Hi everyone! I just bought my first camera (Sony XR100 VII), and I would like to thank veresdenialex for introducing me to the realm of possibilities unlocked by Sony Film Simulations.
As a beginner in photography, I have some basic questions that I believe others could benefit from:
How can I better understand the recipes map? What is the difference between soft and hard recipes?
How do I determine which recipe to use in different situations? I understand that there is no one-size-fits-all solution, but having more examples (e.g., with YouTube shorts) of different types of photography (portrait, landscape, street photography, etc.) that convey different emotions (nostalgia, hope, etc.) would be helpful.
How should I set the exposure (ISO, shutter speed, and aperture)? Should I start with the lowest ISO and then adjust the shutter speed and aperture?
My photos taken in the evening are always of poor quality and appear grainy (I was using AUTOISO). Is there a way to improve them?
Thank you all in advance!
Cheers.
Hei there Thomas, welcome to the forum, and thanks for your questions!
Soft contrast means, low contrast, meaning flat with high dynamic range. While Hard tonality means increased contrast, crushed black and highlights, very punchy images with a strong character and less dynamic range.
This very much depends on your style of shooting. So even if I give you my suggestions, they might be on your preferences. I highly recommend check the Blog Area, where I've managed to showcase most of the film simulations with sample photos. From there you can see the kind of mood, colors & contrast you will get with each of these film simulations and choose on your liking. Each film simulation can be used for multiple subjects, depending on the style and colors you like. There is no rule that one film simulations must be used only with portraits or landscape and so on, each film simulation can be used for multiple subjects, depending on the style and colors you like. One easy way to choose is to think about standard looks. For example Sony has different creative styles, (landscape, portrait, neutral, and so on) landscape is very saturated and high in contrast, portrait has soft contrast and subtle saturation for enhanced skin tones. Now apply the same logic with the Film Simulation Chart, with Hard-Soft tonalities, and Low or High Saturation. Choose based on your preference and experiment with multiple film simulations until you find a couple favorites.
You need to learn how to expose, but as a general guide, don't raise your shutter speed and ISO more than is unnecessary, it will only degrade your images. You want the lowest ISO and shutter speed possible without underexposing and without getting motion blur (unless you want that), so you get the cleanest image possible. Open/close the aperture depending on how much bokeh you'd like in your images or how much light you need to hit your sensor. The lower the f number (f1.8) the wider the aperture, the more bokeh (shallow depth of field), the more light you let in, the fewer things in focus will be, resulting in brighter, less noisy images. The higher the F number, more things in focus, sharper images, less light hitting the sensor which might result in noisier images darker images.
The RX100 VII has a 1-inch sensor with a f2.8-f5.6 lens, in low-light situations it's going to be grainy pretty much no matter what you do, but at least don't use auto ISO, take control of your camera settings. Nighttime with my RX100 VI I usually go with 1/25 shutter speed, I don't go over 1600 ISO, and I try to be steady handed to reduce the shake and motion blur. This will let more light to hit the sensor and reduce the grain induced by high ISO's, but finally, the rx100 is not a lowlight beast, it's best used daytime, so not much to do about that. You can also use your little flash the rx100 comes with if you like flash style photography.