We’ve covered a lot of ground in the previous chapters, especially on the general photographic concepts that apply to most, if not all, shooting situations. There are, however, some specific tools and techniques that will give you an added advantage in obtaining a great shot. Additionally, we will look at how to customize certain controls on your camera to reflect your personal shooting preferences and always have them at the ready.

Generally speaking, Evaluative metering mode provides accurate metering information for the majority of your photography. It does an excellent job of evaluating the scene and then relating the proper exposure information to you. The only problem with this mode is that, like any metering mode on the camera, it doesn’t know what it is looking at. There will be specific circumstances where you want to get an accurate reading from just a portion of a scene and discount all of the remaining area in the viewfinder. To give you greater control of the metering operation, you can switch the camera to Spot metering mode. This allows you to take a meter reading from a very small circle in the center of the viewfinder, while ignoring the rest of the viewfinder area.

So when would you need to use this? Think of a person standing in front of a very dark wall. In Evaluative metering mode, the camera would see the entire scene and try to adjust the exposure information so that the dark background is exposed to render a lighter wall in your image. This means that the scene would actually be overexposed and your subject would then appear too light. To correct this, you can place the camera in Spot metering mode and take a meter reading right off of—and only off of—your subject, ignoring the dark wall altogether.

Other situations that would benefit from Spot metering include:

Metering for Sunrise or Sunset

Capturing a beautiful sunrise or sunset is all about the sky. If there is too much foreground in the viewfinder, the camera’s meter will deliver an exposure setting that is accurate for the darker foreground areas but leaves the sky looking overexposed, undersaturated, and generally just not very interesting (Figure 10.2). To gain more emphasis on the colorful sky, point your camera at the brightest part of it and take your meter reading there. Use the AE Lock and then recompose. The result will be an exposure setting that underexposes the foreground but provides a darker, more dramatic sky (Figure 10.3).

Figure 10.2. By metering with all the information in the frame, you get bright skies and more detail in the ground.

Figure 10.3. By taking the meter reading from the brightest part of the sky, you will get darker, more colorful sunsets.

If you examined the Arizona sunrise shot in the chapter opener, you probably noticed that I used a fairly long shutter speed. While a third of a second is possible to handhold, the probability of getting some degree of handshake in the image is fairly high. A tripod at these exposure times is one way to ensure that the images are extremely sharp. Another factor that can affect the sharpness of the image comes from the mirror in the camera, which moves as it gets out of the way of the shutter.

For the absolute sharpest images, you can set the camera to raise the mirror prior to exposing the photo. Unlike the regular process of exposure—where the mirror moves at the same time that the picture is taken—the mirror is locked into the raised position until the shutter is activated, thus further reducing the possibility of camera shake.

Probably one of the most advanced, and yet most basic, skills to master is shooting in Manual mode. With the power and utility of most of the automatic modes, Manual mode almost never sees the light of day. I have to admit that I don’t select it for use very often, but there are times when no other mode will do. One of the situations that works well with Manual is studio work with external flashes. I know that when I work with studio lights, my exposure will not change, so I use Manual to eliminate any automatic changes that might happen from shooting in P, Tv, or Av mode.

Since you probably aren’t too concerned with studio strobes at this point, I will concentrate on one of the ways in which you will want to use Manual mode for your photography: long nighttime exposures.

Bulb Photography

If you want to work with long shutter speeds that don’t quite fit into one of the selectable shutter speeds, you can select Bulb. This setting is only available in Manual mode, and its sole purpose is to open the shutter at your command and then close it again when you decide. I can think of two scenarios where this would come in handy: shooting fireworks and shooting lightning.

If you are photographing fireworks, you could certainly use one of the longer shutter speeds available in Tv mode, since they are available for exposure times up to 30 seconds. That is fine, but sometimes you don’t need 30 seconds’ worth of exposure and sometimes you need more.

If you open the shutter and then see a great burst of fireworks, you might decide that that is all you want for that particular frame, so you click the button to end the exposure. Set the camera to 30 seconds and you might get too many bursts, but if you shorten it to 10 seconds you might not get the one you want.

The same can be said for photographing a lightning storm (Figure 10.4). I have a friend who loves electrical storms, and he has some amazing shots that he captured using the Bulb setting. Lightning can be very tricky to capture, and using the Bulb setting to open and then close the shutter at will allows for more creativity, as well as more opportunity to get the shot.

Figure 10.4. A great use for the bulb setting is for capturing a lightning storm, when you never know when the next big bolt is coming.

To select the Bulb setting, simply place your camera in Manual mode and then rotate the Main dial until the shutter speed displays Bulb on the upper LCD screen.

Bulb

If you are new to the world of photography, you might be wondering where in the world the bulb shutter function got its name. After all, wouldn’t it make more sense to call it the Manual Shutter setting? It probably would, but this is one of those terms that harkens back to the origins of photography. Way back when, the shutter was actually opened through the use of a bulb-shaped device that forced air through a tube, which, in turn, pushed a plunger down, activating the camera shutter. When the bulb was released, it pulled the plunger back, letting the shutter close, and ending the exposure.

When you’re using the Bulb setting, the shutter will only stay open for the duration that you are holding down the shutter button. You will also see a counter on the upper LCD screen that will count off the seconds that the shutter is open. You can use this counter to either add or subtract time for your next shot. You should also be using a sturdy tripod or shooting surface to eliminate any self-induced vibration. The Bulb setting can be used in conjunction with the Mirror Lockup feature for improved image sharpness.

I want to point out that using your finger on the shutter button for a bulb exposure will definitely increase the chances of getting some camera shake in your images. To get the most benefit from the bulb setting, I suggest using a remote cord such as the Canon RS-80N3 Remote Switch (see the bonus chapter for more details). You’ll also want to turn on the Long Exposure Noise Reduction, as covered in Chapter 8.

Shooting Lightning

If you are going to photograph lightning strikes in a thunderstorm, please exercise extreme caution. Standing in the open with a tripod is like standing over a lightning rod. Work from indoors if at all possible.

Lens flare is one of the problems you will encounter when shooting in the bright sun. Lens flare will show itself as bright circles on the image (Figure 10.5). Often you will see multiple circles in a line leading from a very bright light source such as the sun. The flare is a result of the sun bouncing off the multiple pieces of optical glass in the lens and then being reflected back onto the sensor. You can avoid the problem in one of these ways:

Figure 10.5. The bright sun in the upper-left corner has created flare spots that are visible as colored circles radiating down to the bottom-right corner of the image.

So what if you are doing everything right in terms of metering and mode selection, yet your images still sometimes come out too light or too dark? There is a technique called “bracketing” that you can use, which will help you find the best exposure value for your scene by taking a normal exposure as well as one that is over- and underexposed. Having these differing exposure values will most often present you with one frame that just looks better than the others. I use the Bracketing function all of the time, so I have it assigned to my Function button so that I can access it quickly. You can also change the bracketing by pressing the Multi-Controller toggle button, which brings up the Info screen on the rear LCD (Figure 10.6).

Figure 10.6. The Info screen displays all of your relevant shooting data and allows you to quickly see the bracketing information.

Once you have entered the Auto-Exposure Bracket screen, you must use the Main dial to decide how much variation you want between bracketed exposures. You can choose from two-thirds of a stop all the way to two stops per bracketed exposure. You can also dial in the amount of exposure compensation that you might need. To do this, rotate the Quick Control dial, which will control the starting point for the normal exposure. You can adjust the compensation as much as four stops in either direction, depending on the range of your bracketed exposures. Either way, bracketing will help you zero in on that perfect exposure, and you can just delete the ones that didn’t make the grade (Figures 10.7–10.9).

Figure 10.7. One stop of exposure below normal.

Figure 10.8. The normal exposure as indicated by the camera meter.

Figure 10.9. One stop of exposure above normal.

You can adjust the Exposure Compensation/AEB setting through the camera menu.

Put simply, macro photography is close-up photography. Depending on the lens or lenses that you got with your camera, you may have the perfect tool for macro work. Some lenses are made to shoot in a macro mode, but you don’t have to feel left out if you don’t have one of those. Check the spec sheet that came with your lens to see what the minimum focusing distance is for your lens.

If you have a zoom, you should work with the lens at its longest focal length. Also, work with a tripod, because handholding will make focusing difficult. The easiest way to make sure that your focus is precisely where you want it to be is to use Manual focus mode.

Since I am recommending a tripod for your macro work, I will also recommend using Av mode so that you can achieve differing levels of depth of field. Long lenses at close range can make for some very shallow depth of field, so you will need to work with apertures that are probably much smaller than you might normally use. If you are shooting outside, try shading the subject from direct sunlight by using some sort of diffusion material, such as a white sheet or a diffusion panel (see the bonus chapter). By diffusing the light, you will see much greater detail because you will have a lower contrast ratio (softer shadows), and detail is often what macro photography is all about (Figures 10.10 and 10.11).

Figure 10.10. Many times you can get some great abstract images by moving in close, such as with this orchid.

Figure 10.11. This close-up shot of a butterfly was handheld in a butterfly house so I had to use a high ISO to get enough shutter speed to keep things sharp.

Your camera provides a function that can automatically make your pictures look better: Auto Lighting Optimizer. It works this way: the camera evaluates the tones in your image and then lightens any areas that it believes are too dark or lacking in contrast (Figures 10.12 and 10.13). This optimization is applied automatically in the shooting modes of the Basic zone.

Figure 10.12. Without the Auto Lighting Optimizer, the shadows in the stairwell are dark and contrasty.

Figure 10.13. Although the exposure hasn’t changed, the shadows are brighter after changing the Optimizer to the Strong setting.

You can choose from four levels: Standard, Low, Strong, and Disable. You will need to evaluate the strength of the effect on your images and change it accordingly. I typically leave it set to Standard so that I have brighter, more detailed shadow areas in my photographs. You should know that the Auto Lighting Optimizer does not work with your camera set to Manual mode. Also, disable it if you are using flash exposure compensation since it will try to work against you when you alter the flash strength.

One of the features that I love about the 50D is the Custom Setting modes that are built into the camera’s Mode dial. If you look at the Mode dial, you will see two settings labeled C1 and C2 just past the A-DEP icon. These two modes allow you to customize the camera to any configuration that you would like and then record those settings as a preset. The next time you want to use those camera settings, you simply turn the dial to the custom mode and you are ready to shoot.

For example, I shoot a lot of images for HDR photography. Normally it takes a few minutes to set the camera up for this process. I like to have the ISO set to 100, the shooting mode set to Av, the Drive mode at the Low-speed continuous setting, and Auto-Exposure Bracketing turned on and adjusted for a two-stop over- and underexposure bracket. Since I know that these are the base settings for shooting my HDR images, I set up my C1 shooting mode to automatically include all of these settings. This could be done for any type of shooting that you might perform on a frequent basis.

There are a lot of items in the menu that you can change, but some are used and changed more frequently than others. The My Menu function allows you to place six of your most used menu items in one place so that you can quickly get to them, make your changes, and get on with shooting. Here’s a list of the six functions that I have stored in my My Menu:

As you’ll see, the online bonus chapter covers a lot of gadgets, filters, and accessories that will make your photography better. It can become an obsession to always have the latest thing out there. But here’s the deal. You already have almost everything you need to take great pictures: an awesome camera and the knowledge necessary to use it. Everything else is just icing on the cake. So, while I introduce a few items in the bonus chapter that I do think will make your photographic life easier and even improve your images, don’t get caught up in the technology and gadgetry.

Use your knowledge of basic photography to explore everything your camera has to offer. Explore the limits of your camera. Don’t be afraid to take bad pictures. Don’t be too quick to delete them off your memory card, either. Take some time to really look at them and see where things went wrong. Look at your camera settings and see if perhaps there was a change you could have made to make things better. Be your toughest critic and learn from your mistakes. With practice and reflection, you will soon find your photography getting better and better. Not only that, but your instincts will improve to the point that you will come upon a scene and know exactly how you want to shoot it before your camera even gets out of the bag.

Many of the techniques covered in this chapter are specific to certain shooting situations that may not come about very often. This is even more reason to practice them so that when the situation does present itself you will be ready.