Cannon 5D Mkll settings

[Overread]

Two books:

Start with: The Digital Photography Book 1 by Scot Kelby

Then once you've read that and tried the content:

Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson.



Your question is understandable considering your experience, however the replies you have gotten are correct. We can't give you ideal settings, there aren't any. There are some ideal balances of settings that you can use - the Scot Kelby book gives you some pointers on these for different situations and whilst its not a comprehensive introduction to exposure it does give you some ground "rules" or "guidelines" for different situations. Further it starts to teach you what your "primary" setting might be for different situations based upon what effect you want.
The Byran Peterson book goes much further (and is still aimed at beginners and if you want you can certainly start with that book and skip the Kelby one which you should grow out of pretty fast) into outlining the balance between the three primary settings to teach you not only how to best balance them; how their effects vary for different shots but also how to judge what a "correct exposure" really is.

 

[Fragile]

Thank you,I will buy the books today. I appreciate your responses :thumbup:

 

[gsgary]

Forget the Bryan Paterson book it's crap

 

[Overread]

Forget the Bryan Paterson book it's crap

But its far more detailed than Scots book and is still good enough for entry level photographers to learn their basics from. Asides, thus far the only real compliant I'm aware of is that he refers to exposure value as exposure. And to be quite honest pretty much all of us do that on a daily basis here (and asides if you know better you wouldn't be reading the beginners book).

 

[gsgary]

There you go your having a go at me again most people that read Bryan Patersons book come back with lots of question's that should have been answered by the book

 

[Overread]

Hmm that might be the book or it might be that they read the parts wrong - sometimes people have to hear the same information in a different context of just differently worded for it to sink in. Other times (esp beginners) people can gloss over details they think they know or that they think are not important and miss out the key part that is - meaning that parts which come later on confuse them because they've skipped a step.

 

[Dao]

There you go your having a go at me again most people that read Bryan Patersons book come back with lots of question's that should have been answered by the book

Those people who come back and ask those question may end up learn quicker.

 

[Derrel]

You MIGHT want to try one of the best strategies. Set image contrast to LOW. Set Image sharpening to the second-from-the-highest level. Set the camera to deliver a relatively FLAT, almost dull and un-inspiring image as seen on the LCD screen when in the field or studio. THEN, bring the CR2 files into your developing module (ACR, Lightroom, or Canon's DPP software) and "goose" the images so that they look the right way.

Australia, eh, mate? Land of the big ozone hole, sunburn, SPF 50 just for going to the post box to get the mail, and blinding,intense, UV filled sunlight...

Canon's own DPP software has some interesting "looks" at its "Faithful" setting...I'm not sure why they call it that...it looks lovely, but is not all that "faithful" to the real world.

The problem that Canon has had for many years, according to me, and to the folks who just reviewed the new Canon's imager at dPreview's testing department, is that 5D-III's highlight tonal values tend to compress together, and get "clipped" a bit too early...so the LAST thing you want to do is to set the Tone Curve or Contrast to "higher than low" when shooting in bright conditions with a Canon (or, for that matter,m other cameras too). SHoot to capture a well-exposed but "flat, low-contrast" almost BORING CR2 file whehn reviewing on the LCD.....then later at home, goose 'em up good!

The in-camera JPEG file that is INSIDE the CR2 is what the camera's histogram is generated from; setting the contrast/tone curve/color saturation levels to HIGH values causes the histo to go bonkers wayyyy too early,and can lead to bad exposures.

 

[Fragile]

I bought the Scott Kelby Book, I could not find the other. The book is brilliant for me, I enjoying reading it and it has certainly helped me understand a lot of what was posted here.

On another note: Derrel you forgot all the poisonous snakes and spiders, beaches that go for 80 miles or more and of course there is Ayers Rock (Uluru) ..:thumbup: A great place to try out the tips I am getting on this site....Cheers to all

 

[Alex_B]

There you go your having a go at me again most people that read Bryan Patersons book come back with lots of question's that should have been answered by the book

The book does not answer many questions, but it leaves the (beginner) reader with many questions ... true! But I consider this a good thing as it can be an inspiration for people to experiment.

 

[Alex_B]

As for the original question: each possible setting is a perfect setting for at least one particular shooting situation, and also depends on what you want to achieve in that situation.