Point-And-Shoot

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

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

A complete walkthrough for the Godox TT685S II on the ZV-1: the settings, the look, and how to fix a flash that won't fire when you're the one in front of it. There is a specific look people cannot place. The light is crisp, the subject is lifted off the background, the colours are saturated in a way daylight alone does not do, and the photo was clearly not taken by a friend. It looks hired. It looks lit. And increasingly, the comment is some version of: " How is this you, al

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

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

I just got home from three and a half weeks in France with a pit stop in Basque Country, Spain. This trip was the perfect opportunity to flex my travel photography skills and build content ahead of the busy summer season. Shoulder season is a brilliant time to visit these incredibly popular destinations — fewer crowds, more room to breathe, and a completely different energy. The trade-off is that some towns aren’t fully open yet, and in true spring fashion, rain can appear at

Getting the perfect portrait photo with the flash can be a challenge. It is a fine balance between illuminating the subject, keeping the skin-tones beautiful and warm and determining how much background detail you want to keep in the shot. In this blog post I am going to share with you the two settings that I use on my Canon G7x Mark ii that give me the most flattering flash portraits possible. Here is a link to my video where I also share these settings: https://vm.tiktok.co