A short course in canon EOS 450d photography

C amera C ontrols and C reativity ...7The Digital Rebel XSi/450D Camera...8 Jump Start—Using Full Auto Mode...9 good Things to Know...10 Using the Viewinder...13 diopter adjustment...13

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Agreat photograph begins when you recognize a great scene or

subject But recognizing a great opportunity isn’t enough to capture it; you also have to be prepared A large part of being prepared in-volves understanding your camera well enough to capture what you see Get-ting you prepared to see and capture great photographs is what this book is all about It doesn’t matter if you are taking pictures for business or pleasure, there’s a lot here to help you get better results and more satisfaction from your photography

To get better, and possibly even great photographs, you need to understand both concepts and procedures; the “whys” and “hows” of photography

• Concepts of photography are the underlying principles that apply regardless

of the camera you are using They include such things as how sharpness and exposure affect your images and the way they are perceived by viewers Un-derstanding concepts answers the “why” kinds of questions you might have about photography

• Procedures are those things speciic to one kind of camera, and explain step-by-step how you set your camera’s controls to capture an image just the way you want to Understanding procedures gives you the answers to the

“how” kinds of questions you might have

This book is organized around the concepts of digital photography because that’s how photographers think You think about scenes and subjects, high-lights and shadows, softness and sharpness, color and tone The procedures you use with the Canon EOS Rebel XSi camera—called the 450D in many parts of the world—are integrated throughout the concepts, appearing in those places where they apply This integrated approach lets you irst under-stand the concepts of photography and then see step by step how to use the XSi in all kinds of photographic situations

To get more effective, interesting, and creative photographs, you only need

to understand how and when to use a few simple features on your camera such as focus, exposure controls, and lash If you’ve previously avoided understanding these features and the profound impact they can have on your images, you’ll be pleased to know that you can learn them on a weekend You can then spend the rest of your life marveling at how the ininite variety

of combinations make it possible to convey your own personal view of the world You’ll be ready to keep everything in a scene sharp for maximum de-tail or to blur it all for an impressionistic portrayal You’ll be able to get dra-matic close-ups, freeze fast action, create wonderful panoramas, and capture the beauty and wonder of rainbows, sunsets, ireworks, and nighttime scenes

As you explore your camera, be sure to have fun There are no “rules” or

“best” way to make a picture Great photographs come from using what you know to experiment and try new approaches Digital cameras make this espe-cially easy because there are no ilm costs or delays Every experiment is free and you see the results immediately so you can learn step by step

This book assumes you’ve mastered the mechanics of your camera It’s about getting great pictures, not about connecting your camera to computers and using your software That information is well presented in the user guide that came with your camera Be sure to visit our Web site at www.shortcourses.com for even more digital photography information

phOTOgRAphy

On-linE

• to learn more

about digital

pho-tography, visit our

The XSi /450D accepts

the full line of Canon EF

and EF-S lenses.

The XSi/450D can print

directly to a printer

without a computer.

C amera C ontrols and C reativity 7

The Digital Rebel XSi/450D Camera 8

Jump Start—Using Full Auto Mode 9

good Things to Know 10

Using the Viewinder 13

diopter adjustment 13

Focus Points 13

information display 13

Metering display 13

Anatomy of the Camera 14

top and Front views 14

rear view 14

Changing Settings with Buttons and Dial 16

Changing Settings with Menus 17

playing Back & Managing your images 19

image review 19

information display 19

image Playback 19

Jumping in Playback 20

Giving Slide Shows 20

using the Playback Menu 21

Selecting image Quality and Size 22

number of Pixels 22

how an image is Captured 24

the exposure 24

it’s all Black and White after all 24

Choosing image Size and Quality 25

C hapter 2

C ontrolling e xposure 28

Understanding Exposure 29

The Shutter Controls light and Motion 30

The Aperture Controls light and Depth of Field 32

Using Shutter Speed and Aperture Together 34

exposure—Faucets & Buckets analogy 35

exposure—Seesaw analogy 36

Retaining highlight and Shadow Details 37

Choosing Shooting Modes 38

Using image Zone Modes 39

Using program AE (p) Mode and program Shift 40

Using Shutter-priority (Tv) Mode 41

Using Aperture-priority (Av) Mode 42

Using Manual (M) Mode 43

how your Exposure System Works 44

Meter averaging and Middle Gray 44

types of Metering 46

When Automatic Exposure Works Well 47

When to Override Automatic Exposure 48

Scenes Lighter than Middle Gray 48

Scenes darker than Middle Gray 49

Subject against very Light Background 49

Subject against very dark Background 50

Scenes with high Contrast 50

hard to Meter Scenes 51 how Overriding Autoexposure Works 52 how to Override Automatic Exposure 53 exposure Compensation 53 autoexposure (ae) Lock 53 autoexposure Bracketing (aeB) 55 Using histograms 56

displaying histograms 56 evaluating histograms 56 Clipped Pixels 58

direction of Movement 65 distance to Subject and Focal Length of Lens 66

Focus and Depth of Field 67 Focus 67

depth of Field 67 Checking depth of Field 68 Focusing Techniques 69

autofocus Modes 69 Selectable Focusing Points 70 using Focus Lock 71

Manual Focus 72 Controlling Depth of Field 73 Using Deep Depth of Field 74 Focusing on the hyperfocal distance 74 Auto Depth-of-ield AE (A-DEP) 75 Using Shallow Depth of Field 76

Conveying the Feeling of Motion 77

C hapter 4

C apturing l ight & C olor 78

Where Does Color Come From? 79 White Balance and Color 80 using Preset White Balance Settings 80 Creating and using a Custom White Balance Setting 81

Selecting a Color Space 82 Using White Balance Correction & Bracketing 83 Color and Time of Day 84

Sunsets and Sunrises 85 Weather 87

photographing at night 89 The Direction of light 91 The Quality of light 93

u sing F lash and s tudio l ighting 110

how Flash Works 111

Using Autolash 112

Flash and Shutter Speeds 112

Flash in the Basic Zone 112

Flash in the Creative Zone 113

portraits with Flash 114

Positioning the Flash and Subjects 114

red-eye 115

Using Fill Flash 116

Using Slow Sync Flash 117

Using Available light 119

Controlling Flash Exposures 120

What’s e-ttL ii? 120

Flash exposure Compensation 120

Flash exposure (Fe) Lock 121

using the Flash Control Setting 122

Using an External Flash 123

the 580eX ii Speedlite 123

high-speed Sync (FP) 123

Flash exposure Bracketing (FeB) 124

Wireless remote Flash 124

portrait and product photography—introduction 129

The Main light 130

The Fill light 131

The Background light 132

The Rim light 133

C hapter 7

o ther F eatures and C ommands 134

live View Shooting 135 General tips in Live view 135 Manually Focusing in Live view 137 autofocusing in Live view 137 Continuous photography 139 Using picture Styles 140 Selecting Picture Styles 140 adjusting Picture Styles 141 Remote Control photography 142 Using My Menu 143

Using the Set-up Menu 144 auto power off 144 File numbering 145 auto rotate 145 Format 145 LCd auto off 146 Screen color 146 LCd brightness 146 date/time 146 Language 146 video system 146 Sensor cleaning 146 Live view function settings 146 Flash control 146

Custom Functions (C Fn) 147 Clear settings 147

Firmware ver 147 Using Custom Functions 148 Entering a print Order 152 Caring for your Camera 153 Cleaning the image Sensor 153 Cleaning the Camera and Lens 155 Protecting your Camera from the ele- ments 155

Protecting when traveling 156 Storing a Camera 156 Caring for Yourself 156

Chapter 1

Camera Controls and Creativity

Serious digital cameras give you creative control over your images They

do so by allowing you to control the light and motion in photographs

as well as what’s sharp and what isn’t Although most consumer digital cameras are fully automatic, some allow you to make minor adjustments that affect your images The best ones such as the Rebel XSi offer interchangeable lenses, external lash connections, and a wide range of controls—many more than you’d ind on point and shoot cameras However, regardless of what controls your camera has, the same basic principles are at work “under the hood.” Your automatic exposure and focusing systems are having a profound affect on your images Even with your camera set to operate automatically, you can indirectly control, or at least take advantage of the effects these sys-tems have on your images

In this chapter, we’ll irst explore your camera and how you use it on Full Auto mode You’ll also see how you use menus and buttons to operate the camera, manage your images and control image quality In the chapters that follow, you’ll explore in greater depth how you take control of these settings, and others, to get the effects that you want

ContentS

• the digital rebel

XSi/450d Camera

• Jump

Start—us-ing Full auto Mode •

Good things to know

• Using the

Viewind-er • anatomy of the

Camera • Changing

Settings with Buttons

and dials •

Chang-ing SettChang-ings with

Menus • Playing Back

& Managing Your

the diGitaL reBeL XSi/450d CaMera

The Canon EOS XSi/450D’s compact and lightweight silver or black body houses a 12.2 Megapixel CMOS image sensor It can capture images up to 4,272 x 2,848 pixels in size, large enough for 21 x 14 inch, high-quality prints Its high-speed continuous mode captures up to 56 Large/Fine JPEGs or 6 RAW images at 3.5 frame-per-second (fps) making it ideal for photographing wildlife, sports and other action subjects

The camera has a large three-inch, 230,000-pixel LCD monitor on which you can display menus, camera settings, and images you have captured Us-ing Live View, you can also use the monitor to compose and focus images, magnifying them up to 10x for the precise focus required in macro photogra-phy You can even display a histogram on the monitor to ensure you have the best possible exposure before taking the picture Using Live View, along with software and a cable supplied with the camera, you can use a much larger computer screen as the monitor/viewinder to compose and focus images and use menu commands to change camera settings

The camera has a fast 0.1-second initial start-up, a shutter rated up to 100,000 cycles, a top shutter speed of 1/4000 sec, and 1/200 maximum X-sync lash shutter speed setting ISO settings range from 100–1600

Because the camera’s APS-C size image sensor is smaller than a frame of 35mm ilm, the camera has a 1.6x focal length conversion factor and is com-patible with the full line-up of Canon EF and EF-S lenses

The camera’s 14-bit Analog-to-Digital (A/D) conversion process recognizes four times as many colors as its predecessor, capturing images with iner and more accurate gradations of tones and colors Highlight Tone Priority

is perfect for wedding and nature photographers trying to capture details in wedding dresses, clouds, snow or other white subjects When you don’t plan

on editing your images on a computer, Picture Styles let you adjust them for printing right in the camera as you capture them

The camera captures images in the universal JPEG format but also offers the higher-quality RAW format You can also select RAW+L to capture identi-cal RAW and JPEG images with the same ile name and different extensions (CR2 and JPG) You can then use the JPEG without farther processing and use the RAW image when you want to create the best possible image

The focusing system offers nine focus points from which you or the camera can select the one used to set focus A 35-zone metering sensor, and evalua-tive metering, are linked to all AF points Also available are centerweighted average metering, partial metering and spot metering—the last two metering approximately 9% or 4% in the center of the viewinder

The camera has E-TTL II autolash and 12 shooting modes As an added convenience you can adjust the lash settings of the Canon Speedlite 580EX

II directly from the camera

The camera’s integrated sensor cleaning offers a number of ways to prevent dust from affecting your images, or remove it if it does

Finally, the camera has customization features including 13 Custom tions, picture styles you can edit or deine from scratch, and the ability to create your own menu listing only those settings you use most frequently

Func-The XSi’s image sensor

is smaller that a frame

of 35mm ilm, but

has the same familiar

shape—called the

aspect ratio

Click this button to play

an animation that shows

how an SLR works when

you compose an image

and press the shutter

button.

Canon Selphy printers

like this S2 can print

LC-e5e, eoS digital

Solution disk and

JuMP Start—uSinG FuLL auto Mode

The XSi’s Full Auto mode sets everything for you Just frame the image and push the shutter button This a good mode in most situations because it lets you focus on the subject rather than the camera

• Selecting the mode Turn the power switch on the top of the camera to

ON and set the Mode Dial to Full Auto (the green rectangle icon) The tor displays the current camera settings (page 19)

moni-• Framing the image The viewinder shows about 95% of the scene you

are going to capture If the image in the viewinder is fuzzy, turn the ter adjustment knob in the upperright corner of the viewinder to adjust it When using a zoom lens, turn the zoom ring to zoom in and out

diop-• Autofocus Nine small rectangles called the AF points (AF stands for

au-tofocus) are displayed in the viewinder When the focus switch on the lens is set to AF (page 69), the camera focuses on the closest subject covered by one

or more of these points (page 70) When you press the shutter button way down and focus is achieved, a red dot lashes in the point or points being used to set focus, the round focus conirmation light in the lower right corner

half-of the viewinder glows green, and the camera beeps How close you can get

to a subject depends on the lens you are using If the subject’s distance to the camera changes after you have focused on it, AI servo AF mode (page 69) keeps it in focus as long as it’s covered by one of the focus points

• Autoexposure Evaluative metering divides the scene in the viewinder

into 35 zones and meters each of them to determine the best exposure for the scene (page 44) The shutter speed and aperture are displayed in the view-inder and on the monitor when you press the shutter button halfway down

• Autolash When the light is too dim, or the subject is backlit, the built-in

lash automatically pops up when you press the shutter button halfway down and ires when you press the shutter button the rest of the way down (page 111) When done, press the lash down to close it

takinG a PiCture in FuLL auto Mode

1 With the power switch on the top of the camera set to ON, set the

Mode Dial to Full Auto (the green rectangle icon) Set the focus mode switch on the lens to AF (page 69) and remove the lens cap

2 Compose the image in the viewinder, making sure the area that you want sharpest is covered by one of the nine rectangular focus points

3 Press the shutter button halfway down and pause so the camera can automatically set focus and exposure When the camera has done so

it beeps, the round green focus conirmation light in the viewinder glows, and a dot in the focusing point(s) being used to set focus lashes red

4 Press the shutter button all the way down to take the picture

The shutter sounds and the red access lamp on the back of the era lights as the image is stored onto the memory card

The image is displayed on the monitor for 2 seconds so you can review it, or press the Erase button to delete it

5 When done shooting, turn the power switch to OFF.

Power switch, Mode

Dial, and shutter

button.

Full Auto icon.

JUMP START—USING FULL AUTO MODE

tiPS

• if the camera

doesn’t work as

described here, you

may need to clear

previous settings as

described on page

147.

• if you don’t use

any controls for 30

seconds, the camera

enters auto power

off mode (page 144)

to wake it up, press

the shutter button

halfway down and

release it.

• The lash pops up

automatically, when

needed, in Basic

Zone modes other

than Sports,

Land-scape, and Flash off

af-fected by the color

of the light

illuminat-ing the scene the

camera adjusts white

balance so white

objects in the scene

look white in the

photo (page 80).

• To insert a memory card, turn off the camera, slide the card slot cover on

the right side of the camera toward the back, and swing it open Insert the card with its front label facing the rear of the camera and press it down until

it locks into place Slide the cover closed so it snaps into place To remove

a card, open the card slot cover and press the card down and release it so it pops up to where you can grasp it Never open the battery or card slot cover when the red access lamp in the lower right corner of the camera back Doing

so can cause you to lose images, or even damage your card

• If you turn off the camera while the red access lamp is lit and Recording

is displayed on the monitor, the camera inishes saving all of the previously captured images before it powers down

• The irst time you use the camera you should enter the correct date and time

(page 146) since you’ll use these later to organize and locate pictures

• When you turn the camera on or off, the image sensor is cleaned (page 153)

When on, the current camera settings are displayed on the monitor

• If you don’t use any controls for 30 seconds, the camera enters auto power

off mode and the monitor turns off To wake it up, press the shutter button halfway down and release it (You can also press Playback, DISP, SET or MENU buttons.) To increase the auto power off time, see page 144

• No matter what you are doing, you can instantly return to shooting mode by

pressing the shutter button halfway down

• The shutter button has two stages when you press it halfway down, the

camera sets exposure and focus When set, the current aperture and shutter speed are shown in the viewinder and on the monitor If you press the shut-ter button down in one stroke without pausing halfway, the camera may take

Good thinGS to knoW

When you irst start taking photos with a new camera, it sometimes seems that there is too much to learn all at once To simplify your getting started, here are some of the things you may want to know right off

• If your camera is right out of the box, you need to mount a lens (page 95),

insert a charged battery pack, and insert a memory card on which your

imag-es are saved The camera usimag-es Secure Digital (SD) memory cards which store

up to 4 GB, or newer SDHC cards that store 4–32 GB No card is included

with the camera, and there may be no lens as part of the package Be careful

because it is possible to take photos without a card in the camera! If you turn this feature off, when you press the shutter button halfway down with no card

in the camera Card is displayed in the monitor and you can’t take a picture.

The card and battery

compartments have

sliding covers.

Icons on the monitor

indicate the status of

the battery charge as

full (top), almost run

down (middle), and out

(bottom).

PreventinG ShootinG Without a Card

1 With the Mode Dial set to any mode, press MENU and display the Shooting 1 menu tab (page 17)

2 Press the up () or down () cross key to highlight Shoot w/o card

and press SET to display choices

3 Press the up () or down () cross key to highlight Off and press

SET to select it

4 Press the MENU or shutter button to hide the menu

Pressing the shutter

button halfway down

locks focus and

exposure and pressing it

all the way down takes

the picture.

The sensor cleaning

icon.

GOOD THINGS TO KNOW

Dioptric adjustment

knob.

turninG the BeeP on and oFF

1 With the Mode Dial set to any shooting mode, press MENU and display the Shooting 1 menu tab (page 17)

2 Press the up () or down () cross key to highlight Beep and press

SET to display choices

3 Press the up () or down () cross key to highlight On or Off and

press SET to select it

4 Press the MENU or shutter button to hide the menu

a moment before taking a picture

• In Full Auto mode, the focus mode is set to AI focus AF (page 69) When you press the shutter button halfway down in this mode:

• If the camera doesn’t beep, the round green focus conirmation light in

the viewinder blinks, and you can’t take a picture, the camera isn’t able to focus (page 69)

• If the camera beeps softly and the focus conirmation light doesn’t light, the subject is moving and the camera has automatically switched from AI focus AF to AI servo AF mode to keep it in focus (page 69)

• When you press the shutter button halfway down you activate metering and

the shutter speed and aperture are displayed in the viewinder and on the monitor (page 14) Metering only remains active for 4 seconds unless you use

a control You can turn it back on at any time by pressing the shutter button halfway down

• Be aware of the number of shots remaining displayed in brackets in the

lowerright corner of the monitor when camera settings are displayed

• To take pictures, hold the camera in your right hand while supporting the

lens with your left Brace the camera against your face as you look through the viewinder and brace your elbows against your body Press the shutter button slowly and smoothly as you hold your breath after breathing in deeply and exhaling

• When you take a photo it’s displayed on the monitor for 2 seconds so you can review it, press the Erase button to delete it or the DISP button to change the display mode You can change the review time, turn it off, or set it to Hold

so it remains displayed until auto power off takes effect (page 144)

If the focus conirmation

light in the viewinder

blinks when you press

the shutter button

halfway down, the

camera is having

trouble focusing (page

69).

tiP

• if you turn the

Mode dial while

watching the camera

information display

on the monitor, you’ll

see the settings for

each mode those

that are grayed out

can’t be changed in

the current shooting

mode.

ChanGinG the revieW tiMe

1 With the Mode Dial set to any shooting mode, press MENU and play the Shooting 1 menu tab (page 17)

dis-2 Press the up () or down () cross key to highlight Review time and

press SET to display choices

3 Press the up () or down () cross key to highlight Off, 2 sec., 4 sec.,

8 sec or Hold and press SET to select it

4 Press the MENU or shutter button to hide the menu

• The camera beeps when it focuses, and when you use the self-timer, but you

can turn this off if you ind it’s drawing attention or affecting others

The camera uses Secure

Digital (SD) cards to

store images The white

switch on the left,

when slid down,

write-protects your image

iles and you can’t take

new pictures or erase

existing ones.

• You can adjust the monitor’s brightness to match the light in which you’re

viewing it (page 146)

• When you bring your eye to the viewinder, a sensor just below it turns off the monitor display so it doesn’t distract you When you stop looking through the viewinder, the monitor display comes back on

• You can reset most camera settings to their factory defaults using the Set-up

3 menu tab’s Clear settings command (page 147) This is useful if you make

changes and can’t remember how to undo them

• The XSi supports Design rule for Camera File System 2.0 and Exif 2.21 (also

called “Exif Print”) Exif Print is an industry standard that enhances ibility among digital cameras and printers When you connect the camera to

compat-a printer thcompat-at compat-also supports Exif Print, the shooting informcompat-ation is used to optimize print quality

• One rechargeable battery pack LP-E5 will capture about 600 images in warm weather when not using lash Things that reduce battery life include holding the shutter button halfway down, and using the LCD monitor, lash, autofocus, image stabilization (on some lenses), and Live View

• Do not look through the viewinder directly at the sun Doing so may cause loss of vision Don’t even point the camera toward the sun since it can scorch and damage the shutter curtains inside the camera

• If the focusing ring on a lens rotates during autofocusing, do not touch it

• If more than one AF point lashes, the camera has focused on all of those points so they must be almost equally distant from the camera

• If pressing the shutter button halfway down doesn’t focus the camera, the focus mode switch on the lens may be set to MF (Manual Focus) Switch it to

half-• If you use lash and a picture comes out dark, you were too far away from the main subject Normally, you shouldn’t be more than 16 feet (5 meters) away

• If the lash is used and the bottom of the picture is in shadow, you were too close and the lash was blocked by the lens or lens hood

A lOOK AhEAD

• the camera’s 12 shooting modes are divided into two types, or zones—Basic Zone and Creative Zone each zone has a number of modes you can select by turning the Mode dial on top of the camera Basic Zone modes, including Full auto and six image Zones, are indicated with picture-like icons and Creative Zone modes with text (P, tv, av, M, and a-deP) these modes are described in more detail starting on page 38

MeterinG diSPLaY

The aperture and shutter speed are both displayed in the viewinder and on the monitor while the camera’s exposure metering is on Metering is on for only four seconds after you press the shutter button halfway down, so if it turns off, you have to press the shutter button halfway down to turn it back

on When off, you can’t change many settings and the information displayed

on the monitor isn’t as complete as it could be For example, when metering

uSinG the vieWFinder

When taking photos you normally compose them in the viewinder Since this

is your center of interest, the camera also displays focus, exposure and other information to guide you

dioPter adJuStMent

You can adjust the viewinder display so you can read it without glasses To

do so, remove the lens cap and look through the viewinder at a bright, evenly lit surface such as a wall or sky (not the sun!) If the viewinder display isn’t sharp, try to bring the AF points into focus by turning the dioptric adjust-ment knob in the upperright corner of the viewinder If this doesn’t work, the camera also accepts accessory E-series Dioptric Adjustment Lenses in 10 types ranging from -4 to +3 diopters These lenses slip into the viewinder’s eyepiece holder (See your Canon dealer for information.)

The viewinder displays

information about

settings that affect the

current photograph

When focus is achieved

a dot in the AF point

or points being used to

set focus lash red and

the green conirmation

light glows steady in the

monitor and in the

viewinder, press the

shutter button

half-way down.

USING THE VIEWFINDER

anatoMY oF the CaMera

The XSi has buttons and dials that quickly change important settings In many cases you use buttons, cross keys and SET together or in sequence (page 16) Here are the dials and buttons you’ll be using to control the cam-era

toP and Front vieWS

1 Shutter button locks exposure and focus and turns on metering when

pressed halfway down, and takes a photo when pressed all the way

2 Main Dial selects menu tabs (page 17), adjusts exposure when used with

the Av button (page 53), and changes shutter speeds and apertures (pages 41–43) In playback mode, the dial jumps through pictures you’ve taken (page 19)

3 ISO button displays ISO settings from which to choose (page 62).

4 Mode Dial selects one of the 12 shooting modes (page 38)

5 Power switch turns the camera on and off

6 Flash button pops up the built-in lash when the Mode Dial is set to any

mode in the Creative Zone (page 112)

7 Lens release button lets you turn the lens to remove it (page 95)

8 Depth of Field preview button lets you preview depth of ield (page

68)

The built-in lash

pops-up on top of the

camera.

The shutter button

has two stages When

pressed halfway down,

the camera locks focus

and exposure and

pressing it all the way

down takes the picture.

ANATOMY OF THE CAMERA

Cross keys move the

highlight while using

menus and scroll

images in playback

mode In shooting

mode, pressing a

speciic cross key lets

you change metering,

autofocus, drive, and

picture style modes.

TipS

• Blue icons indicate

a button’s function

in playback mode

White icons indicate

its function in

shoot-ing mode.

• You can quickly

reset all camera

set-tings to their original

factory defaults

(page 147).

• You can connect

the camera to a

computer and use

Live view (page 135)

so you and others

can immediately see

photos as you take

them this is a great

way to take portraits

and close-ups.

9 DISP button displays or hides information on the monitor about camera

settings in shooting or menu mode, or about the currently displayed image in playback or review mode

10 MENU button displays and hides the menu on the monitor (page 17)

11 Dioptric adjustment knob sharpens the viewinder image (page 13).

12 Index/Reduce button in playback mode (blue icon) reduces a ied image and switches to index view (page 19) In shooting mode AE/FE

magni-Lock (*) locks exposure (page 53) and lash exposure (page 121)

13 Magnify button in playback mode (blue icon) enlarges an image up to 10x (page 19) In shooting mode AF point selection is used with the main

Dial or cross keys to select focusing points used to set focus (page 70)

14 Aperture Value (Av)/Exposure compensation button is held down

while turning the Main Dial to set the aperture in manual (M) mode (page 43), and exposure compensation in other Creative Zone modes (page 53)

15 Print/Share/WB button in playback mode prints and transfers images

when a printer or computer is attached In shooting mode it displays white balance settings from which to choose (page 80)

16 Erase button deletes images from the memory card (page 21)

17 Playback button lets you review the photos you have taken (page 19).

18 Metering mode button changes the metering mode (page 46) when

you press it repeatedly

19 AF mode button changes the focusing mode (page 69) when you press

it repeatedly

20 Drive mode selection button selects single-shot, continuous (page

139), and self-timer (page 61) modes when you press it repeatedly

21 Picture styles button selects a picture style (page 139) when you press

it repeatedly

22 SET button, in the middle of the cross keys, selects highlighted choices

or conirms settings

ChanGinG SettinGS With ButtonS and diaL

When you irst turn on the camera, or press the DISP button, the monitor displays the current camera settings Many of these settings—typically those you are most likely to use when shooting photos—are changed using buttons and dials (Those grayed out can’t be changed in the current shooting mode, and Drive is the only button that works in Basic Zone modes.) The sequence varies depending on which button you press to begin:

• Press the ISO or AF point selection button to display a menu on the monitor and in the viewinder, turn the Main Dial or press the cross keys to select the setting you want to use

• Press the white balance button or one of the four cross key buttons to play a menu on the monitor Press the same button repeatedly, or press the cross keys to highlight one of the settings, then press SET to select it

dis-• Hold down the Aperture Value AV/Exposure Compensation button (page 38) and turn the Main Dial to adjust the exposure level indicator in the view-inder and on the monitor

• Pressing the DISP button toggles the monitor display on and off Even when off, pressing one of the cross keys turns it back on Custom Function 12 (page 148) can be set so the monitor remembers if it was on or off when you last turned off the camera and returns to that state when you turn it back on For example, if you press DISP to turn off the display, then turn off the camera, when you turn the camera back on the display will be off

• When the monitor display is on, moving your eye to the viewinder turns it off to reduce glare when taking pictures, and moving your eye away turns it back on If you are wearing sunglasses, it may not turn off automatically and

if there are luorescent lights nearby you may not be able to keep it on You

can turn off this feature using the Set-up 1 menu’s LCD auto off command

the monitor displays

information about the

current settings and

displays options when

you press one of the

shooting buttons on the

back of the camera used

to change settings.

tiPS

• Many buttons won’t

work when the

cam-era is in auto power

off mode Press the

shutter button down

and release it to

wake up the

cam-era and activate the

viewinder and

moni-tor displays.

• You can quickly

reset camera settings

to their original

fac-tory defaults (page

147).

When you press many

buttons, their function

remains active for only

4 seconds If you are

slow, just press the

button again for another

4 seconds.

Tip

• When you press

one of the cross keys

to display a menu

on the monitor, you

can highlight one of

the menu choices by

pressing the button

repeatedly or

press-ing one of the cross

keys.

uSinG MenuS

To display the menu when the camera is on, press the MENU button above the monitor to display the last tab you used, with the last com-mand you used highlighted

To select a different menu tab, turn the Main Dial or press the left ()

or right () cross key

To highlight a setting on the selected menu tab, press the up () or down () cross key to move the colored selection frame

To display choices for the highlighted setting, press the SET button in the center of the cross keys The currently selected setting may be blue

To select a choice (not all commands list choices), press the up () or down () cross key to highlight it, then press SET

To back up without changing a setting, press MENU or the shutter button before pressing SET

To return to the menu if pressing SET took you to a second screen, press MENU There is often a menu U-turn icon on the screen to re-mind you that this is an option

To hide the menu, press the MENU or shutter button

tiPS

• Following this

sec-tion when we say to

• You can quickly

reset all camera

set-tings to their original

factory defaults

(page 147).

• When a menu is

displayed you can

press the diSP

but-ton once to display

some camera

set-tings and again to

return to the menu.

Icons and colors

indicate shooting,

playback, set-up and My

Menu menu tabs The

dots indicate tabs 1, 2

and 3 of the menus.

CHANGING SETTINGS WITH MENUS

Shooting 1 (Red)

review time off / 2 sec / 4 sec / 8 sec / hold 11

2 Shooting 2 (Red)

WB ShiFt/Bkt WB correction, White balance correction,

white balance bracketing

81

Picture Style Standard / Portrait / Landscape / neutral

/Faithful / Monochrome / user def 1, 2, 3

140 dust delete data obtains data to be used to erase dust spots 154

The settings in gray

on this table are not

available when the

Mode Dial is set to one

of the modes in the

Basic zone.

ChanGinG SettinGS With MenuS

To change settings, you often use a tabbed menu that is displayed on the monitor when you press the MENU button You navigate the menus and change settings using the Main Dial, cross keys, and the SET button

Below are the shooting and playback settings you’ll see on menus, and the numbers of the pages where they are discussed in this book Which tabs and settings you see depend on the shooting mode you’ve selected with the Mode Dial For example, the settings in gray in the table that follows are not avail-able when the Mode Dial is set to a mode in the Basic Zone

Menu Description Page

Playback (Blue)

erase images Select and erase images / all images on

card

21

transfer order Select images to be transferred to a

only / off

145

Set-up 2 (Yellow)

date/time Set the date (year, month, day) and time

(hour, min., sec.)

146

Sensor cleaning auto cleaning / Clean now / Clean manually 146 Live view function

settings

Live view shooting / Grid display /Metering timer

146 Flash control Flash iring/Built-in lash function setting/

External lash function setting/External lash C.Fn setting/Clear external lash C.Fn setting

146

Set-up 3 (Yellow)

Custom Functions (C.Fn)

Clear settings Clear all camera settings / Clear all Custom

The settings in gray

on this table are not

available when the

Mode Dial is set to one

of the modes in the

Basic zone.

PLaYinG BaCk & ManaGinG Your iMaGeS

When taking photos, there are many times when you want to review the ages you’ve taken, ideally before leaving the scene

im-iMaGe revieW

when you take a photo, it’s displayed for 2 seconds although you can change

the duration with the Shooting 1 menu tab’s Review time setting (page 11)

With an image displayed, press the Erase button to delete it, or the DISP button to change the information display (see below) Pressing either button also keeps the image on the screen until you press the shutter button halfway down to take another photo, or auto power off takes effect (page 144)

inForMation diSPLaY

To display or hide information about images in review or playback,

repeated-ly press the DISP button to the left of the viewinder Each time you press it, you cycle through various information displays including a histogram (page 56) Once information is displayed for one image you can press the left () or right () cross key to scroll through other images with the same information displayed

iMaGe PLaYBaCk

To review some or all of the images you have taken, press the Playback button

to display the last photo you took You can then magnify it to examine details, erase the image, scroll through other images, or display small thumbnails so you can quickly locate a speciic image You’ll ind that the images are easier

to see on the monitor when the light is dim so ind a shady spot or dim room for best results In playback mode, you can press the shutter button halfway down at any time to instantly return to shooting mode

ManaGinG Your iMaGeS—uSinG ButtonS

1 With the camera on, press the Playback button to display the most recent photo on the memory card and use any of the following proce-dures:

To display one image after another, press the left () or right ()

cross key

To display 4 or 9 small thumbnails in index view, press the

in-dex/Reduce button once or twice Turn the Main Dial to jump a page

at a time or press any of the cross keys to scroll the blue frame to highlight a speciic image To return to single-image view, press the Magnify button

To magnify an image up to 10x in 15 steps, press the magnify

but-ton repeatedly or hold it down When an image is magniied, a small square on the screen indicates which part of the image you are view-ing as you press the cross keys to scroll around You can also turn the main Dial or press the left () or right () cross key to scroll to other images at the same magniication To return to unmagniied single-image view, press or hold down the Index/Reduce button or press the Playback button

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

tiPS

• after magnifying

an image or

display-ing information, you

can scroll through

other images using

the same settings.

• to immediately

return to shooting

mode, press the

shutter button

half-way down.

• the camera may

not be able to display

photos taken with

other cameras.

The Index/Reduce

icons.

The Playback icon.

The Erase icon.

The Magnify icon.

Pressing DISP in

playback mode displays

information about the

image

PLAYING BACK & MANAGING YOUR IMAGES

JuMPinG in PLaYBaCk

1 With the camera on, press the Playback button and display photos in single-image view

2 Press the up () cross key to display the current jump setting The

default setting is Jump 10 images, but if you have changed the mode,

your selected mode is displayed

To change the jump mode, press the up () or down () cross key

to select one of the choices

To jump forward or back, turn the Main Dial, or press the left ()

or right () cross key to scroll image by image

JuMPinG in PLaYBaCk

In single image playback mode, it takes time to navigate through images when there are many of them on a card To speed things up you can select one of the following jump modes so you jump as speciied when you turn the Main Dial in single-image view Your choices include 1, 10 (the default), and

100 images or forward or back to the irst picture taken on the next or ous date

previ-ManaGinG Your iMaGeS—Con’t

To erase the image displayed in single-image view, or the one

high-lighted in index view, press the Erase button (a trash can icon) Press

the left () or right () cross key to highlight Erase and press SET.

2 To resume shooting, press the shutter button halfway down, or press the Playback button to return to the camera settings screen

GivinG SLide ShoWS

You can display your images as a slide show on the camera’s monitor or on

a connected TV To show your images on the TV, turn both the TV and the camera off while you connect the supplied video cable to the VIDEO OUT terminal on the camera and the VIDEO IN terminal on the TV Turn on the

TV and set it for video input Turn on the camera and set it to Auto play as

described on the next page Auto power off does not operate in auto play mode and the show loops over and over again Be sure to end the show and turn off the camera when inished When traveling you may need to switch between NTSC and PAL video systems (page 146)

tiPS

• Canon’s optional

aC adapter kit

(aCk-e5) let’s you give

slide shows without

draining your battery

pack.

• When giving a slide

show, due to

differ-ences in the aspect

ratio of the screen

and image,

im-ages may not ill the

screen, or if they do,

parts may be cut off.

Jumping in playback

mode lets you jumps 10

images, 100 images or

to the irst image with

the next or previous

shooting date.

iMaGe reCoverY SoFtWare

if you delete images by mistake, don’t despair there is software available that can recover them if you don’t irst save other photos on the same card One such program is Photorescue at (http://www.datarescue.com/photorescue/) but you can ind others by Googling “digital image recovery.”

view it jumps you

the way you have

speciied (the default

mag-niied, it scrolls you

through other images

one at a time.

uSinG the PLaYBaCk Menu

The playback menu lists a variety of commands Although only Protect ages, Rotate, and Erase images are discussed here, and Auto play above, the other commands are discussed elsewhere in this book To see where, refer to the table of menu commands on page 17

im-PLAYING BACK & MANAGING YOUR IMAGES

tiP

the best way to

de-lete images depends

on how many you

are deleting.

• When deleting

100% of the images,

use the All images on

card choice or format

the card (page 145).

• When deleting less

than 50%, use the

Select and erase

choice.

• When deleting

more than 50%,

pro-tect the images you

want to save, and

then use the All

im-ages on card choice

to delete the rest.

• if you use the

raW+JPeG format

(page 25), deleting

the displayed image

deletes both formats.

tiPS

• When looking for

pictures to erase,

protect, or rotate,

it’s often faster if you

press the

index/re-duce button to switch

to index display.

• You can rotate

im-ages automatically

with the Set-up 1

menu’s Auto rotate

The protect icon.

ManaGinG Your iMaGeS—uSinG MenuS

1 Press MENU and display the Playback menu tab

To protect selected images so they won’t be inadvertently erased,

or to unprotect previously protected images, highlight Protect

imag-es, and press SET Scroll through your saved images and press SET to protect or unprotect any image (Protected images are marked with the protect icon at the top of the screen when the image is selected.)

To rotate selected images, highlight Rotate, and press SET Scroll

through the images on your memory card and press SET one or more times to rotate any image to where you want it, or back to its origi-

nal orientation (To rotate images automatically, see the Auto rotate

command on page 145)

To erase selected images, highlight Erase images, and press SET, then with Select and erase images highlighted, press SET again

Scroll through images and press the up () or down () cross key

to check any to be deleted, or uncheck any you previously checked (Press Index/Reduce and Magnify to toggle between 1 or 3 images.) When inished selecting images, press the Erase button to delete

them and select OK when asked to conirm the deletions.

To erase all images, highlight Erase images, and press SET, then highlight All images on card and press SET again Select OK when

asked to conirm the deletion of all unprotected images

2 Press the shutter button halfway down to return to shooting mode, or press MENU once to return to the menu or twice to hide it

GivinG SLide ShoWS

1 Press MENU, display the Playback menu tab, press the up () or

down () cross key to highlight Auto play, and press SET Each

pic-ture on the memory card is displayed for 4 seconds

To pause and restart the show, press SET When paused, a pause icon is displayed in the upperleft corner of the image

To manually scroll through images turn the Main Dial or press the left () or right () cross key

To specify what information is displayed, press DISP

2 To stop the show at any point, press the MENU or the shutter button

http://www.photocourse.com/itext/dots/

http://www.photocourse.com/itext/pixelzoom/

SeLeCtinG iMaGe QuaLitY and SiZe

Digital photographs are made up of millions of tiny squares called picture ements —or just pixels Like the impressionists who painted wonderful scenes

el-with small dabs of paint, your computer and printer can use these tiny pixels

to display or print photographs To do so, the computer divides the screen or printed page into a grid of pixels It then uses the values stored in the digital photograph to specify the brightness and color of each pixel in this grid—a form of painting by number

An image that looks

sharp and has smooth

transitions in tones

(top) is actually made

up of millions of

individual square pixels

(bottom) Each pixel is

a solid, uniform color.

nuMBer oF PiXeLS

The quality of a digital image depends in part on the number of pixels used to

create the image (sometimes referred to as resolution) At a given size, more

pixels add detail and sharpen edges However, there are always size limits When you enlarge any digital image enough, the pixels begin to show—an

effect called pixelization This is not unlike traditional silver-based prints

where grain begins to show when prints are enlarged past a certain point

Tip

• the term

“resolu-tion” has two

mean-ings in photography

originally it referred

to the ability of a

camera system to

resolve pairs of ine

lines such as those

found on a test

chart in this usage

it’s an indicator of

sharpness, not

im-age size With the

introduction of digital

cameras it began

be-ing used to indicate

the number of pixels

a camera could

Click to see how dots

are used in printing.

SELECTING IMAGE QUALITY AND SIZE

at the correct size for

the number of pixels it

contains, it looks like

a normal photograph

When enlarged too

much (as is the eye

here), its square pixels

begin to show Each

pixel is a small square

The size of a photograph is speciied in one of two ways—by its dimensions

in pixels or by the total number of pixels it contains For example, the same image can be said to have 4272 × 2848 pixels (where “×” is pronounced “by”

as in “4272 by 2848”), or to contain 12.2 million pixels or megapixels (4272 multiplied by 2848)

Click to explore how

more pixels give

sharper images.

Click for an Excel

worksheet you use to

explore image sizes.

Click to see how

the output device

determines image sizes.

hoW an iMaGe iS CaPtured

Digital cameras are very much like the rapidly disappearing 35mm ilm cameras Both types contain a lens, an aperture, and a shutter The lens brings light from the scene into focus inside the camera so it can expose an image The aperture is a hole that can be made smaller or larger to control the amount of light entering the camera The shutter is a device that can be opened or closed to control the length of time the light is allowed to reach the image sensor

The big difference between traditional ilm cameras and digital cameras is how they capture the image Instead of ilm, digital cameras use a solid-state

device called an image sensor The XSi’s image sensor is a CMOS chip On

the surface of this ingernail-sized silicon chip is a grid containing over 12

million photosensitive diodes called photosites, photoelements, or pixels

Each photosite captures a single pixel in the photograph to be

the eXPoSure

When you press the shutter button of a digital camera, an exposure system measures the light coming through the lens and sets the aperture and shutter speed for the correct exposure When the shutter opens briely, each pixel on the image sensor records the brightness of the light that falls on it by accu-mulating an electrical charge The more light that hits a pixel, the higher the charge it records Pixels capturing light from highlights in the scene will have high charges Those capturing light from shadows will have low charges When the shutter closes to end the exposure, the charge from each pixel is measured and converted into a digital number This series of numbers is then used to reconstruct the image by setting the color and brightness of matching pixels on the screen or printed page

it’S aLL BLaCk and White aFter aLL

It may be surprising, but pixels on an image sensor can only capture

bright-ness, not color They record only the gray scale—a series of 256 increasingly

darker tones ranging from pure white to pure black How the camera creates

a color image from the brightness recorded by each pixel is an interesting story

The gray scale contains

a range of tones from

pure white to pure

“so you have to know how to paint after all!”) One major breakthrough was James Clerk Maxwell’s 1860 discovery that color photographs could be cre-ated using black and white ilm and red, blue, and green ilters He had the photographer Thomas Sutton photograph a tartan ribbon three times, each time with a different color ilter over the lens The three black and white im-ages were then projected onto a screen with three different projectors, each equipped with the same color ilter used to take the image being projected When brought into alignment, the three images formed a full-color photo-graph Over a century later, image sensors work much the same way

SELECTING IMAGE QUALITY AND SIZE

colors When all three

are mixed in equal

amounts they form

white When red and

green overlap they form

yellow, and so on.

Colors in a photographic image are usually based on the three primary colors

red, green, and blue (RGB) This is called the additive color system because

when the three colors are combined or added in equal quantities, they form white This RGB system is used whenever light is projected to form colors as

it is on the display monitor (or in your eye)

Since daylight is made up of red, green, and blue light; placing red, green, and blue ilters over individual pixels on the image sensor can create color

images just as they did for Maxwell in 1860 Using a process called tion, the camera computes the full color of each pixel by combining the color

interpola-it captured directly winterpola-ith the other two colors captured by the pixels around interpola-it How well it does this is affected in part by the image size, quality and format you select

The XSi allows you to have two different image size/quality/format settings

in use at the same time:

• Basic Zone modes (page 38), including Auto, are treated as a group A change in any of these modes changes all of them If you switch to any Cre-ative Zone mode, the settings change to the new zone’s settings

• Creative Zone modes (page 38) are treated as a group A change in any of these modes affects all of them If you switch to any Basic Zone mode, the set-tings change to the new zone’s settings

ChooSinG iMaGe SiZe and QuaLitY

The size of an image ile and the quality of the picture it contains depends

in part on the image’s size (the number of pixels), quality (the amount of compression), and format (JPEG or RAW) The XSi lets you select any of the combinations listed in the table below that describes each setting’s pixel di-mensions, approximate ile size, and the number that will it on a 2 Gigabyte memory card (You ile sizes will vary somewhat depending on the subject matter and camera settings you use.)

Size Quality Pixels File Size (MB) Number

• Images are normally stored in a format called JPEG after its developer, the Joint Photographic Experts Group and pronounced “jay-peg.” This ile format not only compresses images, it also allows you to specify how much they are compressed—Fine mode uses less compression than Normal mode This is a useful feature because there is a trade-off between compression and image quality Less compression gives you better images so you can make larger

Click here to explore

the differences between

JPEG and RAW formats.

Click to explore how

three colors are used to

create full-color images

on the screen.

Click here to see the

effects of compression.

Click to explore how

three colors are used to

create full-color prints.

A high capacity card lets

you store the largest

possible images without

worrying as much about

running out of storage

space Courtesy of

SanDisk

Image sizes are

indicated by letters

L, M, and S (large,

medium, and small)

Compression modes are

indicated with

pie-slice-like icons Fine mode

has a smooth edge and

Normal mode has a

rough stair-step edge

prints The only downside is that you can’t store as many images because ile sizes are larger

• In addition to JPEG images, the XSi also let’s you use a RAW format in Creative Zone modes Images captured in this format are often better than JPEGs because they are not processed in the camera, but on your more pow-erful desktop computer There big advantage is that RAW iles contain every bit of the captured image data, unlike JPEGs which are processed in the cam-era with some data being permanently discarded RAW iles are 4272 x 2848 pixels in size and can be viewed, edited, and converted to other formats using most photo-editing software such as Photoshop or Lightroom or Canon’s own Digital Photo Professional program included on a CD that comes with the camera RAW images can be captured by themselves or with a compan-ion Large/Fine JPEG ile The later choice gives you an identical high quality RAW ile and a smaller, more easily distributable ile with the same names but different extensions—.CR2 and JPG

SeLeCtinG iMaGe SiZe & QuaLitY

1 With the Mode Dial set to any mode (or to any mode in the Creative Zone if selecting RAW), press MENU and display the Shooting 1 menu tab

2 Highlight Quality and press SET to display a list of quality choices.

3 Highlight one of the choices and press SET to select it (RAW modes are only displayed when the camera is set to one of the Creative Zone modes.)

4 Press the MENU or shutter button to hide the menu

dimen-sions in pixels, and

number of shots that

will it on the card

are displayed above.

When choosing between JPEG and RAW formats, here are some things to consider about each format

There are a number of advantages to using the RAW format:

• Images in this format used to require an extra processing step but since the latest programs such as Aperture and Lightroom were designed from the ground up after RAW formats were introduced they handle them as easily as they handle JPEGs

• RAW lets you decide on most camera settings after you’ve taken the picture, not before For example, when you shoot a JPEG image under luorescent lights, the camera adjusts the image to remove the yellow-green tint Any changes you make later are on top of this initial change If you shoot the im-age in RAW format, the camera just captures the images as is and you decide what white balance setting to use later You can even create different versions

of an image, each with its own white balance The only camera settings that permanently affect the image are focus, the shutter speed and aperture, and the ISO setting

• RAW images can be processed again at a later date when new and improved applications become available Your original image isn’t permanently altered

by today’s generation of photo-editing applications

SELECTING IMAGE QUALITY AND SIZE

• You can generate alternate versions of the same RAW image For example, you can adjust highlight and shadow areas and save these versions sepa-rately Using a photo-editing program, you can then combine the two images

as layers and by selectively erasing parts of the top image layer let areas of the lower image layer show through so all areas have a perfect exposure

Admittedly, there are drawbacks to using RAW images

• You can’t print RAW images directly from the camera or add them to a tal print order form (page 152)

digi-• RAW iles are quite large If you use this format a great deal you will need more storage space in the camera and on the computer, and computer pro-cessing times may be slightly longer

• When shooting images, you may have to wait longer between shots and you can’t shoot as many images in a continuous burst The buffer gets illed more quickly and the camera is tied up longer processing the images you take, and moving them from the buffer to the memory card

• Since RAW images aren’t converted to a viewable format in the camera, you have to process them on the computer and export them in a usable format when you want to e-mail them, post them on a Web site, print them, or im-port them into another program to create a slide show or publication When you are done shooting for the day, there is still work to do

• RAW images can only be viewed and edited on a computer using a program such as Adobe’s Photoshop or Lightroom that supports the format Since each camera company has deined its own proprietary RAW format, many operating systems and even photo-editing programs are unable to recognize some or all of these iles For this reason camera manufacturers always sup-ply a program to process RAW images along with their cameras—in the case

of the XSi it’s the Digital Photo Professional program

if you have to reduce the size of an image later, perhaps to e-mail it or post it

on the Web, you can do so with a photo-editing program unfortunately it’s a one-way street and you can’t go the other way—enlarging a small ile—without a loss of quality if you shoot images with lower quality setting, you can never re- ally improve them much or get larger, sharper prints if you want them the only problem with this approach is that higher quality images have larger ile sizes so you’re not able to store as many images on your memory card Sometimes when there is no storage space left, you can switch to a smaller size and lower quality

to squeeze a few more images onto the card

Automatic exposure control is one of the most useful features of your

camera It’s great to have the camera automatically deal with the exposure while you concentrate on the image This is especially helpful when photographing action scenes where there isn’t time to evaluate the situ-ation and set the controls manually

You shouldn’t, however, always leave the exposure to the automatic system

At times the lighting can fool an automatic exposure system into producing

an underexposed (too dark) or overexposed (too light) image Although you can make adjustments to a poorly exposed image in a photo-editing program, you’ve lost image information in the shadows or highlights that can’t be recovered You will ind it better in some situations to override the automatic exposure system at the time you take the picture Using the camera’s his-togram feature discussed in this chapter is the surest route to perfect expo-sures

Typical situations in which you might want to override automatic exposure include scenes with interesting and unusual lighting For example, you need

to take control when photographing a variety of scenes including a light subject against a dark background, a dark subject against a light background, into the sun, a colorful sunset, a snow-covered landscape, or a dark forest

Shoot-ing Modes • usShoot-ing

image Zone Modes

• how Your

expo-sure System Works

• The shutter opens to begin an exposure and closes to end it The shutter

speed setting speciies how long the shutter is open and the image sensor is exposed to light

• The aperture is the hole through which light enters the camera The size of

the hole can be changed to control the brightness of the light that enters When you press the shutter button, a metering system measures the light coming through the lens and sets the aperture and shutter speed for the cor-rect exposure

In the early days of photography, plates called waterhouse stops, were inserted into

a slot in the lens to control the amount of light entering the camera These stops had holes of various sizes drilled in them and they acted just like the adjustable iris apertures used today A lens cap was removed from the lens to begin the exposure and replaced to end it—a primitive version of a shutter This old wooden camera

is surrounded by a number of waterhouse stops (apertures) and a lens cap (the shutter) leans against it Photo by Ake Borgstrom at www.photographica.nu.

UNDERSTANDING EXPOSURE

Click here to explore

how changes in the

exposure make pictures

lighter or darker.

The XSi’s focal plane

shutter uses two

curtains—one opens to

begin the exposure and

the second closes to end

it At shutter speeds

faster than 1/200 the

two curtains form a slit

traveling across the

image sensor.

Click here to watch

a focal plane shutter

expose an image.

http://www.photocourse.com/itext/G-shutters/

the Shutter ControLS LiGht and Motion

The shutter keeps light out of the camera except during an exposure, when it opens to let light strike the image sensor In respect to just exposure, faster shutter speeds let less strike the image sensor so the image is darker Slower speeds let in more so it’s lighter

In addition to controlling exposure, the shutter speed is the most important control you have over how motion is captured in a photograph The longer the shutter is open, the more a moving subject will be blurred in the picture Also, the longer it’s open the more likely you are to cause blur by moving the camera slightly Although you normally want to avoid blur in your images there are times when you may want to use it creatively

As the shutter speed

gets slower, the image

gets lighter The reason

you don’t usually see

this effect in your

images is because when

you or the camera

change the shutter

speed, the camera

changes the aperture

to keep the exposure

Click to explore the

effect of shutter speed

on exposure.

Katie turned a little just

as the shutter opened

causing unwanted blur

in the image.

A fast shutter speed

(left) opens and closes

the shutter so quickly a

moving subject doesn’t

move very far during

the exposure A slow

speed (right) can allow

moving objects to move

suficiently to blur their

image on the image

sensor.

Although digital cameras can select any fraction of a second for an exposure, there are a series of settings that have traditionally been used when you set it yourself (which you can’t do in many shooting modes) These shutter speed settings, shown in bold to the left, are arranged in a sequence so that each setting lets in half as much light as the next slowest setting and twice as much

as the next fastest The XSi adds two stops between each of the traditional ones—shown in the table without boldfacing This allows you to adjust expo-sure in one-third stop increments for iner exposure control

• Speeds faster than 1 second are fractions of a second On the monitor they are displayed as fractions However, the viewinder displays only the denomi-nator, sometimes with a quotation mark (”) indicating a decimal point For example 1/3 second is displayed as 0“3 At shutter speeds of 1/4 second and higher no quote marks are used For example, 1/4000 is shown as 4000

• Speeds of 1 second or slower are whole seconds and are shown on the tor and in the viewinder as numbers with quotation marks (“) For example,

moni-2 seconds is displayed as moni-2”

Click to explore how the

shutter speed affects

the capture of moving

subjects.

THE SHUTTER CONTROLS LIGHT AND MOTION

ThE WAy iT WAS: EARly ShUTTER DESignS

• the shutter, used to control the amount of time that light exposes the image sensor, has changed considerably over the years the earliest cameras, us- ing imaging materials that might take minutes to be properly exposed, came with a lens cap that the photographer removed to begin the exposure and then replaced to end it As ilm became more sensitive to light and exposure times became shorter, faster shutters were needed one kind used a swinging plate while another design used a guillotine-like blade as the swinging plate or blade moved past the lens opening, a hole allowed light to briely reach the ilm The speed at which it moved determined the shutter speed.

2”

2”5 3”2

• to get faster

shut-ter speeds, increase

the iSo (page 62)

to get slower shutter

speeds, use a neutral

density ilter (page

108).

the aPerture ControLS LiGht and dePth oF FieLd

The aperture adjusts the size of the opening through which light passes to the image sensor The aperture can be opened up to let in more light or closed (stopped down) to let in less In respect to just exposure, smaller apertures let less light strike the image sensor so the image is darker Larger apertures let

in more, so it’s lighter

As with the shutter speed, the aperture also affects the sharpness of your

picture, but in a different way Changing the aperture changes the depth of ield, the depth in a scene from foreground to background that will be sharp

in a photograph Smaller apertures increase depth of ield while larger ones decrease it For some pictures—for example, a landscape—you may want a smaller aperture for maximum depth of ield so that everything from near foreground to distant background is sharp But perhaps in a portrait you will want a larger aperture to decrease the depth of ield so your subject is sharp but the background is soft and out of focus

As the aperture

number gets smaller

(for example, from f/8

to f/5.6) the aperture

opening gets larger and

the image gets lighter

The reason you don’t

usually see this effect in

your images is because

when you or the camera

change the aperture,

the camera changes the

shutter speed to keep

the exposure constant.

The aperture is a series

of overlapping leaves

located between the

glass elements in the

lens.

Click here to explore

the standard series

of apertures and the

aperture’s effects on

exposure.

Aperture settings are called f/stops and indicate the size of the aperture

opening From the largest possible opening to increasingly smaller ones, the f/stops have traditionally been those shown in boldface to the left but the range of stops varies from lens to lens Each of these bold f/stops lets in half

as much light as the next larger opening and twice as much light as the next smaller opening Notice that as the f/stop number gets larger (f/4 to f/5.6, for example), the aperture size gets smaller This may be easier to remember if you think of the f/number as a fraction: 1/8 is less than 1/4, just as the size of the f/8 lens opening is smaller that the size of the f/4 opening Many high-end digital cameras like the XSi add two stops between each of the traditional ones This allows you to adjust exposure in one-third stop increments for iner exposure control

How wide you can open the aperture depends on the len’s maximum ture—its widest opening The term “fast lens” applies to lenses that can be

aper-opened to a wide maximum aperture For example, a lens with a maximum aperture of f/2.8 opens wider, and is faster, than a lens with a maximum aperture of f/5.6 Faster lenses are better when photographing in dim light

or photographing fast moving subjects With most, but not all, zoom lenses the maximum aperture changes as you zoom the lens It will be larger when zoomed out to a wide angle, and smaller when zoomed in to enlarge a subject

A small aperture

increases depth of

ield so foreground

and background are

sharp (top) and a large

aperture decreases

depth of ield so the

background is soft

(bottom).

Click here to explore

how the aperture affects

depth of ield.

Tip

• as you change the

aperture you don’t

see the image get

lighter and darker

because in all

modes, other than

manual, the camera

offsets the change

the iSo (page 62)

to get larger

aper-tures, use a neutral

density ilter (page

USM lens is currently

one of Canon’s fastest

lenses.

f/11

f/13 f/14

f/16

f/18 f/20

f/22

uSinG Shutter SPeed and aPerture toGether

When taking photos, one of the irst decisions you make is which shooting mode to use Your choice determines if you control the aperture or shutter speed If your shooting mode lets you select them, you can pair a fast shutter speed (to let in light for a short time) with a large aperture (to let in bright light) or a slow shutter speed (long time) with a small aperture (dim light) Speaking of exposure only, it doesn’t make any difference which combination you use But in other ways, it does, and it is just this difference that gives you creative opportunities Whether you know it or not, you’re always balancing camera or subject movement against depth of ield because a change in one causes a change in the other Let’s see why

As you’ve seen, shutter speeds and apertures each have a standard series of

settings called “stops.” The stops are arranged so that a change of 1 stop lets

in half or twice the light of the next setting

• With shutter speeds, each stop is a second or more, or a fraction of a second indicating how long the shutter is open A shutter speed of 1/60 second lets in half the light that 1/30 second does, and twice the light of 1/125 second

• with apertures they are f/stops indicating the size of the opening through which light enters An aperture of f/5.6 lets in half the light that f/4 does, and twice the light of f/8

If you make the shutter speed 1 stop slower (letting in 1 stop more light), and an aperture 1 full stop smaller (letting in 1 stop less light), the exposure doesn’t change However, although the exposure is the same, the slower shut-ter speed increases the possibility of blur from camera or subject movement and the smaller aperture increases depth of ield slightly A one-stop change like this has only a small effect, but a 3 or 4 stop change can be dramatic For example with a three stop change the shutter speed might drop from 1/125 to 1/15 and the aperture might stop-down from f/2.8 to f/11 The effects of those changes on blur and depth of ield would be very noticeable

• For fast-moving subjects you need a fast shutter speed such as 1/500 to freeze the action, or a slow one such as 1/15 to seriously blur it (although the focal length of the lens you are using, the closeness of the subject, and the direction in which it’s moving also affect how motion is portrayed) When photographing moving subjects shutter-priority (Tv) mode (page 41) is fa-vored because it gives you direct control over the shutter speed

• For maximum depth of ield, with the entire scene sharp from near to far, you need a small aperture, and for shallow depth of ield you need a large one (although the focal length of the lens and the distance to the subject also af-fects depth of ield—page 65) When photographing landscapes and portraits aperture-priority (Av) mode (page 42) or A-Dep mode (page 75) are favored because they give you direct control over the aperture and depth of ield

In this book and the

animations, apertures

are represented by

these realistic icons with

a small aperture (left)

and a large one (right)

In this book and the

animations, shutter

speeds are represented

by these symbolic icons

with a fast shutter

speed (left) and a slow

one (right) The cut out

“pie slice” indicates how

far an imaginary second

hand would sweep.

When you press

the shutter button

halfway down, check

the readouts in the

viewinder If the

aperture or shutter

speed are blinking,

you have exceeded the

camera’s ability to get a

good exposure In low

light you may have to

pick a larger aperture,

slower shutter speed,

higher ISO or use lash

In bright light, you may

have to use a smaller

aperture, faster shutter

speed or lower ISO.

eXPoSure—FauCetS & BuCketS anaLoGY

one way to think of how apertures and shutter speeds relate is to use the analogy of a faucet for the aperture and a timer for the shutter speed

• When you open a faucet all the way, water gushes out so you ill a bucket in

a very short time This is the same as pairing a large aperture and fast shutter speed to let in bright light for a short time

• When you open a faucet just a little, water trickles out and so it takes a much longer time to ill a bucket This is the same as pairing a small aperture and slow shutter speed to let in dim light for a longer time

No matter which combination you choose, the bucket can be illed the same amount Likewise, an image in a camera can be exposed the same amount by various aperture and shutter speed combinations while also controlling mo-tion and depth of ield

1 We start with the aperture set to f/16 and the shutter speed to 1/30.

2 When you open the aperture one stop to f/11 the shutter speed has to decrease to 1/60 to keep the exposure the same

This change decreases depth of ield slightly and freezes action better.

3 When you open the aperture another stop to f/8 the shutter speed has

to decrease another stop

to 1/125 This change decreases depth of ield even more and freezes action even better.

USING SHUTTER SPEED AND APERTURE TOGETHER

ThE WAy iT WAS: EARly ApERTURES

• a variety of designs in the past century and a half have enabled photographers

to change the size of the lens opening a form of the iris diaphragm, used in today’s cameras, was used as early as the 1820s by Joseph nicephore niepce, one of the inventors of photography Waterhouse stops, used in the 1850s were

a series of blackened metal plates with holes of different sizes cut in them to change apertures the photographer chose the appropriate plate and slid it into a slot in the lens barrel With wheel stops, different size apertures were cut into a revolving plate the photographer changed the size of the aperture by rotating the plate to align the desired opening with the lens

For larger apertures or

slower shutter speeds,

use a screw on neutral

density ilter that cuts

the light entering the

lens (page 108).

For smaller apertures or

faster shutter speeds,

increase the ISO (page

62).

TipS

• to be sure you

are always using

the fastest

pos-sible shutter speed,

set the camera to

aperture-priority (av)

mode and select the

aperture you need

for depth of ield

the camera then

always selects the

fastest possible

shut-ter speed.

• to be sure you are

always using the

largest possible

aper-ture, set the camera

to shutter-priority

(tv) mode and pick

the shutter speed

you need to freeze

or blur motion the

camera then always

selects the largest

possible aperture.

http://www.photocourse.com/itext/seesaw/eXPoSure—SeeSaW anaLoGY

Another way to think of exposure is as a seesaw As one child rises a given distance, the other falls by the same amount but their average distance from the ground is always the same In photography, when you or the camera changes the aperture or shutter speed to let in more or less light, you or the camera must also change the other setting in the opposite direction to keep the exposure constant

The illustrations below show how a change in the aperture setting must be matched by a change in the shutter speed and vice versa As these offsetting changes are made, the exposure stays constant but depth of ield changes slightly and subjects are more or less likely to be frozen

1 Here the aperture is

f/4 and the shutter

speed is 1/125.

2 If you reduce the

aperture one stop to

f/5.6 the shutter speed

has to decrease one

stop to 1/60 to keep

the exposure the same.

3 If you reduce the

aperture one more stop

to f/8 the shutter speed

has to decrease one

retaininG hiGhLiGht and ShadoW detaiLS

Knowing how to control exposure is one of the most important aspects of photography When a scene has both very light and very dark areas, getting the perfect exposure is a lot like parking a large car in a small garage—there isn’t a great deal of room for error The goal is to hold details in both the darkest and lightest areas so pure white is used only for spectral highlights such as relections and pure black is used only for small areas of the scene that are black with no details

In this scene there

are details in all of the

whites that give them

texture and form The

small white square has

been added to give you

a reference to what

pure white would look

like

In this scene there are

details in the darkest

shadows The small

black square has been

added to give you a

reference to what pure

black would look like

One of the things that

makes an Ansel Adams

print so stunning was

his ability to hold details

in both the brightest

and darkest parts of

a scene To do this

with ilm he developed

the Zone System

that guided him in

adjusting exposure and

development times for

the best results Today

the adjustments are

made with programs

such as Photoshop.

RETAINING HIGHLIGHT AND SHADOW DETAILS

Click here to explore

how changes in the

exposure make pictures

lighter or darker.

ChooSinG ShootinG ModeS

Your XSi offers thirteen shooting modes All give equally good results in the vast majority of photographic situations However, when you photograph in a speciic situation, one of the modes may have unique advantages

The shooting modes are divided into two types, or zones—Basic Zone and Creative Zone Each zone has a number of modes you can select by turning the Mode Dial on top of the camera Basic Zone modes are indicated with pic-ture-like icons and Creative Zone modes with text (P, TV, Av, M, and A-DEP) Let’s take a look at these two zones and the modes they include

Basic Zone modes include Full Auto, which we’ve already discussed (page 9), and six Image Zone modes designed for speciic situations These modes including Portrait, Landscape, Close-up, Sports, Night Portrait and Flash Off are discussed in detail on page 39 You can’t change many settings in these modes (see the table on pages 17–18)

Creative Zone modes give you more control of shutter speed, aperture, and other important color, ISO, and exposure settings for creative effects

• P (Program AE) is like Full Auto, but you can change many more settings

and use program shift to easily select different pairs of aperture/shutter speed settings to control how depth of ield or motion is captured (page 40)

• Tv (shutter-priority AE) lets you choose the shutter speed, while the camera

automatically sets the aperture to give you a good exposure You select this mode when the portrayal of motion is most important It lets you set your shutter speed fast enough to freeze the action or slow enough to blur it (page 41)

• Av (aperture-priority AE) lets you select the aperture (lens opening) while

the camera automatically sets the shutter speed to give you a good exposure You select this mode whenever depth of ield is most important To be sure everything is sharp, as in a landscape, select a small aperture To throw the background out of focus so a main subject such as a portrait stands out, select

a large aperture (page 42)

• M (manual) lets you choose both the shutter speed and aperture so you can

get just the setting you want Most photographers select this mode only when other modes won’t give them the results they want (page 43)

• A-DEP (Auto Depth-of-ield Priority) evaluates all of the active focus points

and selects an aperture that gives enough depth of ield to keep all of them in focus (page 75)

Knowing how to use these various modes gives you amazing creative control over your images Because these are the most important controls in your cre-ative arsenal, we’ll look at them in depth in the pages that follow

ChanGinG ShootinG ModeS

Turn the Mode Dial so the setting you want to use aligns with the small white marker

TipS

• in some situations,

your pictures can

be too light or too

dark in any

shoot-ing mode to darken

or lighten them, use

exposure

compensa-tion (page 53).

• Check the shutter

speed and aperture

in the viewinder

when you press

the shutter button

halfway down if

either is blinking, the

camera doesn’t have

the right exposure

setting to see how

to adjust it, read the

sections that follow.

bright-ness and contrast

You can also turn

it on and off (the

default) in Creative

Zone modes using

Custom Function 06

(page 148) even

when on, it doesn’t

work in Manual Mode

or with the raW

im-age format

The Mode Dial indicates

Basic Zone modes with

icons and Creative Zone

modes with text.

Click to see why you

change exposure

modes.

uSinG iMaGe Zone ModeS

The Mode Dial’s six point-and-shoot Image Zone modes work just like Full Auto, but each is set for a speciic situation For example, in Portrait mode the camera selects a large aperture for shallow depth of ield so the back-ground is out of focus and softer In Landscape mode, it does the opposite and selects a small aperture to give you as much depth of ield as possible (For more on the concepts of depth of ield, see Chapter 3.)

In all Image Zone modes, the metering mode is set to evaluative (page 46) ISO (page 62) is set to Auto so it varies between 100–400 depending on how bright the scene is Portrait and Sports modes have drive set to continuous (page 139) so you can take pictures one after another as long as you hold down the shutter button This makes is more likely you’ll capture a leeting expression or action you might miss with a single shot Also, Picture Styles are set to boost color saturation, contrast, and sharpness for sharper, more vivid images (page 140)

• Portrait softens lesh tones and hair and sets the camera for continuous

shooting (page 139) and minimum depth of ield so portraits have a soft, and less distracting, background To maximize the soft background, zoom in or use a long lens so the subject ills most of the viewinder, and get as much distance as possible between the main subject and the background

• Landscape sets the camera for maximum depth of ield so everything is

sharp from foreground to background and increases the saturation of blues and greens Since a slow shutter speed may be used in this mode, you may need to support the camera (page 61) This mode works best with a short fo-cal length (wide-angle) lens, and the built-in lash doesn’t ire in this mode so it’s a good mode for night scenes such as cityscapes

• Close-up is used to capture lowers and other small objects but isn’t a

substitute for a macro lens (page 105) This mode works best when subjects are at the lens’ minimum focusing distance and you are zoomed in or using a long focal length lens

• Sports mode is ideal for action sports and other fast-moving subjects

Autofocus is set to AI Servo AF (page 69) to keep a moving subject in focus as long as it’s covered by one of the focus points The built-in lash doesn’t ire in this mode For best results zoom in on the subject or use a long focal length lens (page 103)

• Night Portrait is designed for photographing people or other nearby

subjects at twilight, night, or dawn The lash illuminates foreground subjects and the shutter speed is set slow enough to lighten the background Since a slow shutter speed may be used, you may need to support the camera (page 61) When taking a picture, be sure to hold the camera still until the shutter closes; don’t move it just because the lash ires because the shutter may still

be open Also, if people are in the foreground, ask them to freeze until a few seconds after the lash has ired

• Flash Off disables the built-in lash or any external Speedlite lash when

you don’t want it to ire

uSinG iMaGe Zone ModeS

Turn the Mode Dial so the icon for the Image Zone mode you want to use aligns with the small white marker

TipS

• in image Zone

modes, settings

you can’t change

are grayed out on

the camera settings

screen

• in some situations,

your pictures can

be too light or too

dark in any shooting

mode to darken or

lighten them, switch

to a mode in the

Cre-ative Zone and use

the back right side

of the camera, other

than the drive

but-ton, are disabled.

Image Zone icons.

USING IMAGE ZONE MODES

uSinG ProGraM ae (P) Mode and ProGraM ShiFt

In Full Auto mode (page 9), your camera is automatically set to produce the best possible exposure Program AE (P) mode is also fully automatic, but it let’s you change more settings, including all of those available in other Cre-ative Zone modes

uSinG ProGraM ae (P) Mode

Turn the Mode Dial so P (for Program AE) aligns with the small white

marker

Program AE mode is so

lexible it gives you the

control you need for

creative images.

uSinG ProGraM ShiFt

1 With the Mode Dial set to P (for Program AE), and the lash closed,

press the shutter button halfway down, and then release it to activate metering so the aperture and shutter speed are displayed

2 Turn the Main Dial to scroll through aperture/shutter speed nations displayed in the viewinder and on the monitor until you ind the combination you want to use Be sure the shutter speed isn’t so slow you’ll get blur from camera or subject movement

combi-3 Take the photo and the shifted program setting is cancelled if you lease the shutter button and pause a few seconds If you take another picture before metering turns off, you reuse the shifted settings You can also hold the shutter button halfway down to keep the shifted setting from changing When ready, release the shutter button then press it down again to focus and take the picture

re-TipS

• if the 30” shutter

speed and largest

aperture are

blink-ing in the viewinder,

the image will be too

dark Use lash or a

higher iSo

• if the 4000 shutter

speed and smallest

aperture are

blink-ing, the image will be

too light decrease

the iSo or use a

neutral density ilter

(page 108).

One unique feature of Program AE mode is called program shift This feature

let’s you cycle through pairs of aperture/shutter speed settings that have equivalent exposures By choosing the right pair you can emphasize depth

of ield (page 67) or motion capture (page 65, 67) If you are using lash, you cannot shift the program

One reason to use program shift is that it prevents you from choosing settings that exceed your camera’s exposure limits In shutter-priority (Tv) and aper-ture-priority (Av) mode it’s possible to select a setting that can’t be matched For example, you may pick an aperture that’s so large the camera doesn’t have a shutter speed that’s fast enough to prevent overexposure Although aperture-priority and shutter-priority modes warn you when this happens (page 41–42), you may not notice the warning Following are some of the situations you avoid when using programmed shift

When you select a There may be Result

Large aperture no shutter speed that’s