Jim-Pops Loc: Granbury, Texas

Last couple of days I've been going over my camera setting and updating my firmware. As I did I "Reset the camera settings" messing up a bunch of stuff. Finally got it all back with a few improvements. Got out all my lenses and fine tuned them to my camera, never did that before. Once done I saw several fine focus improvements. I did this to each of my cameras.
Yesterday I saw my Z50 setting next to the orchid plant on the dinning room table. I didn't look at any of the settings but just took a shot. Was so surprised to see how nice it looked with the background coming out totally black. Once in a while you just accidentally get one of those shots that make you smile and think why at times it seems like such an effort. Only edit was to brighten about a 1/2 stop.

BTW I just now checked the Z50 camera settings.
50-250mm lens set to 140mm
Aperture priority f/6.3
1/250 sec
ISO 2200

(Download)

srg

nice

magnetoman Loc: Purbeck, Dorset, UK

That worked very nicely Jim, accidental can obviously be good at times!

NJFrank Loc: New Jersey

Very nice results. Sometimes lucky is better than good.

Yep!

DaveO Loc: Northeast CT

You might think about copying your settings onto a card and if need be you can use it as a back-up in case they are "disturbed" unintentionally or otherwise.

Jim-Pops Loc: Granbury, Texas

Yes I intend to do that.

R.G. Loc: Scotland

Failures make us wary and willing to make extra effort when needed, but then again, where effort is concerned it's definitely possible to have too much of a good thing. My acute awareness of that fact has led me to develop a mind-set where I seek out the simplest methods that produce the results that I'm looking for. As an added bonus, "simple" usually means "less distracting", which in turn means you are free to concentrate on the stuff that really matters. Another added bonus is that when you have a handle on simple but effective techniques you're in a good position to be a good teacher. As an added, added bonus, simple usually means easy to assimilate, understand and remember, which is just what learners are looking for (and need).

....which leads on to my simplified approach to camera settings:-

Where depth of field is concerned, the f-stop needs to be high enough - but not any higher than it needs to be.

Where motion blur and/or camera shake are concerned, the shutter speed needs to be fast enough - but not any faster than it needs to be.

If both of those conditions are met you will automatically have the lowest ISO value that will give you an acceptable capture. If ISO has bottomed out and the exposure is still too high, the usual answer is to reduce the exposure by increasing shutter speed. There may be circumstances where increasing shutter speed comes with a penalty, but I can't think of any such circumstances off the top of my head (except, of course, in the case of long exposure shots).

None of that addresses the need for such things as exposure compensation and the like, but those are added complications that can be tackled further along the learning curve.

DaveO Loc: Northeast CT

I'm not going to elaborate on how I got so smart.

Jim-Pops Loc: Granbury, Texas

I have a pretty good guess.🤣

Jim-Pops Loc: Granbury, Texas

Thanks for responding R.G.

Jim-Pops Loc: Granbury, Texas

Thanks Dave.

Rab-Eye Loc: Indiana

Wisdom comes from experience. Experience comes from bad decisions.

DaveO Loc: Northeast CT

UTMike Loc: South Jordan, UT

Beautiful!

ebrunner Loc: New Jersey Shore

The background makes the shot. Well done.
Erich