First pictures

[Andrew C]

So, yesterday I finally got out after many delays and took my first photos with my camera. Here are some pictures.
Before I went I watched some Youtube videos on settings for my camera (a7 IV) but I'm still confused.
I went out with Aperture priority but by the end switched to Shutter priority.
Focus was a problem. A lot of shots were not sharp, so suggestions for best mode would be appreciated. Also which settings are best generally for wildlife.
I was quite pleased with the dragon fly, and even the Ladybird as my lens is not a macro one, and the focus distance is quite long.
All these pictures are jpegs directly from the camera. I did shoot Raw+jpeg - but I don't have Lightroom yet (or even know how to use it).

• ILCE-7M4
• E 28-200mm F2.8-5.6 A071
• 200.0 mm
• ƒ/6.3
• 1/200 sec
• ISO 640

 

[Andrew C]

• ILCE-7M4
• E 28-200mm F2.8-5.6 A071
• 200.0 mm
• ƒ/5.6
• 1/200 sec
• ISO 500

 

[Brownie]

Really nice first effort! That darned Tamron 28-200 is going to bother me until I get one!

Don't get stuck on Adobe products, there are many, many alternatives, from totally free to inexpensive to HOLY CRAP!! I can recommend Darktable as a free program, and Affinity Photo as a low-cost option. Darktable has a steep learning curve, is very powerful, but it's processing only. Affinity is also powerful but not as steep a curve, costs $50 US one time (no subscription) and has editing as well as processing tools. So far all of their updates have been free.

There are other programs that I'm sure others will be happy to recommend.

 

[Andrew C]

A few more from yesterday

 

[Andrew C]

These were the settings I had selected:

Raw + Jpeg​

Drive Mode, continuous Shooting: Hi​

Silent Mode: On​

Shutter Type: Electronic Shutter​

ISO auto​

ISAO auto min SS standard​

White Balance Auto​

Focus Mode: Continuous AF​

Priority Set in AF-S: Balanced Emphasis​

AF tracking Sensitivity: 3 (Standard)​

AF illuminator: Off​

AF w/Shutter: On​

Pre-AF: Off​

Focus Area: Tracking​

Focus Area Limit: Tracking Expand Spot​

Face/Eye Prior. : On​

Face/Eye Subject: I have set a toggle for this People/Bird/Eye​

 

[Andrew C]

Really nice first effort! That darned Tamron 28-200 is going to bother me until I get one!

Don't get stuck on Adobe products, there are many, many alternatives, from totally free to inexpensive to HOLY CRAP!! I can recommend Darktable as a free program, and Affinity Photo as a low-cost option. Darktable has a steep learning curve, is very powerful, but it's processing only. Affinity is also powerful but not as steep a curve, costs $50 US one time (no subscription) and has editing as well as processing tools. So far all of their updates have been free.

There are other programs that I'm sure others will be happy to recommend.

I should have mentioned I'm a Mac user. Affinity looks really nice - and has some capabilities I would like to use in the future. Any good tutorials/guides to using it?

 

[Brownie]

I should have mentioned I'm a Mac user. Affinity looks really nice - and has some capabilities I would like to use in the future. Any good tutorials/guides to using it?

Yeah, their website is loaded with them, from beginnings to difficult. I think there's a resources tab, or something to that effect.

Darktable works on Mac/Windows/Linux. Not sure about Affinity.

 

[Deleted Member 5045]

Nice first efforts mate! I've been serious about photography for a bit over a year now, and although I feel like I know a fair bit about it all, I'm still picking up a new trick equipment wise, or with editing every week.

The beauty of photography is that it could always be better.

 

[Andrew C]

Before I went I watched some Youtube videos on settings for my camera (a7 IV) but I'm still confused.
I went out with Aperture priority but by the end switched to Shutter priority.
Focus was a problem. A lot of shots were not sharp, so suggestions for best mode would be appreciated. Also which settings are best generally for wildlife.

I just found this Youtube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QntVJ6PeJFs) which is really good at explaining the buttons and set-up options on the camera.

 

[Deleted Member 5045]

For general handheld shooting, I use aperture priority. Set my auto ISO at 2000 limit. Go for desired aperture each shot then just adjust my minimum shutter speed depending on the situation. Generally the shutter speed needed will range between 1/8s and 1/320s.

Wildlife, aperture priority. Set auto iso to 8000. Go for desired aperture each shot then adjust minimum shutter speed depending on the situation. Generally this range will go between 1/500s and 1/4000s.

My general for wildlife for AF is obviously AF-C, then tracking wide.

All these adjustments aren't a do all, and as you gain experience you will do other changes too depending on certain uncommon situations, but you will be able to shoot happily and generally get great results with this.

 

[Andrew C]

Yeah, their website is loaded with them, from beginnings to difficult. I think there's a resources tab, or something to that effect.

Darktable works on Mac/Windows/Linux. Not sure about Affinity.

Hi - I've been watching the tutorial videos on the Photo Affinity site and I am really liking the look of this software.
However I note that it doesn't come with any photo organiser system - any recommendations?
I've not really had the need before, but in my shoot last week I generated over 1,000 files and am having trouble sorting that many.

 

[Brownie]

Hi - I've been watching the tutorial videos on the Photo Affinity site and I am really liking the look of this software.
However I note that it doesn't come with any photo organiser system - any recommendations?
I've not really had the need before, but in my shoot last week I generated over 1,000 files and am having trouble sorting that many.

I just use regular folders. I've never seen the need for anything else. Create a folder, drag and drop form the card, done.

What you need is a culling system. I come home from the racetrack with anywhere from 1500-2500 shots every time. I have worked out a system to cull the shots I don't want by creating sub folders. One called 'culled', where I keep them until I'm sure they won't get processed, one called 'sorted', and one called processed. It's a matter of saving them to the right sub folder as you go.

 

[Andrew C]

that's what I have been doing. I will look around - I'm sure there must be some good workflow solutions for culling and sorting (for the mac).
Here is a picture I took on a walk this morning.

 

[Clix Pix]

Photo Mechanic is particularly popular with photographers who need to review and cull a lot of files, and another similar program is called Narrative Select. Last Saturday I shot over 1300 images at a wedding (I'm not a wedding photographer, this was an unexpected opportunity -- I shot everything from my nearby deck as the wedding ceremony took place on our pier). I used Narrative Select to quickly go through and select the ones which seemed to be the best for closer scrutiny and editing, and as I went along copied the chosen images into a separate folder labeled "Culled and for 2nd Review for Edit")

As for photo organization, I organize everything by year, month, week and day or occasion. For example, last week I also had shot some autumn flowers on a couple of different days. The edited images went into the monthly folder right into folders for the appropriate week and days. The RAW files remain in their own appropriately labeled folders or sometimes I discard them if I know I'm not ever going to be revisiting them to edit. The wedding photos, of course have their own separate folder and I am still working on the images, which I will be sharing with the bride and groom and their families.

I find this system to be the most effective for me rather than dealing with a DAM and catalogue imposed upon me by any software programs. I use DXO PhotoLab 6 as my primary editing tool, and occasionally also use Topaz AI or Luminar AI for specific touchups and such.

As for shooting, I use the A1 or the A7R IV and shoot RAW, Manual (often with Auto ISO, but frequently find myself doing ISO manually when shooting macros, depending upon the particular situation).

 

[Jeff A]

I should have mentioned I'm a Mac user. Affinity looks really nice - and has some capabilities I would like to use in the future. Any good tutorials/guides to using it?

I'm a happy Adobe photo suite subscriber and use Lightroom for Post Processing. Early on I found a fellow who has a series of Lightroom and other tutorials. His name is Anthony Morganti. He sometimes is also known as Mr. Photographer.com. Two years later I still find his work valuable and informative, and he does not charge for these videos. A week or two ago, Adobe released a new version of Lightroom with some very effective new tools and Morganti quickly had a new video to teach the new capabilities. Anthony is a Mac user but one of the beauties of Lightroom is that the Windows and Mac version are nearly identical so he doesn't ever need to do a separate video. He just points out any differences in menus or key strokes in the body of the lesson. You can check out his videos at this link.

 

[Brownie]

Hi - I've been watching the tutorial videos on the Photo Affinity site and I am really liking the look of this software.
However I note that it doesn't come with any photo organiser system - any recommendations?
I've not really had the need before, but in my shoot last week I generated over 1,000 files and am having trouble sorting that many.

FYI, Affinity is set to announce 'Something Big' on November 9.

I hope it's not a 'big' cost for an update, they've been totally free so far.

There are a lot of culling solutions on the market, but none of them worth the asking price AFAIC.

 

[Andrew C]

FYI, Affinity is set to announce 'Something Big' on November 9.

I hope it's not a 'big' cost for an update, they've been totally free so far.

There are a lot of culling solutions on the market, but none of them worth the asking price AFAIC.

Well I can definitely wait for the announcement before making a decision. Thank you for the heads up!