LX3 - best settings for street photography?

Rich, I basically use the LX5 like it's a DSLR but without the bulk. I watch my Histogram and make sure my
exposures are good in combination of using the compensation EV button.

I owned a LX3 for 2 years before the LX5, so I have alot of practice with the Lumis model. Just follow good
technique and you'll be alright.

Here's some settings:

FOR DAYLIGHT: Raw or Jpg (or Raw + Jpeg) at highest quality settiong. Evaluative Metering, STD film mode (+1
sharpening, -2 NR), Aperture Priority set to f/4 or 4.5 (if real bright, set to f/6.3), ISO 80 or 100, EV compensation at
-2/3 EV in daylight.

FOR NIGHT / LOW LIGHT: Same as above except f/4 and EV compensation at 0 or +1/3 EV. Tripod with 2-second
self timer.

Q.Menu settings:

STD Film Mode

Contrast: 0
Sharpness: +1
Saturation: 0
NR: -2

More settings copied off of my LX5's Menu:

For Landscapes, put AF on 23-Area AF. You'll have more AF points scattered throughout frame.

Stabilizer on AUTO
Digital Zoom OFF
i.ZOOM set to OFF
I.Resolution set to STANDARD
I.Exposure set to OFF
Face Recognition set to OFF

In post, I use Photoshop to edit my images. I'll do a simple Levels adjustment & shadow/highlight adjustments to
exposure. I'll also add selective NR where needed as well as selective sharpening where needed. Lens distortion
correction, as well. Hope this helps.
All good suggestions above but I'll make it simple with these settings. I had the LX3 for a couple of years and now
use a LX5.

My LX3 & LX5 samples: http://dezsantana.com/lumix

• Aperture mode, f/4 or f/4.5 in day light. ISO 100, EV at - 2/3, AF to Auto-Area or Center AF. Auto White
balance. I.Resolution at Standard. i.Zoom set to OFF. Stabilizer on Auto.

STD Film Mode:

Contrast: 0
Sharpness: +1
Saturation: 0
NR: -2

I like shooting Raw + Jpeg and I usually use the Jpegs. If I need more dynamic range, I'll use the Raw file.

ot particularly a street shooter but I find that for just about everything now I leave my LX3 in P mode with Auto ISO
range 80-200, exposure compensation usually sits at minus 0.33EV.

Sharpness at minus 2 and Noise Reduction at minus 2 yields clean jpegs, but I seem to also mostly take RAW+jpeg
now just in case. Colour to taste but for me it's Standard film at Saturation minus 1 and Contrast minus 1. That yields
easy to post process jpegs that leaves me hardly ever needing to use the RAW backups.

Auto focus set to centre area only so always focus on interesting bit and recompose to shoot. Some say the LX5 is a
faster to act camera but I have never ever found the LX3 to be slow.

Some leave the camera in manual focus and then use the little top panel 'focus' button to AF on the subject and leave
it there while taking a few shots.

But what aperture? Whats the DOF like on the LX3?

Depth of field is large even at f/2 so that's why I let it do what it likes in P mode. Check
http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html and use the real focal lengths to see what happens. If really must use A mode
then I probably leave it on f/3.5 or f/4 for no particular reason. If a serious pixel peeper then you should avoid f/5.6
and f/8 as diffraction does start to lower the quality a tiny bit.

More of much the same on my suggested settings page at http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~parsog/panasonic/15-

settings.htm
I have plenty of memory-card capacity, and prefer to (try) to align my camera settings so that it is possible to
simultaneously record both JPG image-files that can look nice (after some loss-less post-processing, anyway), as well
as RW2 "raw" image-files that (if the shot turns out to be a "rare gem") allows me the opportunity to approach post-
processing in that way, as well. For that purpose, my own preferences are to set my ("Standard Color" and/or "My
Film 1") "Film Modes" as follows:

Contrast = -1
Saturation = 0
Sharpness = -2
Noise Reduction = -2

C1 - Stealth Mode. This idea came from the Street Photography thread where cray said:

My 'TIP' is to create a 'stealth' custom mode to capture candid shots.

In record mode hit:
1 Select P Mode
2 Turn on External Viewfinder, this will turn off the LCD screen
3 Turn off the AF Assist Lamp, this turns off the bright red beam that projects from the front of the camera for
focusing
4 From the Setup menu select Beep and turn off Beep Level and turn off Shutter Volume
5 From Setup menu select 'Custom Set Mem' and then choose C1 and say Yes to overwrite current settings.
Stealth Mode complete, free from bright screens shutter noise or red beams but be aware that the motor does make a
little noise which can be audible in very quiet environments.

For me, I've chosed A (Aperture Priority,) f4. Others have chosen manual focus since the AF assist lamp is off - if we
could save the focus distance in these settings (hyperfocal distance), that would be a great setting. Thanks for the
idea, cray!

C2 - Dynamic B&W (s=-2, n+-2), ISO 80, Aperture priority at f4. Sifun started me thinking about this, and this is
based on his/her idea, but I could set this almost as quickly from my usual mode - Aperture Priority - by using the
joystick to change to Dynamic, so I'm looking for an even more interesting suggestion for this slot.

C3 - Low light B&W setting. Some helpful person on this list suggested Smooth B&W for low-light work, and this
works well. I've set Intelligent ISO on. I have set this to Aperture Priority = f4, but might consider P mode which
would select an even lower apreture in very low light - I'll keep experimenting. Intelligent Exposure is OFF, but I
may try turning it ON to control contrast, which can run high in low-light situations, but maybe Smooth will take care
of contrast well enough. Maybe I'll try B&W Standard and Intelligent Exposure... Any opinions about that?

might be wrong, but I always thought that the standard "color" solution was for -m, not +m (alternatively you were
advised to use kelvin direct setting):

----------------------------------------------------
Nostalgic
contrast+2
colour+2 (or +1, depends)
sharpness+2
NR-2
i.exposure off

AWB: 'b+' two notches (or one, depends); 'm-' one notch
alternatively, set color temperature manually
----------------------------------------------------

So I always had AWB with one "m-" notch... not one "m+"
OR
I did set the color temperature myself (for studio shots and portraits inside).

Most of all, I wouldn't say that we've got any one "definitive" setting that we'd all agree upon as "the most accurate
color the LX3 can produce." So, keep that foremost in mind.

That said, I sure wouldn't agree that Standard film mode, with the default white balance, is the most accurate we can
get. I'd say that the main thing I notice is more of a "blue cast" over the image, moreso than any sense of "too much
green" or anything. In fact, my Standard mode tweaking is currently going towards adjusting the white balance solely
towards Amber -- maybe two or three steps towards Amber really seems to help the reds, and hopefully might help
the greens.

To RDP, I'd just say "Keep on testing" -- my perspective comes from utterly thousands of shots, and hundreds of
comparisons between different combinations of film mode settings and white balance adjustments. I try to capture
significant expanses of green -- like lawns -- and reds -- like cars -- and plenty of more neutral areas, such as
sidewalks and streets. You can see the faithfulness of the greens and the reds in the major subjects, and then look for
any sense of "color cast" in the sidewalks and such.

For instance, have a look at RDP's "second set" of images -- with "trees in round planters." Perhaps the most notable
difference between the first Standard shot and the second Nostalgic shot is not in the "greens" -- it's more in the
"neutral" areas, such as the planters themselves and the walking area around them. The colors show a real "cold"
sense in the Standard shot, and a "warm" sense in the Nostalgic shot.

As for the usual Nostalgic settings, yes, it's a very saturated color. Indeed, we've already seen some talk of turning the
saturation down to default, and that may well make a difference for the better. I'll probably be doing some Multi Film
mode testing wherein I'll have one setting for Nostalgic at the current contrast +2 and saturation +1, plus one at
contrast +2 and saturation at 0 (My Film 1), plus one at contrast +1 and saturation at either +1 or 0 (My Film 2).

And so on.

The bottom line is that we all just need to keep trying different settings, and reporting our results here. I don't know
about everyone else, but I'm game for trying just about anything, if it'll get just a teensy bit closer to "perfect" color.

As such I shoot with the following settings for outdoor/good lighting situations:

- film mode: nostalgic

- film tweaked so that noise reduction is -2, saturation is +1, sharpness 0, contrast +2 (to really punch out shadows
and dark areas which can be a tad washed out otherwise)
- ISO 80

- intelligent exposure: low (I think, otherwise "standard")

For low light/indoor shooting, I set ISO to auto with an upper limit of ISO 400 and set noise reduction to 0, sharpness
to +1, leave I/E on standard.I actually suggest you take the time to program in the custom settings, C1 and C2 on the
mode dial. You could put the first set of setting above on C1, and the second set on C2-1. I also have a customized
dynamic b+w film mode set up on the C2 dial – IMHO this film mode is one of this camera's best features.

With that setup, you can rapidly flick between the best film mode for good and low light as well as dynamic B+W. I
almost never use the other modes other than M and very occasionally P – I never ever use iA, although some people
swear by it.Oh, and one more thing – for white balance, there also seems to be a general view that the AWB needs
minor tweaking. Many people seem to agree that in the custom adjustments section (click right from AWB) bumping
the dial two clicks to the right and one click down gives the best results. I think white balance is the biggest weakness
of the camera, so I suggest you carry around a small white piece of card (e.g. a blank playing card). You can use that
to set your WB manually in situations where the camera is struggling.

Best settings for quick indoor family snaps on LX3

I start with iso 800..., so don't know if you value my input but here it is:

1. RAW

2. -1 contrast, -2 saturation, sharpness is not important if you take raws, otherwise leave it on -2, -2 NR -> of course.
3. M mode
4. f/2-2.8 only
5. 1/15 -1/8 sec.
6. iso 800, or higher if nedded.
7. NO FLASH
8. take picture

But if you want those star-shaped light you need higher f/ number and that means (you accept up iso 200 only)
loooooong shutter speeds, seconds!

I've just exchanged my LX3 with my friends' S5 IS for a Xmas Eve.

She does hate her S5 IS auto mode and does not know how to "master" M mode.

So, if you don't want to loose any precious moments just set it to i-auto mode or P mode (with +2/3 EV) and enjoy
the moment.

ps. don't be afraid of noise. It's only visible on LCD, it disapears on prints automagically.
I know your tried and true settings are:

Aperture mode, f/4 or f/4.5 in day light. ISO 100, EV at - 2/3, AF to Auto-Area or Center AF. Auto White balance.
I.Resolution at Standard. i.Zoom set to OFF. Stabilizer on Auto.

STD Film Mode:

Contrast: 0
Sharpness: +1
Saturation: 0
NR: -2

How about for indoor shooting? Can you provide some guidance on how best to approach that setting without using
the flash or typically do you use flash and turn down the level of it?

The extremes of brightness that one encounters in the natural world are not that varied. For this reason there is the so-
called Sunny 16 rule. This says that on the brightest day normally encountered the proper exposure is roughly the
reciprocal of the film speed at f/16. Thus, if you are shooting ISO 200 film then the exposure will be 1/250 second @
f/16. This is the same whether you're in Auckland or Amsterdam, mid-summer or mid-winter.

From the extremes of a sunny day outdoors down to typical indoor room lighting covers a range of about 10 stops.
With the exception of seldom encountered situations like fireworks, cityscapes and moonlight scenes these 10 stops
encompass every lighting situation you are ever likely to encounter. Only on the ski slopes or at the beach will you
need to stop down one more stop beyond Sunny 16 because of reflections off the snow and sand.

So, that being the case, why is exposure so difficult? Most people should have no problem in recognizing 10 different
light levels, shouldn't they?

The Eye's Autoexposure

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your point of view), the human eye and brain have a superb autoexposure
mechanism built in. This means that once your eyes have adjusted to the current lighting situation, and without clues
as to what is causing the light level encountered, it is almost impossible to tell how bright things are on a relative
basis. As long as the light level lies somewhere within that 10 stop range for most people it all appears the same.

This is why light meters, whether built-in or handheld, are such vital tools. But before exploring light meters and how
best to use them it's worthwhile to have in ones mind a firm idea of what "proper" exposure settings are for the ten
light levels normally encountered. This way you're not a blind slave to the meter.

Let's assume an F stop of f/8 and a ISO (film speed) of 400. Here's what these 10 light levels are and the shutter
speed that would be needed.

A Sunny day outdoors — 1/2000 sec

A hazy bright day — 1/1000 sec
A bright cloudy day without shadows — 1/500 sec
An overcast day, or open shade on a sunny day — 1/250 sec
A heavily overcast day — 1/125 sec
Deep shade. The woods on an bright overcast day — 1/60 sec
Just before a thunderstorm or late on a heavily overcast day — 1/30 sec
 A brightly lit store interior — 1/15th sec
A well lit stage or sports arena — 1/8th sec
A well lit home interior — 1/4 sec

Of course you would vary the F stop and shutter speed combinations to whatever would be most appropriate. In the
case of a home interior, for example, instead of 1/4 second at f/8 you might choose 1/30 sec at f/2.8. The point is
though that these 10 brightness levels represent 95% of the conditions under which we all do our shooting.

have been thinking a bit more about my setup, trying t o maximize my chances of getting a good shot. Especially
when it comes to which film modes I will use and how I should use them.

Normal aperture mode i shoot Jpeg only, which enables me to use the multi-film setting.
STD with NR and Sharpness turned down to -2
Nature with Contrast bumped up to +1m, NR and Sharpness turned down to -2
Dynamic with Saturation turned down to -1, NR and Sharpness turned down to -2

For C1 and C2 i shoot Jpeg and RAW

C1: STD STD with NR turned down to -2
C21: Nature with Contrast bumped up to +1m, NR turned down to -2
C22: Dynamic with Saturation turned down to -1, NR turned down to -2
C23: Dyn B&W with NR turned down to -2

Shootflow might look like:

1. Find a nice landscape scene.
2. Shoot with the multi-film setting

3. Quickly look through the three different resulting photos and chose which one I like the best.
4. Move to the corresponding C-setting and fire away.

This way I will get:

3 jpegs which hopefully should work well for PP (since both the sharpening and NR has been minimized)
1 jpeg which might be already sharp enough

1 raw which might be able to save me if I end up unsatisfied with any of the jpeg

Rikard_L wrote:

I have been thinking a bit more about my setup, trying t o maximize my chances of getting
a good shot. Especially when it comes to which film modes I will use and how I should use
them.
Some comments (on the pragmatic side):

Shootflow might look like:

1. Find a nice landscape scene.
2. Shoot with the multi-film setting

3. Quickly look through the three different resulting photos and chose which one I like the
best.

What you will see on the LCD screen (with the display's Auto-brightness mode that I find
more useful than not in outdoor light, and the highly over-saturated colors that the LCD
screen will show you is not reliable to judge exposure or color.

One can waste a lot of time (and a lot of battery power, as well) laboriously magnifying
individual shots in Playback Mode trying to asses depth and quality of focus, camera-
stability, etc.). (IMO, from experience), it's not very valid, or at all worth the time/power to
try to do so. You will tend to become embroiled into the shots already taken and thoughts
about what preset mode to choose, and not the shots that may be recorded-able for only
fleeting times in changing natural light conditions.

4. Move to the corresponding C-setting and fire away.

If one could realistically asses the preliminary results in your Step 3 via gazing at the little
LCD-screen, thus allowing you to proceed to Step 4, then the following may be true:

This way I will get:

3 jpegs which hopefully should work well for PP (since both the sharpening and NR has
been minimized)
1 jpeg which might be already sharp enough

1 raw which might be able to save me if I end up unsatisfied with any of the jpegs

Being a rather analytic chap by nature, I have spent many hours (where it comes to musical
theories, as well as intricate plans for various preset shooting-parameter regimens on my
cameras) analyzing and planning on a cerebral level.

While such a cerebral sense of pre-paredness comforts my mind before the fact - once the
music begins, or once the sun begins to rise/set, and the magic glows of sounds and visions
begins to enchant me, when I take up my musical instrument to improvise (or take up my
camera), generally nearly all of my academic pre-ceptions fall like nearly useless confetti at
the feet of the sublime ...

It takes me around 1,000 shots to asses a new and unfamiliar camera, and post-processing
the 10-20 gems that emerge from "the rough". (Despite all of my useful tips), I recommend
not weighing your mind down with so many technical decisions and goals to find and tweak
your parameters. The one thing that you will not have time to later to repeat and perfect are
the beautiful locations and subjects and ephemeral natural lighting that you will be hiking
amidst.

After making some or all of the advisable fixed settings recommended on this thread
in your User Menus, (perhaps, for now) concentrate just on the basic core of the LX3:
Put your camera in STD Film Mode (NR= -2, Sharp = -2); and

use Aperture Priority mode, setting the F-Number to something between F=2.8 and F=4.0
for starters; and

concentrate on normal-speed, single-area Focus Area placement, the AF system behavior in

the present shooting situation; and

concentrate on Exposure (using the Live Histogram and the manual Exposure
Compensation control); and

monitor the Shutter-Time selected by the camera, and increase ISO (only) if necessary to
decrease the Shutter-Time to 1/30 Second or less (when shooting hand-held); and

leave a little bit of "crop-room" around an intended image-framing (you will not regret
this!); and

spend as much time as possible looking at the possible subject-matter from different
physical perspectives (directly through your eyes, and not through the LCD-display).

The time will seem to fly when subjects and lighting conditions are right. Don't be afraid to
take a lot of shots of a particular scene that you are liking (perhaps from slightly varying
physical perspectives, perhaps trying slightly lower Exposure-Levels in order to ensure that
highlights are not being blown-out).

Note: The most important thing to monitor in real-time (during a 1 or 2 Second review-
period, where the last recorded shot is briefly displayed on the LCD) is the (actual,
recorded) Histogram display of the most recent shot - as it may well be somewhat different
than what was displayed prior to taking the shot ... It's the Histogram of the recorded shot
that counts!

I spend a bit of time placing the location of the AF-Area (Focus button, adjust Left/Right
and Up/Down arrows), and then spend the bulk of my pre-shot time monitoring the Live
Histogram, and adjusting the manual Exposure Compensation control (Up arrow,
Left/Right arrows to decrease/increase exposure). Blow-out the important highlights and
you (basically) "blow the shot"

The more that you can make the above regimen one of "second-nature", the more that your
mind will be able to concentrate on the possibilities for finding interesting and inspiring
perspectives of the subject matter to photograph. Don't neglect the technical essentials, but
(also) don't let your mind get bogged down too much in the technical wonderings! You will
"busy enough" as it stands!

Use the LCD display for roughly framing a desired shot (a bit wider than planned, to leave
yourself some "crop-room") only after you have already found your desired subject-matter
and chosen perspective. The best views are through one's own eyes - we hope to get lucky
sometimes in "capturing" an interesting "facsimile" ...

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Rikard_L wrote:

Daniel, thanks for taking the time and sharing your thoughts as well as the link. Pure gold!

I guess I will be able to use iso80 unless the weather forecast guys are completely wrong (which of course could
happen ).

I keep in the ISO 80 - 200 range and have no problems. Usually P mode so f/2 is used very often in low light.

Just so I get it right: Turing Sharpening and NR down to -2 makes the post processing easier or at least more
effective? But at the same time making the unedited jpegs a bit less crisp?

Sharpening at -2 reduces noise and eliminates edge halos.

Noise Reduction at -2 stops details from smearing.

They don't matter much at small print sizes or usual screen displays, but do matter for large prints and savage
cropping when chasing more zoom.

The result is a slightly soft image that tunes up very nicely in post process, so good in fact that RAW is largely not
needed. I sharpen so it looks OK on screen, maybe erring a little on the soft side (which I prefer, coming from
scanned film). Then when printed with Qimage the auto sharpen for selected print size works perfectly.

Colours of course are a personal choice but I stay with Standard Film with both Saturation and Contrast at -1. I get
good skin tones that way, and it's an easy jpeg to further boost if needed.

Another mountain shot which I am mostly happy with except that i think it could benefit from a little bit more
"depth". Guess I could increase the contrast maybe.

Yes, experimenting with fine tuning in post process often yields a result that looks better but of course may not be the
truth. Even something as simple as the Auto Adjust Colours in FastStone Viewer gives an idea of what may be done.
It mostly improves an image (but sometimes doesn't).

As for using f/8, forget that, it is in the area of resolution loss due to diffraction, keep in the f/2.0 to f/5.0 range for
best results.

I never wrestle with histograms now, I only use the flashing highlights warning on review. That way it quickly tells
you where the overload is and you judge whether the overload area is important and/or significant. Typically minus
1/3 EV takes care of 95% of situations.

For scenic shots and achieving best depth of field, have a read of this page
http://www.trenholm.org/hmmerk/DOFR.html and follow the Articles link to get to the 4 part Shutterbug articles on
Adjusting Depth of Field where it is covered in more detail. It can help, but most times with the LX3 the depth of
field is so large anyway, there's hardly a need for accurate focus.
The OIS I leave in Mode 2 as recommended by Panasonic. Mode 2 only works when the shot is taken so it always
starts from the centre of its operating range. Mode 1 is already operating before you start the exposure so may already
be at or near its limit of movement, so there is more chance of problems using mode 1.

Regards........ Guy
LX3 info... http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~parsog/panasonic/01-intro.html

Wow. This turned out to be a great thread. From reading all tips so far I have decided on what might be described as a
strategy. And I think pretty much all of you so far has contributed to at least one decision I have made.

C1:
STD film mode
contrast 0
sharpness -2
saturation 0
noise reduction -2

C2: (Read about this setting in another thread, think the poster was Tom Hoots)
Nostalgic film mode
contrast +2
sharpness 0
saturation +1
noise reduction -2

• I have played around a little with this setting for street/city shots and I must say that I like the way the colors
come out. Could maybe be a different story for sunny snow shots.

I might also take some photos with the Dynamic B&W

AWB adjusted two notches towards 'blue' and one notch toward "magenta."

Iso80

Mega-Ois: Mode2 (for conserving battery)

I am going to shoot in aperture priority mode with F2.8 for full wide and F4.0 for when fully zoomed in.

Use the histogram and compensate with the manual exposure controls. Up until now I always adjusted the aperture,
which I now realize is a bit stupid.

I will expose for the highlights to try to get a good dynamic range. I guess this will be the greatest challenge.

I will probably go with automatic focus and use the center point as default for the far away mountain shots.

Set the LCD to -2. I think I have so far had this set to 0, and always thought the images looked darker on my
computer than on the camera LCD. This should fix this I hope.

BTW
Looks like the weather gods might have turned on me. 50% risk of heavy snowfall when I plan on hitting the
mountains. I still hope for sun of course, but otherwise I guess it is best to find some scenery which can provide
contrast against the falling snow. Like trees in the forest or some rocks.

Thanks again

Hi Guys,

Back from my excursion. The weather was pretty good with clear skies, bright sun and lots of snow.
While shooting I tried to follow the advises given in this thread.
I used:

• F2.8 - F4.0 where possible.

• NR and sharpness turned down to -2
• Automatic rectangle or spot focus.
• Exposure compensation +1 - +2 depending on the brightness and amount of snow.

The biggest challenge for sure, was getting the exposure correct. I think I got it right or at least ok about 20% of the
time.

Here follows a selection of pictures. I think the composition is mostly ok, will probably do a little cropping on a
couple of them though. Some of them are a bit overexposed. I plan on downloading the trial version of DxO optics
and play around a bit.

This shows the path ahead. The snow was deep and I hiked up the ridge with my skis on my back.

Tom hooks

Dick Rijken wrote:

Raist3D started an excellent thread about LX3 color issues that has reached its limit. I posted in it as well (at the
bottom), so I'd like to continue the discussion here.

Fine with me. We were finally making some good progress at the end of the thing, so I'm glad to provide some
examples that I think will show some of that progress.

My point was similar to Raist's: I'm disappointed by Panasonic's color rendition. My LX1 and TZ3 consistently
produce skin colors that are too 'magenta'.

Well, I'd just like to point out that digital camera manufacturers do different things for different reasons. The color
"presets" are usually intended to be "popular" for a wide cross-section of users. And I think in the LX3, they really
didn't make one that was "really neutral for the most natural color rendition." So, we've been working on "building
our own." The same essentially goes for the white balance settings -- we may not be happy with the color they
produce, but we can change them. And in the end, we can "build our own" white balance settings to go along with our
custom-built film mode settings.

I don't really consider anything here to be "Panasonic's fault for not making it perfect out of the box" -- it's just a
challenge to come up with some more neutral settings, if that's what you want to get out of the camera. Sure, we'd
like it to be perfect out of the box, but so long as we can adjust the tool to get it to do what we want, that's all that
really matters. At least "as far as I'm concerned."

I'm very curious about its 'color tweakability'...

I've certainly described "how," in full detail, in a number of different threads. If anyone wants me to repeat it, say the
word, and I'll go find one and paste it in here.

Now then, "let's get on with it."

Here's what agorabasta suggested for the best film mode, white balance, and other settings:
=========================
Nostalgic film mode
contrast +2
sharpness 0
saturation +1
noise reduction -2

(He suggested using sharpness +2 and saturation +2 for low-light indoor shooting.)

Intelligent Exposure - Standard

AWB adjusted two notches towards 'blue' and one notch toward "magenta."
Any other WB adjusted likewise.
=========================

So, I tried doing some controlled shooting with the saturation +1 setting. This is an indoor shot with all "natural
lighting" coming in through the windows, of a bunch of stuff I mainly pulled out of the bathroom:

Image control:Zoom outZoom 100%Zoom inExpand AllOpen in new window

OK, that gets us to where the last thread ended, at least in regards to my participation. Now, let me give you the same
thing in one of the other film mode settings I used, for comparison:

Image control:Zoom outZoom 100%Zoom inExpand AllOpen in new window

The second shot, I believe, was taken with an adjustment to the "Smooth" file mode, to which I simply adjusted the
contrast +1. It's far more "like what I have been shooting in the past" -- more contrasty and more saturated. But it's
just plain wrong. The blues are substantially overcooked, and the greens and yellows are similarly "wrong." The red
is substantially different, but I'm a bit hesitant to describe either as "absolutely correct." The Nostalgic-mode shot is
certainly very close, and I've seen much, much worse in other shots I've taken.

Since then, I've gone out and done more shooting. It's been a rainy day here, but I got out in between the storms, and
took a few shots. Let's have a look:

Here is a VERY natural-looking flower:

Image control:Zoom outZoom 100%Zoom inExpand AllOpen in new window

Some sunlight peeked through the clouds, and I managed to get this shot of a church:

Image control:Zoom outZoom 100%Zoom inExpand AllOpen in new window

Here's my standard fountain/buildings shot, not in anywhere near as good light as I've had before:

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I think the colors are quite natural, including the greens.

Here's a similar kind of shot:

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Finally, a look back towards the fountain, with darkening skies in the background:

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Again, I think the colors are by far as natural as any I have captured with the LX3. I'd sure like to see what some
"blue sky" shots would look with these settings, but I sure don't see anything wrong at all with the colors in these
"tweaked Nostalgic" shots.
--
Tom Hoots
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomhoots/

have been thinking a bit more about my setup, trying t o maximize my chances of getting a good shot. Especially
when it comes to which film modes I will use and how I should use them.

Normal aperture mode i shoot Jpeg only, which enables me to use the multi-film setting.
STD with NR and Sharpness turned down to -2
Nature with Contrast bumped up to +1m, NR and Sharpness turned down to -2
Dynamic with Saturation turned down to -1, NR and Sharpness turned down to -2

For C1 and C2 i shoot Jpeg and RAW

C1: STD STD with NR turned down to -2
C21: Nature with Contrast bumped up to +1m, NR turned down to -2
C22: Dynamic with Saturation turned down to -1, NR turned down to -2
C23: Dyn B&W with NR turned down to -2

Shootflow might look like:

1. Find a nice landscape scene.
2. Shoot with the multi-film setting
3. Quickly look through the three different resulting photos and chose which one I like the best.
4. Move to the corresponding C-setting and fire away.

This way I will get:

3 jpegs which hopefully should work well for PP (since both the sharpening and NR has been minimized)
1 jpeg which might be already sharp enough

1 raw which might be able to save me if I end up unsatisfied with any of the jpegs

After making some or all of the advisable fixed settings recommended on this thread in your User Menus,
(perhaps, for now) concentrate just on the basic core of the LX3:

Put your camera in STD Film Mode (NR= -2, Sharp = -2); and

use Aperture Priority mode, setting the F-Number to something between F=2.8 and F=4.0 for starters; and

concentrate on normal-speed, single-area Focus Area placement, the AF system behavior in the present shooting
situation; and

concentrate on Exposure (using the Live Histogram and the manual Exposure Compensation control); and

monitor the Shutter-Time selected by the camera, and increase ISO (only) if necessary to decrease the Shutter-Time
to 1/30 Second or less (when shooting hand-held); and

leave a little bit of "crop-room" around an intended image-framing (you will not regret this!); and

spend as much time as possible looking at the possible subject-matter from different physical perspectives (directly
through your eyes, and not through the LCD-display).

Wow. This turned out to be a great thread. From reading all tips so far I have decided on what might be described as a
strategy. And I think pretty much all of you so far has contributed to at least one decision I have made.
C1:
STD film mode
contrast 0
sharpness -2
saturation 0
noise reduction -2

C2: (Read about this setting in another thread, think the poster was Tom Hoots)
Nostalgic film mode
contrast +2
sharpness 0
saturation +1
noise reduction -2

• I have played around a little with this setting for street/city shots and I must say that I like the way the colors
come out. Could maybe be a different story for sunny snow shots.

I might also take some photos with the Dynamic B&W

AWB adjusted two notches towards 'blue' and one notch toward "magenta."

Iso80

Mega-Ois: Mode2 (for conserving battery)

I am going to shoot in aperture priority mode with F2.8 for full wide and F4.0 for when fully zoomed in.

Use the histogram and compensate with the manual exposure controls. Up until now I always adjusted the aperture,
which I now realize is a bit stupid.

I will expose for the highlights to try to get a good dynamic range. I guess this will be the greatest challenge.

I will probably go with automatic focus and use the center point as default for the far away mountain shots.

Set the LCD to -2. I think I have so far had this set to 0, and always thought the images looked darker on my
computer than on the camera LCD. This should fix this I hope.

BTW

Looks like the weather gods might have turned on me. 50% risk of heavy snowfall when I plan on hitting the
mountains. I still hope for sun of course, but otherwise I guess it is best to find some scenery which can provide
contrast against the falling snow. Like trees in the forest or some rocks.

Thanks again
Rikard