Going to Peru!! Recommended Camera Settings

EEngineer

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Hi Everyone!,

I'll be going to Peru this week, and i plan on taking my D7000. I have a sigma 17-50 f2.8 and the kit 18-105 lens. I really only want to bring one lens so i figured the siggy would be my best option. I generally take most of my photos in Manual, but I'm kinda slow about it. I wanted to make use of the U1 and U2 for setting up a shot quicker. Anyone have a recommendation on how I should set up my U1 and U2 that would be most useful for my trip.

Thanks!
 
If you are shooting landscapes, they aren't going anywhere. Take your time and shoot manual. Don't worry about being slow at it.

If you are worried about missing action and street shots.... just shoot in auto. Its really impossible for someone to guess what settings will be useful to you at any given time. The light always changes and no one can tell you what settings to use.
 
Unless you are very adept at changing your settings and the reasons for choosing 1 of perhaps a dozen or more setting combinations that would produce a proper exposure, my recommendation is to determine what is the most critical of the 3 exposure triangle elements and use that priority, letting the camera figure out the rest.

I just returned from a vacation that I took numerous shots out the train window. So my most critical choice was shutter speed. So I put the camera in Tv, set my shutter speed to 1/200th, and fired away. Recognizing some situations I was off the train and that Tv was underexposing the shadows where my subjects were, I went to manual and used appropriate settings.

Bottom line, unless you have some out of the ordinary exposure situations, there's no reason to shoot exclusively in manual mode. The cameras are getting 'smarter' every day and can make surprisingly good exposure choices, especially if you take control of what you have to, letting the camera choose the rest.

As for what lens to take, I'd probably take the kit 18-105 over the faster Sigma lens. From the pictures I've seen of Peru, I think I would opt for the larger zoom range as the subjects can vary from crowded city shots to magnificent mountain views. If the f3.5-5.6 gets to be too constricting, perhaps crank up the ISO a bit or lean against something immovable for added steadiness shooting longer exposures.
 
Use "P" mode for Peru !!!
 
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Camera settings have nothing to do with geographic location. They have everything to do with light, subject, and photographer intent.

If you're asking this question, then you are probably not at a point where you understand enough about what your camera is doing to get consistent results. Based upon that, my recommendation would be to stick it on Program... POSSIBLY aperture priority... and focus more on your compositions than your settings.

Lots of people start out in photography feeling like these automated modes are cheating, and that "real photographers only use manual". This isn't true. Real photographers use the tools that are provided to them, given the requirements of the situation they are in. Certainly, as we grow, we become better at knowing what we want than our cameras, and lean towards less automated choices when we have the time available to make them.

For example, you like shooting manual and you like shooting landscapes. Fine. Knock yourself out. As someone else said, the landscapes won't go anywhere. You have the time, so go ahead and go for it. However, if you're shooting on the streets of Peru, walking and shooting whatever scene grabs you, your light and subject are going to change rapidly and drastically. Shoot in a more automated mode because getting the shot is way more important than the liquid cool that some thing Manual provides.
 
I always use aperture priority.
 
U1 and U2 are both for Uruguay, not Peru, I am afraid.
 
1/4000 f/22 ISO 3200
 

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