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I wonder if people will get the point of this video, that camera settings are only the most basic starting point, because you have to have this conversation, actually in a lot more detail with a beginner for them to really understand it. Nobody wants to listen to a conversation for 40 minutes about camera settings, but iso 100, 1/500, f4.0 doesn't mean anything. Probably will see another article on petapixel about you making camera settings way more complicated than they need to be.
This is so refreshing! Sometimes I just want to have fun and not be so overloaded with information so I use auto. Not many want to admit that it's okay to use auto settings. I try to understand the basics and not overthink too much especially while I'm on vacation.
As a disabled man recently, from a stroke I now have limited movement in my hands. Plus I am wheelchair bound. Having said that I try hard to take the shots of the things I enjoy. This video has helped me to do what I do how I want to do it, while the able bodied scoff, as well as ignore .thank you
This is why you're my favourite photography channel. You're full of insight and also you take on negative crticcism and you address it. Not hide behind it. Good job Tony as always. Double thumbs up.
It is very rare that I feel like I must comment on a video, but I have to say that this video was VERY helpful to me. I completely understand that one person's camera settings is irrelevant to another person's settings in various environments but being a newer photographer, It was important for me to hear that it is ok to use Auto-ISO as well as other camera settings (aperture priority vs manual mode only). It was important for me to hear hat it is ok to use "full auto" occasionally when there is too much to think about and you don't have time to go through all the manual settings before taking the shot. Before watching this video, I was lead to believe that most, if not all enthusiast-pro photographers used only manual settings because they had the experience to quickly adjust the settings in any situation to get the photo. I have been working really hard to get to that point but it has been a frustrating journey to say the least. It's just good to hear that it is ok (not necessarily ideal, but ok) to use auto when the situation calls for it. Thanks for sharing!
Wow. That's exactly my feeling. I bought a T6I and a few lenses and it's overwhelming at times. Also bought the Mavic Air for arial photography. Thank God I found this channel which has helped me a lot. They are very down to earth, Chelsea and Tony!
I’m not looking to Become photographer but I love taking pictures and wanted the quality of my pics to be better overall. I started watching a lot of TH-cam vids and once I got to this channel my learning skyrocketed. I want official training but his book is amazing beyond belief for a newb. Tony and Chelsea are both awesome people.
Gosh...so glad I found your videos. I've been a low rate hobby photog for many years but recently decided to develop my skills and actually learn the nuts and bolts of the camera and the craft. I've started this journey many times but became immediately confused and discouraged and gave up. Doesn't say much for me, huh? lol I recently broke down and upgraded equipment as a gift to myself and want to actually "know" what I seem to have a pretty good feel for naturally. All that babble to get to my point. After watching a few of your videos, for the first time in my life, it's starting to make sense...thank you Jesus! lol. You have the teaching gift and I thanks bunches for sharing your experience and knowledge with me. Heaven knows I needed it! Blessings¡
I really loved your humility in this and other videos. You obviously have great experience and a depth of understanding. But I love how you really understand that this is a lot of info for most people. And yet you don't let that inhibit your generosity - you share so much insight and information. Thirdly, I also like what a great team you and your wife are. Thank you for these great videos!
Thumbs Up! I think in this video and the last one you've done a really good job explaining to beginners that trying to memorize (or copy) specific settings is not a good plan... because it isn't going to work. That really is an important message. Heck, for now I won't even bother to disagree with your ideas about full manual mode or suggest that instead of spending time chimping histograms or memorizing compensation values in a semi-auto or auto mode someone could just spend that exact same amount of time/energy in full manual mode (no auto iso) and reap the benefits of not having the camera taking the liberty of jerking around with your well-reasoned (manual) exposures.
My favorite alround settings: AV mode with shutterspeed treshhold and auto ISO with a range. This way your camera makes decisions within your own "comfort zone" specs wise. I set the aperture (to the lowest number), which i often find the most important setting, have the shutterspeed treshhold on 1/125th of a sec and auto ISO set between 100-3200. When my shutterspeed should fall under 1/125th it starts to compensate with ISO (else it's 100). When top treshhold of ISO is reached, it slows down your shutter more. With these settings you have an almost full range of light to dark which you can shoot with 1 set of settings, or only adjust your aperture. Works like a charm in almost any situation.
Really great discussion about the “settings” issue. Great points about modes to use, what to use “auto” mode with (like Auto ISO) with respect to TYPES is shooting - portraits, wildlife, sports. The key takeaway - pick a start point and take many test shots to understand the dynamics of the settings in a given situation and how the camera/lens combination you’re using behaves in those situations. You have to start somewhere. Thanks Tony.
Thanks for sharing this workflow. This is providing me with a confidence builder and helping to reinforce the fact that compromises have to be made. In the past, I've put too much emphasis on getting the lowest possible ISO, which more often than not, has resulted in blurry pictures because of the longer shutter. I'm trying to break out of old habits like this. So, it's great to hear you're perspective. It's amazing when I think about the fact that you guys share all of this information at no cost to us. Of course, there are affiliate links and all, but man... I must say that this is an incredible service to the photography community. Thank you!
Just like to say, the point 3mins 38sec in really, really helped me. I've been watching various videos and seen the settings of various shots, such as portraits, where there was a surprisingly high shutter speed with a surprisingly high ISO. I've been in turmoil trying to work out what benefit there was to not turning down the ISO and having a still fast, but more appropriate shutter speed! Many thanks
Perfect! Was just trying to learn manual mode for specific shots, like sports settings and portrait settings, and was clicking all over TH-cam before I saw you uploaded this. So happy right now!
This is an informative, non-judgemental, and clear video. Thanks for making a follow up video to the previous, expanding on this topic. I appreciate the many examples and walkthrough of each photo, stressing the fact there isn't 'one rule' for each scenario. The beginning was especially helpful, I have experienced information overload when I was shooting my sister's engagement photos!
I really really enjoyed this video. More so because I just bought a real camera and finally getting into hands on photography. Bookmarked this video for reference too. Been a subscriber for at least a year and only owned my iPhone for photos. In that time I slowly learned more about photography and cameras from your videos, though a lot of it goes over my head, yet slowly learned each video. However, videos like this are a massive step up in fundamental learning and understanding for camera work which I truly appreciate more. Taking the time in the video to “show” what you mean with the various inserted photos and camera settings helps a lot for someone like me to understand things basic and fundamental to photography. Really enjoyed it.
Thanks for actually speaking in "stops". Some other TH-cam channels say "let's stop it down to f/6.3" and for some reason the fact that they arbitrarily choose that as opposed to f/5.6 or f/8 bothers me to no end.
I must say your real master at what you do Tony. I really enjoy the way you broke everything down and I understand now why you say you cannot copy anyone else's settings your explanation is very detailed and I'm impressed also with the way you know your subjects shows me having knowledge of such things better prepares you to approach the situation. Thank you very much as always I got a lot out of it
Five slow claps for this video Tony. Great explanations on general settings depending on the setting and it's surroundings. I recently just took great photos of the eclipse. I would have never been able to do that without looking at someone's setting. No I didn't copy them completely but it allowed me to set up quickly and adjust from there. People do not ask to copy settings but to get an idea of what it took to take the photo.
YES that info was very helpful to understand some of the problems you encounter and when you click the shutter you have a reasonable understanding of what the results could be.
Thanks for the great video, Tony. I think it is a nice compliment to the last video. The first video frees your mind from thinking that there is a "correct" setting so that you can start to learn how feel the right settings for the photo you are taking now. I think a better title for this video is "Zen and the Art of Photography." If Pirsig was a photographer, this video is what his book would have been like.
I appreciate the way you explain the variables and settings/learning how to understand photography and what you do when you begin to run into specific obstacles. You have definitely helped me merge and understand all of the information that I've learned about photography so far. Thank you.
Mr. Tony I am not good in specs. I been taking photos for over 35 yeats. Some for money some for hobby.. Like you said in the passed,that they have weak points. My experience is learning your equipment which takes time to actual learn how to take sharper pictutes. Thanks for your videos because you really care about the customer
I think alot of people want a reference point, just to make sure they are on the right track or at least close. and you did a great job on giving starting points and solutions for different scenarios
Sorry about the trolls! A genuinely useful video -- I especially appreciated the explanation about moving down the shutter speed with birds. Keep up your excellent work in spite of the comments.
Thank you SO MUCH Tony!! I think this is the most comprehensive photography learning video out there. I've bookmarked this one so I can watch as many times as I need. I've seen so many videos about exiting auto mode that it's been a combination of overload (as you note) and confusion (as I MUST add) due to so many differing styles and personal views when considering a certain desired outcome.
I always enjoy these videos from the Northrup family. To think I once (in the dark ages of the 1970's) shot totally manually (because I had to with my dinosauric Practica). I had a light meter, but I ended up being able to gauge light/fstop/shutter fairly accurately without it. It helped that I only used 125 ASA (Kodak PlusX Pan) or 400 ASA film (Kodak TriX Pan) film. And then, into the misty realms of the darkroom.... Every shot had to count in those days due to film cost. But give me digital anytime! Cheers, John (Sydney, Australia). PS I do buy your Ebooks, Tony).
This is Tony streaming his stream of consciousness for photography. It was a cool experience for him to run on about his internal process because that’s how I think when I’m shooting. It was nice to have the confirmation that I’m thinking properly. It would be cool to have a video like this about the creative process. Creativity or overcoming those “bored moments” is another time when I start to think differently knowing what I know about photography.
I really enjoyed this video, it is like talking shop with other photographers when we are just standing around. It also felt very validating to hear someone describe the process nearly the same as I would. Interestingly enough it is similar to explaining performance driving and the traction budget to people, except in photography we are rationing light instead of available tire grip.
This stuff is so interesting! I'm finally starting to understand what you're talking about. Very cool! Just figured out how to toggle between aperture and shutter speed in manual as well. Thanks for the tutorial!
Put a note a pad in your bag....after every shot, pause, write down your settings. Then go home and review photos with your notes. Helped me understand settings alot more. Always have a note pad in my bag now.
@FrostByte had that happen ALL THE TIME! look at all your photos on a computer - dont delete even the really bad ones in-camera, this will allow you to examine the EXIF. And hopefully you remember the light etc conditions at the shoot, and could make some mental notes. I prefer taking actual notes even :)
I use Set for settings and set to museum mode to avoid flash when indoors in museums, country house collections etc, as this is often a condition for permitted photography. I find it useful for landscape and fast moving subjects, and last week in a candle-lit house. Then Auto if not tav. Recent 100 ISO has given great photos. Stability is in the camera body.
This really never has been much of a problem to me. I like to keep my ISOs low. So I set the ISO to the lowest possible value. That's where I start. Typically, unless I find myself in a scenario requiring some special technique, such as panning, I want as fast a shutter speed as possible. So I set the aperture to the desired value, depending naturally on the desired depth of field, and let the camera decide the shutter speed. If the shutter speed is not fast enough, I crank up the ISO. This method has reliably worked for me for a couple of years, and I have never had any issues with it.
Different scenarios have different exposure and the Subject or whatever your Photographing matters alot , Overexposing and Underexposing creates wonderful pictures too . Just keep on experimenting folks . Nice session Tony :)
you definitively give too much information in a single video, and sometimes it's a bit complex to follow (since I'm starting on photography), but nothing that cannot be resolved by watching again to understand a term you mentioned... so Thank you :) I've been learning a lot from you.
Aperture, shutter speed and ISO are all interrelated to get a properly exposed shot and each of those have advantages and disadvantages depending on the shot. Learn what each of those are then you will be well on your way to work out what settings are best for what you plan to shoot. A good idea is for you to set 1 or 2 of those 3 and let the camera automatically do the other ones so you get a good exposure. eg action shots use a high shutter speed, low light situations use a wide aperture
Went and shot action (motocross) outdoors in bright sun last weekend in shutter priority. It was a lot harder than i thought it would be. My shutter speed was WAY to high! Thanks for this video.
VERY, very helpful. Yes, a lot of information but perfect for those of us that have been in this for some years and are looking at how to move forward. Thank you.
Very Nice, thank you for the information. I purchased a Nikon P1000 and want to take advantage of it’s wide range of features. I’ve jumped out of auto mode and it’s not that bad to comprehend. Appreciate you taking time to go over the settings and uses.
If you want remain relevant you need to cycle video content through the entire spectrum of photographer skill levels. If you choose to focus only on one level of photographer your youtube business will fail over time. Great video. For those who feel it was beneath them, spend your time on some other TC offering suitable to your level. In my experience they have clips that cover all levels, and remain relevant.
There is often a debate that pros use manual no matter what they are capturing; birds, portraits or sports. I am glad to see you select both aperture and shutter priority and set IOS to auto and let the camera works its magic. I feel too many pros think anyone who goes off manual is amateur. I feel manual is perfect for stills and landscapes, but wildlife demands more use of aperture and shutter priority settings. Thoughts?
Bravo for taking the bull by the horns so to speak. Personally I was on your side on the prequel episode, but this way certainly everyone wins. In fact I’m sure that by your drilling this through so adroitly, everyone in all camps learned something, including me!
Aperture mode is also where I spend most of my time for the same reasons you stated, though I've only recently begun using limited Auto ISO modes to counteract the times when shooting speed would drop too low. One thing I must say though using a fixed ISO and getting shutter speeds that were realistically too low did help me with minimising camera shake by forcing me to hold the camera better which has effectively extended the range available to me hand held. For me there was no information overload here as what you've said is pretty much what I practice, though I haven't done much with portraits and picked up a few tips to remember from your commentary.
Really good helpful information, just be mindful of the conditions around you, and the capabilities of your equipment! Pairing them up is dependent on your knowledge and the EXPERIENCE you gain from going out and making some mistakes, and finding a few gems! I found Tony's video on Photoscape X to also be very enlightening, it gives me the way to enhance my mediocre shots! Keep up the good work Tony, like your realistic approach to educating us who need so much help.
I know you don't like talking about settings but this video was very helpful. it cleared a few things for me. and I can refer friends who ask to this video.
Oh, I absolutely subscribed. :) I've found your videos have been the best ones for me so far. Thank you for the information overload and for the text and visuals. You're super thorough and I, for one, can appreciate that!
That was great informations. Even though that our materials may be different than your, it can be a good starting point for beginners like me who are wondering what setting I should be using in certain situation. Thanx!
Oh no you're broke down and did a camera setting video! Nice... You didn't even explode their heads on even MORE depth of field consideration! Distance to subject, focal length, and sensor size.😅 Great job Tony, I have tried to explain this to beginners before. You did much better than me 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻🤘🏼🤘🏼🤘🏼
Very good video like them a lot and your book I'm no professorial I'm above amateur below professorial still have a lot to learn but I shoot what's comfortable for me to make adjustments later on what I'm and where shooting at
my biggest lesson was to make effective use of Exposure Compensation. Learn to know which colour needs which EV value to look good on camera. That means in manual mode, I can say okay that person is wearing red, so use -X EV and measure off the red colour. That way when lighting conditions change, I know if my metering needs to change aswell depending on how my values measure. That makes it very easy to ensure that the images say more or less the same when shooting manual mode.
Tony, another great video with exceptionally useful information. One thing you didn’t mention in your settings is the metering mode. Can we assume you are using some sort of matrix metering? The metering mode obviously plays a critical, defining roll in the final exposure captured by your other three settings, and therefore plays a role in the exposure compensation adjustments that you so eloquently described as being sometimes essential. Depending on my subject matter, the metering mode, matrix, spot, etc. is the first thing I set before moving on to the other three essential settings.
I like the way you explained things. Watching the video, I realized, I use the same basic rules as you do most of the time, though I also see how I could improve even more, so thank you for all the advices. There's never too much of useful information for me, but I'm an IT guy and work with lots of data on a daily basis, so I swallow that easily :-) I also like your other videos too, so thanks for them and keep doing what you do, the way you do! :-)
Thank you Tony ...this has really helped me as I tend to stay away from portraits as I always struggle with sharpness and depth of field. Again, thank you.
Thanks so much you have a great teaching ability! I love how you speak clearly and slowly, and keep reassuring the student. Being me, I need that. I'm learning so much so fast, and been lucky enough to have friends who bear with me being slow and new and I get some pretty nice portraits but its just such a difference compared to shooting landscapes and still life. Subscribing!
07:45 you can use the live view on a dslr and have also live histogram, so you can preview the exposure with dslr as well; them you just turn the live view off and shoot until the light changes or you want to change it; you don't have to meter every frame if the light is the same; not to mention that for landscape, portraiture, those are planned shots so why rushing; for street photography you need to react quickly but then again in street photo you don't necessarily go for a hdr look
just in time! thank you! Tony please tell a little bit about wide manual lens and selfie style vlogging. I am planing to get Rokkinon 12 mm 2.0 for my 6500 and use F4 or 5.6. Is it possible to get sharp selfie style image from this? Because 10-18 is too heavy and too expensive and 15-60 kit is not wide enough (I use Crane 2). thank you!
Video idea: A detailed review of different modern focus modes. I know you have 5 year old video on it but technology has advanced quite a lot. I personally use AF-C, back button focus because I have older camera (D5100). Focus comes up in photography discussions often and I'm confused as hell sometimes because I don't have the oppurtunity learn what modern cameras can do.
Thanks Tony. Forget and forgive the trolls and critics, if they shared what they knew, there would be fewer people asking the questions. This will help about 10% of the camera buffs, the others will hopefully get the idea that they have to actually learn how to do it, not ask how to do it. So few understand the relationship and quality/quantity of light is where the magic is. I learned with film, a painful, slow and expensive education. How lucky we are today to have digital and instant results and rewards for getting it right and seeing when it is wrong so we can try to get better images.
Tony was right in the first video. Settings are mostly irrelevant to a good shot. I use general settings and micro adjust as needed. But most important is getting the shot rather than the settings used to capture it.
Thank you Tony, This is really helpful to get in the ballpark because clearly different lens, camera, ambient conditions will need adjustments. As a beginner, I like to look at the images and try to solve the approximate settings in my head and then see if i'm close to a reference, like yours. However, (ha, there is a however), I'm discounting the photos and settings you shared that were clearly lit with flash or LED. I think that there's no point trying to figure those out because from the photo, we'll never know what the true conditions were, just the conditions during the millisecond of flash. Things like ambient light, flash distance and power are just unsolvable from the photo. As well, on those artificially lit shots, we have to factor in the effect aperture has on flash and shutter speed has on ambient, which just leaves too many unknown variables. But, all in all--thank you so much for helping us.
Sometimes when I'm indoors and using an on camera flash on my Canon 80D in manual mode, I find that using Auto ISO usually chooses a much higher ISO than I can get away with if you shoot in RAW, usually when in a large area where some parts of the background are quite dark compared to other areas. I find it better to shoot at a lower ISO in that situation (getting underexposed pictures) and then adjusting the brightness in post to get less noise. Sometimes it's as bad as the auto ISO selecting ISO 6400 (quite noisy and the highlights get blown out due to the flash) when I can use ISO 1250 and retain all the information in the picture and prevent the highlights from blowing out.
as an amateur i found the one thing my cheap rig does spectacularly , and that's all i do , i shoot tripod video in blindingly bright outside light w/d7000 , nikon 50mm 1.8e , all manual settings stopped down two clicks , focus at about 3 or 4 feet , the whole rig you can buy today for $350
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I wonder if people will get the point of this video, that camera settings are only the most basic starting point, because you have to have this conversation, actually in a lot more detail with a beginner for them to really understand it. Nobody wants to listen to a conversation for 40 minutes about camera settings, but iso 100, 1/500, f4.0 doesn't mean anything. Probably will see another article on petapixel about you making camera settings way more complicated than they need to be.
Tony & Chelsea Northrup 6
This is so refreshing! Sometimes I just want to have fun and not be so overloaded with information so I use auto. Not many want to admit that it's okay to use auto settings. I try to understand the basics and not overthink too much especially while I'm on vacation.
Tony & Chelsea Northrup I love the SDP book. Will the Lightroom book cover the newer versions?
As a disabled man recently, from a stroke I now have limited movement in my hands. Plus I am wheelchair bound. Having said that I try hard to take the shots of the things I enjoy. This video has helped me to do what I do how I want to do it, while the able bodied scoff, as well as ignore
.thank you
Finding creativity within is the biggest healer in the world
This is why you're my favourite photography channel. You're full of insight and also you take on negative crticcism and you address it. Not hide behind it. Good job Tony as always. Double thumbs up.
It is very rare that I feel like I must comment on a video, but I have to say that this video was VERY helpful to me. I completely understand that one person's camera settings is irrelevant to another person's settings in various environments but being a newer photographer, It was important for me to hear that it is ok to use Auto-ISO as well as other camera settings (aperture priority vs manual mode only). It was important for me to hear hat it is ok to use "full auto" occasionally when there is too much to think about and you don't have time to go through all the manual settings before taking the shot. Before watching this video, I was lead to believe that most, if not all enthusiast-pro photographers used only manual settings because they had the experience to quickly adjust the settings in any situation to get the photo. I have been working really hard to get to that point but it has been a frustrating journey to say the least. It's just good to hear that it is ok (not necessarily ideal, but ok) to use auto when the situation calls for it. Thanks for sharing!
Wow. That's exactly my feeling. I bought a T6I and a few lenses and it's overwhelming at times. Also bought the Mavic Air for arial photography. Thank God I found this channel which has helped me a lot. They are very down to earth, Chelsea and Tony!
I’m not looking to Become photographer but I love taking pictures and wanted the quality of my pics to be better overall. I started watching a lot of TH-cam vids and once I got to this channel my learning skyrocketed. I want official training but his book is amazing beyond belief for a newb. Tony and Chelsea are both awesome people.
Well stated and i agree completely!
it is not ok
So much more pleasant, kind & thought-provoking, gentle explanation than your previous video, "Stop asking what sre your camera settings!"
Gosh...so glad I found your videos. I've been a low rate hobby photog for many years but recently decided to develop my skills and actually learn the nuts and bolts of the camera and the craft. I've started this journey many times but became immediately confused and discouraged and gave up. Doesn't say much for me, huh? lol I recently broke down and upgraded equipment as a gift to myself and want to actually "know" what I seem to have a pretty good feel for naturally. All that babble to get to my point. After watching a few of your videos, for the first time in my life, it's starting to make sense...thank you Jesus! lol. You have the teaching gift and I thanks bunches for sharing your experience and knowledge with me. Heaven knows I needed it! Blessings¡
Thank you your video makes so So much sense I am a beginner photographer. I’ve been following Your channel very helpful
I really loved your humility in this and other videos. You obviously have great experience and a depth of understanding. But I love how you really understand that this is a lot of info for most people. And yet you don't let that inhibit your generosity - you share so much insight and information. Thirdly, I also like what a great team you and your wife are. Thank you for these great videos!
Thumbs Up! I think in this video and the last one you've done a really good job explaining to beginners that trying to memorize (or copy) specific settings is not a good plan... because it isn't going to work. That really is an important message.
Heck, for now I won't even bother to disagree with your ideas about full manual mode or suggest that instead of spending time chimping histograms or memorizing compensation values in a semi-auto or auto mode someone could just spend that exact same amount of time/energy in full manual mode (no auto iso) and reap the benefits of not having the camera taking the liberty of jerking around with your well-reasoned (manual) exposures.
My favorite alround settings: AV mode with shutterspeed treshhold and auto ISO with a range. This way your camera makes decisions within your own "comfort zone" specs wise. I set the aperture (to the lowest number), which i often find the most important setting, have the shutterspeed treshhold on 1/125th of a sec and auto ISO set between 100-3200. When my shutterspeed should fall under 1/125th it starts to compensate with ISO (else it's 100). When top treshhold of ISO is reached, it slows down your shutter more. With these settings you have an almost full range of light to dark which you can shoot with 1 set of settings, or only adjust your aperture. Works like a charm in almost any situation.
Really great discussion about the “settings” issue. Great points about modes to use, what to use “auto” mode with (like Auto ISO) with respect to TYPES is shooting - portraits, wildlife, sports. The key takeaway - pick a start point and take many test shots to understand the dynamics of the settings in a given situation and how the camera/lens combination you’re using behaves in those situations. You have to start somewhere. Thanks Tony.
Thanks for sharing this workflow. This is providing me with a confidence builder and helping to reinforce the fact that compromises have to be made. In the past, I've put too much emphasis on getting the lowest possible ISO, which more often than not, has resulted in blurry pictures because of the longer shutter. I'm trying to break out of old habits like this. So, it's great to hear you're perspective. It's amazing when I think about the fact that you guys share all of this information at no cost to us. Of course, there are affiliate links and all, but man... I must say that this is an incredible service to the photography community. Thank you!
Just like to say, the point 3mins 38sec in really, really helped me. I've been watching various videos and seen the settings of various shots, such as portraits, where there was a surprisingly high shutter speed with a surprisingly high ISO. I've been in turmoil trying to work out what benefit there was to not turning down the ISO and having a still fast, but more appropriate shutter speed! Many thanks
Perfect! Was just trying to learn manual mode for specific shots, like sports settings and portrait settings, and was clicking all over TH-cam before I saw you uploaded this. So happy right now!
This is an informative, non-judgemental, and clear video. Thanks for making a follow up video to the previous, expanding on this topic. I appreciate the many examples and walkthrough of each photo, stressing the fact there isn't 'one rule' for each scenario. The beginning was especially helpful, I have experienced information overload when I was shooting my sister's engagement photos!
I really really enjoyed this video. More so because I just bought a real camera and finally getting into hands on photography. Bookmarked this video for reference too. Been a subscriber for at least a year and only owned my iPhone for photos. In that time I slowly learned more about photography and cameras from your videos, though a lot of it goes over my head, yet slowly learned each video. However, videos like this are a massive step up in fundamental learning and understanding for camera work which I truly appreciate more. Taking the time in the video to “show” what you mean with the various inserted photos and camera settings helps a lot for someone like me to understand things basic and fundamental to photography. Really enjoyed it.
Thanks for actually speaking in "stops". Some other TH-cam channels say "let's stop it down to f/6.3" and for some reason the fact that they arbitrarily choose that as opposed to f/5.6 or f/8 bothers me to no end.
I must say your real master at what you do Tony. I really enjoy the way you broke everything down and I understand now why you say you cannot copy anyone else's settings your explanation is very detailed and I'm impressed also with the way you know your subjects shows me having knowledge of such things better prepares you to approach the situation. Thank you very much as always I got a lot out of it
Five slow claps for this video Tony. Great explanations on general settings depending on the setting and it's surroundings. I recently just took great photos of the eclipse. I would have never been able to do that without looking at someone's setting. No I didn't copy them completely but it allowed me to set up quickly and adjust from there. People do not ask to copy settings but to get an idea of what it took to take the photo.
YES that info was very helpful to understand some of the problems you encounter and when you click the shutter you have a reasonable understanding of what the results could be.
Once I started using "auto ISO," I felt much more freedom! Thanks, Tony for that suggestion a few videos back.
Thanks for the great video, Tony. I think it is a nice compliment to the last video. The first video frees your mind from thinking that there is a "correct" setting so that you can start to learn how feel the right settings for the photo you are taking now. I think a better title for this video is "Zen and the Art of Photography." If Pirsig was a photographer, this video is what his book would have been like.
I appreciate the way you explain the variables and settings/learning how to understand photography and what you do when you begin to run into specific obstacles. You have definitely helped me merge and understand all of the information that I've learned about photography so far. Thank you.
Mr. Tony I am not good in specs. I been taking photos for over 35 yeats. Some for money some for hobby.. Like you said in the passed,that they have weak points. My experience is learning your equipment which takes time to actual learn how to take sharper pictutes. Thanks for your videos because you really care about the customer
I think alot of people want a reference point, just to make sure they are on the right track or at least close. and you did a great job on giving starting points and solutions for different scenarios
Sorry about the trolls! A genuinely useful video -- I especially appreciated the explanation about moving down the shutter speed with birds. Keep up your excellent work in spite of the comments.
Thank you SO MUCH Tony!! I think this is the most comprehensive photography learning video out there. I've bookmarked this one so I can watch as many times as I need.
I've seen so many videos about exiting auto mode that it's been a combination of overload (as you note) and confusion (as I MUST add) due to so many differing styles and personal views when considering a certain desired outcome.
I always enjoy these videos from the Northrup family. To think I once (in the dark ages of the 1970's) shot totally manually (because I had to with my dinosauric Practica). I had a light meter, but I ended up being able to gauge light/fstop/shutter fairly accurately without it. It helped that I only used 125 ASA (Kodak PlusX Pan) or 400 ASA film (Kodak TriX Pan) film. And then, into the misty realms of the darkroom.... Every shot had to count in those days due to film cost. But give me digital anytime! Cheers, John (Sydney, Australia). PS I do buy your Ebooks, Tony).
Really liked this video. Better than the specific settings.. you are teaching the thought process behind how you use your settings. Bravo!
This is Tony streaming his stream of consciousness for photography. It was a cool experience for him to run on about his internal process because that’s how I think when I’m shooting. It was nice to have the confirmation that I’m thinking properly. It would be cool to have a video like this about the creative process. Creativity or overcoming those “bored moments” is another time when I start to think differently knowing what I know about photography.
I really enjoyed this video, it is like talking shop with other photographers when we are just standing around. It also felt very validating to hear someone describe the process nearly the same as I would.
Interestingly enough it is similar to explaining performance driving and the traction budget to people, except in photography we are rationing light instead of available tire grip.
Yes, I always think of it as a traction budget, too, but I know (from watching people drive :D) that most people wouldn't understand the comparison.
I agree, you shouldn't learn by just taking settings from others, but learning by example really works for some (like me!). Thank you very much!
This stuff is so interesting! I'm finally starting to understand what you're talking about. Very cool! Just figured out how to toggle between aperture and shutter speed in manual as well. Thanks for the tutorial!
What sucks is when you’re a beginner and you get an awesome shot and you don’t know how you got it.
😂😂
Put a note a pad in your bag....after every shot, pause, write down your settings. Then go home and review photos with your notes. Helped me understand settings alot more. Always have a note pad in my bag now.
Pretty sure pro’s do that fairly often too...they just don’t tell you that 15 burst shots got them lucky on a few shots....lol
@FrostByte had that happen ALL THE TIME! look at all your photos on a computer - dont delete even the really bad ones in-camera, this will allow you to examine the EXIF. And hopefully you remember the light etc conditions at the shoot, and could make some mental notes. I prefer taking actual notes even :)
The Raw file on your PC should show all the meta data :)
I use Set for settings and set to museum mode to avoid flash when indoors in museums, country house collections etc, as this is often a condition for permitted photography. I find it useful for landscape and fast moving subjects, and last week in a candle-lit house. Then Auto if not tav. Recent 100 ISO has given great photos. Stability is in the camera body.
This really never has been much of a problem to me. I like to keep my ISOs low. So I set the ISO to the lowest possible value. That's where I start. Typically, unless I find myself in a scenario requiring some special technique, such as panning, I want as fast a shutter speed as possible. So I set the aperture to the desired value, depending naturally on the desired depth of field, and let the camera decide the shutter speed. If the shutter speed is not fast enough, I crank up the ISO. This method has reliably worked for me for a couple of years, and I have never had any issues with it.
Your videos are great. I don't know any photographers near me to learn from. Thanks for all the help yo. We all need a mentor.
Lot of info, but when you have some experience, it is easy to follow it. Always good videos, motivating!
Different scenarios have different exposure and the Subject or whatever your Photographing matters alot , Overexposing and Underexposing creates wonderful pictures too . Just keep on experimenting folks . Nice session Tony :)
Sir, you r on the top of world in all aspect of photography world
you definitively give too much information in a single video, and sometimes it's a bit complex to follow (since I'm starting on photography), but nothing that cannot be resolved by watching again to understand a term you mentioned... so Thank you :) I've been learning a lot from you.
Aperture, shutter speed and ISO are all interrelated to get a properly exposed shot and each of those have advantages and disadvantages depending on the shot. Learn what each of those are then you will be well on your way to work out what settings are best for what you plan to shoot. A good idea is for you to set 1 or 2 of those 3 and let the camera automatically do the other ones so you get a good exposure. eg action shots use a high shutter speed, low light situations use a wide aperture
Went and shot action (motocross) outdoors in bright sun last weekend in shutter priority. It was a lot harder than i thought it would be. My shutter speed was WAY to high! Thanks for this video.
Very detailed and informative video Tony. Helped me figure out my Aperture settings on the a6500. Awesome video. Thanks for sharing.👍
Interesting and very very educational. A great learning experience. Your pictures are just great . The photos of the birds are fantastic . Thanks
VERY, very helpful. Yes, a lot of information but perfect for those of us that have been in this for some years and are looking at how to move forward. Thank you.
Very Nice, thank you for the information. I purchased a Nikon P1000 and want to take advantage of it’s wide range of features. I’ve jumped out of auto mode and it’s not that bad to comprehend. Appreciate you taking time to go over the settings and uses.
If you want remain relevant you need to cycle video content through the entire spectrum of photographer skill levels. If you choose to focus only on one level of photographer your youtube business will fail over time. Great video. For those who feel it was beneath them, spend your time on some other TC offering suitable to your level. In my experience they have clips that cover all levels, and remain relevant.
Tony you are incredible in explaining, I am trying to grasp all that info....WOW
Helpful. Gives me an general idea of what to start for various types of shots.
There is often a debate that pros use manual no matter what they are capturing; birds, portraits or sports. I am glad to see you select both aperture and shutter priority and set IOS to auto and let the camera works its magic. I feel too many pros think anyone who goes off manual is amateur. I feel manual is perfect for stills and landscapes, but wildlife demands more use of aperture and shutter priority settings. Thoughts?
love your books Tony and your simple directions in your videos
very well said sir
aperture mode in my case is my goto setup and 4.x - 8.x f-stop
Bravo for taking the bull by the horns so to speak. Personally I was on your side on the prequel episode, but this way certainly everyone wins. In fact I’m sure that by your drilling this through so adroitly, everyone in all camps learned something, including me!
Aperture mode is also where I spend most of my time for the same reasons you stated, though I've only recently begun using limited Auto ISO modes to counteract the times when shooting speed would drop too low. One thing I must say though using a fixed ISO and getting shutter speeds that were realistically too low did help me with minimising camera shake by forcing me to hold the camera better which has effectively extended the range available to me hand held.
For me there was no information overload here as what you've said is pretty much what I practice, though I haven't done much with portraits and picked up a few tips to remember from your commentary.
brilliant work tony and your explanation makes it easy for me to understand the jargon most photographers go on about.
I have always enjoyed your videos, but I found this to be the most helpful of all of them as well as anyone else's. Thank you
Really good helpful information, just be mindful of the conditions around you, and the capabilities of your equipment! Pairing them up is dependent on your knowledge and the EXPERIENCE you gain from going out and making some mistakes, and finding a few gems!
I found Tony's video on Photoscape X to also be very enlightening, it gives me the way to enhance my mediocre shots! Keep up the good work Tony, like your realistic approach to educating us who need so much help.
Thanks for giving us examples of how settings can differ and the need to develop the feel through practice.
Beautifully shared & explained . I shoot exactly in this way & found the settings or methods that suits me properly
I know you don't like talking about settings but this video was very helpful. it cleared a few things for me.
and I can refer friends who ask to this video.
Great video as usual, ton of information which I needed to resharp my skill! Thanks!
Thanks Tony....great video for better understanding settings...love your work...
Oh, I absolutely subscribed. :) I've found your videos have been the best ones for me so far. Thank you for the information overload and for the text and visuals. You're super thorough and I, for one, can appreciate that!
That was great informations. Even though that our materials may be different than your, it can be a good starting point for beginners like me who are wondering what setting I should be using in certain situation. Thanx!
Oh no you're broke down and did a camera setting video! Nice...
You didn't even explode their heads on even MORE depth of field consideration! Distance to subject, focal length, and sensor size.😅
Great job Tony, I have tried to explain this to beginners before. You did much better than me 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻🤘🏼🤘🏼🤘🏼
Very good video like them a lot and your book I'm no professorial I'm above amateur below professorial still have a lot to learn but I shoot what's comfortable for me to make adjustments later on what I'm and where shooting at
The video work on this episode is spectacular.
Awesome recommendations Tony. You never fail to impress.
What a great video! Just started doing astrophotography Monday night was the first time I captured stars. Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us.
I’m going to watch this over and over again.
Good video. Focused packed with relevant information without loose commentary
Thank you! This really helped me in so many areas. I thoroughly enjoy your teachings
my biggest lesson was to make effective use of Exposure Compensation. Learn to know which colour needs which EV value to look good on camera. That means in manual mode, I can say okay that person is wearing red, so use -X EV and measure off the red colour. That way when lighting conditions change, I know if my metering needs to change aswell depending on how my values measure. That makes it very easy to ensure that the images say more or less the same when shooting manual mode.
Hi gr8 work wanted to add along with the aperture priority , program mode can do wonders for a person starting out :)
Love the video! Thanks, Tony! Would love to see a similar videoon how your master settings would change when shooting video.
Tony, another great video with exceptionally useful information. One thing you didn’t mention in your settings is the metering mode. Can we assume you are using some sort of matrix metering? The metering mode obviously plays a critical, defining roll in the final exposure captured by your other three settings, and therefore plays a role in the exposure compensation adjustments that you so eloquently described as being sometimes essential. Depending on my subject matter, the metering mode, matrix, spot, etc. is the first thing I set before moving on to the other three essential settings.
I like the way you explained things. Watching the video, I realized, I use the same basic rules as you do most of the time, though I also see how I could improve even more, so thank you for all the advices. There's never too much of useful information for me, but I'm an IT guy and work with lots of data on a daily basis, so I swallow that easily :-) I also like your other videos too, so thanks for them and keep doing what you do, the way you do! :-)
Thank you Tony
...this has really helped me as I tend to stay away from portraits as I always struggle with sharpness and depth of field. Again, thank you.
"Don't ask about camera settings because..... Here are all my camera settings. "
Now I want one setting to rule them all.
I like you videos:)
Thanks Tony! As with anything else, you want to be good at, practice, practice, practice!
Thanks so much you have a great teaching ability! I love how you speak clearly and slowly, and keep reassuring the student. Being me, I need that. I'm learning so much so fast, and been lucky enough to have friends who bear with me being slow and new and I get some pretty nice portraits but its just such a difference compared to shooting landscapes and still life. Subscribing!
07:45 you can use the live view on a dslr and have also live histogram, so you can preview the exposure with dslr as well; them you just turn the live view off and shoot until the light changes or you want to change it; you don't have to meter every frame if the light is the same; not to mention that for landscape, portraiture, those are planned shots so why rushing; for street photography you need to react quickly but then again in street photo you don't necessarily go for a hdr look
just in time! thank you! Tony please tell a little bit about wide manual lens and selfie style vlogging. I am planing to get Rokkinon 12 mm 2.0 for my 6500 and use F4 or 5.6. Is it possible to get sharp selfie style image from this? Because 10-18 is too heavy and too expensive and 15-60 kit is not wide enough (I use Crane 2). thank you!
Video idea: A detailed review of different modern focus modes. I know you have 5 year old video on it but technology has advanced quite a lot. I personally use AF-C, back button focus because I have older camera (D5100). Focus comes up in photography discussions often and I'm confused as hell sometimes because I don't have the oppurtunity learn what modern cameras can do.
This is exactly what I'm working on right now. More attention to settings and composition.
Thanks Tony. Forget and forgive the trolls and critics, if they shared what they knew, there would be fewer people asking the questions. This will help about 10% of the camera buffs, the others will hopefully get the idea that they have to actually learn how to do it, not ask how to do it. So few understand the relationship and quality/quantity of light is where the magic is. I learned with film, a painful, slow and expensive education. How lucky we are today to have digital and instant results and rewards for getting it right and seeing when it is wrong so we can try to get better images.
Man, you are good. Today I finally understood everything you said. I can't wait to take my camera out and start shooting ........
Tony, you're such a good sport. I dig.
Tony was right in the first video. Settings are mostly irrelevant to a good shot. I use general settings and micro adjust as needed. But most important is getting the shot rather than the settings used to capture it.
Thank you Tony, This is really helpful to get in the ballpark because clearly different lens, camera, ambient conditions will need adjustments. As a beginner, I like to look at the images and try to solve the approximate settings in my head and then see if i'm close to a reference, like yours. However, (ha, there is a however), I'm discounting the photos and settings you shared that were clearly lit with flash or LED. I think that there's no point trying to figure those out because from the photo, we'll never know what the true conditions were, just the conditions during the millisecond of flash. Things like ambient light, flash distance and power are just unsolvable from the photo. As well, on those artificially lit shots, we have to factor in the effect aperture has on flash and shutter speed has on ambient, which just leaves too many unknown variables. But, all in all--thank you so much for helping us.
Thanks Tony for sharing this informative video 🙌🏼
One of your best videos.
A big change of heart. Thanks Tony
I found this video very helpful. Thanks for sharing your knowledge Tony.
Sometimes when I'm indoors and using an on camera flash on my Canon 80D in manual mode, I find that using Auto ISO usually chooses a much higher ISO than I can get away with if you shoot in RAW, usually when in a large area where some parts of the background are quite dark compared to other areas. I find it better to shoot at a lower ISO in that situation (getting underexposed pictures) and then adjusting the brightness in post to get less noise. Sometimes it's as bad as the auto ISO selecting ISO 6400 (quite noisy and the highlights get blown out due to the flash) when I can use ISO 1250 and retain all the information in the picture and prevent the highlights from blowing out.
as an amateur i found the one thing my cheap rig does spectacularly , and that's all i do , i shoot tripod video in blindingly bright outside light w/d7000 , nikon 50mm 1.8e , all manual settings stopped down two clicks , focus at about 3 or 4 feet , the whole rig you can buy today for $350
Thanks Tony for this excellent video! Much appreciated! Your book Stunning Digital Photography is a must have!
I am glad to know that you tend to use Auto ISO even in Manual Mode. It makes me feel like less of a bad photographer. 😂
Really helpful Tony. Thank you. Love your videos.
Thank you for everything you share with us. This was really helpful! I can't wait to get home and play with my camera.