Digital Cameras

The RX100VII Settings Club is a monthly release of five different settings that I've been shooting this month, or a dive into the archives. This month looks back on NYC: what went right and what went wrong. This month, I have seven Shot Cards for you: one example of what went wrong, five shot cards, and one duplicate so you can see what the settings look like in different conditions.

TL;DR: humans crave being an insider; even when purposefully being an outsider, we still sit firmly entrenched in the “inside” of our subculture or our counterculture - whichever you identify with. We do not, and cannot, exist in a vacuum. In the world of a 24/7 news feed that is social media, the fads that flick in and out of fashion faster than your Amazon package can arrive, the TikTok growth gurus telling you to post every hour, and the incessant confessions from those wh

TL;DR Frames 1 through 4: backlit portraits at a hydrangea bush, fill flash on, f/4.0 and ISO 100 held constant. Shutter speed was the only setting moving (1/800, 1/250, 1/320, 1/320), controlling how bright the sky and flowers behind the subject got. White balance moved once, 6200K to 6500K, tracking the same daylight rather than resetting for each frame. Last frame: flash off, f/11, ISO down to the camera's floor of 64, shutter down to 1/15 handheld. The subject walked into

18 real lighting scenarios. The exact settings behind every one. Finished, film-like shots straight out of camera — no Lightroom, no second-guessing. Instant download · works on any device · free updates for life Then you got it home — and it came out looking like your phone. Muted, flat, nothing like the shots that made you buy it. So now you're rescuing every photo in Lightroom, or standing in beautiful light second-guessing your dials while the moment passes. It's not the

TL;DR: The Sony ZV-1 lacks a built-in flash, which can be daunting for new owners. However, using an external flash is simpler than it seems. The camera's multi-interface hot shoe does most of the work for you, keeping your setup compact and delivering stunning results with just a bit of practice. Who This Guide is For ZV-1 owners who have discovered their camera doesn't come with a built-in flash. Those feeling overwhelmed by the idea of setting up an external flash. ZV-1 us

In Part 1 I rescued a set of badly backlit ZV-1 photos using RAW files, subject masking, and a handful of light adjustments. If you haven't read it, start there: this post picks up where that one ends. Because correcting the light is only half the job. A technically correct photo can still feel like nothing. This is the part where it gets a mood. Correction versus colour These are two separate jobs and treating them as one is why a lot of edits go sideways. Correction is fixi

Set five of fifteen. Third visit to the same wall, and this time the flowers fought back. A busy printed dress, a busy green background, and the problem of making a statement piece read. This wall is my favourite place to shoot. Set 1 it gave me flat morning light and a soft, quiet frame. Set 3 it gave me golden hour and glowed for it. Both times the hydrangeas were the star and I dressed into them: neutrals, nothing loud, let the flowers lead. This time, I turned up in a dre

I almost deleted this whole set. I was shooting solo: no one behind the camera, just me running back and forth to the tripod and hoping. And the glare coming off the water was so intense I genuinely could not see my screen. I'd take a shot, walk over, squint at a washed-out rectangle, and have no real idea whether I'd got anything. Shooting into bright sun off the water, my Sony ZV-1 metered for the sky and left me sitting in shadow. Every frame came back flat, dim, and lifel

A happy coincidence where two separate projects lined up for this unintentional head-to-head. I had two different projects in mind this morning when I set out to shoot: one on my Sony ZV-1 and the other on my Fujifilm X-E5. I have a limited window when my favourite hydrangeas are in peak condition, so I took advantage of the morning to get both of these ideas executed. The morning part is not optional, by the way. This location only works early. Later in the day, the light co

Set three of fifteen. Back to the wall where this series started, in completely different light, running the Godox iT32 from low fill to full to see exactly what each step does. Set 1 was this exact wall. Same hydrangeas, same white brick, same stretch of stone. But that morning the light was flat and hit-or-miss, the sun ducking behind cloud, and I spent the whole set working around it. This time I came back at golden hour, and it's a completely different photograph. The sun

The short answer: if your Fujifilm photos look flat, dull, or suspiciously like your phone photos, the problem is almost never your camera and almost never your talent: it is your settings. Fujifilm cameras ship with neutral factory defaults built for accuracy, not beauty. The dreamy, filmic photos you see online come from photographers who changed those defaults using saved setting combinations called recipes, and once a recipe is loaded, every photo comes out of the camera

The first of fifteen. Here's the real behind-the-scenes: the vision, the spot, and how you actually pull off a set like this with nobody holding the camera. I committed to fifteen photo sets this month. Not a challenge, not a trend: just me deciding to treat my own portfolio like a client I actually show up for. This is set one. I want to walk you through how it came together, because the finished photos look calm and easy and that is exactly the lie a good photo tells. There

If you have been anywhere near photography TikTok lately, you already know these two cameras are the ones everyone is whispering about. The Fujifilm X100VI and the new X-E5 look like cousins, share the same gorgeous sensor, and produce the same dreamy straight-out-of-camera colour. So why are they priced differently, and why does choosing between them feel weirdly hard? Here is the short version: they are built around the same heart but live completely different lives. One is

The short answer: Creative Style and Creative Look are Sony's two in-camera colour systems, and every Sony camera has one or the other. Creative Style is the older system, found on cameras like the Sony ZV-1, Sony RX100 VII, and the a6000-series: it uses named styles like Standard, Vivid, and Landscape, each with three adjustments. Creative Look is the newer system, found on bodies like the Sony a7 IV, ZV-E1, and FX30: it uses two-letter codes like ST, PT, and VV, with eight

Why Sony photos look flat out of the box, and how photographers get the rich, "edited" look with no editing: in-camera colour using Creative Style and White Balance. Category: Sony Settings · Last updated: June 2026 The short answer: photos that look edited straight out of camera are made with two in-camera controls working together: a Creative Style (or Creative Look on newer bodies) that sets the photo's character, and a deliberate White Balance choice that sets its mood. T

There’s a moment at every reception where the room goes dark, the DJ kicks in, and every guest reaches for their phone and gets the same shot: flat, washed out, bland. Skin tones gone grey, the warm glow of the room flattened into nothing, the whole thing somehow both too dark and too lifeless at once. They post it anyway, because it’s the only one they’ve got. I was at one of those weddings recently with nothing but my RX100VII tucked in a tiny bag, and I came home with fram

Most Sony RX100 VII guides will hand you a settings table and call it a day. The problem is that settings only work when the light cooperates, and light almost never cooperates. Golden hour shifts in five minutes. Harsh midday sun bounces off everything. Night light is rarely just one source. This guide is about how to read the lighting condition in front of you and adjust the RX100 VII to match, whether you're taking a selfie, capturing a scene, or shooting someone else. The

Summer 2026 guide European summer photography has a recognizable aesthetic: warm light, terracotta and ochre tones, slow-paced detail shots, and a slightly underexposed cinematic feel. This guide breaks down the five core rules that make a photo read as European summer, whether you're shooting on a compact camera like the Sony ZV-1, Canon G7X II, or Fujifilm X100VI, or on your phone. It covers light timing, colour palette, composition, exposure, and shooting mindset, with pra

The Sony RX100 VII settings I use to shoot bright, glowy backlit selfies without blown-out skies or shadowed faces. Beginner-friendly walkthrough.

The G7X II & II photos that have been flooding your feed for the last few years have a very specific look — warm, rich, almost filmic without trying. People assume it's the Canon colour science. It's not. It's the settings. And you can replicate it on your Sony RX100VII. Colour techniques like this come down to understanding your camera and colour theory. I’ve tested three different pathways for you to achieve this look on your Sony RX100VII. note if you have any other Sony R