What are the best settings on a 30D?

HI, wondering what are yours ettings to get really sharp images either for portraits or sports...

Thank you new to this 30D so not use to it.

What looks best to one may not look best to everybody. Play around with yours until you find settings you like. I shoot in RAW and post-process based on the desired final print size, so I tend to take the defaults.

Set the AF to AI Servo. Set it to continuous shooting (3 overlapping rectangles). Set image quality on large, fine JPEG. Set the top dial on P. You can use that until you learn to how to take control your camera yourself. Enroll in a photography course to do that.

If you are shooting portraits or sports outside in the snow and your pictures look dark you may have to move exposure compensation a few notches to the right.

ScottE wrote in post #2329146
Set the AF to AI Servo. Set it to continuous shooting (3 overlapping rectangles). Set image quality on large, fine JPEG. Set the top dial on P. You can use that until you learn to how to take control your camera yourself. Enroll in a photography course to do that.

If you are shooting portraits or sports outside in the snow and your pictures look dark you may have to move exposure compensation a few notches to the right.

No i already know how to shoot, been atit for 15 years....:p
But just wondering what would be the best settings to get maximum sharpness out of images!

Sorry, I thought you meant you were new to photography.

Getting a sharp image with digital is no different from capturing a sharp image with film. Shutter speed, aperture for depth of field, camera movement and subject movement all have the same effect.

With digital you also control sharpness by how you process the image. If you shoot JPEG, the camera has several sharpness settings you can choose for in-camera processing, so less or none has to be done on the computer. If you shoot RAW, you have complete control over sharpening in post processing.

The effect of sharpness is achieved both through enhancing contrast and actually computer processing to enhance separation of tones and colours. The procedures are similar for JPEG or RAW, but much of the RAW processing is done in the converter program while JPEG adjustments are done in Photoshop (large adjustments) or Qimage (small adjustments at time of processing). Generally the first thing I do is adjust levels. This enhances overall contrast if the left or right slider are moved in to the edge of the histogram curve. The next adjustment I make is to curves. This is used to lighten shadows, darken highlights and adjust mid tone values, but it also effects contrast and the perception of sharpness. My final stage in post processing is sharpening using "unsharp mask". You have to be careful with this because too much sharpening leads to unsightly light halos around subjects where the computer has tried to emphasize boarders too much, so only apply as much sharpening as you need for the particular image. I tend to process batches of image and the same sharpening setting can be used on similar images.

I should also mention that for sports, a high ISO setting is much better than using a high ISO film. You can shoot ISO 800 or 1600 with your D30 and still get a reasonably low noise image where colour film, especially slide film, would start to show objectionable grain.

I believe he's asking about the in-camera processing parameters.

i usually try to shoot around...
Shutter speed = 1 / 2xFocalLength (or faster)
Aperture = f/5.6~f/11 (though this really depends on whether you want background blur)
Sharpness setting = 4 (any more and it sorta makes the pic look funky IMO)

sebmour wrote in post #2328849
HI, wondering what are yours ettings to get really sharp images either for portraits or sports...

Thank you new to this 30D so not use to it.

Sharpness, assuming you have a decent shutter speed for the activity you are photographing and no camera shake etc... is affecting your shot, is mainly going to be determined by your lens. The higher end lenses will get you sharper photos. I shoot in RAW, then sharpen there and strictly use L lenses because I want all my time spent shooting to be dependent on me, not my equipment for high quality, sharp shots.