Panasonic LX5 recommended settings for everyday (and night) use

Aurelius

New Member
Hello all,

I'm new to this forum (and fairly new to this whole world of more serious photography and compacts). I recently got the LX5 and love it overall. Still trying to figure out settings and how to get the best use of it.

I'm wondering, any recommendations for settings for everyday use? I'm interested in mainly sticking with JPEGs mainly for it being easier. I've been using iA mode and P mode some, interested in your thoughts on Contrast, NR, EV, other settings you might have modified.

Also, one specific question...I've had some trouble with portraits my wife and our kids kind of having a very soft look almost like too much makeup. I read somewhere this was a common occurrence on iA mode. Any recommendations on best settings to make sure this doesn't occur and get the best results shooting shots of people?

Thanks in advance for the thoughts!
 
Aurelius, I wish I could help you out with some everyday settings but I pretty much shoot Aperture preferred changing my ISO (think film speed) as needed. I have never tried the IA mode but suspect it's giving too much of what might be a good thing to those photos.

Perhaps one of our other LX5 members can offer some help with in camera settings, but you might want to consider getting a feel for the camera's controls such as aperture, shutter speed, f stop, ev compensation, etc. For starters, I'd suggest taking a look in this forum: Photography Techniques where you'll find some very handy threads. This one in particular would probably be a great starting place: w.seriouscompacts.com/f12/learning-how-expose-properly-basics-644/

Please feel free to add your own questions here, over in that Photography Techniques forum or anywhere else. I apologize for such a delayed response - it's been a busy time of year. I hope to hear more from you and it would be wonderful if you'd like to share some of your LX5 photos with us, as well.
 
I was given the DVD 'Travelling Light' by the landscape photographer Charlie Waite for Christmas, in which he takes some compact cameras out on a shoot. One of then is an LX3 and it is clearly his personal camera (signs of wear, accessories etc.) rather than one bought for the exercise.

There are lots of shots of the screen taken while he is composing images so it is possible to see some of his settings. What I did notice is that he shoots RAW+Jpeg and uses sunny or cloudy WB and the NA or 'Nature' film mode. I have now changed my default film mode from STD to NA!

In case you are interested, the other cameras he used were the TZ7 and the GH1 with the 45-200mm zoom. He also took along the Pana waterproof compact, but gave that to others to shoot with rather than used it himself. While all the cameras were Panasonics, no mention of the brand is made in the film and there is not credit to the firm - I guess they declined to sponsor him, which was a stupid mistake.

Best,

Tom
 
Or perhaps its a stealth sponsorship - they don't want it to be too obvious that he's using Pany's because they're paying him to? I have no idea one way or the other, but I wouldn't doubt it for a minute...

-Ray
 
Stealth marketing! I hadn't thought of that.

Anyway, he clearly likes his LX3 and whenever there isn't a reason to use one of the others, it is back in his hand.

Tom
 
Thanks for the replies! That's very interesting about Charlie Waite, I'll have to try that out. BBW, it's clear I need to start using P and the A and/or S modes and get more comfortable changing those settings. I'm still new to this world but I'm already fascinated so hopefully I'll have the opportunity to learn a lot more.

I kind of was able to answer my own question regarding oversaturation in portraits, I wanted to post my findings here in case anyone else is wondering about the same thing. In iA mode, sometimes when shooting people it automatically switches to "Portrait" mode (indicated with the small image of a woman in the upper-left of the screen). In the LX5 manual, it states regarding Portrait mode: "this mode allows you to improve the appearance of the persons concerned and make their skin tones look healthier." In other words, apparently it makes their skin tones look like they have too much makeup / oversaturated.

Sure enough, I went back and looked at all the family pictures I was unhappy with and they were all iA mode where it had selected Portrait. Now that I"m shooting primarily in P mode I don't have this issue anymore! Whew. Still a lot I have to learn but at least this one issue is out of the way.

Any other suggestions on settings I'm happy to hear!
 
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