IN THIS CHAPTER

Reviewing the best all-around picture-taking settings

Adjusting the camera for portrait photography

Discovering the keys to super action shots

Dialing in the right settings to capture landscapes and other scenic vistas

Capturing close-up views of your subject

Shooting through glass, capturing fireworks, and conquering other special challenges

Earlier chapters break down critical picture-taking features on your camera, detailing how the various controls affect exposure, picture quality, focus, color, and the like. This chapter pulls all that information together to help you set up your camera for specific types of photography.

Keep in mind, though, that there’s no one “right way” to shoot a portrait, a landscape, or whatever. So feel free to wander off on your own, tweaking this exposure setting or adjusting that focus control, to discover your own creative vision. Experimentation is part of the fun of photography, after all, and thanks to your camera monitor and the Erase button, it’s an easy, completely free proposition.

Recapping Basic Picture Settings

For some camera options, such as exposure mode, aperture, and shutter speed, the best settings depend on your subject, lighting conditions, and creative goals. But for certain basic options, you can rely on the same settings for almost every shooting scenario.

Table 7-1 offers recommendations for basic settings and lists the chapter where you can find more information about each option. Figure 7-1 shows you where on the Shooting Settings screen you can find the symbols representing some settings, along with a few not included in the table. Don’t forget that you can adjust these options via the Quick Control screen. Just press the Q button to shift from the Shooting Settings screen to the Quick Control display. (See Chapter 1 for the full story on using the Quick Control screen.)

One key point: Instructions in this chapter assume that you’re using one of the advanced exposure modes: P, Tv, Av, or M. The problem with the other modes is that they prevent you from accessing certain settings that can be critical to capturing certain subjects, especially in difficult lighting. Also, this chapter discusses options available for viewfinder photography. For Live View photography, most settings work the same as discussed here, however, with the exception of the autofocus options, which are quite different.

Shooting Still Portraits

By still portrait, I mean that your subject isn’t moving. For subjects who aren’t keen on sitting still, use the techniques given for action photography instead.

Assuming that you do have a subject willing to pose, the classic portraiture approach is to keep the subject sharply focused while throwing the background into soft focus, as shown in Figure 7-2. This artistic choice (known as a shallow depth of field) emphasizes the subject and helps diminish the impact of any distracting background objects in cases where you can’t control the setting. The following steps show you how to achieve this look:

1. Set the Mode dial to Av and rotate the Main dial to select the lowest f-stop value possible.

   A low f-stop setting opens the aperture, which not only allows more light to enter the camera but also shortens depth of field, or the range of sharp focus. So dialing in a low f-stop value is the first step in softening your portrait background. However, for a group portrait, don’t go too low or else the depth of field may not be enough to keep everyone in the sharp-focus zone. Take test shots and inspect the results at different f-stops to find the right setting.

   I recommend aperture-priority autoexposure mode (Av) when depth of field is a primary concern because you can control the f-stop while relying on the camera to select the shutter speed that will properly expose the image. But you do need to pay attention to shutter speed also to make sure that it’s not so slow that any movement of the subject or camera will blur the image.

   You can monitor the current f-stop and shutter speed in the Shooting Settings display (refer to Figure 7-1). The settings also appear in the viewfinder. (If you don’t see the settings, give the shutter button a quick half-press and release to wake up the exposure meter.)

2. To further soften the background, zoom in, get closer, and put more distance between subject and background.

   As covered in Chapter 5, zooming to a longer focal length also reduces depth of field, as does moving closer to your subject. And the greater the distance between the subject and background, the more the background blurs.

   A lens with a focal length of 85–120mm is ideal for a classic head-and-shoulders portrait. Avoid using a short focal length (wide-angle lens) for portraits. It can cause features to appear distorted — sort of like how people look when you view them through a security peephole in a door. On the flip side, a very long focal length can flatten and widen a face.

3. Check composition.

   Just two quick pointers on this topic:

   • Consider the background. Scan the entire frame, looking for background objects that may distract the eye from the subject. If necessary, reposition the subject against a more flattering backdrop.
   • Frame the subject loosely to allow for later cropping to a variety of frame sizes. Your camera produces images that have an aspect ratio of 3:2. That means your portrait perfectly fits a 4-x-6 print size but will require cropping to print at any other proportion, such as 5 x 7 or 8 x 10.

4. For indoor portraits, shoot flash-free if possible.

   Shooting by available light rather than flash produces softer illumination and avoids the problem of red-eye. During daytime hours, pose your subject near a large window to get results similar to what you see in Figure 7-3.

   In Av mode, keeping the flash closed disables the flash. If flash is unavoidable, see the tips at the end of the steps to get better results.

5. For outdoor portraits in daylight, use a flash if possible.

   Even in daylight, a flash adds a beneficial pop of light to subjects’ faces, as illustrated in Figure 7-4. A flash is especially important when the background is brighter than the subjects (as in this example); when the subject is wearing a hat; or when the sun is directly overhead, creating harsh shadows under the eyes, nose, and chin. In Av mode, press the Flash button to enable flash.

   One caveat about using flash outdoors: The fastest shutter speed you can use with the built-in flash is 1/200 second, and in extremely bright conditions, that speed may be too slow to avoid overexposing the image even if you use the lowest ISO (light sensitivity) setting. If necessary, move your subject into the shade. (On some external Canon flashes, you can select a faster shutter speed than 1/200 second; see your flash manual for details.) Your other option is to stop down the aperture (use a higher f-stop setting), but that brings more of the background into sharp focus.

6. Press and hold the shutter button halfway to engage exposure metering and, if using autofocusing, to establish focus.

   As spelled out earlier in Table 7-1, the One-Shot AF Operation mode using a Manual AF Point Selection works best for portrait autofocusing. After selecting a focus point, position that point over one of your subject’s eyes and then press and hold the shutter button halfway to lock focus.

7. Press the shutter button the rest of the way to capture the image.

When flash is unavoidable, try these tricks for best results:

• Pay attention to white balance if your subject is lit by flash and ambient light. When you mix light sources, photo colors may appear slightly warmer or cooler (more blue) than neutral. A warming effect typically looks nice in portraits, giving the skin a subtle glow. If you aren’t happy with the result, see Chapter 6 to find out how to fine-tune white balance. Don’t forget that your camera offers two Auto settings, one that holds onto a slight warm cast when you shoot in incandescent light (Ambient Priority mode) and one that eliminates that color cast (White Priority mode).
• Indoors, turn on as many room lights as possible. With more ambient light, you reduce the flash power needed to expose the picture. Adding light also causes the pupils to constrict, further reducing the chances of red-eye. (Pay heed to the preceding white-balance warning, however.) As an added benefit, the smaller pupil allows more of the iris to be visible, so you see more eye color in the portrait.
• In dim lighting, try enabling Red-Eye Reduction (Shooting Menu 1). Warn your subject to expect an initial burst of light from the Red-Eye Reduction lamp, which helps constrict pupils of the eyes, followed by the light from the flash. See Chapter 2 for details about this flash option.

• Pay extra attention to shutter speed. In dim lighting, the camera may select a slow shutter speed when you enable the built-in flash in Av mode, so keep an eye on that value and use a tripod if necessary to avoid blurring from camera shake. Also warn your subject to remain as still as possible.

• For nighttime pictures, try switching to Tv exposure mode and using a slow shutter speed. The longer exposure time enables the camera to soak up more ambient light, producing a brighter background and reducing the flash power needed to light the subject. Again, though, a slow shutter means that you need to take extra precautions to ensure that neither camera nor subject moves during the exposure.

• For professional results, use an external flash with a rotating flash head. Then aim the flash head up so that the flash light bounces off the ceiling and falls softly down on the subject. (This is called bounced light.) An external flash isn’t cheap, but the results make the purchase worthwhile if you shoot lots of portraits. Compare the portraits in Figure 7-5 for an illustration. In the first example, the built-in flash resulted in strong shadowing behind the subject and harsh, concentrated light. Bounced lighting produced the better result on the right.

  Make sure that the surface you use to bounce the light is white; otherwise the flash’s light will pick up the color of the surface and influence the color of your subject.

• Invest in a flash diffuser to further soften the light. A diffuser is simply a piece of translucent plastic or fabric that you place over the flash to soften and spread the light — much like sheer curtains diffuse window light. Diffusers come in lots of different designs, including small, fold-flat models that fit over the built-in flash.

• To reduce shadowing from the flash, move your subject farther from the background. Moving the subject away from the wall helped eliminate the background shadow in the second example in Figure 7-5. The increased distance also softened the focus of the wall a bit (because of the short depth of field resulting from the f-stop and focal length). You may also wish to light the background separately.

  Positioning subjects far enough from the background that they can’t touch it is a good general rule. If that isn’t possible, though, try going the other direction: If the person’s head is smack against the background, any shadow will be smaller and less noticeable. For example, less shadowing is created when a subject’s head is resting against a sofa cushion than if he sits upright with his head a foot or so away from the cushion.

Capturing Action

A fast shutter speed is the key to capturing a blur-free shot of any moving subject, whether it’s a spinning Ferris wheel, a butterfly flitting from flower to flower, or in the case of Figures 7-6 and 7-7, a hockey-playing teen.

In Figure 7-6, a shutter speed of 1/125 second was too slow to catch the subject without blur. A shutter speed of 1/1000 second froze the action cleanly, as shown in Figure 7-7. (The backgrounds are blurry in both shots because the images were taken using a lens with a long focal length, which decreases depth of field. Also, in the first image, the skater is farther from the background, blurring the background more than in the second image.)

Along with the basic capture settings outlined earlier (refer to Table 7-1), try the techniques in the following steps to photograph a subject in motion:

1. Set the Mode dial to Tv (shutter-priority autoexposure).

   In this mode, you control shutter speed, and the camera chooses the aperture setting that will produce a good exposure at the current ISO setting.

2. Rotate the Main dial to select the shutter speed.

   You can monitor the shutter speed in the Shooting Settings display (refer to Figure 7-1) and viewfinder.

   The shutter speed you need depends on how fast your subject is moving, so you have to experiment. Another factor that affects your ability to stop action is the direction of subject motion. A car moving toward you can be stopped with a lower shutter speed than one moving across your field of view, for example. Generally speaking, 1/500 second should be plenty for all but the fastest subjects — speeding hockey players, race cars, or boats, for example. For slower subjects, you can even go as low as 1/250 or 1/125 second.

   Remember, though, that when you increase shutter speed in Tv exposure mode, the camera opens the aperture to maintain the same exposure. At low f-stop numbers, depth of field becomes shorter, so you have to be more careful to keep your subject within the sharp-focus zone as you compose and focus the shot, especially if the subject is moving toward or away from your camera.

   You also can take an entirely different approach to capturing action: Instead of choosing a fast shutter speed, select a speed slow enough to blur the moving objects, which can create a heightened sense of motion and, in scenes that feature very colorful subjects, cool abstract images such as the carnival ride images in Figure 7-8. For the left image, the shutter speed was 1/30 second; for the right version, 1/5 second. In both cases, I used a tripod, but because nearly everything in the frame was moving, the entirety of both photos is blurry — the 1/5 second version is simply more blurry because of the slower shutter.

   For an alternative effect, try panning (rotating the camera horizontally or vertically) with the movement. The subject you track during the pan will remain relatively sharp, even with a slower shutter speed. (Lots of practice and experimentation are required to get it right.)

   If the aperture value blinks after you set the shutter speed, the camera can’t select an f-stop that will properly expose the photo at that shutter speed and the current ISO setting.

3. Raise the ISO setting to produce a brighter exposure, if needed.

   In dim lighting, you may not be able to create a good exposure at your chosen shutter speed without taking this step. Raising the ISO increases the possibility of noise, but a noisy shot is better than a blurry shot. (The current ISO setting appears in the upper-right corner of the Shooting Settings display, as shown in Figure 7-1.)

   If Auto ISO is in force, ISO may go up automatically when you increase shutter speed. Auto ISO can be a big help when you’re shooting fast-paced action; just be sure to limit the camera to choosing an ISO setting that doesn’t produce an objectionable level of noise. Chapter 4 provides details on Auto ISO.

   Why not just add flash to throw some extra light on the scene? That solution has a number of drawbacks. First, the flash needs time to recycle between shots, which slows down your shooting pace. Second, the fastest possible shutter speed when you enable the built-in flash is 1/200 second, which may not be fast enough to capture a quickly moving subject without blur. (You can use a faster shutter speed with certain Canon external flash units, however.) And finally, the built-in flash has a limited range, so unless your subject is pretty close to the camera, you’re just wasting battery power with flash, anyway.

4. For rapid-fire shooting, set the Drive mode to Continuous.

   In this mode, the camera continues to record images as long as the shutter button is pressed, capturing as many as three frames per second. You can access the Drive mode setting quickly by pressing the Drive button (left cross key).

5. If possible, use manual focusing; otherwise, select AI Servo AF (autofocus) mode and Automatic AF Point Selection.

   With manual focusing, you eliminate the time the camera needs to lock focus during autofocusing. Chapter 5 shows you how to focus manually, if you need help. Of course, focusing manually gets a little tricky if your subject is moving in a way that requires you to change the focusing distance quickly from shot to shot. In that case, try these two autofocus settings for best performance:

   • Set the AF (autofocus) Operation mode to AI Servo (continuous-servo autofocus). Press the AF button (right cross key) or use the Quick Control screen to access this setting.
   • Set the AF Point Selection Mode setting to Automatic. Press the button shown in the margin to access the setting. Then press the Set button to quickly toggle from Single-Point Selection mode to Automatic Selection mode.

   When you use these two autofocus settings, the camera initially sets focus on the center focus point. So frame your subject under that point, press the shutter button halfway to set the initial focusing distance, and then reframe as necessary to keep the subject within the area covered by the focus points. As long as you keep the shutter button pressed halfway, the camera continues to adjust focus up to the time you actually take the shot. Chapter 5 details these autofocus options.

6. Compose the subject to allow for movement across the frame.

   Don’t zoom in so far that your subject might zip out of the frame before you take the shot — frame a little wider than usual. You can always crop the photo later to a tighter composition. (Many examples in this book were cropped to eliminate distracting elements.)

One other key to shooting sports, wildlife, or any moving subject: Before you even put your eye to the viewfinder, spend time studying your subject so that you get an idea of when it will move, where it will move, and how it will move. The more you can anticipate the action, the better your chances of capturing it.

Capturing Scenic Vistas

Providing specific camera settings for landscape photography is tricky because there’s no single best approach to capturing a beautiful stretch of countryside, a city skyline, or another vast subject. Depth of field is an example: One person’s idea of a super cityscape might be to keep all buildings in the scene sharply focused. Another photographer might prefer to shoot the same scene so that a foreground building is sharply focused while the others are less so, thus drawing the eye to that first building.

That said, here are a few tips to help you photograph a landscape the way you see it:

• Shoot in aperture-priority autoexposure mode (Av) so that you can control depth of field. If you want extreme depth of field so that both near and distant objects are sharply focused, select a high f-stop value. Keep in mind that f-stop is just one factor that determines depth of field, though: To extend depth of field, use a wide angle lens (short focal length) and increase the distance between the camera and your subject.

  The downside to using a high f-stop to achieve greater depth of field is that you need a slower shutter speed to produce a good exposure. If the shutter speed is slower than you can comfortably handhold, use a tripod to avoid picture-blurring camera shake. You also can increase the ISO setting to increase light sensitivity, which in turn allows a faster shutter speed, but that option brings with it the chance of increased image noise. See Chapter 4 for details.

• In large landscapes, include a foreground subject to provide a sense of scale. The bench in Figure 7-9 serves this purpose. Because viewers are familiar with the approximate size of a typical wooden bench, they can get a better idea of the size of the vast mountain landscape beyond.

• For dramatic waterfall and fountain shots, consider using a slow shutter to create that “misty” look. The slow shutter blurs the water, giving it a soft, romantic appearance, as shown in Figure 7-10. Shutter speed for this shot was 1/15 second. Again, use a tripod to ensure that camera shake doesn’t blur the rest of the scene.

  In bright light, using a slow shutter speed may overexpose the image even if you stop the aperture all the way down and select the camera’s lowest ISO setting. As a solution, consider investing in a neutral-density filter for your lens. This type of filter works something like sunglasses for your camera: It simply reduces the amount of light that passes through the lens, without affecting image colors, so that you can use a slower shutter than would otherwise be possible.

• At sunrise or sunset, base exposure on the sky. The foreground will be dark, but you can usually brighten it in a photo editor, if needed. If you base exposure on the foreground, on the other hand, the sky will become so bright that all the color will be washed out — a problem you usually can’t easily fix after the fact.

  You can also invest in a graduated neutral-density filter, which is a filter that’s dark on top and clear on the bottom. You orient the filter so that the dark half falls over the sky and the clear side over the dimly lit portion of the scene. This setup enables you to better expose the foreground without blowing out the sky colors.

  Enabling Highlight Tone Priority can also improve your results, so take some test shots using that option, too. Chapter 4 offers more information.

• For cool nighttime city pics, experiment with a slow shutter. Assuming that cars or other vehicles are moving through the scene, the result is neon trails of light, like those you see in Figure 7-11. Shutter speed for this image was 10 seconds. The longer your shutter speed, the blurrier the motion trails. (Don’t forget to use a tripod for these and any other slow-shutter shots.)

  Rather than change the shutter speed manually between each shot, try Bulb mode. Available only in M (manual) exposure mode, access this option by increasing the length of the shutter speed until you see Bulb displayed where the shutter speed should be. Bulb mode records an image for as long as you hold down the shutter button. So just take a series of images, holding down the button for different lengths of time for each shot. And in Bulb mode, you can exceed the camera’s normal slow-shutter limit of 30 seconds.

  Because long exposures can produce image noise, you also may want to enable the Long Exposure Noise Reduction feature (Custom Function 4). Chapter 4 discusses this option.

• For more dramatic lighting, wait for the “golden hours” or “blue hours.” Golden hours is the term photographers use for early morning and late afternoon, when the light cast by the sun gives everything a soft, warmed glow. By contrast, the blue hours, which occur just after sunset and before sunrise, infuse the scene with a cool, bluish light.

• In tricky light, bracket shots. Bracketing simply means to take the same picture at several different exposures to increase the odds that at least one captures the scene the way you envision. Bracketing is especially a good idea in difficult lighting situations such as sunrise and sunset.

  Your camera offers automatic exposure bracketing (AEB). See Chapter 4 to find out how to take advantage of this feature.

  Also experiment with the Auto Lighting Optimizer and Highlight Tone Priority options; capture some images with the features enabled and then take the same shots with the features turned off. See Chapter 4 for help. Remember, though, that you can’t use both these tonality-enhancing features concurrently; turning on Highlight Tone Priority disables Auto Lighting Optimizer.

Capturing Dynamic Close-Ups

For great close-up shots, start with the basic capture settings outlined earlier, in Table 7-1. Then try the following additional settings and techniques:

• Check your owner’s manual to find out the minimum close-focusing distance of your lens. How “up close and personal” you can be to your subject depends on your lens, not on the camera body.
• Take control of depth of field by setting the camera mode to Av (aperture-priority autoexposure) mode. Whether you want a shallow, medium, or extreme depth of field depends on the point of your photo. For the romantic scene shown in Figure 7-12, for example, setting the aperture to f/5.6 blurred the background, helping the subjects stand out more from the similarly colored background. But if you want the viewer to clearly see all details throughout the frame — for example, if you’re shooting a product shot for your company’s sales catalog — go in the other direction, stopping down the aperture as far as possible.
• Remember that both zooming in and getting close to your subject decrease depth of field. Back to that product shot: If you need depth of field beyond what you can achieve with the aperture setting, you may need to back away or zoom out, or both. (You can always crop your image to show just the parts of the subject that you want to feature.)
• When shooting flowers and other nature scenes outdoors, pay attention to shutter speed, too. Even a slight breeze may cause your subject to move, causing blurring at slow shutter speeds.

• Experiment with flash. Whether the built-in flash will improve your shot depends on the ambient lighting and how close you are to your subject. So try taking the picture with and without flash and see which one looks better. Remember that you can adjust flash output, via the camera’s Flash Exposure Compensation control. Chapter 2 offers details.

  Keep in mind that the maximum shutter speed possible when you use the built-in flash is 1/200 second (some Canon Speedlites enable you to use a faster shutter speed). So in extremely bright light, you may need to use a high f-stop setting to avoid overexposing the picture. You also can lower the ISO speed setting, if it’s not already all the way down to ISO 100.

  If you use flash along with other light sources, you also may need to adjust colors using the White Balance option, covered in Chapter 6.

• To get very close to your subject, invest in a macro lens or a set of diopters. A true macro lens is an expensive proposition; expect to pay $300 or more. If you enjoy capturing the tiny details in life, it’s worth the investment.

  For a less expensive way to go, you can spend about $40 for a set of diopters, which are sort of like reading glasses you screw onto your existing lens. Diopters come in several strengths: +1, +2, +4, and so on, with a higher number indicating a greater magnifying power. In fact, a diopter was used to capture the rose in Figure 7-13. The left image shows the closest shot possible with the regular lens; to produce the right image, a +6 diopter was attached. The downfall of diopters, sadly, is that they typically produce images that are very soft around the edges, as in Figure 7-13 — a problem that doesn’t occur with a good macro lens.

Coping with Special Situations

A few subjects and shooting situations pose some additional challenges not already covered in earlier sections. So to close 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, such as animals at a zoo, you can try a couple tricks. First, set your camera to manual focusing — the glass barrier can give the autofocus mechanism fits. Disable your flash to avoid creating any unwanted reflections, too (it also makes the alligators angry). Then, if you can get close enough, your best odds are to put the lens right up to the glass. (Be careful not to scratch your lens.) If you must stand farther away, try to position your lens at a 90-degree angle to the glass. I used this approach to capture the photo shown in Figure 7-14.
• Shooting out a car window: Set the camera to shutter-priority autoexposure or manual mode and dial in a fast shutter speed to compensate for the movement of the car. Also turn on image stabilization, if your lens offers it. Oh, and keep a tight grip on your camera. Do not attempt while driving!

• Shooting fireworks: First off, use a tripod; fireworks require a long exposure, and trying to handhold your camera simply isn’t going to work. If using a zoom lens, zoom out to the shortest focal length (widest angle). Switch to manual focusing and set focus at infinity (the farthest focus point possible on your lens). Set the exposure mode to manual, choose a relatively high f-stop setting — say, f/16 or so — and start at a shutter speed of 1 to 5 seconds. From there, it’s simply a matter of experimenting with different shutter speeds. Also play with the timing of the shutter release, starting some exposures at the moment the fireworks are shot up, some at the moment they burst open, and so on. For the example featured in Figure 7-15, I set the shutter speed to 5 seconds and began the exposure as the rocket was going up — that’s what creates the “corkscrew” of light that rises up through the frame.

  Be especially gentle when you press the shutter button. With a very slow shutter, you can easily create enough camera movement to blur the image. If you purchased the accessory remote control for your camera, this is a good situation in which to use it.

• Shooting in strong backlighting: When the light behind your subject is very strong, the result is often an underexposed subject. You can try using flash to better expose the subject, assuming that you’re shooting in an exposure mode that permits flash. The Highlight Tone Priority feature, which captures the image in a way that retains better detail in the shadows without blowing out highlights, may also help. (Chapter 4 has an example.)

  But for another creative choice, you can purposely underexpose the subject to create a silhouette effect, as shown in Figure 7-16. Base your exposure on the brightest areas of the background so that the darker areas of the frame remain dark.