Here at ShootDotEdit, we believe “Fast is Best.” We know that one of the keys to success for you is to find ways to speed up various parts of your business. Whether you trim time from your shoots, regular tasks and projects, or post-wedding workflow, you should always think of new ways to become faster at what you do. As well as the tasks you take care of for your business, you spend a lot of time with your camera. During an engagement or wedding shoot, you likely spend hours shooting and adjusting settings on your camera to capture images for the bride and groom.
How well do you know the current camera you use? Have you discovered custom settings on your camera to help you quickly shoot during an engagement shoot or the wedding day? Custom settings for your camera can differ depending on the model, but all achieve the same goal: to eliminate time. Here are 3 custom camera settings you should use to speed up your shoots.
1. Use Back Button Focus
Does this sound familiar? During a shoot, you take multiple images in a row of the bride and groom, and in between each shot you pressed the shutter button halfway down to properly focus the image. You are confident you captured the best photos; however, when you take time to review, you realize that half of the photos are out of focus. Not only is this frustrating, but you risk on missing some of the best moments during the day.
Rather than pressing the shutter button halfway down to lock in the focus, try using the back button on your camera instead. By using the back button to focus, you can set a desired focus point, and it will stay there until you decide to change it. This is perfect for situations such as family formals or ceremony shots of the bride and groom, because your subjects are staying in one position. You can lock in the focus on your subject, and then your images will be in focus as long as you are in that position (and you never have to worry about refocusing).
Related: Do you know how to properly light and pose during your shoots?
2. Shoot in Another Picture Style
After your shoot is over and you receive your images back from a post production company, what does your Signature Style include? Perhaps you reduce the clarity to make your couples’ skin smoother, or maybe you convert a majority of images to black and white. If you know ahead of time how you like your final images to look, you can use this to your advantage while shooting.
In your camera settings, you can select to shoot in a specific Picture Style that is similar to your personal style, and this will adjust how the image is rendered on your camera’s LED display. For example, you can adjust the Picture Style to be monochromatic, allowing you to instantly see your images in black and white. By adjusting the Picture Style, you can quickly review how the image looks, allowing you to nail the shot in-camera (and saving you time in your post-shoot workflow).
Related: Are you comfortable with off-camera lighting? Pye Jirsa can help!
3. Adjust Exposure Increments
As you shoot during and engagement session of the wedding day, you might constantly be adjusting your settings in order to properly capture important moments. It can be tedious to scroll through each exposure increment, especially if you need to quickly adjust due to different lighting conditions. For example, if you are shooting at a shutter speed of 1/125 at F-stop 2.8 and need to quickly adjust to 1/500 at F-stop 5.6, by the time you get to the correct exposure, you risk missing the shot.
Instead of having to scan through each shutter speed and aperture stop, you can create custom camera settings for this that will adjust the increments at which you scan through your shutter speed and aperture stops. By making the increments larger, you can quickly adjust your settings to capture moments that might require two very different exposures.
Bonus: Take Advantage of Custom Modes
Just as you would save presets or keyboard shortcuts in Lightroom,it is ideal for you to save the custom settings you create for your camera, such as a certain exposure, aperture, and ISO. When you save these settings, you can quickly switch from a standard mode (such as Manual or Priority) into your custom mode. If you are shooting and there are two different exposures needed, this will allow you to quickly switch from one to the next without having to constantly adjust your settings.
Custom camera settings are only one of the many ways you can speed up your workflow. What else can you do to become more efficient and fast in your business? We share that and more with our Guide, 27 Ridiculously Simple Hacks to Transform your Wedding Photography Business!
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