Tip: In Camera Settings

I felt led to share some tips that have greatly helped me in the beginning stages of my photography journey. So, here's my first photography tip! Woo-hoo!

To get beautiful, warm, and vivid colors straight out of your camera (SOOC), I would encourage newbie photographers to look into utilizing the custom "optimized image" settings on their camera. Since I own a Nikon, I will share my current settings from my D40. Canon and other users, I would suggest googling "in camera settings" for your particular model and see what you find. The DPS forum should also have some great posts on this for a wide variety of camera models.

Keep in mind, these settings may still have to be adjusted a bit depending on what you're photographing (especially when it comes to low light), but this is a great starter point. I learned about the following setting through a member in a SOOC Flickr group I belong to. He also was a D40 user.

• Color Mode IIIa (sRGB)
• Saturation: HardSharpening: 2
• Contrast: AutoWhite Balance:
• Auto -1 (for a warmer tone)
• Exposure Compensation: Right around +0.3 or -0.3, depending on the light

This setting has worked beautifully for me. The above photos are examples of this setting and are SOOC -- no post editing at all. They were all taken indoors. Ken Rockwell's custom settings are great as well! I used his settings when I first bought my camera.

I hope many find this tip helpful! Enjoy! :)