Need advice on settings for Cloudy day on Sony A100

[Irbis74]

Hello every one , i am new to digital photography just recieve present from very good friend of mine Sony A100 standart set , and tommorow she ask me to take some photos of her in mountains in NH it will be cloudy day we assume so i woundering if any one can give some advice to rookis what setting i should go for, should i stick to full auto or go to some programming like White balance, ISO etc ..
I thank you all who will replay with any ideas and help .

[BonjiB]

Well i'm assuming you'll want to keep both the subject and the background in focus so here ya go. Start with iso 100 and keep your iso between 100-400 for best image results (800 if you absolutely have to) and select which one you need based on your selected shutter/ap combination (more on that later.) Flick it into shutter priority and make sure it's about 30 or 60 faster is ok but don't go slower than 1/30. I say 30 because of the image stabilization but i wouldn't try to go lower than that or you may get subject blur just from stuff moving around. Now your aperature is what's going to determin your depth of field (parts of the picture that are in focus.) With a higher f number MORE of the picture will be in focus as in... the subject as well as the background. This is what you want for subject and landscape pictures so not only your person is in focus but the background behind them as well. The LOWER your f number the blurrier the background is going to become in relation to your subject. I'd say depending on how far away the background is you'll want to start your f number somehwere in the 5.6+ range. Now where iso comes into this is sensor sensativity. The higher your iso the MORE sensative the sensor is to light meaning the less light it has to let in for the same exposure. What that means to you is to get your aperature number up you can increase your iso while keeping your shutter speed the same. On the a100 800 is usable but it's still kind of messy. If you can get up to about 5.6 or higher using iso 400 or lower then go with that. Remember the higher the aperature (fstop) number the more in focus your background will be. So for something that is REALLY far away like say a mountain that you want in the background you'll prolly want an even higher fnumber... maybe 8+. Just tinker with it till you can find the settings you like best, that's how you'll learn your piece of equipment best. That's as best of a starting point as i can offer. Hope it helps.

Recap: Basically keep your camera in shutter priority so you know you'll be getting acceptably fast shutter speeds and adjust your iso up or down accordingly to affect the fstop to one that is desireable for the depth of field you want. Higher fstops = more in focus background. Hope that didn't confuse you too much but that's what i would do.