7 Camera Settings You Should Always Change

hey everyone today I'm sharing with you seven simple and quick settings to change to get the most out of any camera featuring Olive these are camera settings you can change if you use a DSLR if you use a point and shoot camera or a mirrorless camera this video is sponsored by PPA the professional photographers of America where you can join a community of over 35 000 photographers and fine equipment insurance education and business tools made specifically for small business owners like you I'll let you know more about PPA later on the absolute first thing I do with any new camera I'm using is head to the menu and change the file type typically we have a few options the first one being between raw or jpeg a raw image is a larger file size that contains more information usually you need specific software to be able to open and edit these files such as Lightroom luminar and programs along those lines the reason you would want to shoot in raw is to have the most control over your image edges with a raw file you'll be able to recover highlights and Shadows on the other hand a JPEG is a smaller file size that you can open with almost any program while jpegs are small quick and convenient to work with the files don't have a lot of information stored in them so it is hard to edit these photos you won't be able to save as many details as you can in a raw you can usually select to shoot in raw jpeg or both so how do you choose which one to shoot with if you're a casual photographer or you like limitations with your photography to help with your creativity or you don't want to spend time post-processing your images then you can choose to shoot in jpeg if you are a professional photographer or you want the most amount of control with editing then I would recommend shooting raw the other option we have with file types is selecting between compressed versus uncompressed which determines file size and editing convenience usually compressed files are smaller in size while still retaining similar or the same image quality so you'll be able to take more photos on your SD card however since they are compressed it may take longer to open these images in your editing software adding time to your post processing on the other hand uncompressed images are the best quality but take up more space so you'll be able to shoot less images to a card an upside of this though is that it is typically faster to import these images into editing software I personally always shoot uncompressed for the image quality and time saved in editing this does though require more space not just on your SD card to shoot on location but also on your hard drives to store these photos at home next we have picture profiles which is a menu where you can choose the color style of your image that will be applied in camera if you should enroll picture profiles are not actually an important part of creating your final image if you use a picture profile in camera and then download that raw file you'll find that typically all those settings are reset when you open it in your photo editing software where picture profiles are valuable is if you shoot jpeg or video for example shooting in jpeg is popular with Fujifilm and Lumix Shooters where you either pick a Fujifilm film simulation or upload your own real-time lot for Lumix with these features you could shoot raw and JPEG to have a JPEG that's edited and ready to post plus the raw version in case you want to revisit the file in the future picture profiles are also handy for video as just like a JPEG the style is burnt into the video file with video I usually like to shoot in log profiles that gives you a flatter image with more dynamic range that you can recover in post or I also use cine or low contrast profiles where you have the option to do minor adjustments in color grading or you can leave the footage as is before we move on the smart sponsor of today's video PPA is a great resource for photographers with heaps of tools to help you run your business PPA has a photography community of over 35 000 members and features an education platform with over 900 hours of business and photography classes to help you grow as a photographer as a PPA member you have access to their equipment and camera gear Insurance templates to create model releases and contracts for your clients as well as marketing tools about having the right brand messaging how to attract the right clients and heaps more so make sure you use the link in my description to check out PPA and get 25 off your PPA membership a camera setting I always get asked about is how to choose your white balance white balance is very similar to picture profiles where there is no difference between adjusting the temperature of your image in camera versus in post when shooting in raw in comparison if you shoot in jpeg or video then your white balance is burnt into your footage for the style of photography I do such as portraits and wedding photography I use white balance creatively so what I like to do is choose a white balance that makes my photos look good on the back of the camera so when I'm showing my client the photos on the day it looks nice then when I get back to my office where I have a controlled editing environment I will choose a white balance in post where I make sure the color of the wedding dress looks true to life for example and skin tones are flattering to choose my white balance I personally always have it on Kelvin in camera and I select the temperature value I find this is the easiest way to choose white balance as it's a linear transition from cold to warm rather than having to select the pre-made shortcuts not only can you change the temperature and camera but you can also adjust the tint this is Handy if you have colored ambient light in your location or you're using a lens or a filter that causes a color cast so those are the three main settings I change that affect the the style of the image now let's look at performance for me one of the most important settings to not only change but to understand which one you need depending on your photography style is autofocus since I'm a portrait photographer let's focus on that first of all I make sure autofocus is on the only time I turn autofocus off is when I'm manually focusing this could be when I'm using a vintage lens for example or keeping a lens at Infinity focus in certain situations for wildlife landscape and astrophotography next I make sure my camera is set to continuous autofocus which has different names depending on what camera brand you're using the reason I use continuous autofocus is because I'm moving around while taking photos as so is my subject so I want to make sure the autofocus follows my subject around so I can capture Sharp Images since I do portrait photography I also make sure face or eye autofocus is on if the camera has it the last setting which goes for any genre of Photography not just portraits is to change which button autofocus is programmed to for example on Sony cameras I programmer button for iaf that lets me prioritize iaf in any autofocus area mode I also have a shortcut for iaf to prioritize between the left or the right eye and I also have a button on my lens to switch autofocus off which I mostly use when doing video finally I have a couple of quick settings to change the first one is noise reduction a lot of cameras have built-in noise reduction to help remove noise from high ISO or long exposure images and you'll have a couple of options from low noise reduction high or off while noise reduction can be beneficial I would recommend to test it out on your camera and make sure you're happy with the results some noise reduction can make photos lose sharpness it can cause Color cast or desaturated images and it may even do things like eating up Stars if you're doing astrophotography if you are not happy with your camera's noise reduction consider turning it off and using software instead in post-production you have more control over how much noise reduction is applied the other benefit to this is you can apply noise reduction on a case-by-case basis or even to specific sessions of your image unless you're specifically troubleshooting your camera this setting needs to be turned off immediately which is shoot without card this is one of those settings that should only ever be turned on if you need it in that moment I think it's better to just have this off just in case you ever use it by accident you will save yourself the headache trust me finally always make sure to keep an eye out on firmware update these updates usually bring improved upgrades to Performance or even brand new features firmware updates are not only for camera bodies so make sure to keep an eye out for updates with your lenses too also an added tip is when you are purchasing a camera or a lens never have the expectation that what you're buying is going to get better because of a firmware update in my opinion it's always better to buy gear with the expectation that it's the final product let me know which one you found the most helpful in the comments and don't forget to check out PPA with the link in my description but that is all I have for you today thank you so much for watching I make new videos every single week so I'll see you all next time Olive says buy as well bye

Channel: Julia Trotti

Views: 28,491

Keywords: fashion photography, portrait, portrait photography, julia trotti, photoshop, lightroom, premiere, adobe, natural light photography, natural photography, natural light fashion, digital film, digital film actions, canon, sony, photography

Id: HNigt8W_cnU

Length: 9min 24sec (564 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 21 2023