Using Telephoto Lenses
I nearly always choose a telephoto lens when shooting studio portraits but also to capture distant subjects, such as racecars, landscapes, wildlife, and close-ups, and it's simply a must for shooting sports. Telephoto lenses in the 85-100mm range are ideal for shooting portraits, whereas longer lenses 200-800mm allow you to photograph distant birds, wildlife, and most sporting events. When photographing wildlife, these lenses also allow you to maintain a safe working distance from the subject,...
Turn the Quick Control dial to set the color temperature by highlighting the K
The camera activates the White balance control with the K Kelvin icon highlighted. 6. Turn the Main dial to select a desired color temperature and then press the Set button to return to shooting. Always remember to press the Set button after making your temperature selection or the camera reverts to the previous Kelvin setting. The color temperature you set remains in effect until you change it. 4.5 This image was captured by using the Daylight white balance setting and the Standard Picture...
Ensuring Accurate Color with RAW Capture
If you're shooting RAW images, the easiest way to ensure accurate color is to photograph a white or gray card in the same light the subject is in and then use the gray card to set color balance when you process the images on the computer. Gray cards are specifically designed to render accurate color by providing a neutral white balance reference point that you can use during image-editing to color-balance batches of images. Once an accurate gray point is established for an image, all other...
Using the D Mark II Menus
With all the new internal features added to the 5D Mark II, the LCD menus needed to be redesigned to handle all the new shooting options, controls, and settings. The new menu layout is similar to the Canon 40D and the Canon 50D and a design departure from the older 5D and previous EOS digital cameras. 5D photographers should have no difficulty getting up to speed with the new menu layout and should also really enjoy the larger type and auto-brightness control on the beautiful 3-inch diagonal...
Using TiltShift Lenses
Referred to as TS-E lenses, tilt shift lenses enable you to alter the angle of the plane of focus between the lens and sensor plane to provide a broad depth of field even at wide apertures and to correct or alter perspective at almost any angle. TS-E lenses correct perspective distortion and control focusing range and are a staple in architectural photography. Tilt movements allow you to bring an entire scene into focus, even at maximum apertures. By tilting the lens barrel, you can adjust the...
Packing Your Gear Bag Evg
What you pack in your gear bag doubtlessly changes from time to time to match the specific nature of the stock shoot or editorial assignment. Particularly for editorial shooting outdoors, it's important to have protection for the camera in inclement weather. The 5D Mark II has increased weather sealing over the previous model but not nearly the extensive treatment found on the flagship cameras. Storm Jacket www.stormjacket.com and Fotosharp www.fotosharp.com offer a variety of weatherproof...
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warm, defined, 252 warm-up filters, 181 water-resistant lenses, 106 weatherproof sleeves, 171 wedding photography. See also portrait photography capturing the ceremony, 223-225 after the ceremony, 226-228 challenges of, 215, 216 Custom Functions set for table , 98-99 detail images, 227 flash for, 221, 224 lenses for, 220, 224, 225 lighting for, 222-223 marketing, 216-217 overview and trends, 216-218 packing for shoots, 220-222, 230 photojournalistic approach, 216 portraits, 228-229 preparing...
Shooting Nature Landscape and Travel Images
The 5D Mark II offers increased creative control for expressing your photographic vision with the assurance that the final image resolution will be excellent. The new CMOS sensor in the camera has a high resolution that's beyond 2,000 lines of strong detail for excellent prints from 24 x 36 and larger. The strong performance of the 5D Mark II with low noise at high ISO settings also adds another dimension of creativity for low-light shooting. And with a useable dynamic range in both JPEG and...
Choosing a Color Space
Your choice of color space should enhance your overall workflow and enable you to maintain color reproduction consistently across all your devices and capture as much image data as possible. Whichever option you choose, remember that you can always change the color space in Photoshop or DPP. DPP supports sRGB, ColorMatch RGB, Apple RGB, and Wide Gamut RGB color spaces. ICC profiles can also be attached to TIFF and JPEG images when converted from RAW files. This allows faithful reproduction of...
Professional Advice for Shooting Weddings
One of the beautiful aspects of modern digital photography is that so many photographers willingly share advice with each other. And this is no less true of wedding photographers. Some suggestions and ideas for the next wedding that you shoot include Get to know the couple before the wedding. Every minute you spend getting to know the couple in advance of the wedding pays off in wedding images that reflect their unique personalities and their hopes and dreams for the life they're beginning...
Understanding Canon Lenses
The 5D Mark II Is compatible with the Canon EF mount lenses but not with the EF-S lenses designed for the cropped sensor cameras from Canon. The 5D Mark II has a full-frame sensor that's equivalent to a 35mm film frame, 24 x 36mm, or simply a 2 3 ratio. There's no focal-length multiplication factor, so wide-angle lenses are truly wide angle, and telephoto lenses are true to their focal length just as they would be on a 35mm film camera. Although this full-frame sensor allows you to use the lens...
Acknowledgments
We live in an age of community, and I would be remiss if I didn't mention mine those wonderful people who answered my calls, spent hours discussing technical details, and volunteered time and equipment to help me create this book. My hearty thanks go out to Bob and Shirley Hunsicker, my early mentors in photography and business at Pharos Studios in Princeton, New Jersey to the master, Dean Collins, who taught me about light and to Rick Becker, of Becker Studios in New York City, who taught me...
Autoexposure Bracketing
Autoexposure Bracketing AEB takes three exposures of the same scene one exposure at the camera's recommended setting, an image above the recommended exposure, and an image below the recommended exposure. This is the traditional technique for ensuring an acceptable exposure in scenes that have challenging and or high-contrast lighting and in scenes that are difficult to set up again or that can't be reproduced. AEB is also used for image compositing where you take three different exposures of a...
Evaluating the D Mark IIs dynamic range
In general terms, a dynamic range is the range of highlight to shadow tones as measured in f-stops in a scene. In practice, you have to factor in the useable range by considering the effect of digital noise. If, for example, during image-editing, using a tonal curve adjustment in Photoshop or some other image-editing program brings up the details in the shadow areas, it also makes digital noise which is most prevalent in the shadows more visible. In addition, the grain size of noise also...
Aperture Priority AE
Aperture Priority AE mode, denoted as Av on the Mode dial, is the semiautomatic mode of preference for everyday shooting because it offers quick control over the aperture and, thus, control over one factor that determines depth of field. In this mode, you control the aperture by turning the Main dial, and the camera automatically calculates the appropriate shutter speed based on the light meter reading, the Metering mode, and the ISO. The 5D Mark II displays the selected aperture in the...
Increasing magnification with extension tubes and closeup lenses
Extension tubes are close-up accessories that provide high magnification from approximately 0.3 to 0.7 and can be used on many EF lenses, although a few exceptions exist. Extension tubes are placed between the camera body and lens and communicate to the camera via the eight electronic contact points. Canon offers two extension tubes the EF 12mm II and the EF 25mm II. The function of the camera and lens is unchanged, and extension tubes can be combined for greater magnification. A rough rule of...
After the Ceremony
There's a tendency after the wedding for everyone to relax a little now that the ceremony is over, but the photographer must stay sharp and plan for the next phase of shooting the party Details of the cake, food, flowers, table settings, and gifts are all part of the wedding story. The first dance, the parents' dance, toasts, testimonials, cake-cutting, and bouquet and garter tosses are all situations ripe for creative expression. Don't be afraid to use slower-than-normal shutter speeds known...
Camera Terminals
Figure 1.4 shows the interface terminals, which are located on the left side of the 5D Mark II under two rubber covers. Each cover is embossed with icons that identify the terminals underneath PC terminal OUT. This threaded terminal connects a flash unit that uses a flash sync cord. The maximum sync speed with non-Canon flash units is 1 200 sec. This type of flash unit can be used in concert with a Speedlite attached to the camera's hot shoe. The PC terminal can also sync with various studio...
A Basic OneLight Setup
The main light provides the modeling on the subject's face and form. You can combine key light with a softbox or an umbrella silver, gold, or shoot-through . You place the light at a 45 angle to the side of the camera, with the light pointed slightly down so that it creates a shadow between the end of the nose and the lip. Then, place a large silver or white reflector to the other side of the camera to soften the shadow created by the key light. Adjust the position of the key light, watching...
Understanding and Setting the White Balance
If you're out shooting images instead of behind a computer color-correcting images, then getting a handle on white balance is important. Different shooting assignments, the type and consistency of light, and the amount of time you have to set up the camera before and during a shoot are some of the factors that influence which white balance approach you may want to use. On the 5D Mark II, white balance options give you a variety of ways to ensure color that accurately reflects the light in the...
Zoom lenses
The versatility and convenience that zoom lenses offer are major reasons why prime lenses fell out of favor with the masses. Savvy photographers still prefer primes but acknowledge the benefit of zooms. Zoom lenses offer a variable range of focal lengths within a single lens, allowing you the equivalent of having three, four, or more single-focal-length lenses in one lens. Zoom lenses are available in wide-angle and telephoto ranges. In a zoom lens, part of the lens system moves along the...
Using Macro Lenses
Macro lenses open up a world of photographic possibilities by offering an extreme level of magnification. In addition, the reduced focusing distance allows beautiful, moderate close-ups as well as extreme close-ups of plants, flowers, insects, water droplets, and other small, intimate subjects. You can further reduce the focusing distance by using extension tubes detailed later in this chapter and or screw-on close-up lenses. The closer you look, the more there is to see. Both normal and...
Mixing Video and Sound
Although a complete discussion of editing techniques for video and sound is beyond the scope of this book, a few considerations about the process can hopefully offer some insight. You should download your audio video files to your computer and then use a software program to assemble them into a finished masterpiece for your family, friends, or clients to enjoy. Two software programs very popular with photographers and videographers alike are Final Cut Pro and Premiere Pro. Whereas Final Cut Pro...
Using WideAngle Lenses
Wide-angle lenses are great for capturing scenes like wide-open vistas, sweeping landscapes, and large groups of people as well as for taking pictures in places where space is limited. The distinguishing characteristic of wide-angle lenses is the greater range of the angle of view. Within the Canon lens lineup, you can choose angles of view ranging from the fisheye lens, which offers a 180 angle of view, to the 35mm, which offers a 63 angle of view. When you shoot with a wide-angle lens, keep...
ISO range expansion and Custom Function options
The 5D Mark II offers a wide ISO range, including Auto and settings from 100 to 6400 in 1 3-stop increments or 1 2-stop increments, set by using the options in C.Fn I-01. The ISO range can be expanded to include ISO 50 shown as L , 12800 shown as H1 , and an incredible 25600 shown as H2 by setting C.Fn I-03 to On. Be aware that ISO 50 reduces the dynamic range in the highlights by approximately 1 stop, which makes this sensitivity less useful in high-contrast light. ISO 50 can be useful in a...
Balancing lighting extremes
A little creative use of exposure modification on both the 5D Mark II and a Speedlite can help balance unequal lighting, such as a dim indoor scene and a bright outdoor view. The trick is to blend the extremes. With Speedlites that allow manual adjustment, a negative compensation for both the camera exposure and the flash works to balance the differences in light in the room with the brighter outdoor light. I also encourage you to explore the many lighting options that multiple Speedlites...
Canon Digital Photo Professional
Although I'm usually not a huge fan of the software supplied with the camera, DPP deserves another look, considering the expense and capabilities of third-party software and the often long stretches of time between updates. Very often, there are delays after a new camera debuts before updates to your favorite programs are available to handle RAW conversion. DPP ships with the camera, and the black, gray, and white interface is clean and professional-looking. For photographers without Photoshop,...
Essential Filters
The most useful filters in landscape, nature, and travel often referred to as outdoor photography include the following filters Skylight or UV Ultra violet filter. Skylight filters are colored glasses and usually have a touch of pink. In addition to absorbing UV light, the pinkish color of a Skylight filter can also counter the excessive blue color of the sky in a sunny day and produce a warmish tone. UV filters absorb UV light and are clear glass. Polarizer. Polarizers deepen blue skies,...
Resolution and frame rate
When referring to high-definition television, the reference is actually to the number of lines in the vertical display resolution. High-definition television HDTV resolution is 1080, or 720 lines. By contrast, regular digital television DTV is 480 lines upon which NTSC is based 480 visible scan lines out of 525 or 576 lines upon which PAL and SECAM are based 576 visible scan lines out of 625 . Additionally, current DVD quality isn't high definition, although the highdefinition disc system...
Choosing a Canon EXseries Speedlite
When choosing a Speedlite, it's important to evaluate your objectives and how you intend to use the flash unit. Questions you might ask yourself include Do you need a portable studio for location assignments Do you want to enhance macro and other nature shooting Do you need a Speedlite only for occasional use Additional considerations include the performance and power of the flash unit, such as the guide number, power output, wide-angle to telephoto coverage, wireless and multi-Speedlite...
Testing for dust
There are as many methods for testing as there are kinds of dust. I take a 200mm lens set to f 22, focus it to infinity with autofocus off, set the exposure compensation to 1.5, and then photograph my computer monitor displaying a blank white page. Any nonreflective light surface properly lit works even the sky but I find the dust really stands out when shooting a monitor image. The small aperture focuses the light rays from the lens to the sensor parallel to each other and causes any dust on...
Exploring Custom Functions
Custom Functions enable you to customize camera controls and operations to better suit your shooting style and thus save time. After you set a Custom Function option, it remains in effect until you change it. Some Custom Functions are handy for all shooting situations, whereas others are specific to different situations. For example, if you grow weary of pressing the AF Point selection button before manually selecting an AF point or using the Multi-controller, check out Custom Function III-3 it...
External stereo input
Connect the 5D Mark II to an external mic by way of a 3.5mm stereo mic jack. Shotgun or wireless microphones transceivers easily mounted to the camera's hot shoe are really the way to go if you want to attain professional-grade results. Previously mentioned Sennheiser and Rode products can raise the quality of your productions simply by the sounds they don't record, such as camera handling and movement as well as any operational noise the camera may generate on its own. 8.3 The 5D Mark II...
Packing Your Gear Bag Fjl
Packing gear for location shooting begins with checking everything to make sure it's in proper working order lenses blown off and clean, batteries charged, and CF cards formatted. When shooting close to your own location, you have the flexibility to bring along a larger selection of lenses, strobes, light modifiers, and accessories. If you're traveling by air or some other means to a location or studio session, you may need to consider renting comparable gear to see you through and still...
Choosing the File Format and Quality
The first menu item is file quality, and here you're offered three flavors of RAW and six versions of JPEGs or you can shoot and combine RAW and JPEG in separate files. You turn the Main dial to select the RAW parameters and the Quick Control dial to select them for JPEGs. If you choose the JPEG format, you can choose among different image sizes and among two compression ratios, ranging from low denoted as Fine compression to high denoted as Normal JPEG Large Normal Fine at 21.1 MB JPEG Medium...
DiGC Image Processor
Between the capture and recording stages is image-processing that determines how the signals from the sensor are translated into a viewable image. In the 5D Mark II, the processing is performed by the DiG C 4 image processor. Major advances responsible for the speed, advanced image-processing capabilities, and lower power consumption over the DiG C II processor include lower noise image development at all ISOs, higher-speed image-processing, improved highlight and shadow details, extended...
Maintenance Tips Your D Mark II
Canon ships the 5D Mark II with a free software package of several programs to make your digital workflow easier. These include programs to operate the camera from your computer, convert RAW files, update the firmware, and create your own Picture Styles. Canon has included several software programs with the 5D Mark II to add functionality and organization to your digital files. Along with the drivers that the camera needs to communicate with the computer, Canon includes the ZoomBrowserEX, EOS...
Sample Customizations
As a starting point for thinking about specific shooting situations, two sample Custom Functions groupings are shown in Tables 5.1 and 5.2. Your shooting preferences and the requirements of the specific scene may mean that the functions and options suggested here won't work for you. Unfortunately, you can't save groups of Custom Functions and recall them as a group except when you register camera settings for the three C modes. Setting or changing Custom Functions is relatively quick, so it's...
Selftimer modes
The two Self-timer modes are last. In these modes, the shutter delays firing by 2 or 10 seconds after pressing the Shutter button or when using a remote trigger. The time stays true to its setting even when using mirror lockup set with C.Fn III-06. The self-timer lamp on the front of the camera blinks, a beep is slowly emitted depending on the setting for 1 or 9 seconds, and then the speed of the beep and the lamp blinking increases for the final second before the shutter fires. The camera also...
Choosing an Exposure Mode
The 5D Mark II Mode dial offers a Full Auto mode as well as the traditional Shooting modes that you've grown accustomed to Program AE P , Shutter Priority Tv , Aperture Priority Av , Manual M , and Bulb B . In addition, the 5D Mark II features a new Creative Auto mode and adds three user settings, denoted as C1, C2, and C3 on the Mode dial. Full Auto, labeled as a green rectangle on the Mode dial, offers camera-controlled automatic exposure, color, and focusing. P, Tv, and Av modes offer...
Flash Exposure Compensation
Flash Exposure Compensation is much like autoexposure compensation in that you can set compensation for flash exposure up to -2 stops in 1 3-stop increments. A positive compensation setting increases the flash output and vice versa. Flash Exposure Compensation helps reduce shadows in the background, balance unevenly lit scenes, and is a highly effective tool for producing natural-looking images. Generally, you can set compensation on either the camera or the Speedlite or both. If you set it on...
Setting the Date and Time
As digital photographers know, one of the first things necessary to setting up a smooth workflow involves setting the date and time on your cameras. After image capture, the image date and time figures into everything from file-naming and file-sorting on the computer to file storage and backup scenarios and retrieval. Time-stamping every single image that comes out of your camera yields many benefits for example, for larger assignments, such as weddings, where you or another photographer could...
Highspeed sync
High-speed flash sync FP flash allows you to take flash images at any shutter speed instead of limiting the fastest shutter speed to the 5D Mark II's X-sync speed of 1 200 sec. This means you have more latitude in using wide apertures to blur backgrounds in outdoor and indoor portraits. With fast shutter speeds, the effective flash range is shorter, and the range is shown on the Speedlite's LCD. When the Speedlite is set to high-speed sync flash, the stroboscopic flash can't be set. In addition...
Evaluating exposure
Following each exposure, you evaluate the exposure by inspecting the histogram. A histogram is a bar graph that shows the distribution of pixels in the image. The horizontal axis shows the range of values, and the vertical axis displays the number of pixels at each location. The 5D Mark II offers two types of histograms a brightness, or luminance, histogram and an RGB histogram that shows the tonal values for the Red, Green, and Blue color channels. A brightness, or luminance, histogram shows...
Inspiration and Creative Resources Evo
Once again, the Internet provides a wealth of sources for creative inspiration for both still and video subject matter and techniques. Depending on your area of interest, it pays to stay aware of current events and styles in entertainment, fashion, lifestyle, health and beauty, and the environment as well as politics and world affairs. For much of stock, timely images are at a premium, so it helps to be aware of current events both in the world and in your town. Topics such as global warming,...
Prime versus Zoom Lenses
In the film days, prime lenses were the way to go but may have lost some appeal with today's digital shooters. Prime lenses or lenses that have a fixed focal length, such as the venerable EF 50mm f 1.4 were once the staple in photojournalists' and other professionals' camera bags. Classic prime lenses in the Canon lineup include the EF 15mm f 2.8 Fisheye, a small lens weighing in at only 11.6 oz that provides a whopping 180 view. Other prime lenses include the EF 24mm f 1.4L USM, the EF 50mm f...
MOV Format and MPEG Video Compression
The 5D Mark II generates video files in the QuickTime MOV format, which is an Apple-developed format often used on Web sites for streaming audio or video. Apple distributes the QuickTime Player, allowing Windows and Mac users to view QuickTime multimedia either inside or outside of their Web browsers. Although the QuickTime player is free, Apple does sell a professional version that supports full-screen video and other features. Applications using MPEG-4 include compression of audio visual AV...
Restoring the Cameras Default Settings
With all the different settings, you may sometimes want to start fresh instead of backtracking to reset individual settings. The 5D Mark II offers several restore settings, including a Clear all camera settings option as well as a Clear copyright info option that allows you to clear the information that you entered in EOS Utility. This option is a good way to start fresh, but be aware that it resets all shooting and image-quality settings back to the factory defaults. In addition to the...
Using Speedlites
Depending on the Speedlite that you use, there are a variety of ways that you can control or modify flash exposure, either by making on-camera adjustments or by using the Speedlite controls. In addition, both the 5D Mark II and the Speedlite's Custom Functions enable you to customize various flash functions to suit your shooting requirements. Because Speedlites differ in functionality, following are some general ideas about the ways in which you can control and modify flash exposure. For...
Lens Controls
All Canon EF lenses provide both autofocus and manual focusing functionality via the AF MF Autofocus Manual Focus switch on the side of the lens. If you choose manual focusing, the 5D Mark II provides focus assistance to confirm sharp focus in the viewfinder. When sharp focus is achieved, the focus confirmation light in the viewfinder burns steadily, and the camera emits a focus confirmation beep, which you can turn off in the Shooting 1 menu. Figure 1.6 shows the lens controls. Focusing...