pebbles Loc: New England

Some time ago I read an article in a photo magazine about” being ready”. Although it was in the days of film photography I believe it is still pertinent today and I still I continue to put it in practice – well most of the time. In summary it suggest that you keep your camera’s control settings set so that if a situation comes along you are able to grab your camera quickly and capture the moment before it disappears without making any setting adjustments.
What does this really mean? For me it means that before I return my camera to its case, I preset the controls to Aperture Priority, F8, ASA 200. These becomes my default settings. These settings pretty much follows the “sunny 16” rule and should capture most typical outside shots much like a point and shoot camera. Once you take that first spontaneous shot then you could make those setting adjustments if necessary for a second shot if the opportunity exists.
There is a second benefit of having a default setting. I don’t know about you but I’ve ruined shots because I had left my camera’s settings in some un-typical mode like -2EV or white balance set to tungsten and so now everyone looks like a Smurf. That’s when I smack my forehead and say. “Didn’t follow the rule.”
I’m curious to see if any of you have such practices and are willing to share them.

St3v3M Loc: 35,000 feet

Batteries charges, memory cards downloaded, settings ready, camera in hand.

Tom47 Loc: Gettysburg, PA

Just set the camera to Auto with a 24 - 70, 18 - 300, 70 - 300 which is my favorite lens or any lens that you prefer. This works to grab a quick shot.

CatMarley Loc: North Carolina

Every time I stop shooting anything I reset to auto everything and make sure there is a memory card inside. Then if I have to grab, i'm only in trouble if the battery is dead. It works most of the time.

JCam Loc: MD Eastern Shore

I do the same thing but with a shutter priority at about 1/250 and ISO 400, and keep the 18-135mm lens on the camera .

zigipha Loc: north nj

ASA? wow, haven't seen that in years...
ASA 200 = DIN 24!

RedAdmiral Loc: Humboldt County, California

Being a "Macronut" I keep my camera set in "Manual, 1/500th sec, F8, auto ISO. A lot of what I do is merely documenting a certain bug being in a certain place on a certain day. This way I can "get the shot" recording all the necessaries in metadata. Once, having acquired all that, I step closer, adjust settings to what I hope is appropriate (usually dropping the exposure time down to 1/60, or slower) , and take another shot, step closer, etc. until the bug either vacates the area or I get my fill of close up shots at varying angles.

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

Pebbles, I don't have any such settings. Assuming we are using a dslr, if I where going to leave my camera on a versatile setting, I would leave it on AUTO.
Auto will work well 90% of time, 90% of the time.
If you then have time, change to whatever you think will work better, if indeed, even anything will!! :lol:
SS

cntry Loc: Colorado

LOL! Nah, never done that...I meant for that beautiful sunset that I jogged a block to get a clear shot of to be noisy as he**. :x Had the ISO cranked for something I was trying to shoot the evening before. There was no saving those pictures...did I learn? Nope...if I were to check it right now, the exposure is probably turned up because I was taking pictures of birds at the bird feeder - near dusk, under the porch. BTW - those bird shots look good, LOL!

But I think I'll go check my camera right now... ;)

lighthouse Loc: No Fixed Abode

I have never taken a brilliant shot where I went from not having a camera in my hand, to having to absolutely run and grab it, and shoot now.
Not only have I never taken that shot, I don't believe the situation has ever happened to me at all.
You aren't going to be able to do that with a quality shot.
Now, unless that shot is Nessie, or Saquatch, or a Tasmanian Tiger or genuine UFO with little blue men looking out the window, then really, there is not much value in such a rush/grab record shot anyway.
For news photogs and war photogs its a different matter.
But for your average Joe it is irrelevant.
So the situation is basically a myth. It ain't gonna happen.
Any articles supporting it are basically just filler, just fluff.

Yeh sure, I might race and grab the camera when eagles fly over the house, or a honeyeater sits on the native trees, or there is a nice sunset all of a sudden, but its not a shot that I will be kicking myself forever if I miss not having my settings already exactly set right.
How long does it take to set shutter, ISO, aperture.
10 secs at most. It takes longer than that to put the right lens on. Maybe we should all buy Sigma 50-500mm lenses to leave on the camera when not in use?

I'm a landscape photographer.
I can take hours, days, years to set up a shot (waiting time included), or I can take 2 minutes.
Photography is a relaxed thoughtful process, not a "smash and grab" event.

Having said all that, fully recharged batteries, empty card, base ISO, and AWB are usually how my camera sits between shoots.

wj cody Loc: springfield illinois

you're are abolutely correct. that way you can avoid learning anything - that's the great thing about digital image making!!

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

jw, of course you will learn. You will learn that you will get the shot 90% of the time, 90% of the time!!
Ever seen those two ungodly poor shots of Big Foot and Nessie??
Wanna know how those were done??!!
Those two guys had their cameras on manual on sunny 16, just for emergencies just like that!
Had that been me, we'd have REAL proof!! :-) :lol: :lol:
SS

lighthouse Loc: No Fixed Abode

The bigfoot shots were film footage of some guy in a suit so they had plenty of time to dial in their settings to make sure they were obscure enough.
And the famous Nessie shot was done in post work from a dinosaur drawing.