Sony A6700 Field Settings Reference — Bodrum

Introduction

A field reference for the Sony A6700 with the 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS kit lens. Each scenario includes the settings I used and what I learned from shooting it.

What this post covers
Walk-out-the-door default settings, scenario overrides, and the reasoning behind each. This is a living document — new scenarios get added as I shoot them.

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The Walk-Out-The-Door Default

This is how the camera leaves the house every morning. It handles scenic shots, harbour views, streets, and most of what Bodrum throws at you without touching a setting.

Setting	Value
Mode	Aperture Priority (A)
Aperture	f/8
Focal Length	Start at 24mm
ISO	Auto (lowest–1600)
Minimum Shutter	1/250s
Focus	AF-S, Wide Area
Zebras	On at 100+
DRO	Auto

Why These Settings

f/8 — sweet spot for scenic sharpness across the frame.

24mm — wide enough to capture a scene without the distortion of 18mm. Zoom out to 18mm if you need more in the frame, in to 35mm to isolate something. The camera adjusts exposure automatically regardless of where you zoom.

Auto ISO (lowest–1600) — set the floor to whatever the camera’s lowest is (likely ISO 50 or 64). The camera keeps ISO as low as possible in good light and only raises it when it has to. Ceiling at 1600 because anything above 1000 starts to look noisy.

1/250s minimum shutter — freezes everyday motion (people walking through the frame, boats rocking, flags). The camera will not go slower than this, protecting you from motion blur. This must be set in Menu → Exposure/Color → Exposure → ISO AUTO Min. SS → 1/250s. Without this, the camera drops shutter speed instead of raising ISO.

AF-S, Wide Area — single focus for static scenes. Wide area lets the camera choose the focus point. At f/8 with a wide lens, almost everything is sharp anyway. When you want to be deliberate about where focus lands, switch to Medium Spot and place it roughly a third of the way into the scene.

Zebras at 100+ — shows you where highlights are clipping. Small zebras on white walls or direct reflections are fine. Large areas covered in zebras mean you are losing detail — dial exposure compensation down (-0.3 to -0.7 EV). Better to slightly underexpose than to clip highlights. A dark RAW file recovers in Lightroom. A blown highlight is gone forever.

DRO Auto — helps with high-contrast scenes (bright side vs dark side) by lifting shadows in-camera. DRO is ignored by Lightroom when editing RAW, so it only affects the screen preview and JPEGs.

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Focus Modes Explained

• Wide Area — camera picks the focus point across the whole frame. Default for general scenic shots where everything is roughly the same distance.
• Medium Spot — you place a medium-sized target where you want focus. Use when you want to be deliberate about a specific area, like a third into a landscape.
• Flexible Spot — tiny single point. For when you are close to something and need exact focus on a specific detail — a rope knot, a door handle, a coffee cup.
• Large Spot — bigger version of Medium but not as big as Wide. Falls in a no-man’s land. Not much use.
• Zone — covers a section of the frame (left third, right side, etc). Useful when your subject is off-centre and you want the camera to find focus within that region.
• Tracking — pairs with AF-C. Place it on a moving subject and the camera follows it.

For Bodrum: Wide for general scenes, Medium Spot when you want to be deliberate, AF-C + Human Tracking when people show up. Those three cover everything.

When a Person Enters the Frame

Flip two things:

1. AF-S → AF-C (continuous focus, tracks moving subjects)
2. Turn on Human Tracking (camera finds and follows the person)

Assign both to a custom button so it is one press, not a menu dive. When the moment passes, flip back to AF-S and Wide.

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Camera Defaults — Set Once, Forget

Setting	Value	Why
White Balance	Auto	Shooting RAW so it does not matter — adjust in Lightroom later
File Format	RAW (ARW)	Maximum editing flexibility
Creative Look	Standard (ST)	Only affects the screen preview, not the RAW file
SteadyShot (IBIS)	On	Always on when handheld. No reason to turn it off
OSS (lens switch)	On	Same — always on
Metering	Multi	Works for almost everything. Switch to Spot only for tricky light like sunsets
Drive Mode	Single shot	Switch to burst when you need it

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Scenarios

Each scenario includes the settings I used and what I learned.

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1. Self-Portrait with Scenic Backdrop (Balcony / Tripod)

The challenge: you are a dark subject against a bright sky. The camera wants to expose for the sky and leave you in shadow.

Settings

Setting	Value
Mode	Manual
Aperture	f/8
Focal Length	35mm
ISO	400 (adjust as needed)
Shutter	Adjust until you look properly exposed on screen
Focus	AF-S — focus on where you will stand, then use 10s timer
White Balance	Daylight
SteadyShot	OFF (tripod)
Tripod	Yes

Focus trick Stand where you will pose, half-press to focus (green box confirms), then press shutter to start the 10-second timer and get into position. If focus slips, flip the lens switch to MF after the green box locks — this freezes focus so the camera cannot change it. Flip back to AF when done.

What I Learned

35mm over 50mm. At 50mm the background looked blurry and did not feel right even at f/8 — the depth of field was too shallow at that distance. Switching to 35mm and moving the tripod closer gave the compression I wanted while keeping the background sharp.

f/8 is essential. You want both yourself and the epic backdrop in focus. Wider apertures blur the background, which defeats the purpose.

Expose for yourself, not the sky. The sky will clip — let it. A glowing backlit sky behind you looks good in a portrait. Zebras on the sky are fine. Zebras on your face are not.

Phone torch as fill light. Point it at your face from the front or side. It closes the brightness gap between you and the sky so the camera can handle both better.

Distance matters. If the background is still soft at f/8, move the tripod further back. More distance between camera and subject means more depth of field. Crop in Lightroom later — 26 megapixels gives you room.

Lightroom Preset

Bodrum Balcony Portrait Base v1. Documented in a separate Lightroom presets post.

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2. Covered Market (Mixed Lighting, High Contrast)

The challenge: dark interior with bright light blowing in from the sides. High contrast scene where the camera wants to expose for one or the other.

Settings

Setting	Value
Mode	Aperture Priority (A)
Aperture	f/4
Focal Length	18mm
ISO	Auto (lowest–1600)
Minimum Shutter	1/250s
Focus	AF-C + Human Tracking, Wide Area
DRO	Auto
Zebras	On at 100+

What I Learned

f/4 is the sweet spot for this scene. At f/5.6, ISO hit 1000 to hold 1/250s. At f/4, ISO dropped to 400 — much cleaner files. At f/3.5, ISO was even lower but f/4 is sharper and the difference was not worth it.

ISO AUTO Min. SS must be set to 1/250s. Without this, the camera drops shutter speed instead of raising ISO. I was getting 1/80s at ISO 100 because this was not set — the camera was happy to slow the shutter rather than raise ISO. Found the Auto ISO Maximum setting under Menu → Exposure/Color → Exposure → ISO → select ISO AUTO → press right on the control wheel. Default ceiling is 6400 — I set it to 1600.

18mm captures the market. 35mm was too tight for the stalls and the atmosphere. 18mm gets the whole scene.

Do not shoot towards the bright side. Keep the bright opening behind you or to the side. Shoot into the darker parts of the market where the light falls on stalls and people — that is the interesting light anyway.

If you have to include the bright side, dial exposure compensation to -0.7 to -1.0 EV and recover shadows in Lightroom.

Lightroom Preset

Bodrum Market Base v1. Documented in a separate Lightroom presets post.

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3. Beach Scenic — Golden Hour with ND Filter (Cennet Koyu)

The challenge: capturing silky water in bright conditions and preserving golden hour warmth. ND filter required for long exposures in daylight.

Settings (Silky Water — Tripod)

Setting	Value
Mode	Manual
Aperture	f/8
Focal Length	18-24mm
ISO	Lowest (50 or 64), manual
Shutter	6 seconds (starting point)
Focus	AF-S, Wide Area — focus first, then switch lens to MF
White Balance	Daylight
SteadyShot	OFF (tripod)
Tripod	Yes
ND Filter	On
Timer	2 seconds (avoids shutter press shake)

Procedure

1. Set up tripod
2. Compose the shot without the ND filter
3. Focus and lock to MF (the camera may struggle to autofocus through a dark ND filter)
4. Attach the ND filter
5. Start at 6 seconds shutter, take a test shot
6. Too bright — go faster or use a stronger ND. Too dark — go slower
7. Check histogram — well spread with no spike hard against either edge

Settings (Non-ND Scenic — Handheld)

Use the walk-out-the-door default. Switch White Balance to Daylight if shooting at golden hour to preserve warm tones.

What I Learned

6 seconds is the sweet spot for silky water. Smooth enough to look dramatic, still has some natural shape. At 1-2 seconds the water is soft but textured. At 15-30 seconds it goes completely flat like glass. Personal preference — try a few speeds and compare.

Shutter Speed	Water Effect
1-2 seconds	Soft texture, some movement visible
4-8 seconds	Silky smooth, shapes still readable
15-30 seconds	Completely flat, glass-like

ND filter causes blue vignetting at 18mm. The wide angle makes the filter edges visible, creating blue-tinted dark corners. Fix per-shot in Lightroom with the Brush tool — paint the corners, shift Temp +15 to +20 and Tint toward magenta +5 to +10. Or zoom to 24mm to avoid it. Also check the filter is screwed on flush and straight — cross-threading makes it worse.

Anything floating in the water blurs. Long exposures smooth the sea but also smear anything drifting in it. Cannot have silky water and sharp floating objects in the same shot. Compose to exclude, or wait until it drifts out of frame.

Focus before attaching the ND filter. The camera struggles to autofocus through a dark ND. Focus on the scene, lock to MF, then screw the filter on.

Do not use Clarity on long exposure shots. Clarity adds midtone edge contrast which makes smooth water look gritty. Keep it at 0 on ND shots. Use Clarity (+10) only on non-ND shots where you want wave texture.

Get low and shoot wide by the water. At 18mm right by the water, the foreground becomes dramatic. Rocks or pebbles in the lower third of the frame give the silky water something to flow around.

Shoot the wide scene first, then find details. 18mm for the full cove, then move in closer to capture water wrapping around rocks, the edge where sea meets shore.

Lightroom Preset

Bodrum Beach Scenic Base v1. Documented in a separate Lightroom presets post.

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4. Street Scene with Moving Subject (Side Street / Sea Backdrop)

Framed from a side street looking through to the main street with the sea as backdrop. Waiting for people or a scooter to pass through the frame.

Settings (Frozen — Everything Sharp)

Setting	Value
Mode	Aperture Priority (A)
Aperture	f/5.6
Focal Length	35-55mm
ISO	Auto (lowest–1600)
Minimum Shutter	1/250s (people) or 1/500s (scooter)
Focus	AF-C, Wide, Human Tracking

Settings (Motion Blur — Subject Streaks, Background Sharp)

Setting	Value
Mode	Manual
Aperture	f/8 (tighten to f/11 if too bright)
Focal Length	35-55mm
ISO	Lowest (50 or 64)
Shutter	1/30s (walking person) or 1/60s (scooter)
Focus	AF-S, Medium Spot — pre-focus on the spot they will pass through, lock lens to MF
SteadyShot	On

If the image is still too bright at lowest ISO and f/11, use the ND filter.

What I Learned

35-55mm compresses the layers. Side street walls, main street, people, sea — they stack together nicely at these focal lengths. 18mm would make the street feel empty and the sea tiny.

Motion blur takes patience. Timing matters and you will not nail it first try. Take several shots and compare. Hold steady — SteadyShot keeps the background sharp while the subject blurs through.

Shoot the frozen version first. Easier to get right. Once the framing works, switch to motion blur settings.

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5. Beach Portrait — Midday Sun

Portrait of a person on the beach at 2pm. Midday sun is directly overhead creating harsh shadows. The solution is shade.

Settings

Setting	Value
Mode	Manual
Aperture	Widest the lens allows at your focal length (f/5-f/5.6 at 85-135mm)
Focal Length	85-135mm
ISO	Lowest (50 or 64)
Shutter	Fast — let it climb as high as it needs to (1/500s+)
Focus	AF-C, Human Tracking, Eye AF
White Balance	Auto

What I Learned

Put the subject in shade. At 2pm midday sun, direct light creates harsh shadows under the eyes, nose, and chin, and the subject squints. Move them to the edge of shade (tree, building, umbrella) so the face gets soft, even light. It does not matter where the sun is — the shade blocks it.

Sun behind the subject, subject in shade. The bright sunlit beach and sea behind them creates natural separation from the backdrop.

85-135mm for portraits. The compression flatters faces and the longer focal length at the widest aperture (f/5-f/5.6) gives lovely background separation — the beach and sea are recognisable but soft behind the subject. I experimented across the full 55-135mm range and preferred the longer end.

Widest aperture at every focal length. The kit lens gets slower as you zoom (f/5 at 100mm, f/5.6 at 135mm) but the background separation at these lengths is still enough to make the subject pop. No need to stop down for portraits — keep it wide open.

Eye AF is essential. Let the camera lock onto the eyes. That is the one thing that must be sharp in a portrait.

No ND filter needed. Bright sun means fast shutter speeds at low ISO which is exactly what you want for portraits. Save the ND for long exposures.

Lightroom Preset

Documented in a separate Lightroom presets post.

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6. Swim Video (Cennet Koyu)

Filming a solo swim from shore — dive in, swim out and back. Shot twice: once overexposed in bright 3pm sun, once corrected at golden hour.

Settings

Setting	Value
Mode	Manual
Aperture	f/8
Focal Length	18mm
Shutter	1/100 (for 50fps)
ISO	Lowest manual in bright sun, Auto at golden hour
Frame Rate	50fps (for slow-mo)
Focus	AF-C, Wide Area
White Balance	Daylight (locks golden hour warmth, Auto may correct it away)
Creative Look	Cinetone (PP11)
SteadyShot	On
Tripod	Yes, at standing head height
ND Filter	Use in bright midday sun to avoid overexposure at f/8 and 1/100

Procedure

1. Set up tripod at eye level — too low and water blocks the view, too high and you see the top of your head
2. Frame the entry point and swim path
3. Hit record, wait 5 seconds, check playback for exposure and zebras
4. If good, hit record again and go swim
5. Use phone app to start/stop recording remotely if available

What I Learned

Bright sun at manual settings overexposes easily. First attempt at 3pm: f/8, 1/100, Auto ISO. The camera could not go below its lowest ISO and the image was still too bright. The clip was washed out and unrecoverable — video files do not hold the same data as photo RAW files.

ND filter solves bright sun overexposure for video. Instead of stopping down to f/16 (where diffraction softens the image) or breaking the 180-degree shutter rule, the ND filter cuts light while keeping f/8 and 1/100 — the ideal video combo.

Always check exposure before swimming. Record 5 seconds, check playback, check zebras. Do not just set it and jump in.

50fps gives true 50% slow-mo on a 25fps timeline. Every frame is real — no interpolation needed. Going slower than 50% starts losing smoothness.

18mm is essential. You are moving away from and towards the camera. Anything tighter risks swimming out of frame.

Golden hour reshoot worked. 5pm light was softer, Auto ISO handled it fine, Daylight white balance preserved the warm tones.

Post-Production: Premiere Pro

Lumetri Color grading (applied to golden hour reshoot):

Setting	Value
Highlights	-100
Whites	-50
Contrast	+15
Shadows	+20
Saturation	115 (default is 100)
Vibrance	+15
Curves	Gentle S-curve

Slow-mo on the dive:

1. Position playhead where slow-mo starts (just before dive)
2. Press C (razor tool) to cut, same where slow-mo ends. Press V to switch back
3. Right-click the cut section → Speed/Duration → 50%

Scale-in on impact:

1. Keyframe Scale in Effect Controls — 100% one second before the dive, 120% at the splash
2. Right-click each keyframe → Temporal Interpolation → first keyframe Ease Out, second keyframe Ease In

Speed ramp back to normal:

1. Right-click clip → Show Clip Keyframes → Time Remapping → Speed
2. Ctrl + Click on the rubber band line to add two keyframes near the end of the slow-mo section
3. First keyframe at 50%, second at 100% — the clip ramps smoothly from slow-mo to normal speed

Overexposure lesson If a video clip is heavily overexposed, Lumetri Color can pull some back with Highlights -100 and Whites -50, but if the sky and water are flat white the detail is gone. A dark underexposed video clip is more recoverable than a bright overexposed one — same rule as photos.

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Lens Limits to Remember

The 18-135mm kit lens has variable maximum aperture:

Focal Length	Max Aperture
18mm	f/3.5
24mm	f/4.0
35mm	f/4.0
55mm	f/4.5
100mm	f/5.0
135mm	f/5.6

This matters in low light — the longer you zoom, the less light you get. In dim conditions, staying wider gives you a stop or more of breathing room.

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Technical reference document. Updated as new scenarios are shot and validated.