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Lesson Info

Camera Operation

Alright folks, are we ready to dive into the very last section, the camera operation section. So we've gone through and we've talked about all of the individual functions. And so here's kind of the final wrap up of what you need to be thinking about as far as taking this camera out and shooting. So the basic checklist for going out is getting your battery charged and in the camera, reformatting that memory card, making sure the image quality settings are where you want them to be, and just kind of quickly go through the different menu settings to make sure that something isn't set unusually from the last time that you were using the camera, and if you are going on a big shoot, you're shooting for money, you're shooting for a client, you are going on a big vacation, and you're going to be far away from camera repair places, you wanna make sure that you have a clean sensor. So you might want to shoot a picture of a blank sky, or a white wall or a white piece of paper to see if there is a...

ny sort of dust on your sensor. And when you do that test shot, set your camera to F22 so you get as much depth of field, so that you can see that sensor and that dust on the sensor. So the key settings on your camera are mostly going to be dealing with exposure and focus. And most of these, as you can see on this slide, have buttons right on the outside of the camera. And so that's that whole top deck of buttons. Those are very critical. The only other one that I think is pretty important is the white balance button, which you can quickly get to by going into the quick menu. And so these are the features that we're going to be talking about for the next couple of minutes. So here they are. A lot of them deal with exposure, some of them are dealing with focus, and then there is a few others. So if I wanted to set my camera up for really simple photography, Maybe I'm going to be using the camera, maybe somebody else is going to be using my camera. At that point I would probably put the camera in the program mode, so that the camera is figuring out shutter speeds and apertures. I'm not a big fan of auto ISO, but in the simplest of modes, it can do a pretty good job. Make sure that exposure compensation is set at zero. I think the evaluative metering does a very good job, so you're going to see that here for pretty much everything else. The white balance auto does a good job. I will switch it if I am not getting good color, something seems wrong or I am working under Tungsten lights for instance. The one shot mode is where the camera focuses once and then stops and locks on your subject. And that's going to be the type of photography that most people do most of the time. And then for focusing area, the 45 point looks at all 45 focus points and it chooses whatever is closest to you, and that in general will work out pretty good for most people in most situations. And then finally for the drive mode, you probably just wanna shoot one photo at a time and so that would be a good way for basic photography. Next up, landscape mode. So in this mode, our subjects are not moving around. We want lots of depth of field, and perhaps hopefully our camera is on a tripod. In this case we could choose manual exposure and we can be a little bit more picky about the shutter speeds and apertures we choose. And so in this case, ISO is really important to have as low as possible so that we can get the cleanest possible image off of our sensor. Next up is getting the depth of field set right by setting a large amount of depth of field. It might be 11 or 16 or 22. It depends on a variety of reasons, but 16 might be a pretty good choice for that. And if you make those two choices, chances are your shutter speed is going to be fairly low and you're just going to need to set it wherever your exposure indicator is telling you that you probably should or in that general range. It often ends up being a little bit of a slower shutter speed like 1/30 of a second. We're not worried about exposure compensation because we are in the manual mode. We don't use it in the manual mode. For metering, I'm going to be sticking it with evaluative as sticking with white balance in auto. They do a good job. I'll switch them if necessary, but this is a good default position. Is my subject moving? No. Then I'm going to be leaving it in the one shot mode. So it focuses and stops. And I want to be very precise about where it focuses. I don't necessarily want to focus on the thing that is closest to me or further. I'm going to choose one point, and I might very well move that focusing point around the frame to wherever it needs to be. And for the drive mode, you do actually have a couple of options. You could use the single mode, and the other option is to use the self-timer mode, so that you're not moving the camera. And as a little bit of a bonus, you could put your camera in a near lock up mode, or a live view mode so there's less vibration when the camera is shooting it's picture. Next up is portrait photos. And so if you're shooting pictures of people, it's important that you want to get the focus set right, and you need to have a shutter speed that's fast enough to stop their movement, as well as your movement because you're probably not going to be on a tripod when you shoot these. If I can, I prefer to be in manual exposure so that each picture, one after the other, has the same exposure. It's not changing. And so in this case I'm often wanting shallow depth of field to throw my background out of focus. And from there I'm going to want a fast enough shutter speed to stop my action and the action of the person I am photographing. I would of course prefer ISO 100 but I will bump it up as necessary according to the conditions of the light. We'll stick with evaluative metering and auto white balance, and if my subjects are not moving up and down, I am going to, moving up and down on a walkway for instance, moving around, I'm going to be using it in the one shot mode. And for focus area, I usually wanna be very precise to make sure that the eyes are in focus, so I'll be choosing the one point auto focus. And I may be moving that around the frame to match up with the location of their eye in the frame. And I would probably be in single shot, you can be in continuous here if you wanna shoot in a burst, but single shot would be fine for most people in most situations. Alright, for action photography, we're gonna be making some notable changes here. One to the shutter speeds, and two to the auto focus system. So once again, I prefer to be in manual so that get consistent results shot to shot. As long as the light's not changing, I'll figure things out ahead of time and have it set right for everything else. And so in this case I wanna make sure that I have a fast enough shutter. You'll probably need 500 or faster depending on how fast the subject is moving. From there it's gonna be a very good value to have a faster lens. So those lenses that go down to 2. will pay dividends at this point. I would of course prefer the lowest ISO but with higher shutter speeds, it's most likely you're going to need a high ISO. So you'll probably be starting off at 400 and working your way upward depending on the light conditions. We'll stick with evaluative for metering and auto for white balance. Focus has a very important change. This is where it goes to AI Servo. This is where it continually adjusts for focus as your subject moves towards you or away from you. This is a very very important setting right there. For focusing area, it's too hard to keep a single point on a random moving subject. And so I find the Zone AF, which is the 9 point box, to be the best overall system. In some cases, I could see going with the large AF if there is no obstructions between me and the subject. And then the drive mode is probably where you are going to be choosing the high speed continuous so that you can shoot in bursts of seven frames per second. Alright, here's a good one to leave and end this class with, which is basic photography. How do I leave my camera when I don't know what my next photo is going to be. And so this is great for travel photography, or just general photography. Here's aperture value, so a little bit of automation. You get to choose the aperture. Let the camera figure out the shutter speed. And so I'm usually choosing a moderate aperture, somewhere around 5.6. If I need more depth of field, I can quickly adjust it for them. I'm keeping an eye on my shutter speed. If the shutter speed gets too low, I will adjust the ISO. But to start with, I'll have the ISO set to and I'll move it up as the lighting gets lower, or as my needs for faster shutter speeds becomes greater. Check to make sure where your exposure compensation is because that may need to change. The metering can be at evaluative, and white balance at auto once again. Most subjects I'm shooting are not moving, and so one shot is going to be fine in those situations. And for the focus point, I prefer to be very precise about one point, but I could see some people who shoot a little bit more action, they might want to have their cameras in the zone AF. And for drive mode, I prefer to be in single. It's got a pretty fast motor drive, and so possibly low speed continuous would be good. But sometimes I'm trying to be very steady about pushing down on the camera and my finger stays down on the shutter release for more than a fraction of a second. And so that's why I prefer the single mode. So, congratulations! If you've made it to this point in the class, you are now a Canon 80D expert. Thanks a lot for tuning in. And so if you've been watching this and you don't own an 80D, wow you guys are really dedicated. I do have specific classes on most all of the popular cameras out there, with pretty much all the big manufacturers. And so if you do want a class that is very specifically tailored to your camera, you could check Creativelive for any of those other classes. I do also have a variety of other classes at Creativelive. If you want just a short, quick class on basics of photography, that's the starter kit. If you want a free class on which camera to chose, that's how to choose your first DSLR. And then if you want kind of the full enchilada, the everything of photography, that is the fundamentals class. If you want to get a little more specific and talk about nature and landscape, there's a whole class for that. As is for travel photography. And if you want to get into lenses, I do have specific classes for both Cannon and Nikon. And so owning a Cannon camera, probably the next step I would say is probably take a close look at that lens class. It's a dangerous class because you're going to come out of it wanting to buy some new lenses probably, but at least you'll be educated as to which ones make the most sense for you and what you're doing. So there you go, folks. That is your ADD fast start. Enjoy your camera and have fun with it.