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For many of us, it is difficult to understand all the available options in a dSLR camera. After reading my camera's user manual, I decided to document on some settings, that are important to know when taking a certain type of picture. In this case, I will discuss the different shooting modes available. Each shooting mode may represent one type of photography, and it is extremely useful to know them well, so that we choose the correct configuration for a given situation.
Sometimes I take a picture to my family and some of the faces are sharp, while others are blurry. Sometimes I want to capture a sunset, but the lines of the sun are blurred out. And sometimes I want to emphasize a portrait of a person, but the background is too sharp, that the person does not stand out in the picture. Well, all these problems come from the fact that the camera must be set in the proper shooting mode.
For example, when photographing a portrait, the aperture should be very large (small f-numer), and the skin tones should be soft and accurate. As another example, when taking a picture of a landscape, the aperture should be as small as possible (large f-number), and green and blue tones should be crispy. Many dSLR cameras offer automatic modes that let you take the shot without caring about the exposure (aperture and shutter speed). Although professionals prefer to use full-manual and set the settings of the photograph according to their knowledge. Let's go through the modes that come with the Canon EOS 550D.
This mode is usually marked in green (a green square on the main dial), and it does everything for the user. Nothing can be configured, except the quality of the picture (resolution) and the shooting sequence (single or continuous).
Besides the full-auto, there are other automatic modes for certain scenes. On the Canon dSLR cameras, there are the following automatic modes:
If you are not an experienced user, you may start by trying out these modes, which will provide you with a modest range of photography types for daily life. As a matter of fact, with these modes, the user needs only to point and shoot, just as with a compact pocket camera.
This mode is a semi-automatic shooting mode, letting the user to modify some minor details about the photography. By default, this shooting mode uses the full-auto settings. However, the following settings may be customized by the user:
This shooting mode is still quite automatic, yet the user can configure the type of scene, the brightness, the use of the flash and other minor details. Logically, this is the next step after the full-auto modes, and it is quite simple to use. I suggest a user may move on to this shooting mode after a couple of weeks using his or her own camera.
This program is sometimes called semi-manual. It is also addressed as semi-automatic, depending on the camera and the vendor. I like to call it semi-manual because it is not the CA mode, and it is close to the manual modes. But all this nomenclature is not important, the important part is to understand what can be done with the P-AE shooting mode, and what is the difference between P-AE and CA.
With P-AE, as it name unveils, everything but the exposure settings can be customized by the user. That is, any setting that is not aperture or shutter speed may be set using this mode. As opposite as in the CA mode, the white balance (WB) and other settings are configurable and available to the user. The aperture and the shutter speed are always kept in a good ratio, in order to match a proper exposure.
These modes are used for composing creative scenes, where the exposure is in a bit of compromise, yet not fully controlled by the user. These modes are already manual, but not fully configurable, as there is always one setting that is set automatically by the camera (in order to keep a good exposure for the composed scene). On the Canon EOS 550D, these modes are:
This mode is used to create action shots. This means that a shot may be completely frozen (fast-moving subjects are frozen in the scene) or a shot may be composed using blur-motion (static or slow-moving subjects are given a blurred background providing a sensation of motion).
In this mode, the main dial sets the shutter speed (faster to the right, slower to the left) and the camera automatically modifies the aperture in order to match a good exposure for the picture. Remember that the shutter speed will control the amount of light hitting the sensor (concretely, for how long the light will hit the sensor). If the shutter speed is too fast or too slow (depending on the lighting conditions) the aperture setting may not suffice for a good exposure, and hence the viewfinder will make the Av value blink.
To freeze fast-moving subjects, just use a fast shutter speed. On the other hand, to create blurred-motion (this technique is called panning among professionals), set the shutter speed to a low value and follow the moving subject with your camera. Shoot the picture while moving along with the moving subject. Here are some examples:
For panning, use a relatively slow shutter speed. Think that you need to give enough time to the shutter to receive different information while you are dragging the camera along the X-axis, targeting at the moving subject against a static background. Good shutter speeds for panning are usually ranged from 1/15 to 2 seconds.
The aperture priority shooting mode (Av: Aperture value) allows the user to configure how wide will the aperture of the objective be, thus allowing more or less light to hit the sensor. The aperture priority shooting mode may be used in two different ways: portraits (shallow depth of field with blurred background) and landscapes (deep depth of field with a sharp image everywhere in the picture).
In this mode, the main dial sets the aperture size (smaller aperture to the right, larger aperture to the left) and the camera automatically modifies the shutter speed in order to match a good exposure for the picture. Remember that the aperture will regulate how much light hits the sensor. Therefore, if the aperture is too wide or too narrow (depending on the lighting conditions) the shutter speed setting may not suffice for a good exposure, and hence the viewfinder will make the Tv value blink.
To create a good portrait, set the f-number to the minimum possible (largest aperture), and so the camera will focus only at a very short distance, and the rest will be out of focus (shallow depth of field). This will make the subject in the portrait to stand out. The farther the background is to the subject in focus, the shallower depth of field is obtained. Also, the closer we are to the subject (with our camera), the shallower the depth of field.
On the contrary, in order to take sharp pictures focusing both the foreground and background (such as in landscape photography), set the f-number to a large value (small aperture). Good landscape pictures are taken using f/22 or even f/32, whereas portraits are taken using f/1.6, f/2.8 or f/3.5.
As an extra tip for portraits, think that the more homogeneous the background, the better the subject in focus will stand out. In fact, if the background has many different colors and forms, the subject will not stand out as good as in the former composition.
This shooting mode is not common across all cameras, and it is not very widely used in creative photography. Nevertheless, it is useful for family pictures and other kind of photos where there are several objects at different distances to the objective. In this mode, the camera will try to detect all the possible focusable objects in the composition, using all the AF-points available (in the Canon EOS 550D there are 9 AF-points).
As a result, you will obtain a picture where most of the objects are more or less in well focused. This is this why shooting mode is suitable for family pictures, since the family is spread around a table or inside a room, at different distances.
This is the most advance shooting mode, and it is generally used by professionals or advanced amateurs. In this mode, everything must be set by the user, including Av (aperture value), Tv (time value), exposure compensation, white-balance (WB), and any possible setting you may find in your camera.
The most common difficulties that result from using this mode are exposure issues. As the user must set the aperture, shutter speed and ISO speed manually, it may be that the given configuration does not make up for a well-exposed picture. The most interesting part is that the camera does not do anything for you, except for collecting the light and digitalizing it. Therefore, it is easy to play with the light conditions and create many different versions of a same composition.
As a tip, photographers tend to use the RAW image format when shooting in full-manual, since it is very easy then to alter the exposure of the picture and improve it using post-processing software.
To sum up, current dSLR cameras offer a wide range of shooting modes. Some high-profile cameras for professionals may not offer full automatic modes, but just semi-automatic and manual modes.
As a beginner myself, I recommend to start up using the Creative Auto or the Program AE shooting modes, where things can be configured, and yet the exposure is not compromised. However, as one starts building up some knowledge on photography and starts to develop his/her creativity, semi-manual modes such as Tv or Av are completely recommended.
Canon EOS Rebel T2i/550D Instruction Manual. 2010.
Accessed 6th March 2010
Jukka Kolari - Peter Forsgård. Parempia Kuvia Canon
EOS-järjestelmäkameralla. Habakuk ITC Oy: Jyväskylä, 2009.
Accessed 8th March 2010
Today I had my second graduation party, this time with my family in Finland, that is Carolina's family. Two weeks ago I had a party for my friends, celebrating my Software Engineering diploma and thanking them for their support. Now it was time to thank the people that have really helped me through these three years to achieve all I am today.
CaZ and I woke up early in the morning and went to the shop to buy all the necessary ingredients for the food. CaZ was also in charge of cooking everything and cleaning, whereas I was setting the table and checking everything was alright with her family. We had a very nice evening and I even got a present: a 50-liter backpack for my trip to Australia.
We ate some tapas and fajitas made by CaZ. Beer, wine and vodka were all around, and we had a great time discussing about my future trip to Australia, CaZ's graduation (hopefully in May 2010) and other issues.
Since I came to Finland, back in 2006, they have given me support in my studies, in my professional life, in my personal life, and they have loved me like just one more in the family. But this love didn't come with the time, I've been feeling just as another Mikander/Vitikainen from the very beginning of my stay in Finland, and thanks to them my professional path here in Finland has been eased in many ways.
Therefore, today I had the chance to thank them for all this, and tell them that they really are my second family. They don't only helped me with my life in Finland, but they also told me I am a child of them and that I can count on them for anything in my future, and that gives me a lot of certainty about the future. I know, in any way, that whatever happens, I will have them close to me, just as if they were my real family, so A BIG THANK TO MY SECOND FAMILY, especially to CaZ and her mother, Kirsi Vitikainen.
So finally I got it, the Canon EOS 550D is here next to me, I just picked it up from the shop yesterday evening. I didn't only buy the camera, but I actually both the objective, a sling bag, an UV-filter, some lens protection against the sun, a flexible tripod, and more things. The memory card is missing though, and it's coming in a couple of weeks.
As I mentioned in a previous post, the Canon EOS 550D is a dSLR camera for advanced amateurs or mild professionals in digital photography. The main properties of the camera are:
I was testing yesterday several modes, mostly aperture priority (Av) and shutter-speed priority (Tv) and I got the idea that, even in semi-automatic mode, the EOS 550D is already performing extremely well.
Moreover, I was trying yesterday to apply all the techniques I have earned from the few books and tutorials I have read, and the camera really surprised me, since I took several shots just like a pro, without having any experience with dSLR cameras at all.
As soon as I get some good shots and FullHD video, be sure I will post them here and make some tiny review about the quality of the images obtained with the EOS 550D.
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