Get Shooting with the Automatic Camera Modes

The Canon T6s / T6i is an amazing camera that has some incredible features. In fact, with all of the technology built into it, it can be pretty intimidating for anyone new to DSLR photography. For that reason, Canon has made it pretty easy for you to get some great-looking photographs without having to do a lot of thinking. Enter the Basic zone. The camera modes that comprise the Basic zone side of the Mode dial are simple, icon-labeled modes that are set up to use specific features of the camera for various shooting situations with minimal options to choose from. Let’s take a look at the different modes and how and when to apply them.

Poring Over the Picture

This image was taken during a road trip through the Sacred Valley in Peru. Normally I would take my time for a shot like this, using a tripod and carefully selecting all of my camera settings. Unfortunately, there just wasn’t time for more than a couple of quick photos before moving on. This was a situation that was perfect for using an auto mode like Landscape.

Poring Over the Picture

Using the Basic modes can be a time-saver when you are shooting on the run. This is usually the case when taking a tour on vacation. When there is so much to take in within a short amount of time, it pays to let the camera do the thinking while you grab some quick memories. Scenes like this with good lighting and no real photographic challenges are perfect for the Scene Intelligent Auto mode.

Scene Intelligent Auto Mode

Scene Intelligent Auto mode is all about thought-free photography. There is little to nothing for you to do in this mode except point and shoot. Your biggest concern when using Scene Intelligent Auto mode is focusing. The camera will use the automatic focusing modes to achieve the best possible focus for your picture. Naturally, the camera is going to assume that the object that is closest to the camera is the one that you want to have the sharpest focus. Simply press the shutter button down halfway while looking through the viewfinder and you should see one of the focus points light up over the subject. Of course, putting your subject in the middle of the picture is not always the best way to compose your shot. So wait for the chirp to confirm that the focus has been set, and then, while still holding down the button, recompose your shot. Now just press down the shutter button the rest of the way to take the photo. It’s just that easy (Figure 3.1 and Figure 3.2). The camera will take care of all your exposure decisions, including when to use flash.

Portrait Mode

One problem with Scene Intelligent Auto mode is that it has little idea what type of subject you are photographing and, therefore, is applying the settings based on its “best guess” for each situation. Shooting portraits is a perfect example. Typically, when you are taking a photograph of someone, you want the emphasis of the picture to be on them, not necessarily on the stuff going on in the background.

Landscape Mode

As you might have guessed, Landscape mode has been optimized for shooting landscape images. Particular emphasis is placed on the picture style, with the camera trying to boost the greens and blues in the image (Figure 3.5 and Figure 3.6). This makes sense, because the typical landscape would be outdoors where grass, trees, and skies should look more colorful. This picture style also boosts the sharpness that is applied during processing. The camera uses the lowest ISO settings possible in order to keep digital noise to a minimum. The downfall to this setting is that, once again, there is little control over any settings other than the ambiance, white balance (limited to the outside white balance choices), and the drive mode.

Close-up Mode

Although most zoom lenses don’t support true “macro” settings, that doesn’t mean you can’t shoot some great close-up photos. The key here is to use your camera-to-subject distance to fill the frame while still being able to achieve sharp focus. This means that you move yourself as close as possible to your subject while still being able to get a good sharp focus. Oftentimes, your lens will be marked with the minimum focusing distance. On my 18–135mm zoom, it is .8 feet. To help get the best focus in the picture, Close-up mode will use the smallest aperture it can while keeping the shutter speed fast enough to get a sharp shot (Figure 3.7 and Figure 3.8). It does this by raising the ISO or turning on the built-in flash—or a combination of the two. Unfortunately, we have no way to turn off the auto ISO, so the possibility exists of getting more digital noise (from a high ISO). You can, however, turn off the flash if you find that it is creating harsh shadows in your image.

Sports Mode

Although this is called Sports mode, you can use it for any moving subject that you are photographing. The mode is built on the principles of sports photography: continuous focusing, large apertures, and fast shutter speeds (Figure 3.9 and Figure 3.10). To handle these requirements, the camera sets the drive mode to Continuous shooting, the aperture to a very large opening, and the ISO to Auto. Overall, these are sound settings that will capture most moving subjects well. We will take an in-depth look at all of these features, like Continuous drive mode, in Chapter 5, “Moving Target.”

Special Scene Mode

This mode is several different modes in one selection spot on the Mode dial. They are similar to the other basic modes but offer some special little tricks and enhancements for special shooting situations.

Kids

The first mode is called Kids and should be pretty self-explanatory (Figure 3.11). The only difference between this mode and the Sports mode is that this one is customized to use a portrait type of picture style for healthy-looking skin tones. Otherwise it’s all about the act of freezing all that little kid action (Figure 3.12).

Food

This mode is similar to Close-up but it is made to shoot bright and vivid images to enhance the way a food photo looks.

Candlelight Portrait

This is maybe one of those modes that might get used just once or twice a year but it’s pretty handy when you need it. Candlelight Portrait is optimized for making images when the only illumination comes from a candle, or fire in general (Figure 3.15). The most obvious use for this would be for someone getting ready to blow out a birthday cake candle (Figure 3.16). You could also use it for pictures of people around a campfire since the goal is to retain the warmth of the color of the flame in the final image.

Night Portrait

Night Portrait is used for getting good pictures of people with better exposure for night backgrounds (Figure 3.17). For example, if you are taking a picture of someone at night in the city, the normal flash mode would give a decent photo of the person, but the background lights would look very dark. The Night Portrait mode forces the shutter to stay open longer, letting you get more exposure to the background area (Figure 3.18). Of course this means you might get some camera shake in your image, so having the camera on a steady surface or tripod is preferred when using this mode.

Additional scene modes

There are two other modes that will be covered later in this book. The first, Handheld Night Scene, is useful for creating a shake-free image when you are shooting in low-light conditions. To do this, the camera takes four photos in rapid succession and then combines them to make a single, shake-free image. You still need to try to hold the camera as securely as possible while shooting (see Chapter 1, “The T6s / T6i Top Ten List”), but the camera does a pretty amazing job of creating a sharp image. We will cover this technique in Chapter 8, “Mood Lighting.”

Flash Off Mode

Sometimes you will be in a situation where the light levels are low but you don’t want to use the flash. It could be that you are shooting in a place that restricts flash photography, such as a museum or church, or it could be a circumstance where you want to take advantage of the available light, as when shooting candles on a birthday cake. This is where Flash Off mode comes into play (Figure 3.19).

Creative Auto Mode

Let’s face it—there will be times when these automatic modes in the Basic zone are nice, but you will want more control over what the camera is doing and how your pictures look. In the Basic zone, this is where the Creative Auto (CA) mode comes in. You won’t have total control over the picture-making process, but you will be able to make some adjustments to gain a little more creative control over things like image brightness, use of flash, ambiance adjustment, drive mode, and background sharpness (Figure 3.21). To make these adjustments, the camera will display a series of adjustable settings on the LCD screen that can be changed by pressing the Q button and using the Cross keys (up/down/left/right buttons) and the Main dial (Figure 3.22).

Ambience

If you want to change the look of your picture, you can change the Ambience setting (Figure 3.23) and get just the effect you need for your subject. There are several choices, including Standard, Vivid, Soft, Warm, Intense, Cool, Brighter, Darker, and Monochrome. The default sets the mode to Standard, but you can change this by pressing the Q button or tapping the Q icon on the touchscreen, highlighting the Ambience selection, changing your selection, and pressing the Set button. You can also control the intensity or amount of the effect that is applied.

Background Sharpness

This setting forces the camera to use either a larger or smaller aperture setting to change the depth of field in your image: the smaller the aperture (which means a larger number such as f/16 or f/22), the greater the sharpness in your background. To change this setting, highlight the Background scale. Then move the index point to the right for a sharper background or to the left for more blur (Figure 3.24). Each step will change the exposure by about one f-stop.

Drive Mode

Five different drive modes are available in the Creative Auto mode: Single shooting, Continuous shooting, 10 Second Self-timer/Remote, 2 Second Self-timer, and Continuous Self-timer (Figure 3.25). Technically there are seven different modes, but two of them are just silent versions of the Single and Continuous drive modes. In Single shooting, the camera takes only one picture when the shutter button is depressed all the way. Taking another picture requires releasing the button and then pressing it again. In Continuous, the camera continually takes photographs at about three frames per second until you release the button. You will probably want to use this setting for capturing action. The third setting available here is the 10 Second Self-timer/Remote option. Using this setting allows you to depress the shutter button and have the camera automatically fire 10 seconds later. The obvious use for this setting is to run around and get yourself in the picture. You might also consider using it for macro (close-up) or landscape photography, when you can set your camera on a tripod or a stable surface. The self-timer will let you take the picture without having to worry about camera shake from physically having your hands on the camera while activating the shutter. This is also the mode you should select for using a remote release. Of course, if you are using the self-timer instead of a remote release but don’t need a long time before the shutter fires, then you should consider the 2-second mode. This option works like the 10-second setting except you only have a 2-second duration between pressing the shutter and taking the picture. The final mode is Continuous Self-timer, which lets you use the self-timer to take a number of images (from 2 to 10) with only one press of the shutter release button.

Flash

This option allows you to set the flash to one of three positions: Auto, On, or Off. In Auto, the flash will automatically pop up whenever the camera determines that there isn’t enough light in the scene for a proper exposure. If you want to force the flash to come on no matter what (as when you want to fill in some shadows), set the option to On. The Off setting will keep the flash from firing, just as it does in Flash Off mode (Figure 3.26).

Why You May Never Want to Use the Basic Zone Again

With so many easy-to-use camera modes, why would anyone ever want to use anything else? Well, the first thing that comes to my mind is control. It is the number one reason for using a DSLR camera. The ability to control every aspect of your photography will open up creative avenues that just aren’t available in the Basic zone. Let’s face it: there’s a reason the Mode dial is split into two different categories. Let’s look at what we are giving up when we work in the Basic zone:

Chapter 3 Assignments

These assignments will have you shooting in the various Basic modes so that you can experience the advantages and disadvantages of using them in your daily photography.