1. The T1i Top Ten List

Ten Tips to Make Your Shooting More Productive Right Out of the Box

Whenever I get a new camera, I am always anxious to jump right in and start cranking off exposures. What I really should be doing is sitting down with my instruction manual to learn how to use all of the camera features, but what fun is that? After all, we all know that instruction manuals are for propping up that short leg on the family room table, right?

Of course, this behavior always leads me to frustration in the end—there are always issues that would have been easily addressed had I known about them before I started shooting. Maybe if I had a Top Ten list of things to know, I could be more productive without having to spend countless hours with the manual. So this is where we begin.

The following list will get you up and running without suffering many of the “gotchas” that come from not being at least somewhat familiar with your new camera. So let’s take a look at the top ten things you should know before you start taking pictures with your Canon T1i.

Poring Over the Camera

Camera Front

Camera Back

Poring Over the Camera

Camera Top

1. Charge Your Battery

I know that this will be one of the hardest things for you to do because you really want to start shooting, but a little patience will pay off later.

When you first open your camera and slide the battery into the battery slot, you will be pleased to find that there is probably juice in the battery and you can start shooting right away. What you should really be doing is getting out the battery charger and giving that power-cell a full charge. Not only will this give you more time to shoot, it will start the battery off on the right foot. No matter what claims the manufacturers make about battery life and charging memory, I always find I get better life and performance when I charge my batteries fully and then use them right down to the point where they have nothing left to give. To check your battery level, insert it into the camera, turn on the camera, and look for the battery indicator on the rear LCD. You can also press the shutter release button to wake up the camera. This will activate the rear LCD display and allow you to see the battery level indicator located in the bottom-right portion of the display panel (Figure 1.1).

Figure 1.1 The LCD shows how much charge is left on your battery.

2. Turn Off the Release Shutter without Card Setting

Nothing will ruin your day faster than shooting for a couple of hours only to find that you didn’t have a memory card in your camera and thus haven’t saved any of the pictures that you’ve taken. This was always a concern with film shooters, and it hasn’t gone away with digital SLRs. You see, camera manufacturers want to give prospective buyers a way to test out the camera without having to keep a memory card in it, so they came up with a setting called Release Shutter without Card. When your camera is set up in this mode, it will act and shoot just as it would when you have a memory card inserted. It will even display your shot on the rear LCD display. Unfortunately, this is where most photographers get fooled into thinking they are saving their images. If they were to look at the LCD, they would see that Canon was nice enough to overlay a message on the display that clearly says No Card. This is nice, but if you are shooting without looking at the display, you could be easily fooled.

Unfortunately, there is no visual clue within the viewfinder to alert you to this No Card status. So here is the simple solution.

Turning Off the Release Shutter without Card Setting

1. Turn the camera on.

2. Press the Menu button on the back of the camera to bring up the menu list.

3. Use the Main dial to select the far-left menu tab.

4. Now scroll down to the Release shutter without card option using the Cross keys and press the Set button (A).

A

5. Use the Cross keys to select the Disable option, and then press the Set button once again (B).

B

6. Press the Menu button again to return to shooting mode.

Now when you try to take a photo without a memory card inserted in the camera, you will see a message in the bottom left of your viewfinder that flashes the word Card. This is your clue that you need to insert your memory card before the camera will fire. The rear display will also display a large No Card message if you activate the shutter button.

We will have an in-depth discussion on memory cards and proper formatting in Chapter 2.

3. Set Your JPEG Image Quality

Your new T1i has a number of image quality settings to choose from, and depending on your needs, you can adjust them accordingly. Most people shoot with the JPEG option because it allows them to capture a large number of photos on their memory cards. The problem is that unless you understand what JPEG is, you might be degrading the quality of your images without realizing it.

The JPEG format has been around since about 1994 and stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group. JPEG was developed by this group as a method of shrinking the size of digital images down to a smaller size for the purpose of reducing large file sizes while retaining the original image information. (Technically, JPEG isn’t even a file format—it’s a mathematical equation for reducing image file sizes—but to keep things simple, we’ll just refer to it as a file format.) The problem with JPEG is that, in order to reduce a file size, it has to throw away some of the information. This is referred to as “lossy compression.” This is important to understand because, while you can fit more images on your memory card by choosing a lower-quality JPEG setting, you will also be reducing the quality of your image. This effect becomes more apparent as you enlarge your pictures.

The JPEG file format also has one other characteristic: to apply the compression to the image before final storage on your memory card, the camera has to apply all of the image processing first. Image processing involves such factors as sharpening, color adjustment, contrast adjustment, noise reduction, and so on. Many photographers now prefer to use the RAW file format to get greater control over the image processing. We will take a closer look at this in Chapter 2, but for now let’s just make sure that we are using the best-quality JPEG possible.

The T1i has six quality settings for the JPEG format. There are two settings each for the Large, Medium, and Small settings. The two settings represent more or less image compression based on your choice. The Large, Medium, and Small settings determine the actual physical size of your image in pixels. Let’s work with the highest-quality setting possible. After all, our goal is to make big, beautiful photographs, so why start the process with a lower-quality image?

Setting the Image Quality

1. Press the Menu button on the back of the camera to bring up the menu list.

2. Use the Main dial to select the far-left menu tab.

3. At the top of this menu tab locate the Quality option (A).

A

4. Press the Set button to bring up the options screen.

5. Use the left/right Cross keys to select the first L (this will render a 15-megapixel image with a dimension of 4752 pixels by 3168 pixels) (B).

B

6. Press the Set button to lock in this change.

As you will see when scrolling through the quality settings, the higher the quality, the fewer pictures you will be able to fit on your card. If you have a 2 GB memory card, the quality setting we have selected will allow you to shoot about 460 photographs before you fill up your card. Always try to choose quality over quantity. Your pictures will be the better for it.

4. Turn Off the Auto ISO Setting

The ISO setting in your camera allows you to choose the level of sensitivity of the camera sensor to light. The ability to change this sensitivity is one of the biggest advantages to using a digital camera. In the days of film cameras, you had to choose the ISO by film type. This meant that if you wanted to shoot in lower light, you had to replace the film in the camera with one that had a higher ISO. So not only did you have to carry different types of film, but you also had to remove one roll from the camera to replace it with another, even if you hadn’t used up the current roll. Now all we have to do is go to our menu and select the appropriate ISO.

Having this flexibility is a powerful option but, just as with the Quality setting, the ISO setting has a direct bearing on the quality of the final image. The higher the ISO, the more digital noise the image will contain. Since our goal is to produce high-quality photographs, it is important that we get control over all of the camera controls and bend them to our will. When you turn your camera on for the first time, the ISO will be set to Auto. This means that the camera is determining how much light is available and will choose what it believes is the correct ISO setting. Since you want to use the lowest ISO possible, you will need to turn this setting off and manually select the appropriate ISO.

Which ISO you choose depends on your level of available or ambient light. For sunny days or very bright scenes, use a low ISO such as 100 or 200. As the level of light is reduced, raise the ISO level. Cloudy days or indoor scenes might require you to use ISO 400. Low-light scenes, such as when you are shooting at night, will mean you need to bump up that ISO to 1600. The thing to remember is to shoot with the lowest setting possible for maximum quality.

Setting the ISO

1. Activate the camera by lightly pressing the shutter release button.

2. Press the ISO button on the top of the camera.

3. Use the Main dial to select an ISO between 100 and 6400.

4. Lightly press the shutter release button or press the ISO button again to lock in your change.

5. Set Your Focus Point and Mode

The Canon focusing system is legendary for its speed and accuracy. The Artificial Intelligence (AI) focus modes will give you a ton of flexibility in your shooting. There is, however, one small problem that is inherent with any focusing system. No matter how intelligent it is, the camera is looking at all of the subjects in the scene and determining which is closest to the camera. It then uses this information to determine where the proper focus point should be. It has no way of knowing what your main emphasis is, so it is using a “best guess” system. To eliminate this factor, you should set the camera to single-point focusing so that you can ensure that you are focusing on the most important feature in the scene.

The camera has nine separate focus points to choose from. They are arranged in a diamond pattern with eight points around the outside of the diamond and one in the center. To start things off, you should select the focus point in the middle. Once you have become more familiar with the focus system, you can experiment with the other points, as well as the automatic point selection.

You should also change the focus mode to One Shot so that you can focus on your subject and then recompose your shot while holding that point of focus.

Setting the Focus Point and Focus Mode

1. To choose a single point of focus, wake the camera (if necessary) by lightly pressing the shutter release button.

2. Press the focus point selection button located in the upper-right area of your camera back.

3. Now use the Cross keys or the Main dial to move the focus point to the center spot, as seen on the rear LCD display (you can also do this in the viewfinder by moving the red dot to the desired position) (A).

A

4. Lightly press the shutter release button once more to set your new focus point.

5. To set the focus mode, press the AF button, which doubles as the right Cross key.

6. Using the Cross keys or Main dial, select the One Shot mode, then press the Set button (B).

B

The camera is now ready for single focusing. You will hear a chirp when the camera has locked in and focused on the subject. To focus on your subject and then recompose your shot, just place the focus point in the viewfinder on your subject, depress the shutter release button halfway until the camera chirps and, without letting up on the shutter button, recompose your shot and then press the shutter button all the way down to make your exposure (Figure 1.2).

Figure 1.2 Using the center single focus point in One Shot mode allows you to focus on your subject in the center, then recompose your photograph for a better composition.

6. Set the Correct White Balance

White balance correction is the process of rendering accurate colors in your final image. Most people don’t even notice that light has different color characteristics because the human eye automatically adjusts to different color temperatures, so quickly, in fact, that everything looks correct in a matter of milliseconds.

When color film ruled the world, photographers would select which film to use depending on what their light source was going to be. The most common film was balanced for daylight, but you could also buy film that was color balanced for tungsten light sources. Most other lighting situations had to be handled by using color filters over the lens. This process was necessary for the photographer’s final image to show the correct color balance of a scene.

Your camera has the ability to perform this same process automatically, but you can also choose to override it and set it manually. Guess which method we are going to use? You are catching on fast! Once again, your photography should be all about maintaining control over everything that influences your final image.

Luckily, you don’t need to have a deep understanding of color temperatures to control your camera’s white balance. The choices are given to you in terms that are easy to relate to and that will make things pretty simple. Your white balance choices are:

• Auto: The default setting for your camera. It is also the setting used by all of the Basic modes (see Chapter 3).

• Daylight: Most often used for general daylight/sun-lit shooting.

• Shade: Used when working in shaded areas that are still using sunlight as the dominant light source.

• Cloudy: The choice for overcast or very cloudy days. This and the Shade setting will eliminate the blue color cast from your images.

• Tungsten: Used for any occasion where you are using regular household-type bulbs for your light source. Tungsten is a very warm light source and will result in a yellow/orange cast if you don’t correct for it.

• Fluorescent: Used to get rid of the green-blue cast that can result from using regular fluorescent lights as your dominant light source. Some fluorescent lights are actually balanced for daylight, which would allow you to use the Daylight white balance setting.

• Flash: Used whenever you’re using the built-in flash or using a flash on the hot shoe. You should select this white balance to adjust for the slightly cooler light that comes from using a flash. (The hot shoe is the small bracket located on the top of your camera, which rests just above the eyepiece. This bracket is used for attaching a more powerful flash to the camera [see Chapter 8 and the bonus chapter].)

• Custom: Indicates that you are using a customized white balance that is adjusted for a particular light source. If you know what the color temperature of your light source is, you can manually create a white balance setting that is specifically for that light source.

Your camera has two different “zones” of shooting modes to choose from. These are located on the Mode dial, and they’re called the Basic and Creative zones. All of the Basic modes, which are identifiable by small icons, are automatic in nature and do not allow for much, if any, customization. The Creative modes, defined by the letter symbols, allow for much more control by the photographer (Figure 1.3).

Figure 1.3 The camera’s shooting modes are divided into the Basic zone and the Creative zone.

Setting the White Balance

1. After turning on or waking the camera, select one of the shooting modes in the Creative zone such as P (you can’t select the white balance when using any of the Basic modes).

2. Press the WB button on the back of the camera to bring up the white balance menu. It is the top button on the Cross keys.

3. Use the left/right Cross keys to select the proper white balance for your shooting situation.

4. Press the Set button to lock in your selection.

5. Check the camera display to ensure that the proper white balance is selected.

7. Adjust the Viewfinder Diopter

If you wear glasses, or are just like me and your eyes are getting older, you might have trouble looking through the viewfinder. Actually, you will be able to see through the viewfinder but what you see might not look like it is in crisp focus. This may not be a huge problem when you are using autofocus, but if you are trying to manually focus your lens you will find that your images look a bit soft. To remedy this, you should use the dioptric adjustment knob, located to the right of the viewfinder, to adjust things for your particular vision. There is no “correct” setting for this adjustment so you will have to dial it in yourself. It’s really easy if you know this little trick.

Adjusting the Diopter

1. Remove your lens and point your camera at a light-colored wall or surface.

2. Place your index finger on the dioptric adjustment knob and look through the viewfinder (if you normally wear glasses you should have them on).

3. Rotate the wheel until the focus points in the viewfinder look sharp.

4. That’s it. Just replace your lens and start shooting with a clearer view.

8. Know How to Override Auto Focus

As good as the Canon autofocus system is, there are times when it just isn’t doing the job for you. Many times this has to do with how you would like to compose a scene and where the actual point of focus should be. This can be especially true when you are using the camera on a tripod, where you can’t pre-focus and then recompose before shooting (as discussed earlier). To take care of this problem, you will need to manually focus the lens. I am only going to cover the kit lens that came with my Canon T1i (the EF-S 18–55mm IS), so if you have purchased a different lens be sure to check the accompanying instruction manual for the lens.

On the 18–55mm kit lens, you simply need to slide the switch located at the base of the lens (located on the lens barrel near the body of the camera) from the AF setting to the MF setting (Figure 1.4). You can now turn the focus ring at the end of the lens to set your focus. You will also see an MF displayed on the shooting display of your LCD screen, which indicates that you are in manual focus mode. Now that you’re in manual focus mode, the camera will not give you an audible chirp when you have correctly focused unless you are focusing on an area that is covered by one of the focus points in the viewfinder.

Figure 1.4 Slide the focus switch on the lens to the MF position to manually focus.

We’ll cover manual focus in more detail in future chapters.

9. Review Your Shots

One of the greatest features of a digital camera is its ability to give us instant feedback. By reviewing your images on the camera’s LCD screen, you can instantly tell if you got your shot. This visual feedback allows you to make adjustments on the fly and make certain that all of your adjustments are correct before moving on.

When you first press the shutter release button, your camera quickly processes your shot and then displays the image on the LCD display. The default setting for that display is only two seconds. Personally, I don’t find this to be nearly enough time to take in all the visual feedback that I might want. Instead of using this “quick glance” method, change your display time to the Hold setting. This will keep the image up on the display until you decide that you are ready to move on to your next shot. (Note that this option will drain your batteries a little faster than the default setting.)

Changing Your Review Time Setting

1. Press the Menu button and the use the Main dial to select the leftmost menu item.

2. Using the Cross keys, scroll down to Review time and press the Set button (A).

A

3. Scroll down to Hold and then press the Set button once again (B).

B

4. Press the Menu button to leave the menus and continue shooting.

Now that you have the image display set, let’s check out some of the other visual information that will really help you when shooting.

There are four display modes that give you different amounts of information while reviewing your photos. The default view (Figure 1.5) simply displays your image along with the shutter speed, f-stop, and image number (these will appear above your image on the display).

Figure 1.5 The default display mode on the T1i.

To get more visual feedback, press the Display (Disp.) button located to the left of the viewfinder. Press it once and you will see your Quality setting, along with the image number that you are currently viewing (“3/307” would mean that you’re looking at the third image of 307 total images). See Figure 1.6.

Figure 1.6 Pressing the Display (Disp.) button lets you scroll through the different display modes.

Pressing the button a second time results in a huge amount of information being displayed along with the image. You will now be able to see the following items in your display: shutter speed, aperture, exposure compensation, image name, image thumbnail, histogram, shooting mode, ISO, white balance setting, picture style, quality setting, size of the image in megabytes, color space, image number, date, and time (Figure 1.7).

Figure 1.7 This display mode offers you a ton of information at a glance.

That’s a huge amount of information available on a 3″ screen! You probably won’t want to use this display option as your default review setting, but if you are trying to figure out what settings you used or if you want to review the histogram (see “The Value of the Histogram” sidebar on pages 20–21), you now have all of this great information available.

The fourth display option allows you to view the regular image histogram, as well as a color histogram for your image. Personally, I prefer to use just the standard histogram, but you may find this feature handy when checking to see if you were able to capture all of the information in your scene (Figure 1.8).

Figure 1.8 The fourth display option shows you a color histogram.

Additionally, both histogram modes result in a small, thumbnail-sized version of your image. So while there is a lot of information concerning the camera settings, you get less visual feedback in terms of seeing the actual photo. You would probably be best served by selecting one of the first two viewing modes, and then using the histogram modes when you need to review your shooting data.

The different display modes are activated by pressing the Display (Disp.) button while an image is actively being displayed on your LCD screen. The display mode will remain for all future images that are displayed until you press the Display button again. Also, pressing the shutter release or Menu button will result in closing the image display. To get your image back up on the LCD screen, simply press the blue Image Review playback button on the back of the camera.

10. Hold Your Camera for Proper Shooting

Digital SLR cameras are made to favor the right-handed individual. The basics of properly holding the camera begins with grasping the camera body with the right hand. You will quickly find that most of the important camera controls are within easy reach of your thumb and forefinger. The next step is to create a stable base for your camera to rest on. This is accomplished by placing the camera body on the upfacing palm of your left hand (Figure 1.13). Now you can curl your fingers around the lens barrel to quickly zoom or manually focus the lens.

Figure 1.13 The proper way to hold your camera to ensure sharp, blur-free images. (Photos: Alex Revell)

Now that you know where to put your hands, let’s talk about what to do with the rest of your body parts. By using the under-hand grip, your elbows will be drawn closer to your body. You should concentrate on pulling them in close to your body to stabilize your shooting position. You should also try to maintain proper upright posture. Leaning forward at the waist will begin to fatigue your back, neck, and arms. Nothing ruins a day of shooting like a sore back, so make sure you stand erect with your elbows in. Finally, place your left foot in front of your right foot, and face your subject in a slightly wide stance. By combining all of these aspects into your photography, you will give yourself the best chance of eliminating self-imposed camera shake (or hand shake) in your images, resulting in much sharper photographs.

Chapter 1 Assignments

Let’s begin our shooting assignments by setting up and using all of the elements of the Top Ten list. Even though I have yet to cover the Creative shooting modes, you should set your camera to the P (Program) mode. This will allow you to interact with the various settings and menus that have been covered thus far.

Basic camera setup

Charge your battery to 100% to get it started on a life of dependable service. Next, using your newfound knowledge, set up your camera to address the following: Shooting without a card, Image Quality, and Auto ISO.

Selecting the proper white balance

Take your camera outside into a daylight environment and then photograph the same scene using different white balance settings. Pay close attention to how each setting affects the overall color cast of your images. Next, move inside and repeat the exercise while shooting in a tungsten lighting environment. Finally, find a fluorescent light source and repeat once more.

Focusing with single point and One Shot

Change your camera setting so that you are focusing using the single-point focus mode. Try using all of the different focus points to see how they work in focusing your scene. Then set your focus mode to One Shot and practice focusing on a subject and then recomposing before actually taking the picture. Try doing this with subjects at varying distances.

Evaluating your pictures with the LCD display

Set up your image display properties and then review some of your previous assignment images using the different display modes. Review your shooting information for each image and take a look at the histograms to see how the content of your photo affects their shapes.

Discovering the manual focus mode

Change your focus mode from auto focus to manual focus and practice a little manual focus photography. Get familiar with where the focus ring is and how to use it to achieve sharp images.

Get a grip: proper camera holding

This final assignment is something that you should practice every time you shoot: proper grip and stance for shooting with your camera. Use the described technique and then shoot a series of images. Try comparing it with improper techniques to compare the stability of the grip and stance.