SANParks.org Forums

Going to the KTP for 10 days next week and I do not want to shoot in RAW. Can someone please recommend the best picture style and settings I can use to get the best sharpness and contrast in my photos.

No RAW? Oh well....

Best settings depend on the situation of course. But rule of thumb is 100 ISO, 1/125 and f/16 for landscapes.
Shooting wildlife you should go to f/8, maybe f/5.6 depending on your lens. (Widest opening at full zoom plus one stop.)

With Lightroom you can edit jpeg files as well.

Joubie. I will probably see you there as I am there for 9 days from the 24th. Regarding the picture style, I always shoot in RAW as this gives you the best opportunity to recover any iamges, you may have shot in the glaring mid day sun or with the reflective sand blowing the whites. If you do not want to shoot in RAW, then its JPEG with a Standard setting. Not sure this helps you at all, but enjoy and don't shoot all the cats before we get there I agree with the settings proposed byDuQues above.

@Touareg. We are arriving in KTP on the 25/3.
Twee Riviern 25/3
Nossob 26,27,28,29
Mata Mata 30,31,1,2
I usually shoot in JPEG and RAW but my laptop with Photoshop on, the hard drive crashed and needs to be replaced.
I usually use standard picture style with the settings Sharpness 6, Contrast +3, Saturation +2, Colour tone 0. Just worried that it's a tad over and I can't fix afterwards.

@DuQues I usually use the setting you recommended.

I always shoot in RAW and large jpeg. That gives me the ability to use the large good quality jpgs for general quick viewing etc and I have the RAW files if I want to do recovery etc.

As for settings, as mentioned wildlife normally benefits from large apertures, so you can blur the background and get fast shutter speeds to limit shake. Set your ISO as low as possible but at a setting that will give you decent shutter speeds. Most modern camera deliver very good quality pics at the higher ISOs.

Some other advice is to play around with your camera so you know what it can and cant do, before you go so you don't get any nasty surprises.
Get a bean bag.

and most of all enjoy!!

Joubie. We arrive 24 Mar TR, then MM on 25, 26/27 in Urikaruus then 28/29/30 Nossob and Urikaruus on 31.

See you there..but not before my Addo weekend this weekend. Flying down on Saturday am into the rain Hopefully I will have sunshine on Sunday.

I possibly have a "more advanced" camera, but I always shoot RAW. And RAW only. I don see a need for jpeg, it only eats up space and I almost never use them.
For lets us call it "incidents" in the parks, where people go into the wrong, there is a very handy button on my camera, which forces it to take the next photo in RAW and jpeg. I have a USB card reader with me. Then the reception at the nearest camp can download the jpeg of the offender, and fine him. That is the only time I shoot jpeg.

But then again, I have one (or two) portable harddisks with me, like these: http://www.nextodi.com/product/eXtreme_en.html with 500 GB disks in them.
So if a photo takes up 30 MB or 5 MB doesn't really bother me. I just don't like the camera to make choices for me.

But again, space is an issue, when you get back and are confident you will be able to process all your photos in a month, grab Lightroom: http://www.adobe.com/go/EN_US_D_FP_11_T
You can download a 30-day trial, perfectly working, and it will adjust your jpeg photos too. Without altering the originals!

Just been on a beginners' DSLR course and the setting I liked best for picture style was the landscape one. From there I played around a little with saturation and contrast to get the colours to "pop" a little more. Having said I am in the UK and the light here is very different to the light I see in SA. I'd put it into landscape and play from there.

Have a fab time!

Thanks for the replies. I think I'm going to have to play around this weekend and see which settings I will be the happiest with.

@Touareg. Enjoy your visit to my backyard (Addo)

On our last two sunday morning drives we saw caracal within 5 - 10km's from the Colchester Gate Entrance. The first sighting was a mum with two cubs and the second was a beautiful male both sightings were cut short though by oncoming cars.

Be very careful with that! In reality you can only do that on a calibrated screen, or you will pop them into oblivion.
I never use it, even on the calibrated screen.