Sony A7RIII, A9, A7III - Camera Settings for Wedding Photography

[@2lturbo]

A good tip for when you first get your camera: use custom button 4 (the delete key) for “In-camera guide”. Now, when you’re in any setting (in the main menu or by shortcut), you’ll get a help screen either for that setting or the value you’ve highlighted. For example, the guide tells me that enabling “high quality” mode on the monitor reduces battery life.

[@Lindsay48481]

THANK YOU. I just switched from canon to the a7iii yesterday and this is so helpful!

[@natalied822]

Yes!! Thank you!! I never thought to set my min SS and that the white balance wasn’t actually focusing on white so that’s changed ☺️. Great tips! I’m new to Sony but I think it’s a great change

[@washingtonsmythe2]

I have only just got a Sony A7iii and I used your settings. FANTASTIC! thanks.

[@BikeVisionScotland]

Thanks Chris for the insight, most of my menu settings are the same as yours and don't change. This helps to keep me consistant when shooting. Cheers...

[@msmphoto553]

Chris, great content as usual! You are one of the reasons I decided to make the transitions to Sony after using another brand for over ten years. I’m extremely happy about the the change. Keep up the great work!

[@chryseass.5143]

Thanks again, Chris. I started off using Aperture Priority back in the day of a6000 and then, after taking a photography course, I challenged myself to go Manual with the a6500 and a7iii. Thanks to you and others, I am ready to use my expanded knowledge in how exposure works, etc. and go back now to trusting the camera in Aperture for a while , although it does feel a bit like 'cheating'!. The top tip that I have picked up from your enjoyable and informative videos is changing the White balance in Menu into "White" rather than "Standard" - like you, I hadn't picked up on that setting before and now I am really happy with the images out of the camera - not as much colour/temperature tweaking needed!

[@jen43072]

Thanks so much, Chris!

[@giacomopinale4573]

so effing useful man!props!

[@dawnfirephotography]

I've been using aperture priority 90% of the time on my past two sonys for years now. It works wonderfully! I pretty much only use manual for long exposures.

[@ulrickteissier363]

Thanks a lot Chris for this video. Just one question can you tell why you use backfocus button? I mean I know how it work but I don’t see situations with sony camera where you need this feature. Can you give me some exemple when backfocus button is really important for you? Thanks

[@ChrisTurnerPhotographer]

Here you go, I’d never not use back button kzbin.info/www/bejne/rou8d6xmq7ZrqtU

[@SorinGociu]

Starts at 3:54

[@stevenclancey1947]

you're clearly the hero we don't deserve.

[@frankwolff2903]

Chris, what AF settings seem to work mostly reliably and accurate with low light and flash and moving subjects, like the bride and groom in dark church or reception hall? I have A7iii and it struggles sometimes to lock on when using Tamron 28-75 and 85 1.8 FE lenses at widest apertures. I originally tried AF-s and switching over to AF-c like your video recommends.thank you, FW

[@ChrisTurnerPhotographer]

I use zone area when I’m shooting the dance floor, works well. You can also, if your using flash just switch to manual focus, f8, 28mm, low iso and set the focus to like 2m, everything will be in focus

[@stevestylesphoto903]

This was a solid vid.

[@ChrisTurnerPhotographer]

Thanks Steve

[@oxxxeee]

on my A7RIII, Creative Style to BW in RAW. import to LR. photos remain in BW. what am i doing wrong?

[@ChrisTurnerPhotographer]

What file extensions does it say, or you could be using embedded previews or something

[@frankwolff2903]

Chris, Regarding flash, do you use flash and are you changing any settings with flash ( focus areas, shutter, etc)? Thank you, FW

[@ChrisTurnerPhotographer]

Hey frank. Flash I use full manual and settings just depends on the situation but focus doesn’t change

[@moonrovrland]

Video starts at 3:50

[@andrewgonzalez6208]

Helpful 👍🏽

[@yadgarphotoshots]

Hi, my sony a7iii firmware 3.01.face s slow shutter press prblm During tha flash photography (on camera or off) (godex 685ttl & x1t trigger) I missed many moment in wedding bcoz Slow process When press shutter button clik after a sec How? Pls give me solution

[@RazyNyx]

Flash mode: fill-flash ...try this mode

[@dlmarr]

"Works well on the dance floor.....floorlessly". Nicely played!

[@smalltalk.productions9977]

still relevant, at least to me and my "new" A7R3. thanks for the effort and the sharing. i am an appreciative subscriber. i did my first event this week with the A7R3. was asked not to use flash! lived with f4 + 1/160th and iso as high as 10k/12.8k. i was very worried. but was astounded how well the focus modes worked along with how clean the images were. i had a way higher success rate than my previous dslr setup. thumbs up.

[@MihaiLucianOfficial]

Hey Chris I’m following you since some time and i love your content and your edits , just want to know your opinion between a9 and a7iii what do you think it’s better for wedding photography ?

[@Peevesthepoltergeist]

In my a7riii when it reaches 2000 iso it already makes a lot of noise. I don't know about you, chris, but setting it to 12,800 should already be unusable, unless you have a way that I don't know

[@matthewvietzke]

My a7iii comes in today so I’m excited to use this video for it :)

[@brandonkapana2453]

chris does a good job of showing settings. Mark Galer really goes in depth with it. good luck!

[@steveyinasia]

More great advice, I am a hobby photographer and always on manual. After this I an keen to give the aperture priority mode a go with your settings.

[@JC-gt4lt]

My 2 cents: EFCS is on, that affects the final result of your picture in the exposition and bokeh. No comment on DRO/HDR ? That's also a part that could affect your final result.

[@ChrisTurnerPhotographer]

javier chicon DRO doesn’t affect the raw file but it does affect the way you expose your images so yeah I’ve turned that off now. Need to do an update. EFCS make such a minor difference and only in some situations where you might just notice it so it’s not worth the extra noise for me

[@vpr5562]

Thank you. Interesting. I am with the a7R3 too and shooting A-priority mode i put the min SS to 125th so to lower the ISO if possible, but it doesnt change. Also set auto ISO between 100-8000. Hm.

[@checkeredflagfilms]

I assume when you're demo'ing the camera setting here, it is set to AP. the only thing I will say is the movie setting you show in this mode will inevitably change when you switch to MM...some will be unavailable (greyed out). in any case, i dislike the sony menu structure imo it is not intuitive whatsoever.

[@scottydmonbot01]

Man this video is crazy useful. I'm mostly shooting pets on my canon 7d mk1 but so much of this is still relevant. Thank you so much!

[@ChrisTurnerPhotographer]

No worries!

[@OsoreShirazu]

Hey there Chris, new subscriber here. Your videos are great, keep it up! FYI in case you weren't aware, using electronic front curtain shutter can degrade the way your out of focus areas appear in your images. Try googling "sony electronic front curtain bokeh" and you'll find several articles and videos about it. Now I keep it off unless I am shooting super slow shutter speeds...which is the only time EFC really does anything anyway. Anyway, keep rocking!

[@ChrisTurnerPhotographer]

Thanks mate :) yeah I saw Manny’s video, I don’t know that it makes enough of a difference for me to care about the extra sound haha but I might try it and see how I feel after a wedding! Was super interesting eh. I do find that electronic front curtain can freak out with HSS sync flash in the studio, like above 1/1500 of a second can cause banding

[@ebouwens]

Chris, I wanted to thank you fo the video, even if it is2 years old. I was doing my first wedding with Sony after shooting another brand for some time. The settings worked quite well, with an amusing discovery. I actually do like the face registration feature and have used it in the past with Wide setting. The camera can pick the bride or groom out of any scene on continuous. BUT -- it won't work when the put on masks. In fact face recognition and eye focus don't work. I even tried registering a tight portrait of them in masks as an alternative face, but the program rejects the photo as not being a face. So I found I needed to quickly switch between expandable spot focus for masked portions of the wedding, and could still use face registration when the masks were off. I wonder if Sony will develop a masked face recognition option?

[@tomradford2318]

Hey dude, that was super useful cheers. One thing, and I'm sure this is me being stupid, I did the setup and now when I click on the shutter button it's not auto-focussing, I have to use the AF button to focus instead. Any ideas how I've managed to do that?

[@ChrisTurnerPhotographer]

That’s what it’s supposed to be like. “Back button focusing” but yeah just turn AF with shutter back on if you don’t want that

[@paulgr1984]

Really useful, clear and concise, thank you. Im preparing for my first wedding shoot in September.

[@joedias6325]

Wow! The viewfinder frame rate and display quality really made me happy when I changed it to high! Thanks :D

[@MarcVisuals]

Great settings man! Appreciate you making this video. Would love to see a video of you showing your custom settings for C1 etc.

[@imAnsar]

thanks for sharing Chris

[@film42tv]

Such a useful item. As a video man I was just trying to work out the best settings for stills on my FX3… now I know! Many thanks 👍

[@robt4194]

I missed be able to access MENU with my right thumb like on the Sony A6x00 cameras, so I set C4 to MENU.

[@desertbornproductions]

Thanks for this Chris. About to use aputure priority for my first wedding. What shutter speed aputure combo would you recommend for bride and wedding party walking down the isle for tact sharp images? I did a test in shade and felt like some images seemed a little out of focus. But maybe that's the ISO taking effect. I was at f2.8 (tracking best I can on face, eye af on when closer up) 1/250 or 1/500? Does that sound about right? Cheers mate

[@shafiqboy3006]

Sir, I can't found your pictures profile... If you don't mind share the link that video. Thank you sir

[@shandiwallace2595]

I really, really appreciate this video, Chris! I'm useless at reading manuals. Thanks so much!!

[@slowmanfilms]

8:21 Did he just say jay pig instead of JPEG????? lol

[@harishrajendran8475]

Awesome Mr.Chris it's very helpful thank you so much..

[@brianhoskins1979]

I'm not fully understanding the exposure comp dial. I have recently started experimenting with the picture profiles for video and I read that with slog the key is to expose two stops higher than normal because that is how you extract the maximum dynamic range in post. Now, I am a mere novice here so for me I don't have a good intuition about when I am exposing two stops higher. So I thought... Aaaah is that what exposure comp does? So I expose the shot as I think is correct in the viewfinder and then with the dial set to +2 the actual video it captures is then two stops higher. So I can shoot intuitively and let the camera over expose the correct amount. But some quick trials and... nah it doesn't seem like that's it. So what does it do?

[@ChrisTurnerPhotographer]

Brian J Hoskins the exp Comp dial is only useful when your in semi auto. like aperture priority or shutter speed priority

[@frankwolff2903]

Chris, You mention using A Priority for most of your photography except flash. When using flash the camera is on Manual. Is the flash also on manual or are you using TTL to get good flash exposure? I see that you're using Electronic Front curtain most of the time and occasionally go to Silent. So, while in Front Curtain, how well does flash work and is exposure control any better/same as mechanical shutter? I have A73 and using A Priority and Auto ISO with mechanical shutter and it's giving inconsistent results with flash. Also when reviewing images the ISO values move around a lot, ISO 2000, ISO 1000, ISO 4000, etc. Thanks for any advice on the setup. FW

[@ChrisTurnerPhotographer]

Hey man. When I’m using flash I use manual everything and if I’m using fast sync shutter speed I’ll turn front curtain off also. Just keep it simple no problems :)

[@subirthapa8542]

Hi Does the Electronic Shutter work with Speedlite on camera on the A9 ?

[@arcticdesertlife]

Great video! learned a lot even after having my sony for 5 years

[@markshirley01]

Thanks I've got a great way to set up the A73 much appreciated. PS - I shoot manual but with auto iso - I find auto iso and auto wb on Nikons to be excellent.

[@CaseyGibson]

Thanks for this. The focus tracking and shutter limit with ISO were a great help for me!

[@jessdonovan-maddox1914]

Awesome video Chris, I've set mine a bit diffrent from yours, but learnt heaps from this! I didn't know how to set the auto shutter speed so thanks for that. I used to shoot manual only but after your workshop I decided to give AV it a ago and it great works well for me! Thanks 😁 and loving my sony!

[@MC50000]

Fantastic video!!!!!!! Thank you so much for sharing your settings with us! 👍🏼😊😊😊

[@MusicGalaxyy]

dude u weed? hahaha

[@LarryGasque]

My A7III was supposed to be here today but got pushed until tomorrow 😩😩😩, I already have the 85mm 1.8 ready for it

[@ChrisTurnerPhotographer]

You’ll love it.

[@claudiocabezas1461]

Quick question. How do you get the A7iii to focus on multiple faces for a group photo in wedding? Can you help?

[@reempire888]

Use lower aperture setting (higher number) to get more in depth focus? Probably works better on a tripod.

[@thesteve121]

Just so that you're aware, setting the 'Finder Frame Rate' to high will slightly lower the resolution of the viewfinder - easy way to see this is to set a large aperture, focus on something with lots of small details (a book/article for example) and switch between the two modes while looking through the viewfinder. It's not a huge difference but it's there.

[@ChrisTurnerPhotographer]

Thanks Steve your right I tried it out

[@jordenyoung4024]

Awesome, thats a super clever way to set it up and shoot.

[@Blue172]

Thanks Chris, I've just switched from Nikon FX this video helped me loads.

[@ChrisTurnerPhotographer]

Awesome that’s great, thanks :)

[@paulm8157]

👍Useful info, well presented. When shooting in manual focus, with creative style of B&W, wouldn’t a peaking color other than white (i.e., red or yellow) be easier to see?

[@ChrisTurnerPhotographer]

Yep

[@mostynswain9050]

Just tried your ss setting in aperture mode during engagement shoot... done mock walk down aisle nearly every shot nailed.. thanks.

[@albertprabowo7195]

Hi Chris, thank u for the tips and trick how to set camera setting, just wondering last time i shot wedding event and i set the camera on white balance set to awb-white, but why i got difference color temperature if i shoot difference angle but in the same location (in door at church) and the light is only 1 natural window light (sun), is that something that i missing here? I used sony a7riv, thanks in advance..

[@ChrisTurnerPhotographer]

Sometimes they just freak out. If the light isn’t changing just lock the white balance manually

[@albertprabowo7195]

Thank u for ur reply.. Sorry i’m new user of Sony, what do u mean by lock the white balance manually? Do u mean by using white balance in Kelvin mode? Thank u before

[@Time_and_time_again]

Quick question re shutter speed... Why is it important to set the minimum 250? If i leave on auto and it drops below, how would it affect the picture? Just learning :)

[@ChrisTurnerPhotographer]

Hand held bellow 1/250th you’ll probably get motion blur depending on what your shooting. 250 is comfortable for me. You might be ok with 1/125 or something but bellow that you’ll definitely get blur

[@Time_and_time_again]

@@ChrisTurnerPhotographer fantastic thanks for the reply and that makes total sense to me 👍

[@Time_and_time_again]

One more question if you don't mind. I've been keeping my aperture low at 1.8 as I love the bokeh. I've been thinking about shots with more than one person in. Would I need to up the aperture to get everyone in good focus?

[@ChrisTurnerPhotographer]

Alan Williams depends. If they are all in a line it would be fine, look up videos on the plain of focus or depth of field etc, it’s hard for me to describe haha. But yeah. Just need to be all on the same plain of focus and then you’ll be fine. Think about it as how “deep” you need the focus to be

[@Time_and_time_again]

@@ChrisTurnerPhotographer brilliant thanks Chris. Yes I will research that as it's something I need to get my head around still 🙂

[@PaulBuysImagery]

Great video Chris! Completely agree in relation to Min SS. Keep up the good work

[@desertbornproductions]

Great Video. Thanks!! I just had a nightmare switching from Canon to Sony and shooting a paid event and half my images were out of focus. Should have practiced more. One question regarding shooting on low light on a dance floor. How does this sound, aperture priority (f2.8), 250 shutter, iso 100-12800 (with either a9 or a7iii-good low light cameras) and Godox V1S set to ETTL? Or would manual work better here with flash?

[@ChrisTurnerPhotographer]

I’d use manual with flash always. Manual camera manual flash, set it and forget it

[@desertbornproductions]

@@ChrisTurnerPhotographer yeah ok that's what I've been doing. Never worked with AP priority but will give it a go. I think f2.8, iso approx 6400 with wide lens should be good for dance floor in low light with on camera flash

[@chermontro]

@@ChrisTurnerPhotographer Wonder if you can explain "set it and forget it" please. (No idea if or when you'll receive this Chris, will take a wild stab in the dark.. I'm setting up my a73 with your settings. I'm not sure if everything that's saved for aperture priority will carry over to M mode, or are they completely different?

[@jessv.9354]

Thank you SO SO much for this!

[@Apaolino21]

Great tips. Thank you for this! Any specific reason why you use e-front curtain shutter? Not sure if you're aware, but it does affect the out of focus area (bokeh) Happy New Year!

[@ChrisTurnerPhotographer]

Yeah cause it’s quieter. I have seen the KZbin videos of the bokeh being affected but honestly it’s so minimal I really don’t care. Probably just me lol I’d rather it be quieter

[@Apaolino21]

Chris Turner That’s what I figured. Appreciate your input on this! Thanks again.

[@baomusic8193]

dude you high? hahaha kidding nice content!

[@ChrisTurnerPhotographer]

👽

[@joepetjakedelgado899]

your setting is in priority mode?

[@stlmills911]

Thanks for the detailed explanation!

[@rafaelmoneo9235]

Pole position

[@__thejugeuts6270]

SETINGS.... lol You're great tho.

[@ChrisTurnerPhotographer]

Oops lol

[@MrSnooooze]

Cheers Bro!

[@chris_eschner]

Don’t you go in silent mode at all?

[@ChrisTurnerPhotographer]

Hardly ever. Maybe if it’s a real quiet church or something

[@ВасилийНестеров-п9ь]

Chris, tell me, please what L-plate do you use?

[@ChrisTurnerPhotographer]

I have one of the RRS brackets and I also have a cheap copy on the other camera. Brand is Gabele

[@ВасилийНестеров-п9ь]

@@ChrisTurnerPhotographer Thanks! will be my pinky extender

[@tykimikk8605]

then i find it counter productive if you shoot half of it in manual. or you most of the time need or want to shoot manual. then why do it in auto?

[@ChrisTurnerPhotographer]

When did I say I shoot half of it in manual.

[@tykimikk8605]

@@ChrisTurnerPhotographer you just said a ton of scenarios you use manual. basically you only shoot A on wedding preps. you shoot manual on ceremonies like you said cause light doesn't change and or because you use flash, then receptions cause lighting on parties is all over the place and also use flash. so i assume that's half of it. since you shoot manual on ceremonies give or take and manual on receptions and when you use flash. which i assume you use lighting specially on studio shoots you go manual. ive would have believed it feasible if you shoot it 90% of the time. even with flash since you can go S outdoors with strobes. or even A when you go HSS. the fact you didnt tell in the vid that you can go A all the way even with flash and you said you use manual when you use flash, i think then why use auto? discuss in the vid how to use flash using auto too then it will be "half on manual"

[@ChrisTurnerPhotographer]

I use AV pretty much all day, I use manual IF the lighting is stable inside a church maybe, I hardly ever use flash in a reception, in reality I’d use AV probably 95% of a normal weddings day. Your something I said and stretching it out to fit your own story. Shoot however you want, no one said you have to shoot like I do.

[@shermanyungphotography9063]

Thanks so much for your videos! As wedding photographer myself, learn a lot from your focus mode settings.

[@dieseldavey]

Hi how do you get just the larger grey box "not focusing box" instead of the grid display Thanks

[@chrisjollylikestofilm]

You made this same exact video before. I’m so confused .

[@jointspecialist]

Another informative, and useful video. I am not new to Sony, but it’s always interesting to me to see how professional users have their camera set up. Thanks for explaining the Auto WB with White. I’ve been hearing for years to use Kelvin, but I always found that time consuming when trying to shoot an event. Why do you prefer back button focus vs focus with shutter button? Can you show us an example? Regarding picture profiles: I’m torn between using them or not. I’d like to get as much dynamic range as possible, but color grading can be a pain in the butt. Interested to see how you use the picture profiles and see your workflow when shooting video.

[@ChrisTurnerPhotographer]

Kelvin is good I use that also when I want to be really specific. Here’s my guide to back button. kzbin.info/www/bejne/rou8d6xmq7ZrqtU And yeah picture profiles are great but it takes a lot of learning to grade them for sure. I’ll be releasing my LUTs soon for SLOG2

[@jointspecialist]

Chris Turner Thanks! Looking forward to more great content!