Today, a camera is in almost every home. Many have a camera on their phone, while someone buys a digital camera for themselves to take professional pictures.
Digital cameras are not the easiest technique. Therefore, when buying a digital camera, you need to know how to properly configure the camera so that it helps you capture your favorite shots in the best quality.
How to set up the camera correctly: tips for setting up the camera
The camera adjusts for white balance.
To make the photos look beautiful, you need to balance the white. Usually this is achieved through automatic tuning.
Before setting up the camera for white balance, you should know that for white balance systems correction of the natural color deviation to the bright area is characteristic.
With this setting, your pictures may look unnatural. For example, if you photograph a sunset or dawn, with these parameters you will not get the true colors of these beautiful natural phenomena.
It should be borne in mind that when photographing outdoors, you need to set the camera to Daylight mode (daylight) or Sunny mode (sunlight).
These settings of the camera will allow you to take photos of even better quality than with the Auto mode, which is designed for shooting in poor lighting, cloudy weather.
If you have not figured out how to set the camera to white balance, keep in mind that modern cameras have options for setting white balance.
You can adjust the white balance for the shadow using Shady mode or take photos with Cloudy mode on a cloudy day.
Using these two shooting modes, your photos will have nice colors that reflect the real colors of the photographed objects.
But do not overdo it. If you configure the camera incorrectly, the photos will be unnatural. To set up the camera correctly, it is best to try different white balance modes to choose the best one for yourself.
Another custom setting, Customs Manual, allows you to set white balance settings manually.
Follow the recommendations for setting up the camera specified in the instructions for the device.
By adjusting the white balance, you can give your pictures different effects, in particular neutrality, warmth, cold. You can also set up a neutral calibration target.
2. How to set up the camera correctly: set the sharpness
The level of sharpness of your pictures is very important when processing photos taken. Adjust the sharpness level.
Someone believes that this indicator should be set to the maximum for clarity of images, but usually with such sharpness, the edges of the photo look unnatural.
Also, you can’t adjust the camera to the minimum sharpness, because then the small moments in the picture will be blurry. Try to experiment with sharpening to achieve a middle ground, gradually increasing sharpness.
Professionals recommend setting the sharpness parameters of the camera to the middle of the range and, if necessary, changing the setting in one direction or another.
Proper camera setup involves autofocus adjustment
Autofocus can be adjusted automatically. If you want to change this setting, set the focus point so that the subject nearby is closer to the center of the frame.
If the subject is not in the center and several more objects are placed around it, automatic camera setup may set the focus point incorrectly.
AF point is better to adjust manually. Then you independently choose where the active point will be.
Select AF, Single point AF modes will help to correctly configure autofocus at a single point.
Next, use the camera's navigation to select the AF point on the target in the frame.
If the desired subject did not hit the AF point, the focus and frame recomposition technique will help.
Choosing the most sensitive center AF point and moving the camera to the subject will solve the problem.
By lightly pressing the shutter button, you allow the camera to focus the lens correctly.
Next, compose the frame. When you have achieved the desired result, take pictures by pressing the shutter button all the way.
How to properly configure the camera: flash synchronization
Usually, the flash appears at the beginning of the exposure, which is convenient when shooting a stationary subject or at slow shutter speeds.
Slow shutter speeds or moving objects require different settings of the camera to make the pictures beautiful, and there is no impression that the image of the subject is blurry and transferred forward according to the exposed, sharp version.
To know how to configure the camera correctly and avoid such cases, open the camera menu or the flash menu, then turn on the second-curtain flash synchronization in Rear Sync mode. Synchronization will allow the flash to appear at the end of the exposure.
In the photo, your object will be clear, and all other active objects behind it will be slightly blurred, and will be able to emphasize the speed of movement.
How to set up the camera correctly, reducing noise during long exposure
Thanks to the “Noise Reduction” function, you can compare the main image with the so-called “black frame” and “subtract” its noise to create a beautiful photo.
The “black frame" and the main image use the same exposure time, but in the first case, the shutter does not open, preventing the light from reaching the sensor.
You need to configure the camera so that you record a non-random noise, which is caused by changes in the sensitivity of pixels at slow shutter speeds.
Such a function usually annoys photographers, because with a long exposure, using the noise reduction mode takes a lot more time to record a photo.
Professional photographers recommend taking a few “black frames” during the shooting process due to an increase in the noise level caused by the heating of the sensor during heavy use.
The built-in noise reduction system of the camera is the best option for this setting.
How to set up the camera correctly: slow shutter speed
To create an image with good sharpness when manually shooting with a full-frame camera, you need to use a shutter speed of one second divided by the focal length of the lens. So with a 100 mm lens, the shutter speed will be at least 1/100 s.
Also, this camera setup mode is suitable for DX cameras, taking into account the factor of increasing the focal length.
If it’s difficult for you to adjust this parameter, we remind you that modern cameras have a standard shutter speed scale in fractions of a second and built-in image stabilization systems.
Such systems make it possible to take photos with a slower shutter speed when shooting manually. Also, shutter speed can be reduced using exposure compensation (1/125 to 1/16.).
We hope our tips will tell you how to configure the camera correctly. We bring to your attention a few more tips for setting up the camera in pictures, with which you can easily figure out the question of setting the optimal parameters.
How to properly configure the camera: tips for a novice photographer in pictures
