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Top Deck: HDR & AF Mode
Lesson 8 from: Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II Fast Start
John Greengo
Camera Guides > Olympus Om-d E-m1 Mark Ii Fast Start > Top Deck: Hdr & Af Mode
8. Top Deck: HDR & AF Mode
This Olympus camera makes HDR easy using bracketing. Learn how to easily bracket to shoot HDR. Then, jump into the camera's different autofocus modes and when to use each setting.
Class Introduction
Camera Overview
Photo Basics
Top Deck: Mode Dial
Mode Dial: Exposure Control in P Mode
Mode Dial: Manual Exposure
Top Deck: Shooting Modes
Top Deck: Metering and Flashes
Backside: Viewfinder Display
Backside: ISO Controls & White Balance
Backside: Focus Area and Controls
Backside: Super Menu
Backside: Playback Menu
Left & Right Side of OM-D EM 1 Mark II
Bottom & Front of OM-D EM 1 Mark II
Camera Menu Settings Map
Shooting Menu 1
Video Menu
Playback Menu
Custom Menu A & B
Custom Menu C1 & C2
Custom Menu D1-D4
Custom Menu E1-E3 & F
Custom Menu G
Custom Menu H1-H2
Custom Menu I
Custom Menu J1-J2
Setup Menu
Camera Operation
Now that same button with a front dial controls something called High Dynamic Range which is also a general bracketing mode. So this is where the camera will shoot two different styles of HDR images or we'll set the camera to shoot a bracket series of photos. So let's take a look at an example. We have a jpeg image here, we have HDR1, HDR2. And if you wanna kind of check out these areas in the red squares, you can see where the camera has either held back on the highlights or has brighten up the shadows. You can see on the bottom of the screen the histogram, how it's kind of push the histogram towards the middle so that less information is stuck against the edges. And so what it does is it shoots four shots. The ISO is fixed at 200 and so this is something you would also wanna be using from a fixed tripod with subjects that are not moving around too much. This is not gonna work with a crowd all mixing and moving around. Now the other option on this is just to go ahead and shoot a brack...
et series of photos that you would later combine potentially with an HDR program. And so this is just standard bracketing and the camera actually has bracketing in two places. This is one of those places where you are getting individual images. And so you can select how many images you want and how much exposure difference you want. And so it's kind of combining two very different modes. I don't know why they put these in here other than just simply for convenience. We'll see bracketing again when we get into the menu section of the camera. Alright, kind of the bottom half of that is another button which controls our Auto Focus. And the Auto Focus modes you see are listed here. You're gonna use those for different types of photography. Let's take a closer look of what we would use those for. So, single Auto Focus is great for subjects that are not moving around too much. And so single focus for instance, port of photography, general photography. Single focus is where I think most people have their camera for basic photography. C stands for continuous and this is great for subjects that are moving. So if you wanna track a subject move it and you wanna shoot a series of photos. We just talked about the motor drive but these sets that focusing so that it will continually track subjects and this is the best Olympus camera ever when it comes to tracking auto focus. We of course have the option of Manual Focus and we'll be able to turn on something called magnification and peaking to help us get very, very accurate focus. We'll be doing a demo of that later on. S-AF is Single Auto Focus with a Manual override and so if you are the type of person who occasionally doesn't like the way camera focuses and you wanna override at yourself, this gives us an option. Now, there are some people who enjoy back button focusing and I will be showing how to set the camera to do back button focusing. This is for people who's still like using the shutter release but they wanna be able to touch up and manually control their focus. And so there's two different ways of accomplishing a similar problem. Now C-AF with tracking is where the camera will use a tracking box to do our subject. And I think we're gonna do a live demo and I think I'm gonna be grabbing one of my students to do help us do a demo here in just a moment. Finally, we have PreMF which is a preset manual focus distance and in the menu system you'll be able to go in and select a particular distance that your subject is away and you can have the camera preset to that distance. I think this is first camera that I've ever seen with that. But what I wanna show you is the tracking mode 'cause it is good but it is not perfect. So I'm gonna leave my camera in the program mode and so to change these modes, I'm gonna press the AF mode and then I'm gonna turn the back dial on the camera and I can't get to the tracking mode for some reason and I think I remember and that's because I still have the camera in the High res mode. So you gotta be careful 'cause you will get blocked out and you gotta remember what am I doing with the camera. So anytime it's doing pro capture, high res mode, there's a lot of things that don't work right on the camera. Now I have access to the tracking system and so for my focusing point, I'm just gonna choose a point here in the middle and if I could have a volunteer from the audience. Can I have a volunteer from the audience? You can leave your notes there. Come on up and just take a stand over here by our table and what I'm gonna see is if - What I want you to do is actually stand right in front of the table and what I want you to do is just take a few steps to the left, a few steps to the right and we're gonna see if we can track your movement. Okay, go ahead and you can see how- far enough, come back. Walk back and forth. Okay, that's good. And you can see how it's tracking right there. And come straight towards the camera now and go back. Too close. And we got back. Very good tracking. Thank you very much. Excellent job. Alright, so that's the tracking mode. Now when it's in the tracking mode, you can kind of choose where it starts but if it falls off of it, you kind of have to go get your focusing bracket back on it. And so it may be a really good way for tracking, say, a child who is moving erratically around. In some sporting situations, you may wanna have more definitive control where you are using specific focusing brackets on a particular area. And it's a give and take as to whether it's the best mode or not for subjects that are moving. As you saw it, it did do a pretty good job. And so I'd give it a chance and see if it works for you. If not, then I would just turn that particular mode off and go back to the continuous auto focusing. I'm gonna put my camera back in the single auto focus 'cause that's just kind of the basic simple mode. Alright, good. Got a good demo there, liked that one.
Bonus Materials with Purchase
Olympus EM1II Recommended Settings
John Greengo is an award-winning photographer specializing in outdoor and travel photography. Shooting for over 3 decades, John has developed an unrivaled understanding of the industry, tools, techniques and art of photography. When he's not traveling for a new shoot,
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a Creativelive Student
This is exactly what I was looking for - I really feel like I'm not able to control my camera, rather than the camera controlling me! :) I really learned a great deal - some of it was a great review, some of it was crucial information that will (hopefully) make me a better photographer. Thanks for a great class, John!!
Spyro Zarifopoulos
Great and very informative class.... John has done a fabulous job explaining all the simple and intricate details of the very sophisticated EM1 II. Thank you !!!
John Epperson
This is a great course on learning about the OM-D E-M1 Mark II. I have watched it many times to get to were I know it by memory the best I can. I like to go over it as much as possible because there is a lot to learn. I do wish that John would do an updated version since now it is up to Firmware 3.1. It is like a whole new camera with the new settings.
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