How to Master Your Cannon EOS D-SLR Camer

Have you ever just got the feeling like you can't take a good picture unless you have a good camera? It sometimes is true but you have to understand how to use your camera first. Recently my parents got this new and fancy D-SLR camera that cost a lot of money and I never see them use it. You may ask, "What a D-SLR camera" well it stands for digital single lenses reflex. I asked them why and they said "we don't know how to use it." I thought that was a dumb response because I think anyone can use a camera. All you do is press the button and a picture appears. But as I look at the camera are these hieroglyphics on the top and then you touch the screen and more pop up. I understudy what my parents where talking about. it is just over whelming. Because I know my parents aren't going to figure out how to operate this fancy machinery I though I would take a shot (pun intended).


I grabbed this "handbook" for the a D-SLR camera that should be called a phone book instead, and started flipping thought the pages and what do you know, the first 18 pages where on symbols. They made it easy to find these symbols thankfully. They where all divided into categories: Image Zone, Basic Zone, and Creative Zone. Each zone is made for different difficulties.




The first zone, image zone, is simple. There are 6 settings in this zone and only thing hard is figuring out which symbol is which. Each setting is "Fully automatic modes that are helpful for beginners, as your EOS D-SLR will take full control over exposure, focus point, and other settings to help you obtain a good shot. But you will be working within restricted parameters, with little control over your results" ( Byng 20). So basically is you don't know half of those words like shutter speed or aperture then you should use these settings. the first on is movie mode which, go figure, makes a movie/video. Most of the D-SLR wont have this setting but if it is up to date then this will appear. The night portrait is helpful with night portraits. these names are very self explanatory. Basically what the camera is doing is decreasing the shutter speed so that the light can come in and give more exposure to the photo making it light enough to see. the one that looks like a running man is called sports mode witch does the opposite of night portrait. it quickens the shutter speed to make sure that you can get the picture without it blurring.



The Flower looking one is a close up setting which sets a wider aperture so you can get a sharper result. Landscape is used when you want to get everything into focus and increasing the depth of field. The last on is Portrait which makes used the wider aperture to make the skin toned and hair look softer. These features aren't always located on the dial of the camera. Some cameras have then stored under the menu when you turn the camera on. These features are used if you don't know how to manage any of the manual features of the camera.




The Basic zone consists of Flash Off, Creative Auto, and Full Auto. Flash Off does exactly what you would think it would do, turns the flash off. Full Auto is when you are trying to sett up the photo and the camera automatically finds and analyses the scene. It automatically picks the best settings to capture it. This feature is made for good all around shooting. Creative Auto is the exact opposite of Full Auto. You do everything manually. you pick the aperture, shutter speed flash, all that jazz. This setting should be used if you really know what you are doing with a camera.




The last Zone is called Creative and has 7 features and is all semi-automatic. P stands fro Program AE is when you feel confident enough to get out of the full auto mode but you aren't quite sure what to do with the aperture. The camera will pick out the aperture for you and only the aperture in this setting. this means that you have to understand how to use the shutter speed. Av is the setting is the mode that is most suggested. It is almost the opposite of P, it sets the shutter speed for you but you have to set the aperture yourself. Now C is this big convoluted setting that you must set your self. it stands fro custom which means you can set every detail that you want for you shot without having to start over every single time. the next mode is called Shutter Priority with a symbol of Tv. this means that everything is focused around the shutter speed. it is almost like P but this automatically sets more features like depth of field and exposure. B stands for bulb which means that shutter will stay open as long as you hold the button down. This can make some really cool picture that blur together but is extremely hard to use. In Manual mode (M) you set both the aperture and the shutter speed. all the information that is needed to make perfect picture is located at the top right of the camera. It tells the aperture, shutter speed and all other doohickeys that are needed.




There features are just the first of many. they are located on the dial of the camera. This is the only the dial, there still is a whole entire menu to go through and to understand. "The excitement can soon give way to frustration when you discover that you cant get the best our of your D-SLR because you're overwhelmed by all the options and features, and you find that your photos aren't coming out as you'd hoped" (Byng 8). Are you over whelmed yet? I know I am but I'm sure in the end I will get the hang of it.