Originally posted by Bui Thank you for your comment. I use Av, TAv and P all the time. The KP doesn't have scene mode as far as I know. Since you mention it I would like to move the question further: when the scene changes, for instance from taking a portrait to taking a landscape, technically what do we need to keep in mind? Adjusting f-stop, shutter speed, ISO, modify WB if needed, what else?
Ahh, all down to taste
I always leave WB in Auto since I shoot raw and always process my images anyway. But basic exposure is fairly straight forward.
- Use a sufficiently short shutter speed to avoid camera shake.
- Use short shutter speeds to freeze motion, slow speeds to get motion blur (e.g. running water)
- Use small apertures to get everything in focus, wide apertures for subject isolation.
- Keep your ISO low if you can, raise it if you must. Pretty much dictated by the above.
For landscapes: Small aperture and low ISO = slow shutter speed. Use a tripod. I use Av mode and manual ISO, or M mode.
Portraiture: Wider aperture to blur out the background ("subject isolation"). Low ISO. I'd use Av mode and manual ISO.
Action/sports: Fast shutter speed to freeze movement. Often this means letting the ISO go up. I'd use Tv or TAv mode.
Wildlife: For 300mm I like to use 1/500th or faster if possible, and f/8 or f/11 if possible to have some depth of field. Raise ISO if necessary. I almost always use TAv mode.
Btw, my two top tips for getting better images are
1) Be aware of what you
don't want in your image. Your brain filters out that trash can in the background. Your camera doesn't.
2) Don't center your subjects ("Rule of thirds" is a good starting point).
Originally posted by Bui Also, I think keeping everything in RAW, then converting all of them to JPG, only edit what is needed, seems a good idea, and good compromise between quality/workload. However I haven't been able to replicate what the camera produces in JPG vs what I convert using Lightroom. I mean if I edit each image individually I can make a much better photo, but I'm still searching for a good universal setting that I can use to converse all of my images to save time. I like what I see in the KP's JPG output, but I don't know how to replicate it in Lightroom. Does Lightroom has something like camera profile when it comes to conversion?
Sounds to me you should shoot RAW+ and just use the JPEGs if you are happy with them. You'll have the raw files available should you need them. I don't think you will gain much by doing universal/generic changes to your images.
Of course, as with most things, the more you practice the better you get. Even though I process each image individually I don't spend many seconds per image for basic adjustments. When I get to an image that I feel deserves more attention, though, I can spend anywhere from a few minutes to half an hour on it.
If it's a quick snapshot of a pigeon in your back yard half an hour might be quite a lot of time. But if you have spent three weeks of your vacation to get that image of Taj Mahal, what's half an hour more