Monitor Matters Picture Playback and Live View Shooting
Exploring picture playback functions Viewing images on the camera monitor Deciphering the picture information displays Understanding the exposure histogram Deleting bad pictures and protecting great ones Using your monitor as a viewfinder in Live View mode MMyithout question, my favorite thing about digital photography is being able to view my pictures on the camera monitor the instant after I shoot them. No more guessing whether I captured the image I wanted or need to try again no more...
Setup Menu 1
Setup Menu 2, shown in Figure 1-16, offers an additional batch of customization options. But you can take advantage of only the following options in all exposure modes Full Auto, Manual, Portrait, and so on LCD Brightness This option enables you to make the camera monitor brighter or darker. After highlighting the option on the menu, as shown in Figure 1-16, press Set to display a screen similar to what you see in Figure 1-17. The camera displays a picture from your memory card in the main...
o
Set the AF autofocus mode to AI Servo continuous-servo auto- focus . Press the right cross key to access this setting. Chapter 6 details these autofocus options. 6. Turn off automatic image review to speed up the camera even more. You do this via the Review Time option on Shooting Menu 1. Turning the option off can help speed up the time your camera needs to recover between shots. 7. Compose the subject to allow for movement across the frame. You can always crop the photo later to a tighter...
Recapping Basic Picture Settings
Your subject, creative goals, and lighting conditions determine which settings you should use for some picture-taking options, such as aperture and shutter speed. I offer my take on those options throughout this chapter. But for a few basic options, I recommend the same settings for almost every shooting scenario. Table 7-1 lists these options as well as how you access them. Figure 7-1 offers a reminder of where to find the buttons that are referenced in the table. The ISO button isn't fully...
Ten Fast PhotoEditing Tricks
Using the editing tools in Canon ZoomBrowser EX and ImageBrowser Correcting exposure and color problems Creating the illusion of sharper focus very photographer produces a clunker image now and then. When it happens to you, don't be too quick to reach for the Erase button on your camera. Many common problems are surprisingly easy to fix using the tools found in most photo editing programs. In fact, you can perform many common retouching tasks using one of the free programs provided with your...
Rotating Vertical pictures
When you take a picture, the camera can record the image orientation that is, whether you held the camera normally, creating a horizontally oriented image, or turned the camera on its side to shoot a vertically oriented photo. This bit of data is simply added into the picture file. Then when you view the picture, the camera reads the data and rotates the image so that it appears upright in the monitor, as shown on the left in Figure 4-5. The image is also rotated automatically when you view it...
Printing and Sharing Your Photos
Setting the stage for great prints Looking at retail printing options Printing using the Canon software Preparing a picture for the Web Creating a slide show Viewing images on a TV hen my first digital photography book was published, way back in the WW 1990s, consumer digital cameras didn't offer the resolution needed to produce good prints at anything more than postage-stamp size and even then, the operative word was good, not great. And if you did want a print, it was a pretty much a...
Automatic scene modes aka Image Zone modes
In Full Auto mode, the camera tries to figure out what type of picture you want to take by assessing what it sees through the lens. If you don't want to rely on the camera to make that judgment, your camera offers six other fully automatic modes that are specifically designed for taking popular categories of pictures. For example, most people prefer portraits that have softly focused backgrounds. So in Portrait mode, the camera selects settings that can produce that type of background. These...
Exploring External Camera Controls
Scattered across your camera's exterior are a number of buttons, dials, and switches that you use to change picture-taking settings, review and edit your photos, and perform various other operations. In later chapters, I discuss all of your camera's functions in detail and provide the exact steps to follow to access those functions. This section provides just a basic road map to the external controls plus a quick introduction to each. You may want to put a sticky note or other bookmark on this...
Ten SpecialPurpose Features to Explore on a Rainy Day
Customizing the function of the Set button Changing the focus and exposure locking controls Disabling the autofocus-assist beam Using mirror lockup for shake-free shooting Recording Dust Delete Data Wallpapering your computer monitor with a favorite image Creating custom menus m onsider this chapter the literary equivalent of the end of one of those late-night infomercial offers the part where the host exclaims, But wait There's more The ten features covered in these pages fit the category of...
Pixels and file size
Every additional pixel increases the amount of data required to create a digital picture file. So a higher-resolution image has a larger file size than a low-tftNG resolution image. Large files present several problems You can store fewer images on your memory card, on your computer's hard drive, and on removable storage media such as a CD-ROM. The camera needs more time to process and store the image data on the memory card after you press the shutter button. This extra time can hamper...
Qff Auto n
r cn n 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 3 10 11 12 The technique you use to change the exposure settings depends on the exposure mode, as outlined in the following list P programmed auto In this mode, the camera initially displays its recommended combination of aperture and shutter speed. To select a different combination, rotate the Main dial. To select a lower f-stop number larger aperture and faster shutter speed, rotate the dial to the right. To select a higher f-stop number smaller aperture and slower...
Controlling ISO
As explained at the start of this chapter, your camera's ISO setting controls how sensitive the image sensor is to light. At higher ISO values, you need less light to expose an image. Remember the downside to raising ISO however The higher the ISO, the greater the possibility of noisy images. See Figure 5-7 for a reminder of what that defect looks like. In the fully automatic exposure modes, the camera selects an ISO from 100 to 800, depending on the available light. You have no control over...
Erasing single images
To delete photos one at a time, take these steps 1. Select the image that you want to delete. If you are viewing images in single-frame mode, just display the image on the monitor. In index display mode, use the cross keys to move the highlight box over the image thumbnail. It's the one with the little trash can icon, as shown in the margin here. Two options Cancel and Erase appear at the bottom of the screen, as shown in Figure 4-19. 3. Highlight Erase and then press the Set button. Your...
Shooting Information display
In the Shooting Information display mode, the camera presents a thumbnail of your image along with scads of shooting data, as shown in Figure 4-11. Remember Just press the DISP button to cycle through display modes. The chart-like thingy on the right side of the screen is an exposureevaluation tool known as a histogram. You can get schooled in reading histograms in the next section. Figure 4-11 You can view more data in any areas f the image thumbnail Shooting Information playback mode. are...
Flash in Advanced Exposure Modes
Sometimes, no amount of fiddling with aperture, shutter speed, and ISO produces a bright enough exposure in which case, you simply have to add more light. The built-in flash on your camera offers the most convenient solution. To pop up the flash, press the Flash button on the side of the camera, highlighted in Figure 5-22. To turn off the flash, just press down on the flash assembly to close it. As you can in the fully automatic Flash button modes, you also can set the flash to Red-Eye...
f I f I f
Figure 5-11 In manual mode, the meter indicates whether exposure settings are on target. Because the meter is designated as an exposure compensation guide when you shoot in the P, Tv, Av, and A-DEP modes, the camera alerts you to exposure problems in those modes as follows Av mode aperture-priority autoexposure The shutter speed value blinks to let you know that the camera can't select a shutter speed that will produce a good exposure at the aperture you selected. You need to choose a different...
Controlling Picture Quality
Reviewing factors that lead to poor photo quality Exploring resolution, pixels, and ppi Calculating the right resolution for traditional print sizes Understanding the tradeoff between picture quality and file size Deciding on the best file format JPEG or Raw Picking the right JPEG quality level A lmost every review of the Rebel XS 1000D contains glowing reports about the camera's top-notch picture quality. As you've no doubt discovered for yourself, those claims are true, too This baby can...
Part IV The Part of Tens
In famous For Dummies tradition, the book concludes with two top ten lists containing additional bits of information and advice. Chapter 10, Ten Fast Photo-Editing Tricks, shows you how to fix less-than-perfect images using the free software provided with your camera. You can find out how to remove red-eye, adjust color and exposure, crop your photo, and more. Chapter 11, Ten Special-Purpose Features to Explore on a Rainy Day, presents information about some camera features that, while not...
Jumping through images
If your memory card contains scads of images, here's a trick you'll love By using the Jump feature, you can rotate the Main dial to leapfrog through pic-l 0 tures instead of pressing the right or left cross key a bazillion times to get to the picture you want to see. You also can search for the first image shot on a specific date. 1. Press the Playback button to put the camera into Playback mode. The jump bar appears at the bottom of the monitor, as shown in Figure 4-3. 3. Select a Jump mode...
Setup Menu
At the risk of being labeled conventional, I suggest that you start your camera customization by opening this menu, shown in Figure 1-15. Here's a quick rundown of each menu item Auto Power Off To help save battery power, your camera automatically powers down after a certain period of inactivity. By default, the shutdown happens after 30 seconds, but you can change the shutdown delay to 1, 2, 4, 8, or 15 minutes. Or you can disable auto shutdown altogether by selecting the Off setting. Figure...
Coping with Special Situations
A few subjects and shooting situations pose some additional challenges not already covered in earlier sections. So to wrap up this chapter, here's a quick list of ideas for tackling a variety of common tough-shot photos Shooting through glass To capture subjects that are behind glass, try putting your lens flat against the glass. Then switch to manual focusing the glass barrier can give the autofocus mechanism fits. Disable your flash to avoid creating any unwanted reflections, too. I used this...
Viewing Images in Playback Mode
To switch your camera to Playback mode and view the images currently on your memory card, take these steps 1. Press the Playback button, labeled in Figure 4-2 and shown in the margin here. The monitor displays the last picture you took along with some shooting data. To find out how to interpret the picture data and specify what data you want to see, see the upcoming section Viewing Picture Data. If you're curious about your options now, though, press the DISP button to cycle through the...
Understanding your cameras approach to flash
pj. STo When you use flash, your camera automatically calculates the flash power . iiix needed to illuminate the subject. This process is sometimes referred to as flash metering. Your Rebel XS 1000D uses a flash-metering system that Canon calls E-TTL II. The E stands for evaluative TTL, for through the lens. And the II refers to the fact that this system is an update to the first version of the system. It isn't important that you remember what the initials stand for or even the flash system's...
Introducing the Exposure Trio Aperture Shutter Speed and ISO
Any photograph, whether taken with a film or digital camera, is created by focusing light through a lens onto a light-sensitive recording medium. In a film camera, the film negative serves as that medium in a digital camera, it's the image sensor, which is an array of light-responsive computer chips. Between the lens and the sensor are two barriers, known as the aperture and shutter, which together control how much light makes its way to the sensor. The actual design and arrangement of the...
Part IV The Part of Tens 1
4. Set the Retouching mode to Color Adjustment. Windows Select Color Adjustment from the drop-down list at the top of the window refer to Figure 10-10 . After you do so, the window offers three sliders Brightness, Saturation, and Contrast. Mac Click the Color Adjustment button. The Mac version of the tool offers just a Saturation and Brightness slider. One note about the Brightness and Contrast controls These tools aren't the best options for adjusting exposure and contrast. You can get much...
Manipulating Focus and Color
Controlling the camera's autofocusing performance Choosing an autofocus mode Autofocusing in Live View mode Understanding focal lengths, depth of field, and other focus factors Exploring white balance and its affect on color Stretching your color palette with Adobe RGB Tweaking color and sharpening via Picture Styles 7o many people, the word focus has just one interpretation when applied to a photograph Either the subject is in focus or it's blurry. And it's true, this characteristic of your...
Full Auto mode
In this mode, represented on the Mode dial by the rectangle you see in the margin here, the camera selects all settings based on the scene that it detects in front of the lens. Your only job is to lock in focus, using the two- stage autofocus technique I outline at the beginning of the chapter, or by setting the lens to manual focus mode and using the focus ring on the lens, as explained in Chapter 1. Full Auto mode is great for casual, quick snapshooting. But keep these limitations in mind...
Exploring Other Software Options
The Canon browser software is a nifty tool for viewing and organizing your photos. And it enables you to perform basic retouching You can crop your image and make some adjustments to color, exposure, and sharpness. Chapter 10 shows you how. But the program isn't designed for serious photo editing. For one thing, you can't perform selective editing changing only the part of your image that needs help. And you don't get any tools for removing flaws such as blemishes in portraits and the like. So...
Working with Picture Files
Come cm, Walt. Time to ireshen the cowpatt-g Web page.11 IXou've got a memory card full of pictures. Now what Now you turn to the first chapter in this part, which explains how to get those pictures out of your camera and onto your computer and, just as important, how to safeguard them from future digital destruction. After downloading your files, head for Chapter 9, which offers step-by-step guidance on printing your pictures, sharing them online, and even viewing them on your television.
Changing the white balance setting
To switch from automatic to manual white balancing, follow these steps 1. Set the camera Mode dial to P, Tv, Av, M, or A-DEP. You can tweak white balance only in these advanced exposure modes. You see the White Balance screen, shown on the left in Figure 6-18. Figure 6-18 Press the WB button to access white balance options. Figure 6-18 Press the WB button to access white balance options. 3. Press the right or left cross key to highlight the setting you want to use. As you scroll through the...
Diagnosing Quality Problems
When I use the term picture quality, I'm not talking about the composition, exposure, or other traditional characteristics of a photograph. Instead, I'm referring to how finely the image is rendered in the digital sense. Figure 3-1 illustrates the concept The first example is a high-quality image, with clear details and smooth color transitions. The other examples show five common digital-image defects. High quality Pixelation JPEG artifacts High quality Pixelation JPEG artifacts Figure 3-1...
Choosing an Exposure Metering Mode
The metering mode determines which part of the frame the camera analyzes to calculate the proper exposure. Your Rebel XS 1000D offers three metering modes, described in the following list and represented in the Shooting Settings display by the icons you see in the margins Evaluative metering The camera analyzes the entire frame and then selects an exposure that's designed to produce a balanced exposure. Partial metering The camera bases exposure only on the light that covers approximately the...
Understanding File Type JPEG or Raw
In addition to establishing the resolution of your photos, the Quality setting determines the file format. The file format simply refers to the type of image file that the camera produces. Your Canon offers two file formats, JPEG and Raw, with a couple variations of each. The next sections explain the pros and cons of each setting. Don't confuse file format with the Format option on Setup Menu 1. That option erases all data on your memory card see Chapter 1 for details.
Protecting Photos
You can protect pictures from accidental erasure by giving them protected status. After you take this step, the camera doesn't allow you to delete a picture with the Erase Images function. Formatting your memory card, however, does erase even protected pictures. See the nearby sidebar for more about formatting. The picture protection feature comes in especially handy if you share a camera with other people. You can protect pictures so that those other people know that they shouldn't delete your...
Getting Creative with Exposure and Lighting
Exploring advanced exposure modes P, Tv, Av, M, or A-DEP Understanding the basics of exposure Getting a grip on aperture, shutter speed, and ISO Tweaking autoexposure with exposure compensation Experimenting with exposure Custom Functions Using flash in the advanced exposure modes y using the fully automatic modes covered in Chapter 2, you can take great pictures with your Rebel XS 1000D. But to really exploit your camera's capabilities and, more important, to exploit your creative capabilities...
Attaching a lens
Your camera can accept two categories of Canon lenses those with a so-called EF-S design and those with a plain-old EF design. The EF stands for electro focus the S, for short back focus. And no, you don't really need to remember that little detail but you do need to make sure that if you buy a Canon lens other than the one sold with the camera, it carries either the EF or EF-S specification. If you want to buy a non-Canon lens, check the lens manufacturer's Web site to find out which lenses...
Kicking Your Camera into Advanced Gear
The first step to taking the exposure reins is to set your camera's Mode dial to one of the five shooting modes highlighted in Figure 5-1 P, Tv, Av, M, or A-DEP. You also need to shoot in one of these modes to use certain other camera features, such as manual white balancing, a color feature that you can explore in Chapter 6. Each of the five modes offers a different level of control over two critical exposure settings, aperture and shutter speed. Later in this chapter, I explain these controls...
Controlling Color
Figure 6-15 Press this button to see how the aperture setting will affect depth of field. Compared with understanding some aspects of digital photography resolution, aperture and shutter speed, depth of field, and so on making sense of your camera's color options is easy-breezy. First, color problems aren't all that common, and when they are, they're usually simple to fix with a quick shift of your camera's white balance control. And getting a grip on color requires learning only a couple of...
Correcting colors with white balance
Every light source emits a particular color cast. The old-fashioned fluorescent lights found in most public restrooms, for example, put out a bluish-greenish light, which is why our reflections in the mirrors in those restrooms always look so sickly. And if you think that your beloved looks especially attractive by candlelight, you aren't imagining things Candlelight casts a warm, yellow-red glow that is flattering to the skin. Science-y types measure the color of light, officially known as...
Setting ISO fstop and Shutter Speed
If you want to control ISO, aperture f-stop , or shutter speed, you must set the camera to one of the five advanced exposure modes. Formally called Creative Zone modes in Canon nomenclature, these modes include programmed autoexposure P , shutter-priority autoexposure Tv , aperture-priority autoexposure Av , manual exposure M , and auto depth of field A-DEP . I explain each of these modes at the start of the chapter. The next sections provide specifics finally, you say on how to adjust ISO,...
Monitoring Exposure Settings
When you press the shutter button halfway, the current f-stop, shutter speed, and ISO speed appear in both the viewfinder display, as shown in Figure 5-9, and in the Shooting Settings display, as shown in Figure 5-10. In Live View mode, the exposure data appears at the bottom of the monitor and takes a form similar to what you see in the viewfinder. The upcoming sidebar provides information about exposure-related aspects of shooting in Live View mode. In the viewfinder and on the monitor in...
Safeguarding your digital photo files
To make sure that your digital photos enjoy a long, healthy life, follow these storage guidelines Don't rely on your computer's hard drive for long-term, archival storage. Hard drives occasionally fail, wiping out all files in the process. This warning applies to both internal and external hard drives. Camera memory cards, flash memory keys, and other portable storage devices are similarly risky. All are easily damaged if dropped or otherwise mishandled. And being of diminutive stature, these...
Locking the flash exposure
You might never notice it, but when you press the shutter button to take a picture with flash enabled, the camera emits a very brief preflash before the actual flash. This preflash is used to determine the proper flash power needed to expose the image. On occasion, the information that the camera collects from the preflash can be off-target because of the assumptions the system makes about what area of the frame is likely to contain your subject. To address this problem, your camera has a...
Doing the exposure balancing act
As you change any of the three exposure settings aperture, shutter speed, and ISO one or both of the others must also shift in order to maintain the same image brightness. If you want a faster shutter speed, for example, you have to compensate with either a larger aperture, to allow in more light during the shorter exposure, or a higher ISO setting, to make the camera more sensitive to the light, or both. And as the preceding section explains, changing these settings impacts your image in ways...
Locking Autoexposure Settings
To help ensure a proper exposure, your camera continually meters the light until the moment you depress the shutter button fully to shoot the picture. In autoexposure modes that is, any mode but M it also keeps adjusting exposure settings as needed. For most situations, this approach works great, resulting in the right settings for the light that's striking your subject at the moment you capture the image. But on occasion, you may want to lock in a certain combination of exposure settings....
Erase images Print order Transfer order 1
Histogram Brightness Auto play Figure 4-21 You can delete multiple selected images at once. 2. Highlight Select and Erase Images and press the Set button. You see the current image in the monitor. At the top of the screen, a little check box appears, as shown in Figure 4-22. 3. Press the up or down cross key to put a check mark in the box and tag the image for deletion. If you change your mind, press the cross key again to remove the check mark. 4. Press the left or right cross keys to view the...
White Balance Symbols
Figure 6-23 The - symbol lets you know that white balance shift is being applied. H NG Your adjustment remains in force for all the advanced exposure modes until you change it. And the correction is applied no matter what White Balance setting you choose. So make it a point to check the monitor or viewfinder before your next shoot otherwise, you may forget to adjust the white balance for the current light. 6. To cancel White Balance Correction, repeat Steps 1-3, set the marker back to the...
Using your mouse as a shutter button
Along with providing a convenient way for you to download images, the EOS Utility software enables you to use your computer to actually shoot pictures. While your camera is connected to your computer, clicking the Camera Settings Remote Shooting button in the main EOS Utility window displays a panel containing clickable controls for adjusting the major camera settings, such as aperture, white balance, ISO, and metering mode. After you establish those settings, you click another button to record...
Exploring more flash options
Setup Menu 2, shown on the left in Figure 5-29, offers an option called Flash Control. Through this menu item, you can customize a few additional aspects of your camera's built-in flash as well as an external flash head. LCD brightness Qi . 7 . ,i - j Date Time 08 21 08 14 34 Language English Video system NTSC Sensor cleaning Live View function settings External flash func. setting External flash C.Fn setting Clear ext. flash C. Fn set. Figure 5-29 You can customize additional flash options via...