Lessons

Lesson Info

Camera Operation

We are into the final section of the class. The camera operations. And so, we've talked about the individual things that this camera can do. So let's think more big picture. How do we really get our camera to operate, the way that we want to for different scenarios. Well, if I'm gonna go out on a big shoot. If I'm gonna take a big trip. There's a few things that I wanna make sure I got right. I got my battery charged. Installed in the camera. I've got a fresh memory card that's reformatted. Got all the space on it. Ready to go. I've got my image quality set the way that I want it set. Usually at RAW. I've gone through the menu to make sure that I haven't left my camera in some sort of funky mode where I was doing some unusual photography. Everything's back to its normal state. And I shot a test photo against a blank white piece of paper or a blank wall to make sure that I don't have any dust. 'Cause I don't wanna have dust on a whole collection of photos. It's gonna take a lot of work ...

to fix. Much easier to fix it at home before the big event than afterwards on all of the photos. So once I have all that set up, then it's a matter of getting to the core settings of the camera. So the most important key settings on the camera are going to be dealing with exposure and focus. So things like your shutter speeds, your apertures, and remember your apertures on this camera are controlled by pressing the AV button on the back of the camera, holding it in while you are turning the dial on the top of the camera. The ISO has its own dedicated button. Easy to get to. Exposure compensation is basically the same as apertures but, when you're in the automated modes. We have easy to access focus options on there as well as far as the area and the mode that you're in. So these are the main operations that you're gonna get to. And you'll notice that you don't need to dive into any menus to get to 'em. There are direct button controls on the outside of the camera. So, let's take a look at those same controls laid out so that we can see all the different options for setting the camera up. And let's look at how we would set the camera up in a very simple mode. And so if we wanted to just take photos in a very, very simple way, how would I set the camera up? I'm not gonna use the a plus scene intelligent mode. I wanna use the program mode. That way I could dive into some other mode like say the metering and change the metering system. Or the focusing system. I can easily change all of these modes in there. And so program is gonna set shutter speeds and apertures according to the light. I'm not normally a big fan of auto ISO but if you wanna make things really, really simple auto ISO will work just fine. Make sure that you're exposure compensation is set at zero unless you specifically need it someplace else. Auto white balance is working for me most all of the time. I'll adjust it when and where necessary. For standard subjects I'm gonna use the one shot mode. This is where the camera focuses on a subject and then stops. Focus area. Auto area is using the entire 45 point focusing area. And it's focusing on whatever is closest in that 45 point area. It's not always the right choice for all photography. But for super simple photography it'll make it very easy to focus on subjects. And then the drive mode. You can just simply be in single so that when you press down fully on the shutter release you get one picture at a time. So, pretty simple and easy set up right there. Good for general photography. Let's get a little bit more specific. Let's do some landscape photography. In this case, we want more depth of field. And we might be working with slower shutter speeds which means we might be on a tripod. And, with a subject like this, we have a little bit more time to make sure that we're getting it right. And so in these cases. I like to be in manual exposure so that I can get the settings exactly as I want 'em. The first one is ISO at 100. I wanna have the best image quality possible. These are subjects that are not moving around too quick. I don't need too fast a shutter speed. So I'm gonna be able to choose the lowest ISO. You're gonna want a fair bit of depth of field. F eight. F 11. F 16. F 22. Something in that range. For getting lots of depth of field. It depends on the exact composition. Shutter speed isn't gonna matter too much. It's just gonna depend on what the natural light allows you to shoot with. When you do stop your aperture down to F 11 for instance, your often gonna end up at a slower shutter speed. This is where you may wanna have your camera on a tripod. Or at least have the camera very steadily held. Or hopefully at least have image stabilization if you are hand holding with a slower shutter speed. You don't use exposure compensation 'cause you are in the manual mode. Auto white balance until there's a problem. Your subject's not moving around so one shot on the focus will be fine. For focus area I like to be very specific about what I am focusing the lens on. And that is where the single point focus would be very handy. You can move that around to any one of the 45 points that you think is appropriate for achieving the best focus. And for the drive settings you could use single and a cable release. If you don't have the cable release, a ten second or a two second self-timer might be another good option for that. In the portrait mode, you're gonna wanna be thinking about shooting with shallower depth of field so that your subject stands out from the background. You're gonna need a little bit faster shutter speed to accommodate for your hand held movement of the camera, as well as potentially your subject's movement. And if the light's not changing I prefer to be in manual exposure so that I can shoot a series of photos where they were all consistent in their exposure. I don't want them getting brighter and darker because I moved the camera to a slightly different point of view. As long as the light's even, manual exposure's gonna work best. For me here, I would think about shooting with a wide open aperture. So that you're blowing the background out of focus. If you have a lens that goes down to 1.4, great. You might wanna use that. Not all lenses go down that far. A lot of lenses will max out at around 3 to 4 to 5 6. Just use the best you have. From here you wanna make sure that you have a shutter speed that's gonna stop your movement and your subject's movement. As long as nobody's moving around too quickly, 125th of a second should be fine for doing that. Keeping an ISO of 100 will keep you at the best image quality. If you do need to raise it up because the light levels are a little bit lower, feel free to bump up the ISO at that point. Auto white balance should work in most situations. And as long as your subject isn't moving the one shot mode will focus and lock on that subject allowing you to recompose for a more pleasing composition. Focus area needs to be very precise so that you're getting focus right. You don't wanna focus just on the nearest subject. You don't necessarily wanna focus on the tip of their nose. You want their eyes in focus. And so by using that smallest single point you can get that pointed directly at their eyes. And then for the drive mode, single shots would be fine. And if you need to, you could throw it into the continuous mode. But usually single will be just fine for portraits. Next up is action photography. Here is, there's a lot of changes that need to be made. We need to change the focusing system. And we need to change the shutter speeds to start with. So, I like to shoot in manual as long as I have even exposures. Because then I can get consistent results throughout all my images. With fast moving subjects, you're gonna need a fast shutter speed to stop their action. 500th of a second or faster. Depending on how fast that action is. This is where lenses that open up wider will pay off. If you have a 2.8 lens, that's great. That's where a lot of sports photographers set their aperture. In this case, it would be nice to be at ISO 100. But it's unrealistic with that high shutter speed. You're probably gonna need to be at ISO 400 or higher. Depending on the light levels. Auto white balance is fine unless you need something different. A very important change is in the focusing system to AI servo. This is where the camera is gonna track the subjects moving towards you or away from you. The focus area has another important change. Rather than a single point, which is hard to keep on a random moving subject, or any subject that's moving, you might say, I prefer the zone system. Or at least the zone AF system here. The large zone AF is also not a bad option as well. But the zone AF allows you to really position the focusing points left, right, up, and down, exactly where you want to capture that action in the frame. And then of course on the drive mode, that's where you're gonna wanna engage that high speed continuous shooting of six frames per second. And, six frames per second is more than good enough for doing a lot of very good sports photography. Just, going back a few years, okay. Maybe a few decades. My top of the line professional sports camera shot at 5.7 frames a second many years ago. And now all cameras are shooting at six frames per second. It's a great camera for shooting sports in that regard. All right. Let's do the last one here on basic photography. And I kinda think of this as travel photography. Or any time where you don't know what you're next photo is gonna be. You wanna be ready to shoot something and have it decent. But you wanna be able to make some changes really quickly. And this is where I like using a little bit of automation. And so this is where I'll employ aperture value or aperture priority. And so I'll choose just kind of a medium, kind of wide open aperture around 5.6. And then if I just pick my camera up and shoot it, it's gonna give me a reasonably fast shutter speed. And if I need to make an adjustment with the aperture it's a quick turn of the dial on the top of the camera. Very easy to change. I prefer to leave my ISO at as a default. 'Cause I like to have it at the best setting. But if, as soon as I enter a low light area where I'm gonna need faster shutter speeds, I start bumping that dial up. And so if I go into a marketplace that's covered I might bump it up to 200 or 400. And then if I go into a darker room, I might be bumping it up to 800 or 1600. Just depends on the situation. I'll normally keep the exposure compensation set at zero until I need it changed for a specific shot. Auto white balance works really good in most situations. Most times I'm not shooting action so I think one shot is gonna work so you that you can focus on a subject and recompose. I like to be very specific about where I'm focusing. And so I like choosing the single point auto focus. And this will allow you to be very precise about what you want in focus. You don't want the door frame closest to you in focus. You want the person that's just beyond it in focus. And that allows you to be very precise about that. And for drive single shot should be suitable for most situations. If you need to shoot something really quickly, you can just go up and down on the shutter release and shoot pretty quickly there. And so I think this is a good setup for basic photography. You can make a lot of quick changes for a lot of different scenarios very, very easily. So, congratulations for making it through to the end of the class. You are now an expert in the Canon Eos Rebel T7i. There is, a lot of additional information that you may wanna check out in the instruction manual. You may wanna watch this class again after you've been using this camera out in the field for couple of months. I find it's really helpful to come back to this information again and again. Because when I first read or watch a video I pick up a lot of stuff, and I understand it. But I don't really know how it applies to me until I go out and I start shooting. And then you go, let me watch it again. And then you start picking up a whole nother layer of information. And so, I think a class like this could probably be watched right when you get your camera, maybe a month later, and then another time for like a month, six months down the road. All right. Well we actually have a couple of questions that have been called in or sent it. And I wanna take a look at those questions. And so let's take a look at the first question. And we got it up on screen here from Mary Kay Mills. Thank you for sending something in. If you set up wifi with your phone, will it stay configured even when you disable wifi? Yes. And so, once it recognizes that hand shake, if you will, with your phone, it'll know how to connect up with your phone. And you won't need to go through nearly as much rigamarole as I did. I believe, and I haven't tested this, it will be a bit more than a one press button on the back of the camera. I think you still need to confirm in your phone that yes you want to connect up with this. But you will not need to go through all the steps. The steps will be cut in half or about down to 1/3rd the number of steps. So, thank you. Good question on that one. All right. Next one. Do you have recommended settings for a solar eclipse. Ah ha. Okay. So a very timely question here. This may not apply in about two months. We are having a giant solar eclipse in about a month. And, using that I would definitely be in manual exposure. But it's gonna be a little bit tricky. And I'm not a solar expert expert. But I plan on shooting it. And I think the SLR will be a great camera to shoot with it. Because you can point this camera at the sun, and as the sun comes into the lens of the camera, the sun is not shining on your sensor until you take the photo. Whereas with a mirrorless camera, it's shining in there all the time. And if you do that for a long period of time that may cause a damage. And so, I'm thinking about potentially doing a series of shots where I take the first shot where it starts to eclipse, and then one with it in the middle, and then one at the end. And so, I think that is basically gonna be the sunny 16 rule. Where you're out shooting in the sun, and so you could have your aperture at F 16, your shutter speed at a number equal to your ISO. So if you have an ISO of 100, you could have a shutter speed about 125th. That makes logical sense to me. But I am not a eclipse expert. But that should get you pretty close to starting. I encourage you to do some internet searches on recommended settings on how to shoot the solar eclipse. Because there's a lot of people out there that will specialize in that and they like putting that information out there. So thank you for much for that questions. Thank you very much for taking part in this class. Encourage you to get out there and shoot photos with your camera now that you know how to use it. And, let's see, I think I got a few other things to talk about in here. If you are interested in other classes. This is not the only class I do camera classes on. I have now 51 different cameras we have fast starts on. And so, if your friends shoot Nikon, feel free to let 'em know about CreativeLive's classes on Nikon classes. And we also have Fuji, and Olympus, Sony, Panasonic, and very soon we're gonna have some classes on Leica cameras as well. And so, you'll see more and more of these as new cameras come out. So, keep coming back for your camera advice here. Now if you are interested in any of other, my other classes here at CreativeLive I've got a couple of other photography classes. A short one and a long one, depending on what you want. And I also have a nature and landscape, as well as a travel class. Which gets into a whole different set of subjects. Which is why we need a different set of classes for that. And as I mentioned before, a great companion class to the camera class is the Canon lens class. Lot of fun on that one if you really wanna know about lenses. Which I think is a lot of fun and very interesting. That's a great class to get into. And then I also have one for all of your friends who shoot Nikon. So you can let them know about that. So that brings us to the end of the class. So thanks again for tuning in and watching. I hope you enjoy your camera. You got a great camera. So get out there and start shooting. Thanks a lot and see you next time.