BC Rigg - Thanks for the positive feedback 😀

Same!

Wish Tony Northrop would look at Mark's videos as a template of how to teach viewers, rather than ramble, often for a hour +

agree. The DRO one was new for me and I thought I had read all the tips/tricks I could on the Sony systems! Marks vids are always priceless

All of Mark's videos should be required watching for ALL types of shooters. He is very well spoken, easy to understand and his pace is perfect so you arent lost. Excellent channel and one of my favorite pros, regardless of brands

Thanks for your positive feedback :-)

At least twice, lol 😆

Check out my website as well as all the support info is free: www.markgaler.com

Same here as well lol

Welcome to the Sony mirrorless world. I still shoot Canon and Sony but 95% is with my Sony gear Once you go mirrorless you will never go back

The optimum exposure for any landscape image is the brightest exposure that does not overexpose the highlights - we expose for the highlights and process for the shadows. If we are working to this principle (called Expose To The Right or ETTR) then using DRO to only view shadow detail that you will again see after processing will never lead to underexposure. It would only lead to underexposure if you were gauging the appropriate exposure on the shadow values of a JPEG preview.

Jens-Chr Strandos did u need to get a hot-shoe converter?

Jonathan Radin - the best exposure for landscape is the one just before the highlights clip (overexpose) - a high DRO setting is just for seeing what is in the shadows on the LCD and EVF when the contrast is extreme and would otherwise be black on the monitor. This detail can then only be made visible when shooting in Raw if the shadows slider is raised very high e.g. +80. I recommend always reviewing a test landscape image after capture to assess if the exposure can be made brighter before clipping occurs. This can be viewed by checking for blinkies (flashing highlights) in the display view that also shows the histograms.

Glad it helped!

Rob Timpe - Thanks for the positive feedback. On my www.markgaler.com website there are links outlining Training and Talks 😀

I plan to make a portrait and an action settings movie next.

Here is his similar vid for Street Photography: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/sLagmM9-qJ2ZnKs.html&ab_channel=MarkGaler%27sAlphaCreativeSkills and here is the one for Portraits: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/sLagmM9-qJ2ZnKs.html&ab_channel=MarkGaler%27sAlphaCreativeSkills

Not in the next 4-6 weeks. My free A9 eBook (available from my website) covers most (95%) of the menus.

You can overwrite the memory at any time so long as you go to the menu to save the changes.

All my settings are outlined in my camera specific eBooks. Available to download at Patreon.com/markgaler

As a I shoot mostly at f/11 on these ultra wide-angle lenses an f/2.8 aperture is not a priority. If the f/2.8 aperture comes at a price of doubling the weight of the zoom I would choose the f/4 (so long as it performs well at f/11). The Sony's 4/12-24 I tested is half the weight of the Nikkor 2.8/14-24 although the FE 2.8/16-35 GM is not that heavy for a f/2.8 zoom. When weight is a primary consideration I travel with my Batis 2.8/18 prime. This has the advantage of being even smaller and lighter than the f/4 zoom and will take screw-on filters instead of a square filter kit that attaches to the lens hood. The Batis 18 also does a good job of stars when used wide open, if it were needed. The only down-side of the Batis 18 is that it is 18 and not 16. If space was at a real premium I even have a manual focus Voigtlander 15mm with a maximum aperture of f/4.5 - the only down-side of the Voigtlander is the lack of filters available for this lens.

if you are going to do Milky Way you WILL need f2.8 or faster but otherwise even a f4 or f5.6 lens can do a good job for landscapes since most of the time you will be at f8 to f16 to get max sharpness and/or max depth of field

They wouldn't betook different to my landscape settings. I would use the FE 12-24 G and keep the ISO at 100 to achieve maximum dynamic range.

Thanks for the reply Mark! Really appreciate it, have a nice day.

fantomfoto - it is an option but there is no vibration from the mechanical shutter on the current and previous models.

Good to know, I just got my A7R3 last week, have only shot in the field once with it but looking forward to doing some long exposure photos over the next week or so.

Marc M240 - Pressing the joystick in centres the variable spot. It shouldn’t move again until you move it with the joystick with the touch screen disabled. My spot never defaults to top left.

I have just completed one - check out my channel

leon leon - I wouldn’t set up the camera as per this movie. Find a good wide aperture lens that is sharp wide open (f/2.8 or wider). Use the longest exposure time before the stars start to streak and the minimum ISO that will give you the correct exposure. Don’t focus on infinity as it rarely renders the stars sharp - use the magnify view and focus on the brightest star in the sky. Don’t use the DRO optimiser (as outlined in this movie) when it is dark. This is a high contrast aid and not to be used at night. You will find lots more useful advice over at www.lonelyspeck.com

Mark Galer's Alpha Creative Skills tks for your suggestions 👍🏻

No need to peel off the Sony one if it is not damaged.

The dynamic range of the sensor is sufficient in 99% of situations - shadows may appear very dark in the unprocessed Raw file but this is the best sensor for shadow recovery (along with the sensor in the Nikon D850 - which Sony also makes). If I wanted to expose the foreground shadows a little lighter in camera I would consider using a graduated neutral density filter that would allow me to raise the exposure by 2 stops in camera without overexposing the highlights.

Thank you for getting back to me

You might want to check out my hyperfocal distance movie on KZfaq

I rarely need to bracket with these full frame sensors and if I did have to I would capture in Raw and Merge to HDR in Lightroom.

Combining two screw-in filters can sometimes present problems with shading the corners of the image. It depends on how wide the focal length is and how slim the filters are.

@@AlphaCreativeSkills Thank you Mark, I need to test under real conditions to be able to choose the filters for my photos and video.

The info in this movie is still current as the changes to Eye AF don’t have any impact on this workflow. I will be sure to update movies when changes do impact on the workflows outlines in the eBook. I recently had to update Action Settings movies for A9 users when the recent firmware did change the workflow.

Mark Galer's Alpha Creative Skills Ok, great. Thank you Mark.

MeFOTO DayTrip and Bexin M225S

kzfaq.info/get/bejne/arSWpNGF3da4f40.html

There is no short answer to this question.

Junaid Kureshi - it should all make sense when you can see the settings on your own camera

There was a recall on a batch of 24-105 G lenses. If you lens is affected, images are soft when AF-S is used but sharp when AF-C is selected. I suspect your lens may be in this batch.

Mark Galer's Alpha Creative Skills Thanks for getting back I got a recent one end of May.

Just the histogram and the jpeg

Sometimes it is easier to dial in the hyperfocal distance of the lens you are using rather than use AF - check out my Landscape Masterclass video tutorial.

Michael Kelso - you will need to make sure Lightroom is up to date (running a recent version of ACR).

For the A6500 - 25p 50M (PAL) will be the highest quality in XAVC HD - there is relatively higher compression on the other options (the higher the number after the 25p or 50p means there is less compression - higher quality). All the movie options have to 'downscale' the movie files from the full 6K resolution of the sensor. The downsampling that leaves the best quality is to shoot in 4K in Super 35 mode as there is no pixel-binning when this happens, i.e. the camera reads every pixel of the sensor rather than rippling lines. This choice will lead to the sharpest movie files.

ok thanks very much for the info... very useful ;)

or a zoom lens would be good as well, just not too expensive... I think many people here do not have the money to throw out 2k+...

The 15mm Voigtlander is excellent but it’s fixed lens hood making the use of filters problematic. You could look at the primes from Laowa.

@@AlphaCreativeSkills thank you!

as mucg as I know, the A7R3 has a few additional features, like the pixel shift, and a bigger sensor. Apart from that, the settings look the same on the a73

The menu systems are just about identical.

When you select Manual Ficus and turn the Focus Ring on a Sony Lens you will see a distance readout in the Finder and on the Monitor.

The GM has been tested by many reviewers as an excellent lens - one of the best ultra wide-angle zoom lens ever made. If you are experiencing soft corners when the lens is stopped down I would want to get the lens checked to make sure that you do not have a 'decentered' copy (rare but it does happen). If you have purchased this lens from a good camera dealer I am sure they will be more than happy to swap it for a different one - alternatively you should contact Sony and see what they can suggest.

The best on offer at the moment is to use the 'Reg Cust Shoot Set' feature - when you set up a Custom key to pick up to 10 saved settings you can override the settings in the memory on the Shoot Mode dial for as long as you keep the custom key pressed. I have a movie on my channel that outlines this feature.

I don't have a problem with noise reduction switched off if the exposures are less than 30 seconds. For exposures longer than 30 seconds you need to switch it back on or use a technique called 'dark frame subtraction' in Photoshop. Long Exposure noise reduction takes a second exposure with the shutter closed to see where the warm pixels are in the image. It must make an exposure equal in time to your actual exposure. This can be annoying if the camera is locking you out from taking another image when the light is just right. The advantage of doing dark frame subtraction is that you have to take just one long exposure with the lens cap on. This image can serve as the dark frame for all the other long exposure images you capture.

Mark Galer's Alpha Creative Skills thank you very much

Thanks for the positive feedback. Apart from the Memory Recall options (using the Shoot Mode dial on the top of the camera) there is also the option to register groups of settings and recall them by holding down a custom button - there is a movie that covers this in this series of movies. You cannot however assign specific settings the the PASM options. Additional saved settings can also be saved to the M1 - M4 options but these are temporary and are deleted when the memory card is reformatted. It is, however, possible to save these settings to your computer and put them back on the card after the card has been formatted.

Thanks very much for the reply. If I understand correctly the settings saved to M1-M4 on the SD card can only be imported back into the memory slots 1,2 or 3 and not into the "generic" settings that are used with the PASM modes.

Steve Jarrell - Correct

Thank you very much Mark. Your videos have been extremely helpful in setting up my A7RII, and they will make setting my A7III up much easier when it arrives. Your videos are such a refreshing change from the "talking heads" videos where the person is simply repeating what anyone can read in the sales literature. THANKS!

I tend to use DRO and Zebras 109+ Lower Limit as outlined my 500-page eBook for the A7RlV- go to www.Patreon.com/markgaler

www.markgaler.com/whats-marks-bag

I will open the Aperture to f/11 if I'd dint need the depth of field down to 1 meter. You are splitting hairs between f/8 and f/11.

Yah I prefer f11 for most of my landscape shots I just know some lens perform better at certain f stops, so you make a good point

Chris each lens has a "sweet spot" and you have to decide if you want the image to have the MAX image sharpness (which is one f stop) or maximum Depth of Field (which is another f stop). Usually the middle f stop between the max and min f stops on any lens is the best setting for sharpness and 2 stops below max f stop (down from f22 or 32) will get the best DoF without the diffraction, which is usually f11 or f16 on most lenses. You can check out DxO Mark site to find the charts and details specs for all/most lenses out there to see at what setting each lens is best