Lesson Info
12. Camera Operations
Lessons
Introduction & Basic Controls
07:14 2Top Deck: Mode Dial
18:31 3Top Deck: Other Functions
13:56 4Back Side Features
30:24 5Left Side-Right Side-Bottom-Card Reader-Front-Lenses
08:00 6Shooting & Playback Menu
21:47 7Custom Menu: AF/MF & Button/Dial
12:21 8Custom Menu: Release & Display/PC
15:13Lesson Info
Camera Operations
I'd like to close this class off with some of the most important functions that you're likely to use on a regular basis. Before you go off on a big trip, before you have a big shoot, make sure you have the battery charged and installed in the camera, you've got a clean memory card that you've reformatted, has lots of space on it, you've set your image quality RAW, JPEG, whatever it is that you wanna have set, and you've gone through the menu system to make sure there isn't anything really funky from your last shoot that you've left in there. If you are taking a big trip, make sure that your sensor is clean. You can do that by shooting a photograph of a blank, white wall or a piece of paper and seeing if there is dust on your sensor that will come up as dark spots. It's much easier to get that cleaned off at home than it is someplace else, using a rocket blower or you can take it into a professional to get it cleaned. While we went through, I don't know, a couple hundred different featu...
res on this camera, there are really 10 that you're gonna be using on a daily basis. A lot of them have to deal with exposure, for instance, shutter speeds, apertures, exposure compensation. Some of them deal with focusing. The focusing area, the focusing modes, or the white balance. These are gonna be controlled by dials and buttons on the top and back of the camera and possibly in the super control function of the camera. Let's look at these 10 operations and the possible functions we have for them and how we might set them up for different types of photography. Lots of different options on that drive section. Let's first look at how would I set this camera up for super simple photography. If I was gonna hand this camera to somebody else to use who might wanna play just a little bit with it, where would I set it to? In this case, I'd probably put it in the program mode where the camera selects shutter speeds and apertures. I'd put the ISO in auto so that it would accommodate different light levels that they might work under. Make sure that exposure compensation is set at zero unless you're specifically trying to adjust it for something. For metering, ESP is that good general purpose multi-segment metering system that takes care of most, all situations very, very well when it comes to exposure. White balance at auto will usually solve the problem. Only change it if necessary. For focusing, if you're photographing subjects that are not moving around, single auto focus is what you would want. For a focusing area, you could just simply choose all 81 points and the camera will choose whatever is most dominant or closest in the frame in that case. For the drive mode, when you press down on the shutter release, you just wanna get one photo at a time so the single option for drive would be recommended. That's super simple. Let's try a little bit of landscape photography. In this case, we may have a little bit of time to get our shot set up. Our subjects are not moving around, we want lots of depth of field. What do we adjust? In this case, I like going into the manual exposure mode. I'm trying to get the highest quality photos possible so I'm gonna set the ISO as low as I can. 200 is the optimal setting on that. Here is where I'm gonna want to change the aperture first to get a fair bit of depth of field. In this case, eight, 11, 16, all of those would be pretty good choices for most landscape-type shots. With those type of settings, I'm probably gonna end up with a slower shudder speed. That'll depend on the exact light level. It could end up around 30th of a second in which case, you better be very careful hand holding it or you might be wise and use a tripod. For metering, we'll leave it in the ESP and for the white balance, we'll leave it in the auto. For focusing, our subjects are stationary so we'll choose single auto focus. We'll wanna be pretty precise about exactly where we focus. Single area gets us a small box and we can select by moving that box around the frame exactly what we want in focus. For the drive mode, we might choose the anti-shock mode here so that there's no vibration from the first shutter curtain opening. Another option would be the two second self-timer with the anti-shock mode. That way if it's on a tripod, we're not touching the camera as it's shooting. Those would be some good settings for a landscape photography, especially from a tripod. Next up, let's try some portrait photography. We're off the tripod, we're concerned about depth of field, we often wanna get shallow depth of field where our subject's in focus, the background's out of focus, and we have enough shutter speed so that we're not gonna get blurriness from us moving the camera or from our subject moving around. I would prefer to be in manual exposure. Here is where I am going to choose a shallow depth of field, 1.4 if I have it. If not, two or 2.8 or whatever the best I can do with my lens. I'm gonna make sure that my shutter speed is fast enough so that I'm not getting motion blur from my subject. That's probably gonna be 125th of a second or faster. Then I'll prefer to have the lowest ISO but I may need to bump it up depending on the light levels that are required. I'm gonna go ahead and leave it in the ESP for metering, does a good general job as well as the auto white balance. As long as my subjects aren't moving around too much, I'm gonna put it into the single auto focus mode. For the focus area, I wanna be very precise and focus on their face and if I can, I wanna focus on their eye by using that small focus area. For the drive mode, I'm probably gonna be just fine using the single mode where I get a single shot with each button press. A very different type of photography would be action photography. Here we're gonna need faster shutter speeds to stop the action and a focusing system that can track the movement. In this case, if I have relatively consistent light, I prefer to be in the manual mode but, aperture priority might not be too bad and you could possibly use shutter priority here as well, but in the manual mode, you're gonna want to choose a shutter speed fast enough to stop the action, maybe 500th of a second or faster. This is where it really pays off to have a faster lens like an f/2.8 lens. As much as I would prefer to be shooting at ISO 200, there's a good chance that with these type of settings, you're gonna need to let in more light and have that ISO up at a higher setting like 400. If you're shooting indoors, you'll probably need to be at ISO 3200 or 6400. For metering, as you might guess, I like the ESP and auto white balance unless I'm getting funky results, then I'll go in and change them. A very important setting change is to set the focusing to continuous auto focusing. Another good option would be the C-AF with the tracking option. You'll have to see which one works better for your type of photography but I think in general, the C-AF is a good general place to put it. Rather than using a small or single box for focusing, this is where I really like that group of nine focusing boxes altogether. Gives you a little bit bigger target area for focusing. Then for the drive mode, this is where we're probably gonna want to have it in one of the higher speed motor drive modes so that we can shoot, press down on the shutter release, and get a whole series of photos in a row capturing peak action moments. A good last one to finish this class up with is basic photography. This is how I might leave the camera in my camera bag when I don't know what the next photo I'm gonna take is. Good for travel photography for instance. This is where I prefer to have a little bit of automation with the aperture priority. I'm gonna choose an aperture. I'm gonna choose kind of a modest aperture that's kind of wide open, 5.6 for a lot of those lenses. If I need more depth of field, I'll just adjust the aperture very quickly down to 11 or 16 for instance. I'm gonna start off with the ISO at and I'm gonna keep an eye on my shutter speeds. If they're not fast enough, then I'll adjust the ISO upwards so that I can get faster shutter speeds. Gotta make sure that exposure compensation is at zero unless I am intentionally wanting to make my pictures lighter or darker, which I will do from time to time. The ESP metering is gonna be good for most stuff as is the auto white balance. As long as I'm not photographing action, I'm gonna leave it in single auto focus. Here's where I do like to have some discretionary control over what I'm focusing on so I'm gonna choose the single focusing point. Most of the time I just need to get a single shot, but here's where I might actually leave it in the anti-shock mode, the electronic first shutter curtain so that I don't get any vibrations or as few vibrations as possible. It's not a bad place to leave it for a lot of types of photography. Folks, there you go. Congratulations. You are now an expert in the E-M10 Mark Two camera. Get out there and enjoy using this camera 'cause it is a powerhouse of a little camera.
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with Purchase
Ratings and Reviews
George Vergottis
Greetings I joined the Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark II Fast Start class under Mr. Greengo. I have been using this camera for about 7 months and thought I could handle it well. This class taught me so many aspects of the camera from the word go. Very clear concise but illuminating with well placed illustrations and photos for easy understanding by all. Mr Greengo's English was very precise and clear even though he had to speak fast to cover all of the important aspects within a set time. The advice pass over was clearly from a person who was a master of his subject. I enjoyed the class very much and have signed up for more classes on Creativelive and photography my the same instructor. Well done Sir and thank you for your good advice. I recommend this class to all who have decided to reward themselves with this little miracle camera this Christmas.
a Creativelive Student
John is one of my favorite instructors and I really enjoyed this class. Just got this camera after Christmas and I'm loving it so far and can't wait to get out and use it more. Love Creativelive and thank you for all the wonderful classes!
Ray Bohn
Using the camera for a few weeks before jumping in really helped me to understand all the instruction. Based on the course, I feel much more comfortable with deciding which functions I will use and which to forget about, at least for now. Based on my utilization of the many lessons, I feel that the content was just about right for me. The instructor used good judgement when determining how much time to spend on every element. The parts that he spent less time discussing was still enough information for a student to learn on their own (homework is good!). Going back into the lessons to review an area has been very easy. I am sure I will be accessing this course for some time. There were a few areas that didn't seem to match up with my camera, but I plan to do some investigating into software version differences and what I may have done incorrectly before I jump to whiplash causing conclusions. The "Fast Start" title bothered me at first. I have seen presentations that are called tutorials which appeared to be simply sales hype. Based on my experience, you have a winner. I hope that I can find additional courses from this group that are of interest to me. Thank you for all the work that you put into this presentation, Raymond Bohn A Greatful old film guy
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