Lessons
Class Overview
10:11 2Photo Basics
07:01 3Top Deck: Mode Dial
27:20 4Top Deck: Custom Settings and Focus Mode
16:55 5Backside:Camera Controls
09:01 6Backside: Function Button Part 1
18:28 7Backside: Function Button Part 2
13:05 8Backside: Control Wheel &
10:53Left & Right Sides
06:19 10Bottom & Front
28:50 11Camera Settings: Pages 1-3
13:02 12Camera Settings: Pages 4-6
24:31 13Camera Settings: Pages 7-9
07:38 14Custom Settings: Pages 1-4
23:12 15Custom Settings: Pages 5-8
24:11 16Wireless Settings, Applications & Playback Menu
10:21 17Setup Menu
20:21 18Camera Operation
15:04Lesson Info
Camera Settings: Pages 7-9
All right, we're finally on to page seven of the camera settings. For those of you shooting jpeg images, this does not affect RAW, it's only jpegs, Soft Skin Effect can be set on to Low, Mid, or Higher. And what it does is it simply lowers the mid tone contrast to make skin a little bit more smooth. And so if you do a lot of people photography, you're using jpegs, this might help some of the images out a little bit. Auto Object Framing. Okay. So there always has to be a best and a worst in every camera. And this is the worst feature in this camera. What this camera does, is the camera will take the photo that you have taken, and it will crop it according to the parameters that it thinks will make a more impressive composition, because you're not very good a photography, it'll make something more impressive. And so it actually goes in, crops your photographs, and gives you a new version of your photograph. And if you wanna do this, enjoy and have some fun, but you're gonna get some very...
different images than you were expecting to. Now what it's doing is it's typically trying to look for faces and it's trying to frame things up, assuming that the photographer is a bit sloppy in their composition. It might try to track them, it might try to understand what you're doing with macro work, and so it's trying to second guess everything that you are doing. So needless to say this is something I would definitely recommend turning off. The Auto Mode. If you recall on this camera the Auto Mode had two options. There was the Intelligent Auto option and the Superior Auto option. The Superior Auto was where it was shooting multiple frames to deal with wide exposure latitude. And so you gotta make sure that your camera is relatively steady when it does that and so I think the Intelligent Auto is the general default position for this to be in. Scene Selection. And so if the camera is in the Scene mode, you can go in here and select which scene is most appropriate for what you are doing. And so normally, you would be doing this by just turning the main dial on the top of the camera. You don't need to come here to do this but if you want to come into the menu system, you can. It's just a little bit buried for my liking. I just prefer turning the dial. Now, a little while ago we were talking about HFR, high frame rate. And so when you're shooting movies, you get the choice between shooting Manual, and Program, and Aperture Priority, and Shutter Priority. And if you want, you can also shoot in an HFR system where it's using a high frame rate and it will play it back at a slower frame rate. So if you wanna do slow motion, you need to shoot it ahead of time in a faster frame rate and you can choose Program, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, or Manual using that higher frame rate here. This is something that you're probably not going to want to do on a regular basis. And if you're shooting really basic videos you're going to probably want Program Auto for simple videos. And for those of you who know what you're doing, when it comes to filming, you're gonna probably want to have this in full Manual so you can set your shutter speed and your aperture individually as your needs are on each shot. Onward to page eight. Steady Shot. Many lenses, but not all lenses, will have steady shot built into them. They'll usually say that right on the side of the lens somewhere. On my lens I can see it says optical steady shot so I know that this lens has optical steady shot on it. And if we wanna turn it off, which is something that we would normally leave turned on, and the only time I can say to turn it off is if you are on a tripod and you know you don't want anything moving within the camera. You don't want lens elements compensating for any sort of movements. And so if you are on a really, good, solid tripod it's a little bit safer to turn this off. Usually the camera will figure out you're on a tripod and not move, but if you really wanna be safe you can turn that off. The Color Space. This has to do with the range of colors that you are recording when you are shooting a jpeg image. If you're shooting a RAW image, you are getting the larger Color Space which is the AdobeRGB Color Space. But if you shoot jpegs you have a choice. And my preference is to shoot in the largest color gambit possible. That way, if I'm doing printing, or who know what with the photo in the future, I've recorded as much data as possible from that image. Next up is the Auto Slow Shutter. So this once again, cause it has the movie indicator mode next to it, the little icon there, do you want your camera to automatically start using slow shutter speeds if the light levels get low? For somebody who doesn't know much about shooting video, I would be like, "Ya, sure, do whatever you need to do to make it a decent video." But for the person who really knows what they're doing, they don't want the camera going behind their back and having the shutter speeds change on them. And so for our more manual users you're gonna wanna leave this turned off. For simple, basic movie, go ahead and leave it turned on. Do you wanna be able to record sound from the camera? Many of us who are just using this as a basic video camera, leave it turned on. It's gonna use the stereo mics in front for sound. There are some people who will be hooking up external microphones in which case you might wanna turn it off. If you do wanna go in and control the sound on the camera, you can do that with the Audio Record Level. You can look at the levels and adjust it up and down as needed in the shot. Also for the sound, Wind Noise Reduction. And so this is something that muffles the sound a little bit so that you don't get quite as much sound buffeting the front of the camera. All right, on to page nine, Memory recall. You remember the one and two on the top of the dial can memorize your favorite setting in the camera. And so in this setting, this is simply to view your settings. Let's go ahead and jump on to the next item on the list here which is the Memory setting. And this is where you're going to set and register your favorite settings. And so the idea here is that the camera is gonna remember the shooting mode, for instance the M, A, S, or P mode you're in, what aperture, what shutter speed you have set, and everything that is in the camera settings. And so as I mentioned before, I don't see much difference between the first two tabs on the menu system other than the fact that the first tab items can be memorized by the memory settings here and the other ones cannot. And so all of these settings that we've looked at up to this point in time can be set and then locked in to one of the one, two, or the M1, M2, M3, M4 settings. And so we have up to six different settings, two of them achievable by dial, four of them by diving into the menu system to adjust.
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with Purchase
Ratings and Reviews
Cassandra Mcd
This was so much better than having to read a manual that often times is not helpful in terms of pointing out tips on when would be the best time times to use a particular function. Love the graphics, the recommendations provided for both new and advanced users and mostly I love the fact that I can go back and watch different segments as I get more use to shooting with this camera. Great Course and I'm really glad I bought it! Thanks John!
Priscilla Read
I'm still working my way through the lessons, trying out everything as I go. I like how John shows everything with great visuals and demos. Also like that he explains when to use the various options available on the camera. Really great! Thanks!
a Creativelive Student
I wanted to learn more about using my SONY. I was not disappointed in this fast-start class on how to use this camera. Jon is a great teacher. He answered my question about photo problems. He also had some great graphics that reinforced what he was teaching. TY! Rosa
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