Canon 30D Initial Settings

[Fairfield]

Hi!
As a Wedding Photographer, I have finally!!! upgraded to Digital SLR from Film 35mm and am a bit confused by all the settings and adjustments possible.
Could someone give some basic guidelines for a non-studio type settings useful for general wedding shots?
I am using it on almost default settings and learning as I go along, but feel the camera can do better with a little understanding.

I submit images on CD and have them professionally printed by lab. Have experience of Photoshop CS2 on Mac G5 but don't want to spend all my time on the computer if I can capture better in the first place.

All suggestions welcome

Many thanks

Nigel

[BarryM]

Hi mate, and welcome to the forum firstly.

Id start by saying that most dslr images need a tweak of some sort or other, i personallly as many shoot in raw mode, this is like ur film negative, it means you have to do all the editing to image yourself, but your raw converter with ps will make that very easy and its batchable, so its quick once u get the hang of it, most image too will need a slight sharpen, unless of course your shooting jpeg on cam then it has in camera sharpness settings you can adjust, although like i say, i shoot raw as do most (it gives you a bit of leway with your exposure etc).

Good settings on cam i feel is pmode, it will give u a shutterspeed and aperture for the given scene, and u can scroll through different combinations to suit your dof etc in pmode. Tv mode will let you set the shutterspeed manually and give u a aperture to suit the scene, Av mode works the other way, manual aperture and auto gives u a shutterspeed.
Im not shamed to say im happy with pmode on my camera, it takes away the faffing about on a wedding day although you do have to be aware that sometimes it can be a bit off.

Best thing mate is to sit and read the manual, and when done that, read it again, have cam at hand to practise, now u dont have to worry about film and costs you can click away till your heart is content practising.

Im sure others will be over to over more advice etc but mind its weekend so things can get a wee bit quieter on a sat and sun.

[england1965]

Welcome !

I'd second everything Barry says - but reiterate that you MUST shoot in RAW - I know you don't want to spend time in front of the PC (who does) but RAW gives you the best opportunity to rescue any images (and sod's law says it'll be THE most important ones) that the camera fails to record accurately - whatever settings you have it using.

The downside of RAW is file sizes (- buy bigger CF cards !!) and the fact that you have to convert them to JPGS afterwards. But IMHO they can save your life (I know there is a real debate on this forum and otherwise about the pros/cons of RAW vs JPGS - but my advice is GO RAW - you can always chuck them later after you have good JPGS - but you can't rescue detail if you don't have it in the first place.

Also, beware with the 30D that it spot meters from the centre spot only - regardless of the focus point you select. So if you have a subject with a dark centre and you are focussing towards a lighter edge - it will tend to over-expose the bit you are focussing on (probably the bit you wanted right in the first place). It's a real PITA ...but better that you know about it. The 5D for example meters and focusses on the point you choose ..sensible eh!

Anyway - Canon 30D gripe over XXXfrogXXX

Cheers

Mark

[ALDP]

I use the 5d, not the 30d, so you may need to check whether some of these things are available on your camera.

- Custom settings / buttons - if it does have these, you can set these up to quickly access a function that you use frequently;

- Picture quality capture - definately go with RAW - per the other recommendations. The batch processing from within something like Aperture or Lightroom (or one of the others) makes this really easy;

- Colour space the camera records in - match it to the colourspace for your PC workflow. Pretty sure this doesn't affect RAW files - but set it in case you change to JPG;

- Sharpening (and other in camera settings) - I set these to zero. Again, in case I shoot JPG;


Other than that, it works pretty much like a film camera - except for white balance. It would definately be worth your while reading up on the various approaches for dealing with this. It will definately save you a lot of time in front of the PC.

hope this helps.

ALDP

[Fairfield]

Thanks Barry et al.

Appreciate the advice and yes, I will now shoot some RAW images and take your comments on board. Up to now all my adjustments have been around Jpeg images which has been OK but maybe using RAW will give things the edge?

White balance - now this should be interesting!!

Cheers

Nigel

[BarryM]

No probs mate, with raw you can gain i think its a stop maybe 2 in either directions without any adverse affects on the image, leave any sharpening in raw though, do that in ps (in my opinion), as to white balance, id leave that on auto, again you can adjust the white balance to suit the scene in raw, but auto is a good starting point, until you get used to things.