While you’re traveling, you might vary any number of major camera settings which control exposure metering, focus, or shutter mode. By the end of the day, your settings may be significantly different than when the day began.
The next morning, it’s likely you won’t remember how the camera’s settings were left at the end of the prior day. That can result in “priceless” photographs which need extensive retouching and repair, totally blown shots which can only be discarded, and “once in a lifetime” shots missed all together.
At some point this happens to most everyone, but it’s completely avoidable.
A young woman from New Zealand, emailed me this past summer. She had been taking fireworks photos in New York. She used manual focus, following my suggestion. They turned out great, but the next morning she took several dozen photos in Central Park before realizing she was still in manual focus. Her morning photographs were too blurry to salvage.
Not long ago, a friend on an Alaska cruise, asked if I knew of software which could salvage some of his Denali photos. One evening he experimented with available light photography. His ISO setting was 1600. The next morning, before he realized it, he had taken many Denali photos with the same high ISO setting of 1600. The photos were awful; extremely noisy (grainy). Fortunately, he will be able to substantially fix them with Photoshop, but they won’t be a good if he had used an ISO of 100.
The way to avoid problems like those is very easy, but it takes discipline. You’ve got to go through a Pre-Shoot Checklist every morning.
You’ll need to develop your own Pre-Shoot Checklist, as every camera is different. You want your checklist to help you reset your camera’s settings to start off each shoot with your preferred settings, so that every setting is as you expect it to be. You don’t want any surprises which could kill a great photograph.
This is my Pre-Shoot Checklist for my DSLR, which you can use as the foundation for your own (some of these settings may have no meaning for you and your camera):
• Check the batteries — You want to know how much capacity is left in them. You don’t want to be surprised while shooting.
• Check to make sure there is a memory card in the camera and how much room it has left in it — You don’t want to be in the middle of shooting an event, and have to swap memory cards, only to miss a great photographic opportunity while you’re fiddling with your camera.
• Check the ISO setting — I try to keep my ISO setting as low as possible to produce photographs with the highest quality possible. My starting point is set to 100 ISO.
• Check the Quality (RAW-JPG– and any sub settings) settings — I rarely change this setting, but there are a few circumstances for which I do. I start the day in RAW, the highest quality setting for my DSLR.
• Check the White Balance setting — This is a setting I change often to accommodate the lighting conditions at the time. I start with white balance set to automatic, in case a photographic opportunity arises quickly, with no time to carefully set it. That way my white balance will be close enough that I can use Photoshop to fine tune it.
• Check the Metering mode (Matrix, Spot, (I never use Center)) — Having the meter behaving differently than you expect can make it difficult to get the right exposure for your photograph.
• Check the EV (Exposure Value) to make sure it’s at its standard setting which for me is -0.3 — My meter generally needs to be dialed down a notch, but during the course of the day, I may alter my EV setting according to conditions.
• Check the Focus mode (Single, Continuous, Manual) — Having focus set to manual, while you think it’s in an auto focus mode, is the most typical problem causing the first shots of the day to be ruined.
• Check the Auto Focus Area (Single, Group Dynamic (I don’t use the other settings)) — I start my focus area as a single focus.
• Check the Shutter Mode (Single vs. Continuous) — I start in single mode.
• Check the Camera Mode (Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, Manual (I don’t use the other modes)) — I start with aperture priority.
Each night I make sure I offload my photos, then format my memory cards, and recharge all batteries so they all have a full charge. Each day I make sure I have my extra memory cards and spare batteries.
Ned Levi is a long time professional photographer with a passion for wildlife and travel photography. You can view some of Ned’s travel and other photos at NSL Photography™ or get more travel photography advice at the NSL Photography Blog™.
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Let me add another one to the list, since I got it from Ned in the first place.
Take a clear picture of a white or light colored blank flat surface to make sure no specs of dust or other elements have found their way inside during a lens change.
Speaking as the Alaska cruiser above, the ISO issue was a lot easier to manage than editing out a really annoying black speck on every picture…
Thanks Jeff. I’m going to have an upcoming column on dust, dirt, and filth detection for DSLR’s and what to do about it.
I totally agree with all suggestions except reformatting the memory card every night. I’m more paranoid about my computer than my memory card, so I make sure to have plenty of cards and only reformat when I’ve run out of room on all of them, being sure to recycle the first one used first. Also, I try to keep those additional memory cards in a separate place in case my camera bag is stolen, then I don’t lose my photos.