Ultimate Setup Guide for Sony Shooting Wedding Photographers

With essential features like reliable autofocus in low light (finally!) unlike older generations of mirrorless cameras that suffered from unreliable autofocus, poor battery life and of the lack of in-camera redundancy options, Sony mirrorless has finally 'arrived' compared to any DSLR I've trusted for over a decade as a wedding photographer.

That said, setting up Sony camera bodies themselves can be a daunting task, simply because their feature set is so versatile and packed with different options. So for those of you who recently purchased a Sony camera for wedding or portrait photography (or paid work of almost any type, for that matter), we've rounded up the five key aspects of setup. of the camera that you might be confused or intimidated by, but absolutely must understand if you are going to be paid to take pictures with this equipment.

Disclaimer: What Not to Do as a Budding Professional Wedding Photographer

Unfortunately, I've come across many new wedding photographers who have tried to "professionally and responsibly do the business" by renting a bunch of high-end gear for their first or second job, only to experience extreme frustration or even a failure due to their lack of familiarity with the camera body.

This is absolutely NOT a Sony issue, of course it happens with all brands of cameras whenever a photographer is unprepared. So regardless of your experience level, heed this warning: if you're accepting money in exchange for photos, especially for things like weddings, you definitely need to know your gear like the back of your hand. You owe it to your paying customers!

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All right, let's go. These tips apply to all latest generation Sony cameras, from the just announced

A9

ii and A7R iv, to

A7iii

,

A7RIII

, and p>

A9

. Unfortunately, not all Sony cameras older than this one have the same dual-card slot configuration, the same reliable autofocus systems, or the same extensive button and menu customizations.

1. The safest settings of Sony dual card slot

Okay, the very first thing you need to know if you're going to be shooting weddings with one of Sony's latest full frame (FE) mirrorless cameras is how to properly configure the dual card slots for maximum security image data.

Obviously you should use dual card slot redundancy for most types of paid work in general, but the setup has a few quirks, which unfortunately leave a very small chance of LOST IMAGES if you're not careful!

Turn “Auto Switch Media” OFF!

In the “Rec. On the Media Settings' menu page, (the Configuration tab, AKA the suitcase icon, near the end), you have three different settings. The first, “Priorizing Rec. Media" is usually set to Slot 1, as on most Sony cases this is a slightly faster SD card slot. Leave this setting aside.

The second setting is the most obvious, “Record Mode”. Set it to “Simultaneous”. (simultaneously) so you can save both photos and videos to both card slots.

The third setting, however, seems innocuous but is actually an occasion for confusion, so don't ignore it - "Auto Switch Media" should be set to "Off", if you want to ensure that you always save ALL your footage to BOTH cards. If this setting is left enabled, you may not save all images to both card slots.

How could this happen? The camera does its best to be foolproof, but unfortunately it's not foolproof. So if you ever take a few photos without a card in either slot, the “Auto Switch” feature allows the camera to download only to slot #1 or #2, depending the one that contains a card at that time.

It's okay if you still have a giant memory card in your #1 slot, (64GB, 128GB), but it still means that if you forget to put a card in your #2 slot, even for a small part of the day, you will not have a backup of that part of the day. Much worse, of course, would be if you somehow manage to take pictures when there's only one card in slot #2, but then only download only images from your #1 location card(s). This will result in lost images!

(NOTE: If you have a card in each slot, but one fills up, the camera will NOT continue to shoot on the other card that still has space left, that " Auto-Switch" is enabled or disabled, if the recording mode is set to "Simult.")

Disable “Release w/o Card” and “Select PB Media”

The other thing I like to do is also disable the “Release without Map” setting. This setting is of course overridden by the aforementioned configuration which will prevent you from accidentally saving images to both memory cards at any time, however, it's still an obvious choice: you want to give the camera all the occasions to remind you that he needs memory cards, period. Duh!

Finally, if you're recording to both memory cards and want to view footage from one memory card instead of the other, there's another setting to note: "Select PB Media" is in the menu tab Play, and you can designate it to play images from Slot 1 or Slot 2. Of course, most of the time you'll want to make sure it's playing from Slot 1.

By the way, here's a good example of Sony's confusing menu organization, in case anyone was wondering about examples: . The “Release Without Card” setting is in the Shutter/SteadyShot menu tab, in case you were wondering. (I already mentioned where the other two parameters are.)

Personally, I absolutely refuse to wade through the whole menu of a Sony camera to find anything I need to access while I'm busily at work, so I try to put whatever I need on a custom button, or in the custom Fn menu, or as a last resort, in one of the My Menu pages.

It's frustrating, while "Release without Card" is a setting I'll never need to change again, it would be nice to have "Select PB Media" right next to "Rec Media Settings" in a My Unfortunately, for some reason, “Select PBMedia” (actually all four pages of menu items in the Play menu tab) cannot be added to My menu… I don't know why, and this isn't too bad, it's only a minor frustration that I hope Sony improves in the future.

2. The best Sony autofocus focus area settings for wedding photography (We'll get to that later!)

What's actually a more intimidating and complex array of settings, for anyone shooting in lightly active situations? This is the autofocus setup, and specifically the "Focus Area" settings. By default, there are six different main options, and among these six options, there are seven sub-options!

Luckily, for weddings and portraits, you really don't need to worry about all of them. In fact, for my full-time wedding job, I only use two of the six main options, and in those two main options, I only use one or two of the same sub-options:

Flexible Spot: S/M

On all recent Sony cameras, older ones

A7RIII

and

A9

to the latest A7Riv and A9ii, “Flexible Spot” is one of my favorite settings. This allows me to directly control the focus point at all times, and it never moves unless I tell it to. (Or if I bump the touchscreen with my nose and have touchscreen AF point control enabled when using the electronic viewfinder!)

I switch between 'S' (small) and 'M' (medium) depending on size and how far away my subject is, or how much potential interference there might be with foreground elements or nearby faces.

Speaking of faces, one of the best things about Sony right now is how well their face/eye detection works, and also, how it's actually implemented. If your AF area is set to “Flexible Spot:S”, for example, the camera will focus ONLY on eyes or faces that are below that exact focus point, instead of selecting faces at random throughout the viewfinder.

Lock-on-AF: Flexible Spot S/M

But, what if you want your AF point to be able to move across the viewfinder and track a moving subject? This is when you use "Lock-On AF", the last option of the six main AF area settings.

In "Lock-on AF" you can again set it to "Flexible Spot: S", giving you the ultimate balance between overall control of the focus point, initially, and dynamic subject tracking.

As long as you hold your finger down halfway on the shutter button (or the AF-ON button, if you're a fan of rear button focus)... the AF system will attempt to track that subject throughout the viewfinder .

As a side note, the real-time monitoring on the

sony a9

, A9ii and A7Riv is certainly the most impressive, but the other cameras (

A7RIII

and

A7iii< /p>

) still have very good Fexible Spot AF tracking. Personally, if I use a

A7iii

Where

A7RIII

, I almost always stick to what was mentioned before. “Flexible Spot” AF mode, instead of “Lock-on” AF.

Face/Eye Ready in AF: Enabled

Party? Oh, it's "Priority". I don't know why Sony felt compelled to abbreviate that word as there was a lot of room left in the line of menu items. But I digress.

The beauty of Sony's face/eye detection implementation really comes into play here, as I mentioned before. But, if you're used to older generations of face detection on a live view DSLR, or older Sony cameras, you probably remember how the camera would just pick random faces from the whole frame. With Sony's current AF systems, face & eye detection is highly controllable, when using the aforementioned AF modes. So, for this reason, I almost always leave Face/Eye Priority set to “On”.

By the way, "Face/Eye Prty in AF" is one of the settings you can program for the "Fn Menu", in case you need to turn it off quickly. Honestly, as a wedding photographer, like I said, just leave it on!

Continuous or single AF mode?

As a final note before we move on from the topic of autofocus, here's something some older DSLR shooters may not realize: Canon DSLR shooters, in particular, may have gotten used to doing Trusted 'One-Shot' (single AF) mode instead of 'AI-Servo' (continuous AF) because the AI-Servo was just not reliable on some cameras.

Now, the exact opposite is true for Sony's latest AF systems: the most reliable and consistent way to get sharp photos is to use continuous AF! Even for subjects that don't move much, or in some cases subjects that don't move at all, I've found that continuous AF consistently results in sharper photos than single AF.

If you want the reliability of continuous autofocus, but don't want to have to constantly move your AF point or always follow your subject perfectly, you can always turn off the "AF with shutter" setting, and make sure the AF-ON button is set to autofocus. Then just press the AF-ON button each time you want to focus and press the shutter button each time you want to take a picture. This is a proven method that professional photographers using all types of cameras have trusted for many years!

3. My favorite Sony custom key settings for wedding photography

Alright, now for the slightly intimidating stuff: Sony Custom Function Buttons! I'll just give my favorite suggestions; of course, you can set up your camera completely differently depending on which features you need quick access to. Either way, the idea is to put the most used settings on the easiest to reach buttons, for effortless use when shooting. Seems pretty obvious, right?

C2: Focus area

This is one of the settings I change the most as a wedding & portrait photographer, so it has the honor of being on one of the most accessible buttons. Other prime candidates for this button might be the actual AF mode (Continuous, Single, Manual, etc.) if you don't have a

A9

or A9ii with its own toggle for these modes.

C1: ISO

Another setting that I constantly change as a wedding photographer is the ISO. By default it's programmed to one of the rear buttons on the 4-way control wheel, but I found that with my left eye towards the viewfinder and my big nose that made accessing some of those buttons a little tricky, I'd rather have ISO on one of those top control dials.

As a bonus, when I press this custom ISO button with my right index finger instead of my right thumb, I can use my right thumb to change the ISO on the rear dial control, which jumps in whole-stop increments instead in 1/3 EV increments. It's something I really liked in my DSLRs, for working quickly in dynamic conditions.

(NOTE: Yes, I tried setting the rear bottom command dial to change the ISO without pressing an initial button, but unfortunately once again my big nose thwarted that plan; I kept changing my ISO randomly. So I have the control dial programmed to 'Not set', unfortunately on the

A7iii

and

A7RIII

.)

Right Wheel Knob: Kelvin White Balance

If you use a

A9

, A9ii or A7Riv, by the way, you can program this control wheel to the “Direct Kelvin WB” control, which is pretty awesome! Since I shoot in RAW, accidentally bumping my WB a bit isn't a big deal, but it's definitely helpful to be able to warm up or cool down my images effortlessly.

If you have a p>

A7iii

Where

A7RIII

, you cannot program the Kelvin WB control directly to the control wheel. So I changed the "right button" of the control wheel to white balance. Indeed, pressing the right button twice in a row is the fastest way to get direct Kelvin control. Also, press that right button a third time to access the Green/Magenta Tint setting, which is also useful for wedding photographers in certain unpleasant lighting situations.

Wheel down button: IBIS

Another setting that's easier to change with a single button press twice is IBIS, or In-Body Image Stabilization. By programming this parameter on the "down button" of the control wheel, it is enough to press the button twice to always activate/deactivate IBIS.

By the way, for those who are wondering, I leave the "left button" set to control the driving mode. But if you have a

A9

with a dedicated physical drive mode switch, you can program the left button to something else.

C3: Auto viewfinder - Switch, AF mode or wireless flash

The C3 Custom Fn button is a left-handed access button, so it's relegated to whatever random setting you might occasionally need to access, but only when the camera isn't held in your sight . Personally, I like to set this to "Finder/Monitor Sel.", because when combined with leaving "Auto-Switch" on, it allows me to force the viewfinder or EVF to stay on, temporarily. , until I lift the camera to my eye or remove it again.

AEL: APS-C/Full-Frame Select

This is probably a customization that most people will NOT agree with me on. But, as a wedding photographer, I'm often in candid situations where to get extra reach from my

Goals

is way more important than megapixels, and I like being able to shoot my seed 24mm in both a 24mm f/1.4 and (effectively) a 35mm f/2, or I like being able to "simulate" the range of a 300mm f/4 lens with my 70-200mm f/2.8.

If you think in-camera cropping is ridiculous, no problem! You may want to program the AF mode to your AEL button instead, if you have a

A7iii

Where

A7RIII

/iv which do not have dedicated physical switches for this setting.

Configuring Video and Playback Custom Keys

One of the main benefits of Sony's intricate menu system is that you have the most versatile button programming of any camera system I know of. This means you can reprogram many of those same buttons to perform entirely different operations when you switch the camera to video mode, and even when reviewing your images or videos. Personally, for example, I programmed “C2” to “(+) Enlarge image” and “C1” to “Note”. It's amazing for wedding photographers who want to quickly check focus on critical shots and score a few 5-star images for a quick timeout during your post-wedding upload and save stream!

4. My favorite Sony function menu settings for wedding photography

OK, we're almost done! Then we have the all-important functions menu, which is accessed by pressing the Fn button.

This is a rather subjective customization, so I'll just detail the settings I programmed. Basically here is my idea behind it: I like to group similar features together; it makes it very easy to memorize the modification of similar parameters.

TOP ROW: Shooting Mode, Metering Mode, Pixel Shift, Subject (Face) Detection, Silent Shooting (Full Electronic Shutter) and Live View Display. (WYSIWYG exposure)

BOTTOM ROW: Creative Style, DRO, (to predict crazy shadow recovery from RAW files) White Balance, Peak Display, Zebra Display, Grid Line.

Other good ideas for the Fn menu include: Bracketing, IBIS, AF mode, face/eye priority on/off and various video settings, if your camera does not allow separate customization for the Fn menu.

5.Sony My Menu Pages

Okay, last but not least, My Menu. You can have up to five pages of My Menu items, and almost any item on each of the 30-40 existing menu pages can be programmed.

That's another subjective setup, but based on my experience as a full-time wedding photographer working with various Sony cameras over the past year, here are some of the options I need to access on a regular basis. (Because remember, there's no way I'm digging through the actual menus when shooting a paid-for setting that I can't remember where to look for!)

Page1: Rec. Media settings, date/time setup, touchpad settings, silent shooting, shutter AF, format.

(Here is my general wedding photography settings page)

P

Age 2: [Photo] Custom Key, [Video] Custom Key, [Playback] Custom Key, Set Function Menu, Monitor Brightness, Viewfinder Brightness.

(This is my camera customization settings page)

Page 3: Intvl. Shoot. Function, File Type RAW, ISO AUTO Min. SS, Auto-Review, FINDER/MONITOR, Airplane Mode.

(This is my timelapse related settings page)

Page 4: [Video] Record Setting, [Video] Exposure Mode, [Video] File Format, Audio Recording Level, Wind Noise Reduction, Peak Adjustment.

(This is, of course, my video settings page)

Page 5: Wireless Flash, Face Prty in Multi Mtr, Spot Metering Point, Face Recognition, Display Quality, [Photo] Finder Frame Rate.

(This is just a general page for a few other random settings I can access in the field.)

Sony Camera Customization Settings | Custom configuration complete!

As I denied at the very beginning of this article, the best thing you can do as a budding or veteran wedding photographer is to know your gear. This goes for any camera, mirrorless or DSLR, from any brand.

Especially if you've already shot quite a few paying gigs with your existing gear, but are now switching to something totally different, be careful! You may have a lot of experience with weddings in general, but if your camera is one of the increasingly complex devices we've seen released over the past couple of years, knowing how to use it is essential. the camera.

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I hope this list of the top five sections of the Sony Camera (Alpha) Setup can help you get started quickly customizing and memorizing the versatile yet intimidating interface. Good luck!

Please leave a comment below if you have any further questions on how to set something up or what modes to use in various wedding-related shooting situations!