Hey Y'all! How's your week going? This week I want to talk about Custom Camera Modes/Settings. Do you even know what they are? We have the modes that are standard with our Camera's. M, S, A, P, (Manual, Shutter Priority, Aperture Priority, Program Mode. )  But the custom ones are the modes that you create. They are usually on the same dial as the MSAP settings and usually are designated as simple as 1 and 2. They are not the scene modes that some camera's have for different types of scenes that are shot in JPEG. These are custom settings or modes that you set up for different types of photography. These can come in very handy when your out and about shooting. Have you ever been out shooting and a special situation comes up and you miss the shot because you were fumbling with the settings on your camera and missed the shot? Say your out on a landscape shoot and all of the sudden a bear shows up in your scene and you want to get some great shot of that bear. If you have one of these modes set up for wildlife photography all you have to do is click to the correct number and bam you have all of the settings 22814418_10210727646164222_1824769434837060805_n you use in wildlife like maybe a higher shutter speed , continuous auto focusing or whatever you want. This is a fantastic way to travel knowing that your camera is set up for anything that comes up in a hurry. 

I have two main cameras. I have a full frame and a crop sensor and I use one camera for certain things and the other for other stuff. I use the custom settings to quickly go into a different style of photography without trying to find all of the settings in a menu. For example I have one of the custom settings on my full frame camera set up for Night Sky Photography.  I have a the camera in Manual exposure mode. I have the shutter set to 20 sec. I have the shutter on a 2 sec delay to eliminate shake. I have the ISO set to 2000 to start with. I have all of these things preset so I don't have to fight to find all of those little settings that take forever to find in the menus when we look for them. On my crop sensor camera I have set up for street photography. I have it set to Aperture Priority, Raw + JPEG set on Monochrome. That way the back screen is in monochrome like I like when I'm shooting street. I have it in Auto ISO.  All the settings I like for street photography and I just have to make one click to get them. So now you know what custom Mode/Settings are how do you set them?

I shoot a Sony and I'm sure its different for other types of camera's you just have to look at your manual or look at a Video on how to do it. For me I set my camera up the way I want it for the custom setting. Like for street I'm in Aperture Priority, Raw + Jpeg, Auto ISO all of the settings I like. Then I go in the menu and _MSP3848 find Memory (this will differ with your camera I'm sure) and set the memory 1 to my settings by pushing the "set"  button and Everything is put to the 1 on my Mode dial. On my camera there is also ways you can save settings to the SD card so if you use the same SD card you could have up to 8 different modes. The problem with these SD card modes is that when you format your card they are gone. So for me they are useless. So I just stick with the two main ones on the Mode Dial of my Cameras. It is just that simple. So you can simply switch from one mode to the other mode without changing  or hunting for all of the different types of menus items.

Custom Settings/Modes can come in very handy and you don't have to buy anything,  its already in your camera you just have to learn how to use it and use the full extent of your camera. So until next week get your camera out and set up those modes so you'll be ready for that next shot. Get outside and shoot!