Having someone take a photo? Make sure everything is set up

Monday 22 July 2024, 16:32 by Nando Harmsen | 2,552 views | 0 comments

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

You are on holiday and take a photo of your family. Then someone asks if they should take a photo with you in it. Has this ever happened to you? How do you increase the chance of that photo turning out well, with all the custom settings you have made?

As a photographer, you have of course set up your camera exactly as you want it. A good example is the AF-ON button for autofocus. Other typical settings can also be adjusted, precisely tailored to how you use the camera.

You can set so many things to suit your preferences that someone else cannot simply use the camera.
When someone else has to use the camera for a moment, things can go completely wrong. If AF is not assigned to the shutter button, the camera will not focus. Is the exposure set too bright or too dark? Is single-point AF in the wrong place in the frame? Is a high frame rate enabled?

And there may be even more settings that you find useful, but which make it impossible to take a good photo without knowing about them. So make sure the settings are right when someone else uses the camera for that one photo.

Set up your camera as normally as possible, and save these settings under the custom settings.
Use a custom button to set the camera up correctly for this purpose in an instant. On Canon, this is C1, C2 or C3. On Nikon, U1, U2 or U3, and Sony has 1, 2 and 3. If you have another brand, check which setting this is on your camera.

Set your camera to the desired settings. For example, autofocus assigned to the shutter button, eye AF for people, aperture priority or P mode, continuous AF, a low frame rate, raw image format, and anything else you want.

Then programme these settings under one of the custom settings. Set the camera up again as you prefer it. Check that all the settings are actually retained when you switch to the custom setting.

Dozens of settings changed in an instant by setting this Sony to 1, 2 or 3. And just as quickly back to your familiar settings.
Are you in a situation where you hand over the camera for a moment so that you can be in the photo too? Then quickly set the camera to that pre-programmed custom setting. That way, you know the photo has the best possible chance of turning out well.

Do not make the mistake of setting the camera to the 'green' mode. This changes the camera settings so that you always shoot in JPEG and profile settings become active. This leaves you with minimal control over the settings.

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