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.

The Prefect Action Shot.

When ever you go to a sporting event and want to take a picture you switch the mode to sports, but do you really know what is happening when you switch it to this mode? Unfortunately not all cameras will have a sports mode. knowing what the sports mode does can help use take a good action shot without have a fancy feature. the only thing that this mode is doing is increasing the shutter speed and widening the aperture so that there isn't any blurry areas. the best way to get the correct aperture and shutter speed is to use Av mode. "To take control and get the results you want we'd suggest you shoot in the semi-auto Av mode. in Av mode you set the aperture, and your camera sets the shutter speed for a standard exposure" (Byng 45). That's all there is to it. Some other neat pointers is to use a telephoto lens so get a better focus on your subject. this will affect how you adjust your shutter speed, "first up you need to set your shutter speed to overcome camera shake relative to your Len's focal length. The longer the focal length, the more it will amplify any camera movement, especially at telephoto focal lengths of 300mm or 400mm" (Byng 46).

Constructing a Portrait

When you buy a camera, what are you mostly expecting to take pictures of? I would say it is to take pictures of other people. Portraits are an easy thing to master in photography and in the DSLR handbook, it tells you all the things that you need to make portraits easy.






The biggest part of making a perfect portrait is having good lighting. If you don't have the best lighting there are ways to work around it. You can use a reflector which comes in many shapes but mainly looks like a big shiny disc. "A reflector can turn dull people snaps into professional looking portraits" (Byng 68). The light will bounce off and warm the face of the subject.


another way to create good lighting for a great portrait is a flash diffuser. a diffuser is what does on a flash gun so you can "spread and soften the flashlight for more subtle shadows, smoother skin tones and altogether more flattering light" (Byng 70).






You might ask, what if we don't have any of those tools. it is ok, you will have to do it the harder way. And when I say the hard way, I mean setting the aperture and shutter speed yourself and angling the natural lighting so you get the glow that you want. When you are doing this you want to make sure that you have a wide aperture. "A wide aperture means you'll be able to use faster shutter speeds- which will reduce the risk of blur caused by camera shake or subject movement" (Byng 66). Using all of this information I took some portraits myself

Raw vs. JPEG shooting

Do you know when to shoot raw or JPEG? DO you even know what these words mean? "JPEG stands fro Joint Photographic Experts Group. IT's a file format that was developed for digital photography, and it has become a universal standard, able to be viewed anywhere, straight from the camera. Raw stands for... raw. It's simply a fine format in which the raw, unprocessed data from the camera sensor is stored. Unlike JPEG's, raw formats are specific to different camera manufactured and models, and you need specialist photo editing software to open, view or edit them" (Byng 134). What they are saying is that they are different ways to store and share files of photos. JPEG's are different for each camera and Raw is the same for every camera. but we still don't know wen to use them.

JPEG's are the most convenient optionx for sure. you can share your information instantly, smaller files and you don't take up as much space on your memory card or disc file. "to achieve this small size, however, JPEG's have to be compressed in-camera, and some picture information has to be discarded in the process. Raw pictures, on the other hand, are uncompressed, and this means they're big files - your memory cards will fill up faster, and the photo take longer to transfer form the camera;s buffer to the card, too... however, we still recommend shooting Raw in a wide range of circumstances. the bigger advantage is that you can alter many of the camera's shooting settings even after you've taken the picture" (Byng 134-5). the raw picture is more versatile and you do a lot of neat effects with them. 

Even though it sounds like Raw is better than JPEG pictures, you still need to find a right balance. if you shoot a lot of Raw pictures, then your memory will get filled up fast and JPEG you cant edit the pictures as well. find the balance and you can make great pictures.

Using your flash on your DSLR camera

One of the biggest part of a camera is the flash. But did you know that that you can change the settings on your flash? They call the flash the "flash fill" because you can fill in the camera with as much light as you want. this means that if you wanted to use the flash do take away some shadows when it is in the day you can change the settings to where everything isn't washed away.

The handbook asks a question, "Why do you need a flash" (Byng 118) and I found that question dumb because most people know what the flash does, it takes away the shadows. The book takes this meaning into a deeper level, "DSLR cameras have a limited 'dynamic range' which means they can only record detail in parts o the picture that are a few stops darker or lighter either side of the exposure set by the camera" (Byng 118). Basically it is saying that the camera can only focus on of the exposures to focus on so you cant change both parts of the image. So what you would do is have the exposure set to the brightest part of the image and use the flash fill the complete the other part. The flash will only be used to "fill" in the shadows and not overexpose the rest of the picture.

with flash                                             without flash

The flash seams very straight forward but what I found interesting is that you can change the settings of the flash. Luckily the book comes with a step by step instructions:

"1. Most of the cameras have a flash composition button. press this, then rotate the Quick Control Dial to adjust the built-in flash power - you'll see it change in the display

2. Press the Q button to activate the Quick control screen on the LCD. Highlight the flash compensation symbol, and rotate the main dial to adjust the settings.

3. Delve into the menus and you'll find a setting for controlling the compensation value of the flash. You can also adjust the power of the flashgun attached to the camera

4. Alternatively, if you're using a hotshoe-mounted flashgun, you can adjust the power via its own compensation buttons (which take priority over in -camera settings, and monitor the changes on its LCD" (Byng 119).

Flash is used in many situations but mostly it is used in portraits. many times the sun creates a shadow over the face of our image. Your problems get even worse if your subject is backlit by  a bright sky or wearing a hat to put his face in darkness. When multiple problems appear you can use the flash fill to open up those shadows. You can pop up the flash and use it to through away those shadows. Even if you aren't using a portrait this technique will work.

"Fancy using fill flash for more dramatic effect?" (Byng 120) Dramatic effect is what makes every photo unique, and you can get that effect with the flash fill. One way is to over expose the background so that the subject is more contrasted in the photo. what you do is take the meter of the back ground and make the stops just 1 or 2 stops darker than recommended. use the flash and fire away. There are also many more effects you can pull off with this setting. Sometimes not using a flash can add a special effect in itself with all the shadows. 

Flash is a great way to enhance your pictures. In some cases you must rely on the flash to make the picture even relatively decent. there are many settings in the camera that are hard to use but the flash is the easiest one to use. If you are a beginner for the cameras, try and figure our the flash, it could help a lot.