Samsung SLRS Manual Do Utilizador

SETTING UP 

AND MENUS

Menus and settings

The settings information may be 

housed within a menu or on an 

external control or sometimes on 

both – depending on your camera 

– and allows you to control and tailor 

settings to get the most from all 

those lovely pixels. While specifi cs 

vary from camera maker to camera 

maker, the advice on these pages 

for setting up your camera for 

day-to-day use generally holds true.

Pressing your camera’s menu 

button will activate the system 

that allows you to tinker with the 

camera’s core settings. Menus are 

displayed like pages or fi les in a 

fi ling drawer. Scrolling around moves 

you through pages of information, 

the current ‘pick’ highlighted. Some 

cameras have animated menus that 

look funky and many have neat help 

screens, which tell you when to use 

a specifi c setting; very helpful they 

are, too. 

You will need to check the manual 

for your camera but the following 

assumes you are in the menu for 

each topic or know where the button 

is to get at it, if it is not in a menu.

Image size or resolution

Always set your camera to use the 

largest number of pixels possible. 

Why? You will be able to make very 

big, fi nely detailed prints or crop into 

a shot and enlarge sections if needed. 

It is easier to downsize a big picture 

than enlarge a small one. Removing 

pixels is easy (in editing software on 

a PC, for example) but adding them 

can ruin a good shot. Remember that 

basically, pixels equal detail. When 

you enlarge a small image, the PC 

adds pixels and ‘guesses’ what 

information they would contain. The 

more non-original pixels you add to 

the image to make it physically 

bigger, the more ‘garbage’ pixels are 

added. The only time it’s a good idea 

to shoot at a smaller size is if the 

images are specifi cally for the web or 

email and there’s no possibility that 

you’ll ever want to use them bigger.

Image quality

The ‘image quality’ setting 

refers to the compression 

used. You’ll have various 

options. There’ll be a series of 

JPEG settings, perhaps a TIFF 

mode and probably a RAW 

setting. Some use both RAW 

and JPEG simultaneously. As 

a rule of thumb,use the highest 

quality setting possible (or 

RAW) for best results.

JPEG: This fi le format uses 

compression to help fi t more 

images onto a memory card. 

Usually it will have settings 

such as Standard, Better, 

Best; or Good, Fine and Super 

Fine. Pick the highest setting 

for top-quality or if you want 

to make big prints. Only use 

the lower settings if you know 

you won’t want big prints or if 

room on your card is at a pre-

mium. JPEG fi les can be heav-

ily compressed; the higher the 

compression used, the lower 

the quality of the fi nal image.

• TIFF: A fi le format that can 

be compressed by up to 50% 

but without degrading the 

image. TIFF fi les provide very 

high-quality images but at a 

much larger fi le size, so will 

use memory up quickly.

• RAW: Unprocessed image 

data that provides scope to be 

edited on PC; no camera pro-

cessing is carried out on RAW 

fi les. Think of these as digital 

negatives, as you can process 

them later and control almost 

all aspects of the image after 

the fact. Generally creates 

smaller fi les than TIFFs and 

can be used simultaneously 

with JPEG in some DSLRs. 

The JPEG becomes a ‘proof’ 

image, the RAW a negative 

providing the best quality.

Sensitivity

Focus mode

Colour

Typically, you’ll have a variety of colour modes to play with 

including a standard (default) setting, a higher saturation 

setting called something like ‘Vivid’ and perhaps a sepia 

or black and white mode. You may also have presets for 

particular subjects. For instance, if shooting portraits, a 

more natural colour is best for skin tones. For landscapes 

or plants, a vivid setting might work well. If shooting in RAW 

format the settings do not apply, as no image processing 

takes place within the camera. 

Sharpness

Set date and time and fi le numbering

Metering, white balance and sensitivity

Here you can set the camera’s ISO, and the 

higher the ISO, the more sensitive it is to light. 

However, a downside of higher sensitivities is the 

introduction of image noise (analogous to grain in 

fi lm) that can adversely affect a shot. Try to use 

the lowest possible setting for the shot at hand, 

using ISO 100 or its lowest setting as a rule of 

thumb and for best results. Set your camera’s 

noise reduction (in menus) to ‘On’ but bear in 

mind, unless shooting RAW, the extra noise 

processing will slow the image handling speed 

and may affect detail in the shots.

Your DSLR will have a variety of focus modes 

to choose from. Single AF, for instance, sets the 

focus so that once it has locked onto a subject it 

stays there until the shot is made. Continuous AF 

on the other hand constantly tracks your subject 

in the frame even if it moves. Use Single AF for 

most subjects and switch to Continuous AF for 

action, sports or snapping the kids when they will 

not sit still! DSLRs use multiple AF points, some 

have a modest three, some around 8-12, while 

some high-end cameras can have more than 30! 

AF zones can be pre-assigned, say, to a single 

central AF point; many can be used in groups 

or patterns, or the camera can be left to decide 

which are best for the job automatically. 

Sharpness settings let you increase or decrease the 

way the camera adjusts the image after it is shot to 

help defi ne detail. Sharpening adjusts the contrast 

around the edges of pixels, making them stand out 

(or not) as you need them to and depending on the 

mode you use. Usually, the default setting works 

well enough, but can be conservative. The best way 

to check is to take some images at each setting 

and see what looks best. Again, if in doubt let the 

camera’s default mode be your guide. However, less 

sharpening is best for portraits while landscapes 

might want more punch to bring out fi ne, distant 

detail. Alternatively you may want to save your 

sharpening to the editing stage on your PC.

Always set the camera’s date and time correctly 

since this information will help you to fi le and 

organise your images on the PC. The data is 

stored with the image and, when using image-

 organising software, can ensure you have an 

accurate record of when you took the photo. 

Another option is the fi le-numbering system. 

You can set the camera to reset the count 

every time a new card is used, or for each new 

day, or it can count continuously.

These three items are key to getting top-notch 

exposure and colour. Each is covered overleaf, 

but as a rule of thumb, set the ISO (sensitivity) 

to the lowest ISO for the job at hand (ISO 

100 or 200 depending on your camera). The 

metering mode should depend on the subject, 

but Matrix (or Evaluative) is best for all-round 

snapping. Set the white balance (WB) to the 

correct setting for the ambient light: daylight 

mode for daylight, for example.