We're going tio take a look at some basics we're going to be talking about some of the more fundamental things and this is actually information that has been pulled from my class fundamentals of photography two thousand fifteen so if you own a single lens reflex camera like this one single ends obvious one lens on the camera for viewing and for taking pictures lots of different lenses that you can put on the camera that's one of the beauties of an interchangeable lens system you get a whole world of lenses to play with inside each of the lenses is an aperture unit the aperture unit can adjust the amount of light vary the amount of light coming in the lands it's our first control for how much light do we want to let in the lands so we have our aperture closing down at each f stop it is letting in half his much light and as we open up the aperture, we're letting in twice a cz much like and you'll see ranges generally from one point four to twenty two and every once in a while it'll go be...

yond that beyond controlling the amount of light the debt the aperture also controls your depth the field so as we take our aperture at one point four we get very shallow depth of field and those red hash marks you see on the right hand side indicate the front edge in the back edge of focusing so we're stopping our lens down, and we're getting mohr and more depth of field, and if twenty two, we're getting the maximum amount of depth of field in this particular scenario, so that's what's happening in the lens of your camera as light comes in, we get to the r portion of single lens reflex reflects means there is a mere in the device, reflecting the light upwards, and so it bounces light upwards onto a focusing screen and from there, up through a prism system, into the viewfinder so that you can see what is going on. Now, when you take a picture that mere needs to get up out of the way so that light can get back to the image sensor. But before it does that, it needs to get past the shutter unit. So the shutter unit actually has two parts. A first curtain and a second curtain. The first curtain made of four metal blades will drop away very, very quickly that exposes the sensor to the light coming through the lens, and then the second curtain will come down and close it off, and then the mirror will return so that you can see what's going on, so that happens every time you shoot a picture and it will happen up to ten frames per second. With this camera, so the shutter speed is thie second way of controlling the amount of light coming in the camera, we're going to use this for controlling light and also stopping action, so if we have a subject that's moving very quickly, we'll be able to use a fast shutter speed to stop that action. Five hundredth of a second is a good shutter speed for stopping fast human action, so sports dancing things like that often do very good birds in flight will need something faster one hundred twenty fifth of a second, a bit more of a pedestrian shutter speed, you might say, as we get down to slower shutter speeds, we're going to start getting blurring depending on how fast our subjects are moving. This picture was taken on a tripod you can see as the bridge is sharp and people are walking past are blurry because they're moving, and if you want to do some nature photography, which you certainly can do with this camera, getting down to one full second for rivers and waterfalls is going to give you that nice, creamy look of water flowing. And if you want to do nighttime photography, you could do thirty second exposures and beyond with this camera, actually, which could be a lot of fun for experimentation. So with all the different cameras out on the market, one of the biggest and most important differences is the size of the sensor in the camera really determines a lot of the impact of how the camera performs in what accessories that uses and what type of results you're going to get from it. And this camera uses one of the larger sensors on the market it's, not the largest. But it is a fairly large sensor thirty five millimeter film, very popular standard for many, many years, and that is what is being used in some cameras as a full frame sensor. So it's, very convenient, switching over for all those photographers who had thirty five millimeter lenses, and they just got a digital camera in order to produce cameras that were more affordable in price and maybe even smaller in size. Many manufacturers, including cannon, came up with smaller size sensors to put in their cameras. And so this camera has a smaller sensor compared to full frame or thirty five millimeter film by a factor of one point six. So all lenses will appear to have a one point, six magnification factor, which is another reason that makes this camera very good. Telephoto sports action wildlife camera is because all your lenses are a little bit longer in their reach. Then they would be on a full frame camera so if you are going to be using the supplied strap with the camera, one of the things that you want o make sure is that it is properly attached and what it needs to do is it needs to go through the strap adjuster and make sure that the tail and is on the bottom side of the strap a jester soas faras holding the camera picked the camera and hold it in your hand and one of the things that you want to pay attention to is how are you holding the camera in your left hand is your thumb on the top of the camera our thumb on the bottom of the lands and it is better to have your thumb on the top of the lens because what that does is it forces your left elbow to come a little bit closer into your torso so that you'll have a more steady grip on the camera and that will allow you to shoot you in a little bit lower shutter speeds and still not have blur because you were holding the camera properly as we go through this class. One of the things that you want to think about is do I want to set this feature automatically or manually because there are tons of features, focus and exposure and well beyond that of things that you can have the camera figure out for you or you could do for yourself and this really comes down to how much time, effort and knowledge do you want to put forth to making these adjustments, because if you really want to have very fine team control over all of your pictures, you're gonna wanna have these things set manually. But sometimes things happen very quickly, and you like the camera help you out along the way. That's a good time to work with tomato, and the best scenario is for you to know how to set it up automatically and manually, so that you can switch back and forth whenever you need to. So all of this is information if you're interested and want to see more of that from my fundamentals of photography. This is a class I do once a year here, creative, live and it's more. The full world of photography doesn't really matter what type of camera you have, but there were going to do all the shutter speeds, apertures, focusing and composition, lighting in a variety of other things on you confined that class here in my course page at creative live, just look for the fundamentals of photography.

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John Greengo

John Greengo is an award-winning photographer specializing in outdoor and travel photography. Shooting for over 3 decades, John has developed an unrivaled understanding of the industry, tools, techniques and art of photography. When he's not traveling for a new shoot,

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Camera Guides Canon Tutorials Digital Photography

Ratings and Reviews

Kanoelani Patenaude

I am a pro photographer in my dreams, where I know the in's and out's of my camera; however, reality proved differently, as real life would tell you, I was a deer caught in headlights just looking at my new 7D Mark II. I am a photographer enthusiast without the skills, but a lot of love for the moments one, or the profession/hobby of it can capture. I mostly shoot my husband, friends, and community surfers in the lineup, and of course, my children, who rarely sit still. Thus, I switched from Nikon to Canon, venturing on the 7D Mark II for the grand reviews of how stellar of camera it is for action shots (surfing, and kids, this was a no brainer). That said, and overwhelmed with the way beyond my skill set, but noted desire and aspiration to grow, I made the purchase, and sought help rather quickly as I wanted to feel confident with what I was utilizing to capture the best memories possible. I came into this CL course knowing the "on/off" button, and "auto" shoot mode. I came out of the course feeling like the pro in my dreams, and ready to shoot manual. John's teaching style is on point, and his detailed visuals are a huge plus. So impressed, I purchased, John's photography starter kit, and was even more blown away. My first shots post that course, I thought were great for my first educated shoot, and shockingly, I even received and email from one of the sponsors of the surfers I captured, asking if they could use my image for their sites and publications. Not bad for a newbie. Though, my intent was never a business purpose, I did not know if I should charge a small fee, or give it for free. I don't mind free as it's not my business, yet I don't want to ruin it for any photographers in town doing the same thing that are charging. Perhaps another course to help me with that. I highly recommend courses by John Greengo! Thank you so much, John!

user-cfdd6e

I bought my 7D Mkii the week it was introduced as an upgrade to my old 20D. I immediately noticed what a huge step up it was and to be honest was a little overwhelmed by all of the options and customisations available. In the year I've owned it I've managed to pick up a lot but I still felt there was a lot in there that I wasn't making the best use of. John's course has filled in the missing pieces and I now feel a lot more confident that I will be able to get the best out of this amazing camera.

J.R. Link

John's coverage of the Canon 7D Mod II was excellent. It helped immensely in understanding the myriad of choices available in this camera. I would recommend this course to any user of the 7D Mod II. camera. The only comment I would make is that it might be helpful if John didn't assume that we all are sports photographers. Some hints for other types of photographers would be a great addition to an already excellent course.

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Fundamentals of Photography Review

Fundamentals of Photography Review

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2. Fundamentals of Photography Review

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Canon 7D Mark II Overview and Basics