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Menu: Camera Setting 1 Page 7-9

Lesson 17 from: Sony A9 Fast Start

John Greengo

Menu: Camera Setting 1 Page 7-9

Lesson 17 from: Sony A9 Fast Start

John Greengo

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Lesson Info

17. Menu: Camera Setting 1 Page 7-9

Lesson Info

Menu: Camera Setting 1 Page 7-9

Okay, exposure compensation. Now, wait a minute, didn't we see this before on the top of the camera with the real easy to use dial? We did, and it kind of boggled me, like why do we need it here? Well, sometimes you don't have access to the top of the camera, or it's just easier to work with the back of the camera. You can also set the camera to work up electronically, so rather than using that dial there, you can just use this exposure compensation in the back of the camera, you could of course set this to be one of the shortcut buttons that you have easy access to on the camera. Now, one of the options, if you do set it electronically, is do you want the camera to reset the camera to zero when you turn the camera off? Now, most people would probably want it to reset so that they don't make a dumb mistake three days later when they pick their camera up again for the next shots. But, if you are the type of person who's doing something where you want it set and you want it maintained, e...

ven if you turn the camera off, you could turn this on to maintain. Now, that has nothing to do with the dial on the top of the camera and as far as its reset options. Next up is an ISO, and we've talked about ISO a couple of times before. If you would like to program a button, you can do so. Do remember that the right-hand button on the controller on the back of the camera is currently set to ISO, and it has the little label that says ISO on it. Alright, so for those of you who like to use auto ISO, we do now have the option of setting a minimum shutter speed that your camera will go to, and when it reaches that minimum shutter speed, rather than going to a slower shutter speed, it'll raise the ISO up to a higher level to accommodate for lower light levels. Now, with a lens like a 28 millimeter lens, one of the options you can have, and you can do this with all the lenses, I'm just using this for a particular reason. You could have something called auto shutter speed adjustment, where the camera would look at the lens you're using, and it would basically choose one over the focal length. So, with a 28 millimeter lens, the closest shutter speed that it thinks would be recommended would be one over a 30th of a second, and for general purpose shooting, that would be okay for a handheld shot, but some people are very steady in how they hold a camera, and so they might be able to go one step lower, which would be the slow setting, or two stops slower, which would be the slower setting, or maybe you're shooting action or something that's moving and you wanna have something that's a little bit faster than that middle recommendation. So, if you do use auto ISO, this auto shutter speed choice is a good option in here. Now, whether you choose the slower option or the faster option depends on you and how you hold your camera, and what type of subjects you're shooting, and how fast they're moving. So, right in the middle is a good standard, but if you wanna adjust from it there, you now have a very fine tune level of adjustment on this camera. Next up is our metering mode. We've talked about this before, once or twice, and most of the time we're gonna be in the multi mode here. It does a very good job, but there's a few other options should you need it. Then alright, spot metering point. So, your spot metering can either be linked to the center of the frame, or it can be linked to your focusing point, and the focusing point is a little bit tighter of a spot, and it also moves around the frame so that you can position it wherever you want. So, a lot of people who use spot metering really do like having it linked to their focusing point. Moving on, page eight of 13, dealing with exposure. Exposure steps, most cameras and lenses and optical devices these days are in third stops, but some are in half stops. If you would prefer to work in half stops, you can change that here, but most people will probably leave it in the third stops, which is most common. Auto exposure lock with the shutter, and so when you press down on the shutter release, the camera starts the metering system, but it doesn't lock it in, and so, some people like it locked in, some people don't. Now, one of the options on here is auto, and what happens here is that, if you are in the single shot mode, it is going to lock the focus in. So, AFS mode, you focus and it locks. It's gonna lock the exposure and the focus in with a half press of the shutter release. If you put the camera in the continuous focusing mode, then it's gonna continue to meter and adjust as you move your camera from side to side or wherever you're following the action, and so it depends a little bit on how you shoot with your camera. Auto is not a bad place to be on it. That's probably where I would leave it on my camera 'cause it's gonna switch up and adjust when I change between stills and continuous shooting. Exposure standard adjustment, so this is something I hope and expect that you will never need to use. If you found that your camera was just a little bit off, like all your photos were a little too bright, or they were all a little too dark, it would basically be determined that your metering system is not metering the scene correctly. Normally, in the past, you would send your camera back to the factory, and someone would open up the software program, and they would tweak with it a little bit, and then they would adjust it. Well, you now have the options of doing this. So, this is really changing, which is why they give you this warning window, changing the way your camera is metering the light, and you can do this in very fine steps, and I've never had to do this with a camera, thankfully. Well, I guess I shouldn't say that. I did have a camera that seemed to overexpose on a regular basis. It did not have this feature in it. I wish I could've gone in and dialed it. So, I just shot everything a third stop under exposure with that camera. But, this would be a nice option to have if your camera starts not getting consistent exposure properly. Alright, items dealing with the flash, and so you wanna get in and change the flash mode? You can do that here or assign it to a custom button. Flash compensation can also be adjusted. Some people adjust this on a regular basis. This is one of those things that I think setting it to minus one would not be a bad idea for a lot of people who do people photography with flash. Gets it a little less harsh in the face. Exposure compensation, so when you are doing flash exposure compensation, do you want it to control the power of the flash, as well as the exposure built into the camera, or do you wanna have 'em dealt with independently? If you're kind of a newcomer to photography and you're just trying to make the picture lighter or darker, you can combine ambient and flash together. For the more experienced photographer, they're gonna probably wanna take individual control, which is ambient only, so when you change the exposure to compensation on the camera, it's only changing the exposure of the camera, and it's not affecting the power of the flash in any way. Red-eye reduction, so if you have a flash attached, it will fire as a series of strobes to reduce red-eye, and this is something that can be a little bit irritating to subjects that you're shooting. If you're photographing kids, they're not sure if that's the photograph or it's the one at the end or the one at the beginning, and so they'll sometimes turn away. Red-eye is so easily fixed these days that I often recommend just turning this off, and if you get red-eye, you can fix it later. This is a way of fixing it in-camera if you absolutely have to have it right in-camera, and you don't have the opportunity to fix it later. It just does delay the taking of the picture by about three quarters of a second.

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Ratings and Reviews

~user-e143a3
 

I've taken lots of John's classes as my photography journey has unfolded. Like all good teachers, John has a fantastic ability to take concepts which are complex and could be overwhelming, and making them accessible and much simpler. I'm lucky enough to own this amazing camera, I'm sure I'll get even more enjoyment from using it after taking this class - John has done so much of the hard work of learning away, now I feel like I can just start enjoying it!

Jeferz
 

Great information as always, John's approach is amazing, well paced and very informative. I own so many of his amazing tutorials, I feel like he's part of my family - but a lot more knowledgeable 😏

Alexander Zlatev
 

Thank you Great Work

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