Fixing Exposures with Histograms
While you can often recover poorly exposed photos in your image editor, your best bet is to arrive at the correct exposure in the camera, minimizing the tweaks that you have to make in post-processing. However, you can't always judge exposure just by viewing the image on your Alpha's LCD after the shot is made. Nor can you get a 100-percent accurately exposed picture by using the Alpha's Live View feature. Ambient light may make the LCD difficult to see, and the brightness level you've set can...
What Lenses Can Do for You
A saner approach to expanding your lens collection is to consider what each of your options can do for you and then choosing the type of lens that will really boost your creative opportunities. Here's a general guide to the sort of capabilities you can gain by adding a lens to your repertoire. Wider perspective. Your 18-55mm f 3.5-5.6 lens has served you well for moderate wide-angle shots. Now you find your back is up against a wall and you can't take a step backwards to take in more subject...
Setting a Custom White Balance
Setting a custom white balance expressly for the scene you want to shoot may be the most accurate way of getting the right color balance. It's easy to do with the Sony Alpha DSLR-A390 A290. Just follow these steps 1. Press the Fn button, and then use the controller up down left right keys to navigate to the White Balance menu selection. Press the center controller button to produce the White Balance menu. 2. Scroll down the list of white balance options until the Custom entry is highlighted....
Exploring UltraFast Exposures
Fast shutter speeds stop action because they capture only a tiny slice of time. Electronic flash also freezes motion by virtue of its extremely short duration as brief as 1 50,000th second or less. The Sony Alpha A390 A290 dSLRs have a top shutter speed of 1 4,000th second and their built-in flash units can give you these ultra-quick glimpses of moving subjects. An external flash, such as one of the Sony HVL-series strobes, offers even more versatility. You can read more about using electronic...
Pixel Mapping Alpha A390 Only
Options Remap, Cancel Default None Sometimes good pixels go bad. Sometimes they're just made that way. We're talking here about the pixels on the Alpha's LCD screen, not sensor pixels. You're not likely to notice these errant pixels as you take photos, except when using Live View. You can reduce their effect by remapping the pixels shown on the LCD, so your Alpha will ignore them during display. Select this option and let your camera go to work, removing the bad pixels. This feature is not...
Auto Off w VF
The Sony Alpha's Eye-Start sensors automatically turn off the LCD display when you bring the camera to your eye assuming you're not using Live View when working with the A390 . If you'd rather have the LCD on all the time, you could always disable Eye-Start AF as described earlier in this section , but that might be throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Instead, just set this menu item to Off, and your LCD display will remain even when you're looking through the viewfinder, and Eye-Start AF...
Flash Compensation
Options Flash compensation from 2 to 2 f stops Default 0 This works like exposure compensation discussed in Chapter 4 , and allows you to dial in more or less exposure when using the flash. If your photo such as a test shot is too dark or too light, access this menu entry. Press the left right controller keys to reduce or increase flash exposure then press the center controller button to confirm your choice. If you've made a flash compensation adjustment, the amount of your compensation will be...
Info Qfd
Getting Started with Your Sony Alpha DSLR-A390 A290 I once read a camera guide that began with the author advising the Gentle Reader to resist the temptation to go out and take pictures until the proper amount of time had been spent Setting Up The Camera, apparently to avoid wasting electrons on shots that were doomed to failure if the arcane operational knowledge that was forthcoming wasn't first absorbed. What universe was he from Relax I fully expect that you took several hundred or a...
Contents
Getting Started with Your Sony Alpha DSLR-A390 A290_1 Differences Between the A390 and A290 Models 2 Your Out-of-Box Initial Battery Final Formatting a Memory Selecting a Shooting Choosing a Metering Choosing a Focus Selecting a Focus Other Adjusting White Balance and ISO 22 Using the Reviewing the Images You've Transferring Photos to Your Sony Alpha DSLR-A390 A290 Roadmap_27 Front The Sony Alpha's Business Going Underneath Your Sony Lens LCD Panel Looking Inside the Setting Up Your Sony Alpha...
Sony Alpha DSLRA390A290 Roadmap
One thing that always surprises new owners of the Sony Alpha DSLR-A390 A290 is that the cameras have a total of 397 buttons, dials, switches, levers, latches, and knobs bristling from its surface. Okay, I lied. Actually, the real number is closer to two dozen controls and adjustments, but that's still a lot of components to master, especially when you consider that many of these controls serve double-duty to give you access to multiple functions. Traditionally, there have been two ways of...
Ctrl Dial Setup
Options Shutter speed, Aperture Default Shutter speed Normally, spinning the control dial in Manual exposure mode changes the shutter speed the aperture must be changed by holding down the Exposure Compensation AV button while rotating the control dial. Use this setting to specify that the aperture is changed, instead, and that the shutter speed must be changed by pressing the AV button first. In Program auto mode, the camera selects both shutter speed and aperture for you. Use this menu option...
Introduction
Sony has done it again They've revised and compacted their popular entry-level dSLRs into two fresh versions in smaller highly affordable bodies that retain the best features of the earlier models. No matter which of these models you buy, you'll find your new camera is loaded with capabilities that few would have expected to find in an entry-level dSLR. Indeed, the Alpha retains the ease of use that smoothes the transition for those new to digital photography. For those just dipping their toes...
Using the SelfTimer
If you want to set a short delay before your picture is taken, you can use the self-timer. Press the Drive button the left controller key , and use the up down controller buttons to highlight the self-timer icon, and press the left right controller buttons to select from either the 10-second self-timer which also can be used with the optional RM-S1AM or RM-L1AM Remote Commanders or 2-second self-timer. Press the center controller button to confirm your choice see Figure 1.17 and a self-timer...