Okay, I just spent close to two hours trying to figure out how to apply this post from Strange Atlas Co. to my Nikon camera. It was a little bit of a pain, but I am SO excited about the results, and wanted to share it in hopes of being able to help someone else figure it out.
First off. "Shooting presets" isn't the technical name for this. It's a name I made up. The technical name for Nikon is "Photo Shooting Menu Banks", and for Canon it should be "Custom Dial Function." Whatever you want to call it, it lets you do something extremely cool: pre-set your camera with the settings you'll need to switch to, so that you can easily transition between lighting/shooting scenarios.
There are a few places that this will be extremely helpful, especially as a wedding photographer! The first was talked about in the post I linked in the first paragraph: easy setting changes for flash at a wedding reception. You can bounce from group photos to detail shots to fun dancing photos just by hitting one button – assuming you set it up at the beginning of the night!
The other way this will be SO helpful is for wedding ceremonies, specifically the processional. It can be pretty difficult trying to switch between the backlit bride walking down the aisle to the groom (in tears, and in the shade). It's definitely possible, but it's a bit stressful having to adjust iso, shutter speed, and aperture on the fly. Using this technique will essentially allow you to show up, grab a test subject, set your settings for the bride coming down the aisle, set your settings for the groom at the alter, and then easily switch back and forth between them without a problem. (disclaimer: I HIGHLY recommend playing with this before the wedding day! You do not want to be trying to figure your camera out while you're supposed to be photographing one of the most important moments of someone's life.)
Okay, okay, on to how to actually make this happen for your camera (keeping in mind that mine is a Nikon D850!)
Step 1: Make a Control Button.
On your camera: Menu > Custom Settings Bank > f Controls > f.1 Custom Control Assignment
From there, you've got a few options of what button you can use to change your shooting bank, but the one I decided on was the Fn1 + main command dial one. This one allows me to use one hand and was a lot more intuitive than any of the others. But use the one that works best for you! Here's a helpful chart that will show you what buttons you can use for which functions:
image from Nikon's online manual for the D850
choose the button combination that works best for you, and then select "Photo Shooting Bank Menu" (keeping in mind that not all of the buttons have the functionality to control that right now.)
Then your control button is ready to go! It won't work until you've done step 2, though.
Step 2: Turn on your Extended Photo Banks
(This is the easiest step.) Menu > Photo Shooting Menu > Extended Photo Menu Banks > ON
You can test that it's working by using your button + dial combination and making sure you can see your camera change from SHOOT A to SHOOT B, SHOOT C, and SHOOT D.
Step 3: Set up your Photo Shooting Banks.
You can find these under Menu > Photo Shooting Menu > Photo Shooting Bank.
There should be 4 different options: A, B, C, and D. The way you set up each of these is completely up to you! Use them however they're most helpful to you. Here's how I've set mine up! I used tips from Strange Atlas Co. as a base for the flash/reception settings, so definitely go check out their original post to learn more about their setup.
A: I set A to the settings I begin almost every session at: Shutter 1/320, Aperture F 2.8, ISO 100. I switch back to this setting and then adjust as necessary for anything not covered by the presets I've made!
B: I try to keep each preset for the same sorts of things, and coordinate it with the letter so that it's easy to remember. The goal is to be able to have it become muscle memory! So for me, B gets set up to cover Backlit scenarios during the day, and Bounce flash for group + documentary flash at the reception. Name it whatever you want, mine is
Backlit: low ISO, high shutter, aperture based on group size
Bounce: higher ISO, shutter around 1/200, 7.1+ aperture, medium flash power
C: C gets set for Shade (or Covered areas, if that helps) during the day, and Classic, direct flash during the reception
Shade/Cover: 100-300 ISO, shutter around 1/320, aperture based on group size, warmer kelvin
Classic: higher ISO, shutter around 1/200, 7.1+ aperture, low flash power (direct flash)
D: I set for Direct Sun during the day and Dance (light trail) flash at the reception.
Direct sun: low ISO, high shutter, aperture based on group size
Dance: low ISO, slow shutter: around 1/15, 7.1+ aperture, low flash power (direct flash)
THEN DON'T FORGET THESE STEPS:
- Make sure ALL of your presets are set to shoot in RAW
- If you have a file naming system (mine is to use Y and the end of the year, so this year all my files start with Y22_) make sure that it's the same across all of your presets.
- Make sure your secondary slot function is set correctly for all your presets. I always have mine set to backup
- If there are any other special settings you've done for your camera, make sure that you have them set up for all of the presets that you want those settings for!
The trick with using these shooting presets is to not try to set them up completely before you leave! You can put them around where you think they'll be, but it's really important that you are setting these up right before you're going to be using them – before the ceremony, grab your second shooter or a member of the family and get your settings right for each scenario. Then do the same thing at the reception! Test, test again, and make sure to keep checking on how your photos are going, especially in rapidly changing lighting situations, like the beginning or end of the day.
Good luck!! If you have questions or comments about any of this, feel free to shoot me a message. I'd love to hear from you!