Suggested Settings on My Camera? Brief Explanations, Please?

[Vistra]

Hello all,

I've been looking at the settings on my camera, and I was wondering what the recommended settings would be for it.

Here are the settings listed on my camera:

-Image Size: 8M, 3:2, 5M, 3M, VGA, and 16:9
-Color Mode: Normal, Vivid, Natural, Sepia, and B&W (obviously, the last two aren't going to be what I shoot in)
-White Balance: Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Fluorescent (white) Light 1, Fluorescent (natural) Light 2, Fluorescent (day) Light 3, Incandescent, Flash, One Push
-Flash Level: -2.0 - +2.0
-Red Eye Reduction: Auto, On, Off
-Contrast: Decrease, Normal, Increase, DRO
-Sharpness: Softer, Normal, Sharper
-SteadyShot: Shooting, Continuous, Off

-AF Illuminator: Auto, Off
-Grid Line: On, Off
-AF Mode: Single Monitor
-Digital Zoom: Smart, Precision, Off
-Conversion Lens: Tele, Wide, Off

-Flash Sync: Front, Rear
-Auto Orientation: On, Off
-Auto Review: On, Off
-Expanded Focus: On, Off

I realize these are a lot of settings, but I'm mainly asking about ones that will significantly affect the image quality. The second and third group are things I don't really understand, so brief explanations of those would be helpful. I read about them in the manual, but I don't quite get them.

Thanks,
Travis (Vistra)

 

[wyogirl]

Most of your settings will be fine at normal or auto.
Shoot at the highest MP value

that's all I got... good luck.

 

[robbins.photo]

Hello all,

I've been looking at the settings on my camera, and I was wondering what the recommended settings would be for it.

Here are the settings listed on my camera:

My suggestion would be to review your camera manual, see what each setting does, and then decide what setting is going to work best for you in each category. If you have maybe one category that the manual isn't too clear on, or possibly two, sure - ask a specific question on that category.

 

[Vistra]

My suggestion would be to review your camera manual, see what each setting does, and then decide what setting is going to work best for you in each category. If you have maybe one category that the manual isn't too clear on, or possibly two, sure - ask a specific question on that category.

Sorry, I realize this was a lot to ask about. Thanks for the help, though.

 

[cynicaster]

The only setting listed there that could be said to universally improve “quality” would be the image size. You might as well use all of the pixels the camera has to offer; with storage so inexpensive, and with the ability to easily crop photos in the computer, there is absolutely no reason not to do so.

The other items are mostly things that you would need to adjust to suit a given photographic scenario, and thus do not have a single “best” setting.

Going through each of those and explaining how to best fit them to different situations is no small task. You just need to practice, learn, and accept that it will take some time to build up to where you want to be.

It’s worth mentioning that if you shoot in raw format, some of those items can be changed to different settings after the photo is taken, so you don’t need to “commit” to anything in particular.

 

[vimwiz]

The only setting listed there that could be said to universally improve “quality” would be the image size. You might as well use all of the pixels the camera has to offer; with storage so inexpensive, and with the ability to easily crop photos in the computer, there is absolutely no reason not to do so.

Depends on the sensor. Sometimes this increases the gain, and thus the noise visible, right?

 

[SCraig]

-AF Illuminator: Auto, Off
Autofocus illuminator shines a (normally) red light during autofocusing to assist in dim light. On or off, your choice. I turn it off.

-Grid Line: On, Off
Shows a grid line or series of grid lines in the viewfinder. On or off, your choice. I turn mine on.

-AF Mode: Single Monitor
No idea. Specific to your camera so refer to the manual.

-Digital Zoom: Smart, Precision, Off
My cameras do not have digital zoom, it's all done with the lens. Digital zoom increases the zoom level but at the cost of image quality. Try it and see how you like it.

-Conversion Lens: Tele, Wide, Off
No idea. Specific to your camera so refer to the manual.

-Flash Sync: Front, Rear
These determine when the flash fires. As the front shutter curtain opens or as the rear shutter curtain closes. Each have their place depending on what you are doing with the flash. Front curtain is the normal default.

-Auto Orientation: On, Off
No idea. Specific to your camera so refer to the manual.

-Auto Review: On, Off
Whether or not the image is displayed on the LCD when it is taken. On or off, your choice. I keep mine on.

-Expanded Focus: On, Off
No idea. Specific to your camera so refer to the manual.

AS Robbins.Photo mentioned the best resource for the answers to these questions is your camera owner's manual. You apparently have a point-and-shoot or bridge camera with some settings that most of us here may or may not be familiar with.