Picture Style Editor
The Picture Style Editor, shown in Figure 8.1, allows you to create your own custom Picture Styles, or edit existing styles, including the Standard, Landscape, Faithful, and other predefined settings already present in your EOS 40D. You can change sharpness, contrast, color saturation, and color tone and a lot more Figure 8.1 The new Picture Style Editor lets you create your own Picture Styles for use by the 40D or Digital Photo Professional when importing image files. Figure 8.1 The new...
Basic Zone Modes
Your Canon EOS 40D includes seven Basic Zone shooting modes that can automatically make all the basic settings needed for certain types of shooting situations, such as portraits, landscapes, close-ups, sports, night portraits, and no-flash zone pictures. They are especially useful when you suddenly encounter a picture-taking opportunity and don't have time to decide exactly which Creative Zone mode you want to use. Instead, you can spin the Mode Dial to the appropriate Basic Zone mode and fire...
Aperture Priority
In Av mode, you specify the lens opening used, and the 40D selects the shutter speed. Aperture Priority is especially good when you want to use a particular lens opening to achieve a desired effect. Perhaps you'd like to use the smallest f stop possible to maximize depth-of-field in a close-up picture. Or, you might want to use a large f stop to throw everything except your main subject out of focus, as in Figure 4.8. Maybe you'd just like to lock in a particular f stop because it's the...
Your Autofocus Mode Options
Choosing the right autofocus mode and the way in which focus points are selected is your key to success. Using the wrong mode for a particular type of photography can lead to a series of pictures that are all sharply focused on the wrong subject. When I first started shooting sports with an autofocus SLR back in the film camera days , I covered one game alternating between shots of base runners and outfielders with pictures of a promising young pitcher, all from a position next to the third...
Diffusing and Softening the Light
Direct light can be harsh and glaring, especially if you're using the flash built into your camera, or an auxiliary flash mounted in the hot shoe and pointed directly at your subject. The first thing you should do is stop using direct light unless you're looking for a stark, contrasty appearance as a creative effect . There are a number of simple things you can do with both continuous and flash illumination. Use window light. Light coming in a window can be soft and flattering, and a good...
Avoiding Potential WideAngle Problems
Wide-angle lenses have a few quirks that you'll want to keep in mind when shooting so you can avoid falling into some common traps. Here's a checklist of tips for avoiding common problems Symptom converging lines. Unless you want to use wildly diverging lines as a creative effect, it's a good idea to keep horizontal and vertical lines in landscapes, architecture, and other subjects carefully aligned with the sides, top, and bottom of the frame. That will help you avoid undesired perspective...
Improved CrossType Focus Points
One improvement that new Canon EOS 40D owners sometimes overlook is the upgrade to cross-type focus points at all nine focus zone positions with lenses having that f 5.6 or larger maximum aperture , plus a center cross-type focus point that is extra sensitive when used with lenses having a maximum f stop of f 2.8 or better. Why is this important It helps to review exactly how the 40D determines focus. The camera looks for contrast between adjacent pixels to determine relative sharp-ness...
Upgrading Your Firmware
If you're computer savvy, you might wonder how your EOS 40D is able to overwrite its own operating system that is, how can the existing firmware be used to load the new version on top of itself It's a little like lifting yourself by reaching down and pulling up on your bootstraps. Not ironically, that's almost exactly what happens At your command when you start the upgrade process , the 40D shifts into a special mode in which it is no longer operating from its firmware but, rather, from a small...
Shutter Priority
Shutter priority Tv is the inverse of aperture priority you choose the shutter speed you'd like to use, and the camera's metering system selects the appropriate f stop. Perhaps you're shooting action photos and you want to use the absolute fastest shutter speed available with your camera in other cases you might want to use a slow shutter speed to add some blur to a sports photo that would be mundane if the action were completely frozen. See Figure 4.9. Shutter Priority mode gives you some...
Clear all Custom Func CFn
Each C. Fn. screen has from three to seven settings, represented by the numbers at the bottom of the screen. Current setting of ' the Custom Function above C. Fn III Auto focus Drive Lens AF stop button function 3 AF point M- gt Auto Auto- gt ctr 4 ONE SHOT Al SERVO Scroll bar appears when more than five options are available Function number. The function number appears in two places. In the upper-right corner you'll find a box with the current function clearly designated. In the lower half of...
Working with Long Exposures
Because the EOS 40D produces such good images at longer exposures, and there are so many creative things you can do with long-exposure techniques, you'll want to do some experimenting. Get yourself a tripod or another firm support and take some test shots with long exposure noise reduction both enabled and disabled to see whether you prefer low noise or high detail and get started. Here are some things to try Make people invisible. One very cool thing about long exposures is that objects that...
Continuous Shooting
The Canon EOS 40D's pair of Continuous Shooting modes remind me how far digital photography has brought us. The first accessory I purchased when I worked as a sports photographer some years ago was a motor drive for my film SLR. It enabled me to snap off a series of shots in rapid succession, which came in very handy when a fullback broke through the line and headed for the end zone. Even a seasoned action photographer can miss the decisive instant when a crucial block is made, or a baseball...
Using Multiple Light Sources
Once you gain control over the qualities and effects you get with a single light source, you'll want to graduate to using multiple light sources. Using several lights allows you to shape and mold the illumination of your subjects to provide a variety of effects, from backlighting to side lighting to more formal portrait lighting. You can start simply with several incandescent light sources, bounced off umbrellas or reflectors that you construct. Or you can use more flexible multiple electronic...
Sensor Cleaning
Those new to the concept of sensor dust actually hesitate before deciding to clean their camera themselves. Isn't it a better idea to pack up your 40D and send it to a Canon service center so their crack technical staff can do the job for you Or, at the very least, shouldn't you let the friendly folks at your local camera store do it Of course, if you choose to let someone else clean your sensor, they will be using methods that are more or less identical to the techniques you would use...
Creative Zone Flash
When you're using a Creative Zone mode, you'll have to judge for yourself when flash might be useful, and flip it up yourself by pressing the Flash button on the side of the pentaprism. The behavior of the internal flash varies, depending on which Creative Zone mode you're using. P A-DEP. In these modes, the 40D fully automates the exposure process, giving you subtle fill flash effects in daylight, and fully illuminating your subject under dimmer lighting conditions. The camera selects a...
Adding Circles of Confusion
But there are other factors in play, as well. You know that increased depth-of-field brings more of your subject into focus. But more depth-of-field also makes auto-focusing or manual focusing more difficult because the contrast is lower between objects at different distances. So, autofocus with a 200mm lens or zoom setting may be easier than at a 28mm focal length or zoom setting because the longer lens has less apparent depth-of-field. By the same token, a lens with a maximum aperture of f...
Fixing Exposures with Histograms
While you can often recover poorly exposed photos in your image editor, your best bet is to arrive at the correct exposure in the camera, minimizing the tweaks that you have to make in post-processing. However, you can't always judge exposure just by viewing the image on your 40D's LCD after the shot is made. Nor can you get a 100 percent accurately exposed picture by using the 40D's Live View exposure simulation feature described in Chapter 3. Ambient light may make the LCD difficult to see,...
DirectDirect TransferIndirectDirect Transfer
There are some advantages to transferring photos directly from your EOS 40D to a computer. The destination computer doesn't need to have a card reader all it requires is a USB port. So, if you have the USB cable that came with your camera, you can transfer photos to any computer that has the Canon utility software discussed later installed. However, direct transfer uses your 40D's internal battery power, while removing the card and transferring the photos with a card reader installed on the...
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To view only the information screen you prefer, choose INFO. Button from the Set-up 1 menu. Auto power off File numbering Auto rotate Use this item to erase everything on your memory card and set up a fresh file system ready for use. When you select Format, you'll see a display like Figure 3.23, showing the capacity of the card, how much of that space is currently in use, and two choices at the bottom of the screen to Cancel or OK proceed with the format . A blue-green bar appears on the screen...
i i i m m in
Figure 3.5 Same pose, same location but different days and red-eye is tamed right , thanks to the EOS 40D's redeye reduction lamp. Figure 3.5 Same pose, same location but different days and red-eye is tamed right , thanks to the EOS 40D's redeye reduction lamp. The EOS 40D's internal beeper provides a helpful chirp to signify various functions, such as the countdown of your camera's self-timer. You can switch it off if you want to avoid the beep because it's annoying, impolite, or distracting...
Activating Live View
Once you've enabled Live View, you can continue taking pictures normally through the 40D's viewfinder. When you're ready to activate Live View, press the Set button. The mirror will flip up, and the sensor image will appear on the LCD. Here are some things you should keep in mind when Live View is active Manual focus. You must focus manually, unless you use the optional Live View interrupt autofocus feature. Later in this section, I'll provide instructions for using MF with Live View. Exposure...
Canon 40d Connector
The Canon EOS 40D has an amazing number of buttons and dials and knobs and that's actually a good thing. While it might take you some time to learn the position and function of each of these controls, once you've mastered them this camera is remarkably easy to use. That's because dedicated buttons with only one or two functions each are much faster to access than the alternative a maze of menus that must be navigated every time you want to use a feature. For example, if you need to change the...
Review time
When you've moved the menu highlighting to the menu item you want to work with, press the Set button or multi-controller to select it. The current settings for the other menu items in the list will be hidden, and a list of options for the selected menu item or a submenu screen will appear. Within the menu choices you can scroll up or down with the Quick Control Dial or multi-controller, press Set or the multi-controller to select the choice you've made, and press the Menu button again to exit....
Using FE Lock and Flash Exposure Compensation
If you want to lock flash exposure for a subject that is not centered in the frame, you can use the FE Lock button to lock in a specific flash exposure. Just depress and hold the shutter button halfway to lock in focus, then center the viewfinder on the subject you want to correctly expose and press the button. The preflash fires and calculates exposure, displaying the FEL flash exposure lock message in the viewfinder. Then, recompose your photo and press the shutter down the rest of the way to...