The Big Lie about Camera Settings

[@sarahxoxoo_tinkerbells]

i find it so helpful. normally its really hard for me to listen to all the tech knowledge but since i found your channel 3 hours ago, you've made it more easy for me to follow you and highlight the important stuff in my head

[@dan_s_higginson]

Loving your work, Luke. I'd ignore people telling you how to do your job. Personally, after about 15 years of manual shooting, I switched to aperture priority for most of the day. Someone far wiser told me, "imagine spending that much on a camera and not trusting it." What an epiphany! I've set a minimum shutter speed (1/250) and an ISO range, and I ride exposure compensation. Sure, I'd have more control in manual, but the camera can react to extreme changes in the scene way faster than me. More than five years later, if I'm walking through the doors of a church on a bright day, I can focus on framing and not tripping over without a pause in shooting. I'll use shutter priority for fast moments, and manual is reserved only for when I'm using flash. I've found freeing up the brain space I was using to simultaneously adjust ISO, white balance, shutter speed, and aperture has made it far easier to time and frame my photos and improved the quality of my work. And that's all our couples care about; they don't care how you do it. As you say, "correct" is a range. Shooting in manual clearly works for you, Luke. The fact is, your work is good, and if people's first concern is the settings you used instead of whether or not they like the photo, then haven't they sort of missed the point?

[@AlexCreative2k]

Love your work, Luke, but your recent video on wedding videography was hard to watch and felt contradictory, some points I think was good but overall it was bad. Couples hire both a photographer and a videographer for a reason-each has a role in creating an amazing final product. In your video, it seemed like you positioned yourself as the primary person capturing the day, overlooking the videography team. You also questioned why videographers need multiple people or cameras and criticized them for taking certain shots. While those may not be crucial for stills, they’re essential for video. As the photographer, it’s important to collaborate with the videographers, plan together, and ensure you’re both on the same page, rather than sidelining them to do things your way.

[@vimalneha]

A consistent look in the photographs of an event is the most useful aspect of having high ISO. Consistency is the most important aspect for me. In indoor photography, in my opinion, one should start with ISO-800. I also prefer the manual mode, not because it looks impressive, but because it gives one good control. Again, liked your points.

[@jerrym8140]

Great points. I’ll also use a little higher ISO when using flash and or certain modifiers too. Like you mentioned, maybe it’s because I don’t want that flash look and want it to look more natural so you use brighter camera settings and lower flash power. Sometimes the flash your using just isn’t powerful enough to get several burst out of when using higher power settings especially full power, so you raise your iso so you can lower your flash power too to get the same results. I have the Westscott optical spot, it sucks up a lot of flash power so I’ll use high iso so my flash doesn’t have to work so hard and can get more burst between shots too. Great video!

[@btswilliam]

As a professional, the correct settings are the settings that enable you to get the shot. The ideal settings for one person might be different to another due to shooting styles and gear (newer cameras can handle high iso without a problem, some have IBIS or lens IS so you can shoot 1/30 or even lower). Some ceremony venues might not allow you to use flash so you'll have to crank up the ISO while staying at the back with a 70-200mm 2.8. As Luke says in the video, a wedding day is so dynamic with so many scenarios (which is one of the things I love) that focusing too much on the "perfect" settings will often mean you miss the candid special moments. 99.9% of your clients won't care that you took a shot at 3200 ISO instead of 800.

[@lukewtcleland]

Thanks for your comment and for watching!

[@btswilliam]

@@lukewtcleland Thank you Luke for making a video on this topic! Some really valuable lessons here 🙏🙏

[@marthadaza7733]

Thanks, great information...

[@flol3266]

It is just about knowing when you should rely on your camera and when you should not. Each camera is different, but most of the are just damn good with high ISO nowadays. There are only some occasions where you want to have some creative freedom and need the manual mode. But when you never go out from aperture priority, you will miss out something as well as always choosing manual mode.

[@joetrent4753]

People who are overly concerned about someone else’s settings really need to get out more. It’s always interesting hearing from other photographers but we should spend our time and energy focusing on ourselves, nit what other people are doing.

[@JR-ro5kv]

Interesting topic, thanks for sharing. Not sure which camera(s) you used for the example photos, but I think you’ve switched to the Z6ii which seems to more or less iso invariant from base iso to about 1600 or so which you could take advantage of and not really affect image quality.

[@SylviaDalsylviaspace]

Could you make a video sharing what your settings are for tint and white balance in camera? Also what settings do you have for portrait mode in camera? Do you change any of those sharpness values etc to achieve your style?

[@AbsurdistVoyager]

Thanks you for the dreat video. I tend to use aperture priority, with auto iso and a minimum shutter speed. Could you please elaborate on why would manual setting be a more favorable approach for weddings? I use AE lock if metering is not what i want. Thanks in advance.

[@autumnagrella1425]

This is so interesting to me. You can set up dials on your camera for all three settings so you should have no issue adjusting on the fly…but if it works for you!

[@julietmagee7567]

Super helpful - thanks Luke

[@lukewtcleland]

Glad it was helpful! Thanks for watching!

[@barbm7645]

Well sad. Thank you.

[@ipb1966]

The bit I don’t understand about shooting on manual is that you’re still twiddling shutter and aperture to get the right exposure. How is that better than shooting in aperture priority and then for what are likely to be exceptional cases, using exposure compensation?

[@nicokremers7150]

Because exposure compensation does not change your exposure. what? Yes. It only changes your ISO!

[@ottarjenssen832]

Very true. I have always found if funny when photographers post their settings. It makes them look like a rookie when I've known this lie all my career. Like, teach people why. No one will ever be able to get the same results of another photogs camera settings.

[@jvonemolap0921]

Is it safe to just use Aperture priority or manual but with auto iso? I shoot most of my events and weddings with aperture priority and never had any complain from my clients.

[@jamesmcghie9612]

What are your thoughts on using auto iso? Limited to 2000. This may save some of the pressure in getting the 'perfect' photo.

[@jillschindel2832]

Auto ISO definitely has its place but Luke does have a point that with white dresses and bright settings often associated with weddings you bump into the issue of the camera's metering decisions when it selects that ISO. If it ends up that you have to crank the exposure comp dial, you may as well be spinning your shutter speed or ISO dial instead.

[@Marcus-kv7ou]

I once shot half the wedding day with exposure comp -2 and I could save it in post.

[@arifberkahjaya]

Thank you

[@neelsfer]

My Canon R5 has saved me numerous times ,😅when the settings are not 100%

[@joelkuhn5704]

Your settings definitely could have been better in the first three examples. Just because there was a lot going on, you were scrambling and switching between different lighting conditions doesn’t mean your settings couldn’t have been objectively better.

[@howleemi1]

I didn't feel like he was trying to justify his non-ideal settings but rather the opposite. He acknowledged the settings could have been different but the desire to capture something rapid-fire without ruining the spontaneity and asking the subject to pause to tweak ISO or re-do a moment means that sometimes you just roll with what you have. If you caught the moment with nice composition, the image is sharp, the noise isn't running the shot, and the subject is in focus, i'd say it is a win in wedding photography!

[@joelkuhn5704]

@@howleemi1 He acknowledged the settings could have been different, but I think that it's important to acknowledge could have been objectively better, and it's very possible to be able to change your ISO in the moment without asking for a re-do of the moment.

[@tobiahtayo5149]

09:50 - thats why although I can shoot manual all day, I love Aperture priority with auto iso just makes so much sense. Not sure why everyone gets down on it. When I have seconds make a mistake its always because they could'nt change settings either quickly enough or they forget and just increase the shutter speed going from inside to outside etc.

[@joetrent4753]

I would never criticise anyone who uses aperture priority. It certainly works for a lot of people. For me and the way I shoot, I just prefer manual as it allows me to dial in the precise settings I want, often in tricky situations where aperture priority might chose something different. There is no right or wrong and at the end of the day it’s the end results that matter, not what shooting mode the individual prefers to use.

[@lepham2011]

You can use aperture priority mode to get the same or better results as manual mode but much quicker. You can just adjust is exposure compensation and let the camera calculate the other parameters. The machine will calculate much faster and more optimizer than people.

[@SylviaDalsylviaspace]

Could you make a video sharing what your settings are for tint and white balance in camera? Also what settings do you have for portrait mode in camera? Do you change any of those sharpness values etc to achieve your style?