A6000 tips for shooting Greek islands( lots of white)

hey all

am about to embark on a trip to the Greek islands. I want to obviously capture a lot of beautiful pics lots of white buildings, blue skies and water etc.

i am taking my good old a6000 with me. I am by no means a pro photographer I literally just shoot when on holidays with a few prime lenses( or the kit one) I tend to use Av mode a lot or else P occasionally.

i do want to get some nice pics without having to go into the “scene” mode for beach and snow. I know that’s a far easier way. But I also know that a lot of white in an image can throw things out. I know I need to play around with my “ white balance” custom setting and I have watched a few videos. Do I need to get the white balance cards or can I just set it off the white buildings or anything white? I also know you can do a lot post production etc by I don’t really have time for this. I just want to capture great pics that aren’t washed out. I also know I need to consider pattern metering and spot metering in this insyance

thanks for any advice regarding the cards, are they needed or should I just set it off the buildings or anything white?

thabks

Maybe this is basic, but keep the sun behind you. Don’t shoot into the sun.

I feel empathy with your troubles of comprehending or knowing how to take pics with a camera.

How is your cell phone working, that is my only and best advice. ...

In difficult light situations it is best to use raw. That gives one the widest latitude to repair one's failures. Otherwise the camera is boss. It sets its auto white balance - which you ought to set to your own taste once and go from there. It selects the exposure and that is a good start. Experts might try to reduce or add to the camera's exposure, but they need to be experts and shoot in raw, or the images will turn out suboptimal ...

Of course in the end PP skills do matter. Do you have any? Jpegs are often suboptimal ...

I might just suggest that in pics of white houses in the full sun you lower exposure by 2/3 of a stop and otherwise treat the camera as you would a cell phone: just let it do its magic and do not interfere. You need to practice at home, but you did not think about that and now it is too late to become the expert that you aspire to be. So my empathy ...

Enable the zebra striping over exposure warning and adjust the exposure so that there are no zebra stripes. If that results in an overall dark image and if you are shooting RAW you can usually fix it in post. However, if you over expose parts of the image and exceed the maximum white value, that cannot be fixed in post.

If you anticipate a lot of bright white in A mode, consider iAuto(+) instead - it will switch to SCN/landscape mode when needed.

In A mode, don't worry about white balance in daytime shoots, just give the camera a few seconds to adjust (longer at nighttime)

Set metering to wide area mode, and dial the exposure down by at least 1/3rd or even a full stop to protect the highlights.

Alternatively, you can use spot metering, and expose for the highlights (ETTR), but this method will require you to use Exposure hold and then refocus/use auto-focus while refraining the image. Doable, but not natural.

You could also set up a Custom mode, but I am guessing that you won't need it. In a snowy landscape, I would consider it.

Also, shoot in RAW+JPG mode. This will allow you to easily adjust the white balance in post, and adjust for under exposure. By protecting the highlights you can recover or adjust almost every scene.

Shoot with the sun behind your 3 o'clock to 9 o'clock positions. If you can't, consider using the HDR mode - this is a JPG only mode, so also take a regular (RAW) image.

Always shoot two or three images at a time, and prune in post all images that are not right, you will be satifisfied with the remainder.

Parkesy said:

hey all

am about to embark on a trip to the Greek islands. I want to obviously capture a lot of beautiful pics lots of white buildings, blue skies and water etc.

i am taking my good old a6000 with me. I am by no means a pro photographer I literally just shoot when on holidays with a few prime lenses( or the kit one) I tend to use Av mode a lot or else P occasionally.

i do want to get some nice pics without having to go into the “scene” mode for beach and snow. I know that’s a far easier way. But I also know that a lot of white in an image can throw things out. I know I need to play around with my “ white balance” custom setting and I have watched a few videos. Do I need to get the white balance cards or can I just set it off the white buildings or anything white? I also know you can do a lot post production etc by I don’t really have time for this. I just want to capture great pics that aren’t washed out. I also know I need to consider pattern metering and spot metering in this insyance

thanks for any advice regarding the cards, are they needed or should I just set it off the buildings or anything white?

thabks

Click to expand...

QP Card QP101

I agree with all of the previous posts but I will add to use exposure compensation. If you use exposure compensation it will help you by taking multiple shots at different exposures and you will be allowed to pick the best one.

Also, I would set my white balance off of a building and shoot in RAW for easy correction in post, if needed. I would also shot stopped down to about f/11 in the daytime. Consider using a polarizer as well. If you use a polarizer you may not need to stop down as much and the pictures could potentially come out beautifully.

Finally, I do not know where you live or when you leave but I would go somewhere in broad daylight and practice before leaving.

I much prefer using "blinkies" to using "zebra stripes" for still photography. The blinkies show you were the whites are blown out on the actual image when you review it just after making the photo. I find it a lot easier to see a few blinkies than trying to sort out the zebra stripes before taking an image. But try both before you leave home and see which you prefer.

If you decide to use blinkies, if you are shooting jpeg, adjust your exposure compensation to eliminate all blinkies, but if you are shooting in Raw, you should have a few blinkies to expose your images to the right.

Custom white balance set every time there is no need.
On the bright sun and the exposure compensation by the pictogram quickly get tired of turning.
The most convenient for such conditions is Dynamic Range Optimizer: in the meaning of Lv2

I've just got back from Santorini (a Greek island, with lots of white buildings in the sun). photos in my flickr link.

I used a Fuji to take my photos, but if you do decide to shoot in AV, my one tip would be to stay on top your exposure. Because of the cloud coverage, sun, and how bright the buildings are, the brightness of the scene changes all the time. make sure to make the relevant exposure compensation adjustments.

if you can, i really think full manual mode works best for this purpose however.

All the suggestions about adjusting the exposure by some guestimated amount seem unnecessary.... that is what your camera and its exposure metering and overexposure warnings are for. Compose the shot, observe blinkies or zebra stripes, adjust so the brightest area is not overexposed and your're done, right? Neat and precise. Unless you need to adjust the relationship between shutter speed and f stop, adjusting the EV so the brightest area is not over exposed should be all you need to capture the full range without clipping the highlights. Am I missing something?

What ever advice you take from the other posters, I would also suggest using a Circ. polaroid filter.

blue_skies said:

If you anticipate a lot of bright white in A mode, consider iAuto(+) instead - it will switch to SCN/landscape mode when needed.

In A mode, don't worry about white balance in daytime shoots, just give the camera a few seconds to adjust (longer at nighttime)

Set metering to wide area mode, and dial the exposure down by at least 1/3rd or even a full stop to protect the highlights.

Alternatively, you can use spot metering, and expose for the highlights (ETTR), but this method will require you to use Exposure hold and then refocus/use auto-focus while refraining the image. Doable, but not natural.

You could also set up a Custom mode, but I am guessing that you won't need it. In a snowy landscape, I would consider it.

Also, shoot in RAW+JPG mode. This will allow you to easily adjust the white balance in post, and adjust for under exposure. By protecting the highlights you can recover or adjust almost every scene.

Shoot with the sun behind your 3 o'clock to 9 o'clock positions. If you can't, consider using the HDR mode - this is a JPG only mode, so also take a regular (RAW) image.

Always shoot two or three images at a time, and prune in post all images that are not right, you will be satifisfied with the remainder.

Click to expand...

Generally good advice, but IMHO "expose for the highlights" is the opposite of ETTR (expose for the shadow, and rebalance in PPS).

https://ehabphotography.com/how-to-expose-for-highlights/

I'd also consider JPG in Landscape or Vivid, with Contrast -2 during the harsh light; DRO does a great job on auto, even better after setting a Level for your typical conditions. I wouldn't bother with the auto HDR (waste of shots unless one is willing to PPS home), it's often not much better than DRO (albeit vastly different in theory).

Same here! I'm leaving for Santorini (and then Mykonos and Athens) on Tuesday!! Can't wait!

As everyone has suggested, my goal is to make sure my images are not over-exposed, which actually might not be as difficult as one thinks since there camera naturally should/could be compensating for all the white it will be seeing.

But no matter what the mode i shoot in, I'll use the preview so I can see the histogram or (or Zebra's when shooting video) to ensure things aren't over exposed and adjust exposure compensation as needed.

I definitely plan to shoot RAW ,. (maybe RAW+JPEG)., that is mandatory.

And just maybe, if I've got time, and see a shot that I really want to get the most of out of, I'll use exposure bracketing for possibly doing HDR stuff later on.

But the one other thing I plan to do is ... put the cameras down and soak in the scenery.

photoholiko said:

What ever advice you take from the other posters, I would also suggest using a Circ. polaroid filter.

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.. don't think they make polaroid filters, but def thinking of bringing one of my Circ polarizers, just not sure for which lens I'll use it on

One thing I have relied on throughout my time using digital cameras is to shoot like we used to with slide film. Even though today's sensors are dramatically better with dynamic range than they used to be, the still tend to behave more like slide film than negative film.

Just like with slide film, once it's done, it's done. And that affects the highlights more than the shadows. I routinely keep my a6000 set with a -⅓ EV exposure compensation to keep highlights from blowing out. The camera's metering system does a pretty good job of calculating proper exposures, but that little bit of adjustment usually makes the difference between keeping and losing the bright highlights.

Thanks for all the tips

More than happy to shoot in Raw if needed. Although I’ve never used it before but pretty keen to give it a go and use Lightroom when I get home to play around

I’m in Santorini right now. I got my a6400 as travel camera and this is my 1st trip with Sony.

If you are taking photos from mid-morning thru mid-afternoon, don’t expect great photos, regardless of your exposure. Scenes look great in person, but not in photos (flat and “boring”). Try to shoot during golden hours, and overexposure won’t be a concern.

In bright mid-day sun, using matrix or evaluative metering (Or whatever Sony calls it) with white buildings and sky or sea, can get some overexposure. You can use center meter mode on white buildings, or evaluative zoomed in on white building, and use AE lock.

To be safe, use bracketing. Like 3 photos with 0.5 or 0.7 exposure delta. You can review your photos on LCD and check for clipping (bright flashing areas). Don’t rely on histogram, as that is for general exposure and won’t tell you if there are clipped areas.

Bring a mini tripod for night photography of the towns.

In Oia, there are people everywhere, so will be hard to get a photo without another tourist head in your frame. ;-) Have fun.

--
Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/jimmyk-photo/

Jimmy K. said:

I’m in Santorini right now. I got my a6400 as travel camera and this is my 1st trip with Sony.

If you are taking photos from mid-morning thru mid-afternoon, don’t expect great photos, regardless of your exposure. Scenes look great in person, but not in photos (flat and “boring”). Try to shoot during golden hours, and overexposure won’t be a concern.

In bright mid-day sun, using matrix or evaluative metering (Or whatever Sony calls it) with white buildings and sky or sea, can get some overexposure. You can use center meter mode on white buildings, or evaluative zoomed in on white building, and use AE lock.

To be safe, use bracketing. Like 3 photos with 0.5 or 0.7 exposure delta. You can review your photos on LCD and check for clipping (bright flashing areas). Don’t rely on histogram, as that is for general exposure and won’t tell you if there are clipped areas.

Bring a mini tripod for night photography of the towns.

In Oia, there are people everywhere, so will be hard to get a photo without another tourist head in your frame. ;-) Have fun.

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Thanks so kindly good advice taken on board I should really look into the mini tripod I didn’t even think about that

D00M said:

Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/jimmyk-photo/

Click to expand...

Parkesy said:

Thanks for all the tips

More than happy to shoot in Raw if needed. Although I’ve never used it before but pretty keen to give it a go and use Lightroom when I get home to play around

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In that case, I'd suggest shooting in Raw+Jpeg mode. Keep in mind that it will require more memory (a raw file is usually 25MB, and the jpg is around 10MB), but this will allow you to fix a lot of errors.

One thing you can't fix though, is overexposure (or underexposure), as a few have pointed out. The first step is understanding that there can be a lot of "correct" exposures for the same scene. Even the camera will have three different versions of "correct" depending on the exposure mode you've chosen. Or maybe "correct" means no blown out areas. Or maybe "correct" means let the bright stuff blow out so long as the darker stuff is not just all black.

The key is figuring out how your camera can tell you about exposure in all areas of a scene. I use "zebras" while setting up a shot, and I also look at "blinkies" after. So figure out what these words mean and how you can use them to help. Ask more questions here if you want.

Lastly, when the sun is high, it can be especially harsh in these lighter environments. Make use of golden and blue hours. But also get some harsh, nearly blown out shots (think "high key"), because you'll also want shots of how the place really looked to you during those times of day. [Oops, just saw Jimmy K. covered this last point.]