conquer my Canon Rebel DSLR

i can take photos through fences now (manual focus).

i can also use a connected clicker and do light painting (something i’ve always wanted to do).

yeah, it’s slower, the lcd screen isn’t as big, the buttons aren’t as intuitive and it doesn’t scroll through pictures fast. it also won’t take video. and the megabit count isn’t crazy high. but it’s really light and smaller than the new ones, who really cares how big the lcd is or how fast you scroll through pictures. it has enough megabytes to print posters. who prints anymore? even models have their portfolios on ipads these days, digitally. i guess i can see printing landscapes for home or office art.
it’s my baby and i like challenging myself to push it’s limits and what i can’t do in camera, i can do in software.
canon rebel forever.
if i want to upgrade equipment, it’ll be lenses. and tripod. and lights, backgrounds, etc :)
someday.

slooooowwwwwwww…................

i didn’t see much of a difference anyway.

when you want 2 or 3 objects that are close together to all be in focus.

the whole shutter speed lens length thing…

“shutter speed should closely match the lens… 50mm = 50-60 shutter speed, 200mm lens=200 shutter speed and so on… “

these are minimum speeds.

the bigger the number, the faster the speed.

these aren’t seconds, these are 1/50, 1/60, 1/200, etc.

1/50 is alot slower than 1/200.

also, factor in the cropped sensor. so a 50mm is actually more like an 80mm. so use minimum 1/80 actually.

basically, never try to figure this out with a zoom lens, only prime.

... :)

P mode is like auto mode, except it allows you to shoot in RAW and change the ISO… as well as aperture and shutter, etc.

P mode’s shutter speeds are faster than Av mode, it thinks you’re handholding and won’t go slower than 1/60… nice…

Av mode is a creative mode, it could think you’ve got a tripod on, so it’ll give you whatever shutter speed is required (tripod or not).

Some people prefer P mode over Manual mode, because everything’s already set for you AND you have full control if you want to turn the dials.

there is no spot metering…

However, there is partial metering (9% of the scene around the center focus point)!

Put the middle focus point on where you want to meter and then press the * button. Recompose and take your shot!

There’s only 3 Metering modes:
Evaluative [(.)]
camera looks at entire image to decide what brightness settings should be

Partial [( )]
camera looks at 9% of the middle and ignores the rest

Center Weighted Average [ ]
camera looks at center of the image and ignores the edges

Use Partial for those shots where you have a person at the edge of your frame and a bright landscape in the middle. Press * on the person, then move your camera into the landscape and take your shot. The camera remembers the * settings on that person and exposes correctly, so you’ll see the person, not just a silhouette.

It just gives you the option to go into the menu, select sensor cleaning, watch it say “CLEAN”, make a cute little sound that sounds like cleaning and then do absolutely nothing except for lock your mirror and everything up so YOU can go in and clean it yourself… or a shop.

Noise reduction makes ISO 1600 look flawless!

Nevermind, you can clean up JPEGS pretty well too with camera RAW.

I’m still not completely convinced I should be shooting in RAW.

I’m perfectly fine with trying to get it right in the camera.

ok. In Av (aperture priority) and Tv (shutter speed priority) modes, you can change the little exposure setting from -2 to +2 (darker to lighter).

I was looking for a way to change the exposure in full on manual. It finally clicked. There is none. Since you’re full manual, you’ve controlled your ISO, aperture and shutter speed already. So that’s why the -2 to +2 settings don’t have a little tick line to control.

(but, if you press the shutter button half way, you’ll see the blinking tick mark… it’s metering? I think it’s telling you how dark or light your photo is…)

In Av mode, you’re setting the f-stop and the camera’s automatically adjusting your shutter speed. It’s semi-automatic, so you tell it what exposure you want (-2 to +2).

Same with Tv mode, you’re setting your shutter speed and it’s automatically adjusting your aperture. You’re in semi-automatic mode, again.

Tv mode stuff:
Going all the way to the left, you get 30’’ (30 seconds)... a really long exposure, tripod needed.

Tick marks after the 30’’ means seconds.

If you’re going all the way to the right, 30 is 1/30th of a second… normal “you can hold your camera without moving nicely” speeds are around 60 to 125 (that’s 1/60 to 1/125, you just don’t see the 1’s)... confused? yep, so was i, for the longest time.

Now I kind of understand why you’d want to go full manual. The whole “not being able to go from +2 to -2 exposure” part weirds me out though. Just make sure your ISO, aperture and shutter speed are EXACTLY what you want. Not intimidating at all…..