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Help on camera settings for a Ranch/Farm pic..

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Hello. I am going to be shooting my mother in laws ranch/farm and framing a pretty good size pic for her for Christmas. Im looking for some insight on some of the setting needed to get the best quality pic that I can have printed out and framed. I am going to be shooting in morning time. Any help on the settings and maybe where to get the file printed onto photo paper.,

Thanks
 
Just did some 4 ft wide panorama photos for gifts, so I can comment.

Firstly: shoot DNG (raw) all the way, don't skimp with JPGs. Secondly (and I am assuming you are using the X3 camera), shoot in manual mode, set the ISO to 100 and use the shutter speed to adjust the image exposure. If you feel so inclined you can turn on the overexposure warnings (zebras) to determine what is appropriate, but just make sure your skies are not blown out. Better yet, put the camera in bracketing mode and shoot a 3-exposure bracket once you have set a solid middle ground.

For added cool factor, do a three shot panorama with the main part of the farm in the center of the frame and an extra shot on the left and right. Maybe it's just my style but I love the look of an aerial panorama. May not be necessary or feasible with the way the farm is situated but if possible you could easily try it.

What I would do if you are shooting at sunrise is position the camera so that the sun rising is on the left side of the frame and the farm is on the right (or vice versa). That way the sun will illuminate the farm while you get that classic look of shooting into the sun. If you do a panorama, frame the sun in the middle of the first shot and the farm in the middle of the second or third shot.

Once you are finished, definitely add some enhancements in lightroom if that is an option to you (may as well subscribe to creative cloud photo if you will be doing a fair amount of this stuff). Combine the HDR images first, then stitch the pano if you have decided to do so. Crop as needed and then play with your exposure, saturation and colour saturation values until you get a nice image that pops.

Here are a couple I did very recently. Didn't spend a lot of time on it but it shows what you can do with the Inspire

Edit: One more thing, when you go to print, use a medium lustre paper, not a high gloss. Some printing shops would call it a 'pearl finish', i.e. somewhere between full matte and high gloss.
 

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