The BEST SETTINGS for SHARP Photos! 

Saturday afternoon, the whole world watches the royal funeral but I'm watching something even more British: James walking at Snowdonia giving photo tips.

I love how well your joy of photography come across. Finally a RU-vid who’s more photography oriented and less gear oriented. Extremely inspiring. Keep up the good work! Cheers from Norway 🇳🇴

Down to earth humble guy! And funny!

Now that you mentioned it, I would like to see a video about the things you do not like about your job.

Wales truly is a stunner!

High top hiking boots are your answer for hiking in bogs. Gaiters don't keep the water out if you step in a deeper hole or puddle. And, the high top boots, when tied properly, will protect your ankles. But as usual another interesting and fun video. Take care and be safe out there....

Seems you’re getting closer to Manual with auto ISO James. It’s the way forward. 😉

Yes James, it's a setting I've been using when I'm in auto-ISO for situations when the light is changing. It's fantastic and really helps you control the camera without doing much.

Thank you, James. My tripod got knocked over yesterday in a freak accident with my a7RIII and 100-400mm lens on it and they got destroyed. I needed your video to cheer me up today.

you are 1000% my favourite photography youtuber

I very much enjoyed the last part, where you took a photo and then critiqued it in real time, adjusted your position and settings, and took the photo again, walking us through it the whole time. That really was insightful, thank you

The reason why this is my favourite photography channel is not just the great photography content, but also the random philosophical ramblings like "When does a pond become a lake?". Hope your feet have dried by now!

There have been a few things that have improved my photography during this year but the most important one has been getting James 's presets. Seriously, the original free ones were amazing (high key punch being my all time fav) but the last ones are also worth every cent. I admit that I am very bad at editing pictures and they might not be so' eye opening' for people who is already expert but I just wanted to give kudos to James Popsys for releasing such an amazing work to the public.

Got the coffee already and the biscuit, great upload time James. While watching I’ve just had an idea, I would love if you could do a what’s in my bag as I see that you use that f stop bag now and also maybe a new office tour? Keep it up and stay safe.

I have been to Snowdonia once, in 1984! Eek! I love your explanations. They help me to learn. The color gradind especially, since I dont know a lot of the tools to use, may be of great benefit later on. Keep smiling James, and keep us laughing! Will definitely keep watching. Cheers!

Waterbodies that are regarded as lakes are 99 acres or more, there ya go James mush, one of life's mysteries put to bed

A new video from James always improves the day haha

Great video. It would be good to see more videos about color theory and how it is used in both pre and post processing to evoke emotion. Thanks for all the videos which are always well thought out

One super handy tool on the grading panel is the luminosity slider under the low/mid/hightones. Even if you don’t add any colour

After you moved to your most recent abode you have worked with your studio background. In today's video, mostly dark wall but some light wall with a hint of a map, you did the best - by far - since moving!

As for wet feet, we always put bags over them before our boots. Water may soak the boot, but it will save you from cold soggy feet.

Just realized GH5 has this aswell! no need to feel sad! Never used it stupidly enough and now realized I have been missing out on many sharp pics. Thanks again for another great pointer James!

First, I enjoy your videos very much! I am newish to photography and have been focused on the aurora this winter. Now that spring is actually coming the skies don’t get very dark, and soon wont at all. I’m re-learning what little I did learn last fall. Can you please help me understand how to get sharp photos with such low shutter speed? It was my understanding that anything below 1\80 would be a bit blurry due to hand shake. I have a nice tripod but I’d rather not have to lug it around while on the move to find and capture beautiful things.

In Newfoundland, its all called ponds, no matter how big they are. In Ontario , water is called Lakes , no mater how small they are!

Snowshoes are great, especially if you plan to walk a fair bit in boggy areas. Less tiring than wellies for a long walk and more durable than waterproof socks but you have to carry them when not needed.

Awesome video as usual. You use the same exposure setting method that I do. Aperture priority, auto ISO, and minimum shutter speed. I’ve got my s5 also set up to have a custom button dedicated to the minimum shutter speed setting. Makes everything fast yet I don’t sacrifice any creative control.

Mr. Heaton was up your way recently. The two of you together in one video, would be as hilarious as would be educational. Good to see you are well, sir.

Discovered the same a few months back on my Sony A7 iii. Even when I’m shooting sports now I leave in Aperture priority with min shutter speed which is something I never used to do. Min shutter with auto iso was my biggest lightbulb moment when moving from my a6000.

"Does what it says on the tin" BS free zone! Nice one James and I get to see the mountains of North Wales without having to travel 200 miles.

Thanks James - good tips, as always. Do you ever lock your focus off by going to manual focus and check with peaking too? Low ISO and reasonable shutter speed in low light - the joy of full frame right there!

I'm also using Auto ISO with my G9... it's nice being able to adjust your settings to give you the look you want, knowing the exposure will be ideal.

I'm convinced you're the brother of Ethan Smale from Car Throttle.

Rab - my grannie loves Rab

Minimum shutter speed! Thanks for the tip James! G9 shooter here and that's a really handy feature to know!

Interesting coincidence with you posting this just after Matt Kloskowski posted a video on how his approach to noise reduction and sharpening has changed as he is moving more from landscapes to wildlife photography. As with your use of hand holding he using wider apertures and high iso setting more frequently and is finding a clear advantage to moving beyonf the noise reduction and sharpening facilities offered by Lightroom and Photoshop. Matt was using the Topaz utilities but I have found similar benefits from using the noise reduction routines in DXO Photolab with my wilddlife images taken with my G9 sometimes at high iso and slow shutter speeds.

Love the video, and recommendations! Been so hard for me to shoot lately but I know I’m going to have a decent amount of time coming up!! Gonna definitely try the minimum shutter speed thing.

Hi James! Great as always! I discovered this crazy setting on my camera! The M setting!!! It's very versatile! 🤣 On another note, on my bucket list is to visit every NP in GB. You folks have some amazing ones! Cheers!

What a playground you have now, my dream. Had a quick trip to the Ogwen valley and the glyderau the other week amazing. Hope to see you in the mountains regular .💪

Thanks james excellent as always, I find colour grading in golden hour works well with the orange colours

A pond becomes a lake, when you realize you have a problem walking around it... A pond, no problem 15-20 minutes, and you are around. A lake.... takes hours if possible.

I’d love to take photos like that! It made me laugh when you said you didn’t think they were particularly good 😂. Really interesting video. Thanks :)

Been using lightroom and didnt even know the color grading was a thing on it. Thanks for informing me on this. Love your channel.

Fabulous location, fun and informative video. Fantastic, thanks James!

Walking wellies with a vibram sole.....that is what I have started to wear for such terrain. I can't think of anything worse than wet and cold feet🥶

Good god I love the Panasonic menus.... Sitting here with an A7 iii after taking the leap from a G9... :S

Lovely drone footage at the beginning.

Great video and tip! Especially for walking without a tripod 👌 liked the share on the split toning as well.

Such a great landscape, gonna have to come soon. Like the new angle in the office too 😉

Keep up the great videos !!!!

Lakes are normally much deeper than ponds and have a larger surface area. All the water in a pond is in the photic zone, meaning ponds are shallow enough to allow sunlight to reach the bottom. ... Lakes have aphotic zones, which are deep areas of water that receive no sunlight, preventing plants from growing.

I love that feature on my canon camera, its called "auto minimum shutter speed" - you can set a manual one, but i prefer to bias the auto function with +1 - it changes automatically according to the focal lengh and with my bias its a bit above... But i might lower it now that my R6 has IBIS.

Got excited for the tip, then realised my Canon 500D and 5D2 are too old to have that setting... I'll stick to manual mode and auto ISO, then! I still love the video though, great footage and tips.

I slipped and fell on the other side of the valley coming down from Pen Yr Ole Wen and broke my leg and ankle, so it can happen. Luckily the Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue were able to get me down and trf to hospital.

Awesome video as always James. Question for you, how do you add borders to your pictures? As a beginner I'm finding it hard getting my pictures to fit social media, especially Instagram. You have obviously worked around this with your borders as apposed to cropping. Can you do a tutorial on this please? Thanks!

Your (studio) background seems to be coming sorted out; love that massive map! :-) How are you feeling about moving to Wales so far?

Most of my buddies and I don't use waterproof boots. Water comes over the top of the boots, and the waterproofing keeps the water in the boots. Non-waterproof boots can be surprisingly hard to find.

silicone spray waterproofing all up the boot, pull the tongue out and coat thoroughly. two coats. kiwi, coleman, any brand works. you wont regret it. maybe taller boots?

Fuji has the minimum shutter too, and it's so good, I just leave it in P mode. It's pretty flawless. I'm quite scared about buying Canon cameras because I know I would have to manually set everything like a peasant again. The auto settings on Canon want to choose the tightest apertures, lowest iso, and slowest shutter. Broad daylight it like iso 100, f22, 1/2

It was nice of you to show your tripod's shadow... ;)

Nice video of a very nice surrounding. Also love your subliminal message at 10:42 😜

Yep. Minimum shutter speed is something that has been of the forefront of my shoots recently.

Love the Snowdonia videos

Me: Excited about this new tip so my photos won't suck. James: It's minimum shutter speed. Me: *cries in a6000.

So have just returned from a day shooting wild life where I’ve some blurred results and thinking I needed to keep my shutter speed above 1600 using a 200-600 lens to keep pics sharp! LOL. I shoot manual always control the shutter and aperture and let the iso vary with a max iso set. On another topic I thought I’d give square space ago. I found it very hard to set up would be happy if you did a video, to show how. Where is the templates to give an overview of say 3-4 pics in a line but be able to select one and have it then go to full screen? I did a full screen only view but it was landscape only so it cropped my portrait shoots. And then when you come to wan to publish your web site to see how it looks before deciding if you have to subscribe the you have to fork up and subscribe. Didn’t notice any buttons to send an email or have an online chat for their famous 24/7 support. Have to say I won’t be recommending to any one.

I use min shutter speed as well on my G9 in aperture priority. I was somewhat annoyed by the G85 (from which I upgraded to the G9) not having this option.

So that's a use for color grading! - Elaine

Been watching your videos for a while now, for once I’m relatively early

Nice vid. Liked the peek into your blue hour color grading at the end. I’ve found color wheels very useful and beneficial to my workflow. Thanks again for sharing your evening hike.

New Subscriber btw loving your stuff so far. Thank you x

Can you please do a comparison between M4/3 and frull frame regarding minimum shutter speed? Can you shoot at much lower values with your G9? I can easily go down to 1/10 with my Z6 so that should also be possible with your S5 and kit lens (when there's no storm or earthquake). Also don't like tripods, especially when hiking. And 1/10 or 1/8 is very important for running water.

According to you, to get sharp photos all you need to do is set mom shutter speed and auto ISO. Great. No need to focus anymore. To get sharp photos you learn where to focus followed by basic camera settings.

Get a pair of MuckBoots hiking wellies

When does a pond become a lake? When does mist become cloud? When do boots become wellies?

Wellies!!

I try to dable in the color grading tab. But either, I am too clumbsy, for using it proplery (which might be the case) or it is not that useful on my images. I am usualy for a quite natural colors.

8x10 with Provia 😀

I Love it! I hope I can somehow in the future do what I love and that makes me money :D

Wow, that transition at 0:50 - so dynamic. I was wondering, why aren't you shooting wide open when it's dark? Even the latest Panny/Sigma lenses are softer whilst wide open? By the way, the G90 continues being ignored by its parents.

Hi James, have you tried waterproof socks for inside your boots? they work well for me.

Anyone clock the screen grab of the editing timeline at 10:42

why not get wellies?

When does a pond becomes a lake? - ..... Also when does 'mist' become 'cloud' 🙄 Really nifty onscreen 'level' line... I've never noticed that before on your camera 👍

What Camera bag and strap system do you use man? Does your camera fit on your shoulder strap?

Yeah fine here, still a bit too cold. Hope you as well.

I was telling my wife that I hope you weren't referring to focus peaking because we don't have it on our cameras. I'm glad it wasn't. 🤣

Do, why do so many landscape photographers brag about wet feet when they wont wear water proof footwear?

Just sat down with a brew, perfect timing 👍🏻

What export settings do you use?

A sub title for these videos could be: A Good Walk.

Subliminal message at 10.43? 😅

Out of curiosity, I have tried to find this location for over a year does anyone know where it is? Haha also very informative video

Shopping bags around your feet will keep them dry in a pinch!

KNEE HIGH WATERPROOF SOCKS !!! Now THERE is a Go Fund Me Idea !!

Epic views

Wanted to let you know that RU-vid muted all notifications from your channel, probably have done it to other subscribers also...

My lazy brain can understand faster/slower shutter speed, but I get confused outside of those descriptors 🙃 minimum is the slowest shutter speed you're willing to use right?

Get a water proof socks. Best buy...

Generally, a pond will support rooted plants across its span, while a lake is too deep for photosynthesis beyond the top layer. In other words, too deep for sun light to penetrate to its deepest bottom. Not a scientific definition, but close enough.

Well damn, what a View from there... very jealous

i know youre not a fan of tripods, but itll solve any dilema.. so why not?