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February Q&A Forum (Patreon)

Published:
2022-01-31 17:01:03
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

Please ask all of your photography questions during the month of February 2022 using this forum.

PLEASE NOTE > Questions asked via the Patreon Message service will only be answered by my Admin Staff.

For camera-specific forums please click on one of the following links:

The forum image was captured at dawn at the Old Turn Canal Junction in Birmingham, UK using the A7IV and FE 20mm F1.8 G. 1/25 second at f/10, ISO 100

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Comments

Yitshak Meshulam

Hello Mark, Being aSony Imaging Ambassador surely you have some influence over the decisions of the man in charge of developing new features for Sony cameras. I would greatly appreciate it if you could pass it on request for focus stacking feature which is available in other manufacturers without the need for additional Hardware. Thanks

Mark Galer
>>78680950

I flew to Japan in early 2019 at my own expense and outlined many features to the firmware engineers that would be beneficial to Alpha users (including focus stacking and also automated hyperfocal distance acquisition). The only feature I have seen to date that I outlined is the CAMSET feature.

Steven Dawes

Hi Mark , not sure if you use Topaz denoise as part of your workflow but if so at what stage do you use it ? read many conflicting views with some saying right at the start before you do any adjustments or cropping and others saying after cropping and all basic adjustments ?

Jonny Gios

Mark - have you used the A7 iv with astrophotography - what were the best settings you found please

Mark Galer
>>78691044

Topaz DeNoise AI is featured in the eBooks and is part of my workflow. When I first started using Topaze DeNoise AI I found it good, but slow. So I completed my editing in Lightroom, exported a 4K image and then applied the noise reduction to this JPEG. The latest version of DeNoise is much faster on my M1 Mac so I am now exporting a 6K images from Lightroom and applying the noise reduction on these higher resolution exports.

Mark Galer
>>78697803

The Astro Settings are outlined in the A7IV eBook. You will find a listing in the Contents section. This is followed by a workflow chart that outlines my approach to Astro. I live in a very large city with extensive light pollution so I don't do a lot of Astro as I would need to drive for nearly 2 hours for clear night skies (the edge of the suburbs is an hour away). I last did Astro when I reviewed the FE 14mm F1.8 GM. I used the the A7C for this (as the lens predates the release of the A7IV).

Per Ola Kimblad

Hi Mark, regarding back-up of Lightroom raw files, apart from the RAID disks, do you have an additional backup off-site, such as in a cloud service? If so, which one do you recommend?

John Clarke

Mark - this is not a question but a thank you. Over the last few weeks I have asked you lots of questions about various cameras, and lenses, in trying to reach a decision on what camera to go for, in upgrading from my old A7ii. You have given me lots of useful information, including some that Sony doesn't seem to make available even in their online manuals. This has been crucial in helping me towards a decision. Your systematic approach to how to get the best out of Sony cameras, has also helped me with my even older Panasonic camera gear, as I have tried to set them up as closely as possible to Sony settings. I still use Panasonic for certain things, despite their limitations, as I have wanted to concentrate on Sony for full frame photography. So thanks again Mark. This Patreon service is superb. Your generosity in making so many educational videos available for free is incredible, and will, I am sure, tempt more people to your Patreon service. Very Best Wishes John Clarke

Mark Galer
>>78743826

I also back up my most highly rated files to Adobe's Creative Cloud by Exporting DNG files from Classic and then Importing them in the desktop version of Lightroom CC. I increased the storage of CC to 1TB. I also upload 4K or 6K resolution edited files (JPEGs) to my Flickr Pro Account. Flickr Pro does not decrease the resolution or overly compress the files so they appear as folio quality on this platform. I also use Dropbox and Google Drive Cloud services.

Mark Galer
>>78772514

Thanks for the positive feedback John. I will continue to strive to offer the best learning resources and timely feedback to help shine some light on some of the complex issues with modern photographic technologies. Hopefully this will help Patrons master the craft of photography.

Luc Schoonjans

Hi Mark - This is more of an observation rather than a question. I usually have Anti-dust Function activated (Shutter when Power Off set to ON). The goal of course being to keep dust at bay as much as possible. Since changing lenses can bring dust on the sensor, especially from the back of the lens, I used to use a blower on the back of the lens and a little bit on the shutter curtains as well. This time around, while using the blower, I could see the curtains moving. Holy Molly. It scared the hell out of me. I did read the curtains are lighter and more fragile in the A1 design but I didn't expect this. Hence, I am now turning this feature off when changing lenses. Still blowing the back of the lens and the sensor (no the shutter curtains anymore), hoping that I didn't inadvertently already created minor damage on the shutter mechanism. Luc

Mark Galer
>>78782201

The blades of a shutter curtain are very thin. Sony is particularly worried about users leaving them exposed to direct sunlight for prolonged periods of time where the curtains could warp and then become entangled when next operated. I am blowing the back of the lenses but not the shutter curtains. I would imagine it would be difficult to twist the blades with the air from a rocket blower but I would advise against this type of cleaning. I think once twisted the shutter would fail on the very first image capture so if yours is still functioning now I doubt any damage has already been caused.

Steve Caprarola

Hi Mark, I'm going to be in Disney World later this week and am interested in taking images using my a7IV at night without flash. Lots of places in the park are very well lit but I'm curious as to your suggestions for settings that will give me the best results. Thanks in advance!

Steve Caprarola

Mark, I should have been more specific with my question above relating to night photos in Disney. The subject of most of my photos will be the people I'm with and the various places in the park as background.

Jeff Atchison

HELP. Has anyone successfully installed the Peak Desi8gn Anchors on the A7IV without a metal ring?

Mark Galer
>>78855852

The Peak Design anchors have two different thicknesses. The newer anchors have much thinner cords than the older type so are needed to go through the holes on the camera. I think the holes on the A7IV are also smaller as the metal triangles don't rattle around like they did on previous models. This should make threading the peak design cords through the holes challenging.

Mark Galer
>>78821356

I would work the environment and try to use what little lighting there is to illuminate the people. The lighting that will be particularly useful is lighting from street level windows rather than overhead lamps. If you are able to move people towards the light you should be able to keep the ISO levels down. The closer you move them to the light source the lower the ISO. I would plan on using wide aperture primes (f/1.8 or wider) as this will also serve to keep the ISO down and make focusing easier. If you do need to stop the aperture down you will find focus is a little easier in AF-S mode rather than AF-C as the aperture of the lens will open monetarily to assist focus in low light. This does of course mean that your subject must be still so you would need cooperation from the people being photographed. If you have their cooperation and they know they need to be still you can also lower your shutter speed to lower the ISO. At events where I don't ask people to be still I start with a shutter speed of 1/250 second but if I have asked people to be still I can drop this to 1/60 second or slower. When using a wide-angle focal length you may find you can hold shutter speeds of 1/15 second or slower. One of the advantages of using a wide aperture prime for night shots is that if you position pinpoint light sources in the background you will capture some nice bokeh balls when working at maximum aperture. Another tip I can give you for photographing at night is to lower your Finder and Monitor brightness. I normally have these set to +2 for daytime shooting but would lower these to 0 or minus 1 for nighttime shooting (if you have the brightness set too high the images will appear underexposed when you import them into Lightroom if you had not also been monitoring the histogram and zebras). I would still be using Zebras but you must accept any lights that appear inside of the frame will be clipped (overexposed). I would take along a tripod for the landscape shots. If you start with my 3 memory on the Shoot mode dial just change the ISO to 100 and use the timer-delay or a remote to fire the shots. If the exposures are long I would have High ISO noise reduction turned to On and SteadyShot turned to off. You will need to remember to turn it back on if you are hand-holding exposures less than 1/60 second.

Steven Dawes

Hi Mark , enjoyed your recent review of the 20mm 1.8G lens and you said in many ways it is favourable to the 24mm 1.4 GM , can you elaborate please as I am looking to purchase a fast wide prime lens to try some astro photography . I was all set on the 24mm 1.4 until I read your review and comments and now wonder if the cost saving going for the 20 mm is a better option particularly following your review ?

Mark Galer
>>79519181

I always suspected the 20 G was outperforming the 24 GM but having Roger from lensrentals confirm this via the MTF charts was good to hear. When he says "the lack of astigmatism and lateral color is more awesome" this makes it a prime candidate for those wanting to shoot Astro. After posting my Review to YouTube several of the comments were from Astro photographers who rated the lens highly. Having a wider angle of view to the 24 is also a good thing for most astro photographers.