whether to import as dng or nef. But if Nikon's in camera settings aren't accessible without nx, do you have to rethink all your camera settings just because you want to import into Lightroom as dng?
Thank you,
Tim

I also just convert my NEF's to DNG on import. I tried some of the presets for import, but quickly realized that all of the photos on a memory card rarely need the same things. I would also argue that most people don't choose all the optimal settings in camera (hence the advantages of RAW).
For this reason, I find my best workflow is to simply edit groups of pictures that are similar. So if I take a few pictures inside at a birthday party, I will spend a few minutes in the develop module changing my settings, and then I will simply sync, auto sync, or copy and paste all of my develop settings to the 10 other photos that have the same issues.
One note on sharpening. It supposedly is set to a decent setting by default. Check out this article:
http://www.oreillynet.com/digitalmedia/blog/2007/04/whats_with_the_number_25.html
Doug

Rebel t3i settings for outdoor family pics

I would like to take some outdoor pictures of family. Having trouble trying to figure out settings on my t3i

I have two answers...
A short answer is ... put the camera into Tv mode, dial it to f/4, and use a long-ish focal length (avoid wide-angle) and keep the background at some distance behind your subjects. Light shade really helps.
And now for the longer answer...
Before the days when light meters were built into cameras, if you didn't happen to own a hand-held light meter, you had to memorize some common exposures. The "Sunny 16" exposure is a rule/guideline designed to work when shooting outdoors in mid-day full sun.
It says that if you set the f-stop (aperture) to f/16, then the shutter speed should be set to the inverse of the ISO speed. In other words if you use the base ISO of 100 on the camera, then you'd set the shutter speed to 1/100th. At ISO 400... you'd set the shutter speed to 1/400th. You get the idea.
However... full "mid day" outdoor sun is miserable if you want good looking images. The bright sun creates rather extreme shadows. If I have to shoot outdoors, I always use flash. I set the flash exposure compensation to "-1" when causes the flash to behave as "fill" light. That means I want the flash to fire at about half the power needed to take over and be the primary light source. This means the sun will still be the primary light source... but the flash will fill in the shadows so they are about half as dark as they would otherwise have been and you get images that look a bit nicer.
This assumes you have an external flash ... fairly powerful. E.g. a Canon Speedlite 430EX II, a 580EX II, or a 600EX-RT. The built-in pop-up flash will not be nearly strong enough unless your subject is only about 5' away.
SO.... the alternative is to get those subjects out of the bright sun. If you can shoot them in "light shade" then you'd open up the aperture by 1 stop (e.g. f/11 instead of f/16). Try to avoid dappled light (which doesn't look very appealing). Medium shadow is 2 stops (f/8), and very dense shadows is about 3 stops. This also works for clouds. If it's a partly cloudy day, you get a better looking shot when there's a cloud blocking the full power of the sun than you get when you have open sky.
If you want blurred backgrounds (always nice for portraits) then you'll want to drop the aperture down to around f/4 or f/2.8 (I prefer f/4 most of the time on my full frame camera... on a crop frame I might go a bit lower). That means you need to drop 4-5 stops. You could do that by increasing the shutter speed IF you aren't using any flash (if you are using flash then it gets tricky to shoot faster than the flash-sync speed of the camera... most Canon DSLRs have a flash sync speed of around 1/200th... some are 1/160th... some are 1/250th.) The flash has to go into "high speed sync" mode for this (and have enough power). So a bit of light shade makes this much easier because you don't necessarily need flash at all.
HOWEVER... if you're in light shade... make sure you don't have a bright background (if you're in the shade of a tree but the camera sees a background which is in full sun then you'll get an over-exposed background when your subjects are correctly exposed and that's no good... you'd need flash to fix that.)
Tim Campbell
5D II, 5D III, 60Da

What camera settings for best viewin on ipod?

I have the following settings: 4:3, 4608x3440 (16M) 488 frames
3:2, 4608x3072 (14M) 546 frames
16:9, 4608x2592 (12M) 646 frames
4:3, 3264x2448 (8M) 958 frames
16:9, 3072x1728 (5M) 1425 frames
4:3, 2304x1728 (4M) 1878 frames
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I have a fujifilm jx360, 16MP camera.
I plan to put them in my 4th generation ipod touch and 1st gen iPhone.
Thanks.

It does not make any difference for the 4G iPod since iTunes optimizes the photos for the iPod, iPhone and iPad. see:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1314

Best security settings for Outdoor P2P with 1300 Bridges

Hello
I would like to hear from you otu there what are the best security setting for a P2P bridge outdoor link with two 1310 bridges. (with/without external Radius).
any input is very welcome
Oliver

From one standpoint, best security is achieved by powering the bridges off. You need to balance risk versus reward for any security decisions: How much security do you need, and how much work are you willing to put into it?
WPA-PSK is a pretty good solution for non-Radius implementations. PEAP, or LEAP with long nonsense passwords, are pretty good solutions for sites with AAA services. Another option is point-to-point VPN terminating on routers adjacent to your bridges.
Another option is not bothering with any security at all other than restricting your bridges from associating with anything besides each other. It just depends on what you need and how you want to get there.

Best camera settings for youtube videos

What settings should I shoot video at in order to get the best youtube output? My choices are 1920x1080-30; 1920x1080-24; 1280x720-60; 640x480-60; crop-640-60
I'm wondering if it's better to compress a high quaility video, or can I shoot at low quality and get the same results?
I have a Canon 60D and CS4 master collection with Premiere Pro and Encore.

Use the preset under H.264 and set the framerate the same as your footage.
Do a little experimenting, you dont have to upload the whole movie, couple of minutes is enough.
HD footage can be upload as HD so why go for low.

Advanced Camera Settings for BlackBerry Z10 Camera

When I see Apps like ProShot and Nokia Camera and the features they provide on Windows Phones, I really feel that a lot could be done with the BlackBerry 10 Camera. The BB10 Camera still lacks the features like setting the ISO and Stutter Speed as we could do in manual mode in even cheap Nokia Lumia Phones.
Is there by any chance possible for BlackBerry to introduce these advanced features to BlackBerry 10 Camera in future updates?
Click on if I helped you. If my response solved your problem.
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Giving your feedback or suggestion here www.blackberry.icanmakeitbetter.com might help speed things up.

Camera settings for making book

hi all i've just started to get into iphoto and want to make a book for mother's day. i've tried adding some pictures but its also showing the yellow sign with the ! in the middle. i take it this means the pictures are not of good quality to print out. the ones with this on them are taken on 1 megapixel.
what should i change it to? on my new camera its either 1, 3 or 5. i know the easy answer is 5 but i'm just making sure.
also anyone know how long the book takes to be delivered to the uk.

That yellow sign is an indication that you don't have sufficient pixel density to produce a quality print. You want to take pictures with the maximum amount of pixels that your camera can utilize. Also, set your compression to "Fine." The ONLY downside to these recommendations is file size - the camera's storage capacity will be reduced.

Best settings for Green Screen Video with Canon Mark iii

HI
What are the ideal camera settings for Green screen video.
Iso?
aperature?
Depth of field settings (best to have the green screen a bit out of focus?)
Any other camera settings would be helpful.
Thanks
Rowby

Hi Rowby!
Thanks so much for writing in about green screen shooting with the EOS 5D Mark III camera. Green screen shooting can come down to some crucial elements and how well you handle the camera and the lighting.
Arguably the most important thing is to have excellent lighting on the screen. Without this, the keys used to replace the green screen will not be accurate. So hopefully you have a good set of lights you will be using to actually light the physical screen.
With regards to ISO, shoot as low as possible. We suggest that you stick in the ISO 200-400 range where possible. With good, high key, proper lighting on the screen this shouldn't be an issue.
Aperture should actually be in the higher end of the range, you would want to stick to apertures around f/8 and above. Again, with adequate lighting this shouldn't be out of reach. This is so the green screen is more in focus, versus having it out of focus, which would not yield successful results.
Use an appropriate lens to the subject, for example if you are doing wide shots- use only the focal length needed for the shoot and no wider. For head shots, close ups- use a lens that will get you close.
Following these suggestions should give you some pretty good results. Remember, if this is your first attempt don't be discouraged, green screen shooting can be difficult to accomplish.
We wish you the best of luck in your endeavor!
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Camera settings for outdoor Christmas Lighting

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