Modern cameras have lots of functions. It can be challenging to make the best possible settings. Often, it takes time to get the optimal settings for your personal photography. However, there are some simple things that are worth checking out.
The most obvious options are quite easy to set up. File format, white balance, and custom settings for buttons and dials, for instance, are probably the first things you have set up. But there are some other things that can be wise to check out. Some of those settings may or may not be important for you personally.
Rotate Image Preview
Have you ever checked the image you took on the LCD screen? In that case, you know how an image in vertical orientation will be rotated upwards. This results in a small-size preview on the screen, which makes it much more difficult to check out.
The image orientation is saved in the EXIF data. This guarantees that the image will be rotated automatically, both on the LCD screen and a computer screen.
Often the camera offers an extra setting. When checked, the image preview on the camera LCD screen won’t be rotated, but it still will be on a computer screen. This way, the image will be displayed in the largest possible way on your camera's LCD screen, making it better viewable and easier to check.
Exposure Simulation
The benefit of a mirrorless camera system is the ability to show the result of the exposure settings. In most circumstances, this is quite convenient. If the image is too dark, the image is underexposed. If the image is too light, it’s overexposed, obviously.
There are situations when exposure simulation doesn’t work that well. One situation is flash photography when the exposure settings are made for the flash light instead of the ambient light. In that case, looking through the viewfinder will become impossible when exposure simulation is used.
Another situation is a manual setting for the highlights. If the highlights are severe, the overall image will be very dark, making it difficult to make a composition. Turning off exposure simulation allows you to see properly through the viewfinder.
Place the exposure simulation in the quick menu or my menu. This makes it easily accessible for when the occasion occurs. Photographers who work exclusively inside a studio environment might want to keep exposure simulation always turned off.
Personalization
When it comes down to personalization, in nearly every situation, it’s all about custom functions for buttons and dials. But there is one personal setting that is often overlooked. Make your camera personal by adding your name and copyright information.
Find the name and copyright setting in the menu and add your personal information. This way, it will be added to the EXIF information of every image you take automatically. If you connect your camera with the dedicated computer software, often extra IPTC information can be added as well. I haven’t done this myself, but you can check it for yourself.
Flight Mode
Every modern camera offers a wide range of connectivity options. Bluetooth and WiFi are easy to set up. But you have to turn these connectivity options on or off every time you want to use them. Sometimes the connection information can get lost, or you might get confused when activating the Bluetooth or WiFi again. This makes it less attractive to use.
It’s much easier to activate the flight mode on your camera. It’s similar to the flight mode on your cell phone, turning off the connectivity options with one simple action. When you want to connect your camera again, just turn off the flight mode, and you’re done.
Limits
Your camera might have the ability to set limits. Especially continuous shooting can be limited to a certain number of images. This prevents an unnecessary amount of shots. If you have used the ability to set a limit, this can be easily forgotten. After all, you don’t have to think about it again.
If by chance you will need a lot of images and you use continuous shooting for that, the limit that is set will prevent you from achieving the desired amount of images. This can be for time-lapse or star trails, for instance. Finding out why you failed to get the amount of images can be difficult.
If there are other limits that can be set, don’t forget about those if you choose to use it. Probably, it’s better not to use these limits, but that’s up to you.
Shutter Activation Without Lens or Memory Card
Most cameras can activate the shutter without a memory card installed. Since there is no internal memory, save for a few cameras, no image will be saved. Although it’s mentioned on the LCD screen when there is no memory card installed, it’s easy to overlook this message.
However, if your camera shows a setting that disables shutter activation if there is no lens attached, leave that off. If by chance you want to use a manual lens without contacts, this setting determines if you can take a picture or not.
Always turn shutter activation without a memory card off. But leave the ability to activate the shutter without a lens turned on.
There Are More Specialized Functions
There are many more functions available. For instance, lens corrections can be undesirable for some sorts of night sky photography. For series of images, it might be wise to store them in separate folders to keep them apart. The use of aspect ratios might be helpful when making a composition.
These are just a few of countless options. A lot of them can be assigned to buttons or dials, making the camera more personal. The simple menu options I have mentioned in this article are the less obvious ones you might want to look at.
Do you know more less obvious functions that are often overlooked? Please let me know in the comments below.
These are just a very few. There are many books on each camera and model! The less covered are the only settings that affect jpegs that can be set if you ever select jpeg also with raw. Also there are auto selections that also give both jpeg and raw but a great learning selection of the camera. You will learn the most from a book that covers each setting and most let you download a PDF to put on a pad or phone for in the field lookup before a capture time. Also makers like Sony have online help files that you can view before buying. It is like many reviewers of Sony cameras never mention Bright Monitoring.
A National Geographic Magazine photographer who sent to headquarters Jpegs with instruction when he returned he wanted he wanted raws to look like the jpegs not knowing D-Range Optimizer was on by default as well as others!
Also if not known yet the rear display and eyepiece show the jpeg image it looks close to your raw in post.
The books on the first A7,r and s series by Brian Smith are an eyeopener to mirrorless cameras now in PDF
Unfortunately few are reading books anymore. At least, that's the impression I have. That said, manuals that are available often are boring and not that revealing, especially when you'r new to a camera.
I wish manufacturers would make an effort to make the help function on a camera much better. Some help functions are reasonable and useful, some are completely useless and give more questions than answers.