Lessons
Class Introduction
09:14 2Photo Basics
04:00 3Basic Camera Controls
04:36 4Mode Dial
24:19 5Top Of Camera
21:42 6Viewfinder Display
09:18 7Live View Menu
08:16 8Movie Mode Menu
03:03Back of Camera Buttons
04:37 10Quick Menu
22:00 11Playback Menu
08:58 12Left & Right Sides Of Camera
04:39 13Bottom & Front Of Camera
06:28 14Lens Options
08:28 15Menu Functions Overview
22:13 16Picture Style Menu
05:23 17Multiple Exposure & HDR Menu
04:53 18Image Quality Menus
06:47 19Live View Shooting Menu
02:23 20Movie Shooting Menu
15:30 21Playback Menu
06:53 22Set Up Menu
15:07 23Viewfinder Display Menu
02:35 24GPS Settings Menu
04:36 25Touch Control Menu
03:38 26Custom Shooting Mode
05:33 27Custom Menu
26:28 28My Menu
04:41 29Camera Operation
09:31Lesson Info
Viewfinder Display
So it is time to move on to the back side of the camera where we have a lot of different things going on with the camera. So we do have the LCD Monitor on the back of the camera for showing you the image off the sensor, this is a touch sensitive sensor. So if you like touch, some people love this, some people are indifferent to it, it's something that you'll be able to turn on and off and we will talk more about as we get though, as we go through the camera. And so be aware that you can flick through images as you're playing them back, you can work in Live View, you can even go through the Menu system using the touch on the screen if you want. The Viewfinder is where you're going to want to be looking to compose most of your images. This is how the SLR is designed, it's going to give you the best viewing experience possible. Around the Eyecup is the Eb Eyecup and this can be removed, after many years of hard use it's likely to wear out and you can get a replacement there, so it's nice ...
and convenient, doesn't scratch your glasses. When you look through the Viewfinder you want to be able to clearly see what's going on on the focusing screen of the camera. And so there is a diopter and what you want to do is you want to look through the Viewfinder, don't worry about the image that you're looking at, look at the information below, that line of information with your shutter speeds and apertures, you want that to be really sharp. Turn the diopter so it's sharp in focus and then you know you've got that set right. And, as a side note, this does get bumped, it seems on everyone's camera, as it's going in and out of camera bags and so if you notice that at some point in the future it's not real sharp it may not be your eyes, it may just be the camera and it may just need to be adjusted at that point. When you look through the Viewfinder let's take a look at what's going on in the display, starting with the frame lines around here. So the frame lines are 98 percent accurate. And what that means is that you're getting a little bit more than you see through the Viewfinder. And so if you line up a door or a post right on the edge, you're likely to get that entire area in. And so just be aware that's a little bit of a safety margin to make sure that you don't get anything cropped out of the frame. Next up are the Auto Focus Points, we've gone through the Auto Focus Points here. There is a number of controls in the camera, we have many more controls in this version than the previous version of the 6D if we're going in and controlling these. We'll talk more about these in specifics in the Custom Functions setting of the class. AF point display during focus, how many focusing points do you want to have turned on and how often do you want them to be turned on is one of the options we'll look at. And then the other option, the Viewfinder display illumination, the points will turn red under dark conditions and under bright conditions they'll be black and you can control the light, the lighting on these and which colors they turn. And so if you want to get into that, stay tuned as we go through those Custom Functions. The Spot Metering will have a circle and it will let you know where that 3.2 percent area is and that's where it's heavily concentrating the meter reading when it's in that Spot Metering mode. Great for people like myself, who sometimes hold the camera unlevel, a little tilted to the left or right. There is an optional Level that you can turn on by going into Setup Menu number five, page two, the Viewfinder display. And this is something that will tell you whether you're tilting left or right or forward or backwards, pitching the camera forward or backwards, this can be really handy for landscape photography and architectural photography. Also good with architectural photography and landscape photography is the Grid system. And this can be used for compositional reasons, this can be used for a level horizon, any reason that you might want. This can also be turned on and off in the Viewfinder display, there's a checkbox. And we'll go through that when we get to Setup Menu number five, but if you want to jump ahead it's something you can simply turn on and off. The camera has a sensor that has a three by two aspect ratio, but if you want to record pictures in a different aspect ratio you can dive into Shooting Menu number four, change the aspect ratio and it will change the crop lines in the frame so that you can see what the final image is going to be. Normally I would recommend just shooting in three by two and cropping afterwards, but sometimes it's handy to see what that crop is going to look like when you are actually shooting the photograph. And so if you know the final photograph is going to be a square, well this shows you right in the Viewfinder what it's going to look like. It could be very handy in different types of situations. Next, along the bottom part of the Viewfinder is kind of a heads up display, this is right on top of the image. There is a variety of Viewfinder information that you can turn on or off. And so if you just want one or two groups of these things you can specifically turn these on and off by going into Setup number five, Viewfinder display and choosing whether you want to see the battery level in there. Some people think that's really important, some people don't want to see it over their image in there. And so it's very much a personal choice whether you like to see the information or would rather see the image behind that information. And so good options there to be turning on. Next up, over on the right hand side, is a warning symbol. Now this is turned on and off in a completely different area. This is controlled in the Custom Functions and this is going to warn you if something is set on the camera that might be very significant. And so the options that you can choose to have this turned on, is if the camera is in a monochrome or black and white mode, whether you have set the white balance correction system that would change all the white balance, whether you have noise reduction turned on and whether you have HDR, or high dynamic range feature turned on. We'll talk about all of those features as we get through the class, but if any of those are turned on, this exclamation mark is going to come on to let you know that there's something notably different set about the way the camera is recording images. Down along the bottom of the camera is the LED information and I do have to mention this is a new LED that has not been used in any Canon camera before. It's not real revolutionary, but it is slightly different than we've seen in any other cameras, I think it's a little bit easier to read. And so it's maybe not the most exciting, but it is the one new thing that is in this camera. On the left hand side we have the little star for Auto exposure lock, we're going to talk about that in a moment because there's a button on the back of the camera that controls that. If you have a Flash hooked up, it's going to tell you various features about whether the flash is ready to fire, what type of mode it's in, if you've used exposure compensation with it. Next up we have our basic Exposure info, like shutter speed aperture and our exposure level as well as exposure compensation. The ISO is going to be listed over on the right hand side. The D+ indicates a feature called Highlight tone priority is turned on, I'll talk more about this and give you a little visual example. This is for JPEG shooters, it doesn't affect raw images but on JPEG files what it does is it makes sure that the highlights are not too bright and it makes sure that the shadow areas can be easily seen. So it's brightening up the shadows and it's holding back the highlights in the development of the JPEG image. Remaining number of shots will be in the brackets over on the right hand side and then there is a Focus confirmation. And one of the interesting things is that this Focus confirmation will also work when you are manually focusing the camera. So it's something that will turn on when you auto focus or when you manually focus and the camera, in whatever focusing points you have selected, are in focus, the objects in those are in focus. So that's what you're going to be looking at in the Viewfinder or on the back of the camera. As we start our tour around the buttons of the back of the camera, top left we have the Menu, which is going to dive into the full list of features and options in the camera. And we are going to fully explore this in the second half of the class where we go through all the Menu options. The Info button is a safe button to press at any time if you would like to change the amount of information that you have. Sometimes you don't want any information, because you just want to look at the image, sometimes you want a lot of information about what shutter speed aperture and various settings are on there. We do have an Electronic level that will be activated on the back of the camera, which can be very handy when you're on a tripod and you're trying to get your camera nice and level. And so that's a system that works pretty good. If you don't use these, or you don't want one of these to come up, you can dive into Setup Menu number four, look under Info button Live view display options and you can check or uncheck the options that we have available here.
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with Purchase
Ratings and Reviews
Warren Gedye
John, this is my second class of yours I'm taking on Creative Live. You are a very unique and articulate instructor. Your knowledge, understanding and experience in all matters photography is astounding! You have certainly fine tuned the knack in imparting your deep knowledge in such a palatable way! Your slides are magnificent, simple and concise and caters directly to your audience. I can only imagine the hours upon hours of time spent making these valuable slides. I look forward to many more of your courses!
a Creativelive Student
Always enjoy all of John's classes, but especially this one since I've decided to upgrade from my previous 6D. Awesome camera and this one is so much quieter than the older one. Thank you for explaining things in terms and ways that are easy to understand!
Tim Rogers
Thanks for a very useful course John. Not to get out and enjoy the new toy. Wish I had done the similar course for my previous camera (60D); will be recommending it to the person I am giving the camera to.
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