Canon R5 / R6 settings for landscape photography

Bringing my own old topic from DPReview
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Here I share my (important) settings (mapped to C1/C2) for landscape photography. I settled on these after almost 2 years of use. I think the same settings would be applicable to the R6 as well, and probably to the R3 (in case somebody uses the R3 for landscape photography).

Obviously, these settings are fine-tuned to my taste and workflow. I mostly use ETTR, histogram and quite often UniWB (a special custom white balance assigned to 'custom white balance').

Please leave you comments and thoughts and share your settings!

So again, only the important ones and/or the ones different from the defaults:

Settings assigned to C1M (Manual mode on C1)

Camera tab:

1 - Image quality - RAW

1 - Dual Pixel RAW - Disable

2 - ISO speed settings - ISO speed range - 100-H (don't use ISO 50 when shooting raw)

2 - Highlight tone priority - Off

3 - Custom White Balance - set for UniWB and ETTR (not everybody uses that)

3 - Color space - sRGB

3 - Picture style - Neutral (provides histogram slightly closer to an imaginary raw histogram)

3 - Lens aberration correction - Off

4 - Long exp. noise reduction - Auto

6 - Shutter mode - Elec. 1st-curtain

7 - Touch shutter - Disable

7 - Image review - Off

7 - Expo. simulation - Enable

7 - Shooting info disp. - Screen info settings - ticked 3, 4 and 6 (level and histogram, focus square only, black screen)

7 - Shooting info disp. - VF vertical display - On

7 - Shooting info disp. - Grid display - Off (I find the grid distracting)

7 - Shooting info disp. - Histogram disp - Brightness (I use ETTR with UniWB, if you don't use UniWB, better use RGB histogram)

8 - Disp, performance - Power saving

AF tab

1 - AF operation - ONE SHOT AF

1 - AF method - Spot AF

1 - Subject to detect - None

1 - Continuous AF - Disable

1 - Touch & drag AF settings - Disable

2 - MF peaking settings - On (for some cases with manual focusing)

Settings tab

3 - Screen/viewfinder display AUTO2 (I wish I'd only use the screen but forced to resort to the viewfinder in some bright environment conditions)

4 - Shutter at shutdown - Closed (very important to also remember to shut the camera down when changing the lenses)

Customisation tab

1 - Exposure level increments - 1/3

1 - ISO speed increments - 1/1 (doesn't make much sense to use intermediate ISO values when shooting raw with the R5)

2 - Restrict shooting modes - Enable (A+, Fv and P are disabled)

3 - Customize buttons -

-- Shutter butt. half-press set to 'Metering start',

-- AF-ON button set to 'Metering and AF start' - this effectively enables 'back button focus'

3 - Customize dials - Control ring - 'White balance selection' (useful for quick switching between normal WB and custom UniWB)

-- Main dial - Av

-- Quick control dial 2 - ISO

-- Quick control dial 1 - Shutter speed (shutter speed gets changed more frequently that aperture and this dial doesn't cause as much camera shake as Main dial).

Settings assigned to C2B (Bulb mode on C2)

Same as C1 settings, but

4 - Long exp. noise reduction - On

7 - Expo. simulation - Disable

As you can see, I mostly use Manual mode and Bulb mode for long exposures.

If you experiment with the settings, don't forget to save your current settings on the card!

I shoot landscapes from a tripod, so I set focus to Manual and lens stabilization Off. I use the magnifying glass to put focus on a specific spot, which I set manually.

Just curious, does AF in the R5 fail for you? Spot AF literally never failed for me in landscape photography. It doesn't work well at night before dawn and after dusk (for astroscapes) but is able to focus on bright stars.

AF does not fail me, but I use MF for landscapes because it lets me set my AF point precisely. I don’t want to be assaulted by the terminology police, but I often set my focus around 2/3 in between the closest and furthest point I want in focus. Other times, if there are starbursts forming from lights, I focus to maximize their sharpness. AF cannot do that. It might, but I can’t be certain it’s spot perfect.

A few weeks ago I recorded some engine repair work, and again used MF to set focus where I wanted and to maintain focus at that point.

For landscapes, why would you need to set the AF point precisely in cases you want to set to around 2/3 in between some points? I use similar technique sometimes and the single spot AF never fails, I just set the centre of the square to where I want to focus. Most importantly it works perfectly well if I need to focus on a specific object.

With starbursts from light sources, I think you just need to focus on the light source itself in order to maximise their sharpness. But not 100% sure, maybe it's a special case, but it has to be the light source itself.

I was not trying to say that the way I shoot is the only way someone should shoot. I don't think my way is better than how you do it. Most times, when shooting from a tripod, I set focus manually. It's easier for me because once it's set I don't have to worry that it will change. I have been a photographer a long time, and I've used lots of manual focus cameras, so it's second nature to me anyway.

I don't shoot landscapes often these days, but when I do, it's very contemplative. I find that it works best if I just sit down and think about the result and concentrate about how to set up the shot, so setting everything manually is just part of thinking about what I'm doing. That's just me.

Note that setting focus one-third into the scene is almost always wrong. Using hyper-focal (double distance) or Object-Field focusing techniques should yield better results.