Canon EOS Rebel T3/1100D For Dummies

Julie Adair King has authored numerous books on Canon and Nikon cameras as well as Digital Photography For Dummies. Robert Correll teamed with Julie on Canon EOS 60D For Dummies and is the author of High Dynamic Range Digital Photography For Dummies and Digital SLR Photography All-in-One For Dummies.

Introduction 1

A Quick Look at What’s Ahead 2

Icons and Other Stuff to Note 3

About the Software Shown in This Book 4

eCheat Sheet 4

Practice, Be Patient, and Have Fun! 4

Part I: Fast Track to Super Snaps 5

Chapter 1: Getting the Lay of the Land 7

Getting Comfortable with Your Lens 8

Attaching a lens 8

Removing a lens 10

Using an IS (Image Stabilizer) lens 10

Shifting from autofocus to manual focus 11

Zooming in and out 13

Adjusting the Viewfinder Focus 13

Using the LCD Monitor 14

Working with Memory Cards 16

Exploring External Camera Controls 17

Topside controls 17

Back-of-the-body controls 19

Front odds and ends 23

Connection ports 24

Viewing and Adjusting Camera Settings 25

Ordering from menus 26

Using the Shooting Settings display 28

Taking advantage of the Quick Control screen 30

Decoding viewfinder data 31

Checking the Camera Settings display 33

Reviewing Basic Setup Options 34

Setup Menu 1 34

Setup Menu 2 36

Setup Menu 3 39

Two more customization options 39

Chapter 2: Choosing Basic Picture Settings 41

Choosing an Exposure Mode 42

Changing the Drive Mode 43

Using the Flash 47

Using flash in the fully automatic modes 48

Using flash in Creative Auto mode 48

Enabling flash in the advanced exposure modes 50

Using Red-Eye Reduction flash 50

Controlling Picture Quality 52

Diagnosing quality problems 52

Decoding the Quality options 54

Considering Resolution: Large, Medium, or Small? 56

Understanding File Type (JPEG or Raw) 60

JPEG: The imaging (and web) standard 61

Raw (CR2): The purist’s choice 62

Our take: Choose Fine or Raw 64

Chapter 3: Taking Great Pictures, Automatically 65

As Easy As It Gets: Auto and Flash Off 66

Taking Advantage of Scene Modes 71

Trying out the scene modes 71

Modifying scene mode results 78

Gaining More Control with Creative Auto 87

Chapter 4: Exploring Live View Shooting and Movie Making 93

Getting Started with Live View 94

Live View safety tips 96

Customizing the Live View display 98

Exploring Your Focusing Options 100

Manual focusing 101

Reviewing the three autofocus modes 102

Shooting Still Pictures in Live View Mode 109

Viewing and adjusting picture settings 109

Taking a shot in Live View mode 114

Recording Your First Movie 116

Customizing Movie Recording Settings 119

Movie Menu 1 120

Movie Menu 2 121

Movie Menu 3 123

Playing Movies 124

Editing Movies 125

Part II: Working with Picture Files 129

Chapter 5: Picture Playback 131

Disabling and Adjusting Image Review 131

Viewing Pictures in Playback Mode 132

Viewing multiple images at a time 132

Using the Quick Control screen during playback 134

Jumping through images 135

Rotating pictures 137

Zooming in for a closer view 140

Viewing Picture Data 141

Basic Information display data 142

Basic Information plus display 143

Shooting Information display mode 144

Understanding Histogram display mode 146

Deleting Photos 149

Erasing single images 149

Erasing all images 149

Erasing selected images 150

Protecting Photos 151

Protecting a single photo 152

Protecting multiple photos 153

Rating Photos 154

Presenting a Slide Show 156

Viewing Your Photos on a Television 160

Chapter 6: Downloading, Printing, and Sharing Your Photos 163

Choosing the Right Photo Software 163

Four free photo programs 164

Four advanced photo editing programs 166

Sending Pictures to the Computer 167

Connecting your camera and computer 168

Starting the transfer process 170

Downloading images with Canon tools 170

Processing Raw (CR2) Files 176

Planning for Perfect Prints 180

Check the pixel count before you print 180

Allow for different print proportions 182

Get print and monitor colors in sync 183

Preparing Pictures for Online Sharing 186

Part III: Taking Creative Control 193

Chapter 7: Getting Creative with Exposure and Lighting 195

Kicking Your Camera into Advanced Gear 196

Introducing the Exposure Trio: Aperture, Shutter Speed, and ISO 197

Understanding exposure-setting side effects 200

Doing the exposure balancing act 204

Monitoring Exposure Settings 205

Choosing an Exposure Metering Mode 208

Setting ISO, f-stop, and Shutter Speed 210

Controlling ISO 211

Adjusting aperture and shutter speed 214

Sorting through Your Camera’s Exposure-Correction Tools 216

Overriding autoexposure results with Exposure Compensation 216

Improving high-contrast shots with Highlight Tone Priority 220

Experimenting with Auto Lighting Optimizer 223

Correcting lens vignetting with Peripheral Illumination Correction 226

Locking Autoexposure Settings 228

Bracketing Exposures Automatically 230

Turning auto bracketing on and off 232

Shooting a bracketed series 235

Using Flash in Advanced Exposure Modes 235

Understanding your camera’s approach to flash 237

Using flash outdoors 240

Adjusting flash power with Flash Exposure Compensation 242

Locking the flash exposure 244

Exploring more flash options 245

Chapter 8: Manipulating Focus and Color 249

Reviewing Focus Basics 249

Adjusting Autofocus Performance 252

AF Selection Point: One focus point or many? 253

Changing the AF (autofocus) mode 255

Choosing the right autofocus combo 257

Manipulating Depth of Field 257

Using A-DEP mode 263

Checking depth of field 264

Controlling Color 265

Correcting colors with White Balance 265

Changing the White Balance setting 267

Creating a custom White Balance setting 269

Fine-tuning White Balance settings 271

Bracketing shots with White Balance 274

Choosing a Color Space: sRGB versus Adobe RGB 277

Taking a Quick Look at Picture Styles 279

Chapter 9: Putting It All Together 285

Recapping Basic Picture Settings 285

Setting Up for Specific Scenes 287

Shooting still portraits 287

Capturing action 293

Capturing scenic vistas 297

Capturing dynamic close-ups 300

Coping with Special Situations 302

Part IV: The Part of Tens 305

Chapter 10: Ten Fast Photo-Editing Tricks 307

Opening and Saving Images 307

Removing Red-Eye 312

Cropping Your Photo 314

Adjusting Color Saturation 317

Tweaking Color Balance 320

Adjusting Exposure 322

Three-point exposure control with the Level Adjustment filter 322

Gaining more control with the Tone Curve Adjustment filter 325

Sharpening Focus (Sort Of) 328

Shifting to AutoPilot 331

Adding Text 332

Chapter 11: Ten Special-Purpose Features to Explore on a Rainy Day 335

Changing the Function of the Set Button 335

Customizing Exposure and Focus Lock Options 338

Disabling the AF-Assist Beam 340

Reassigning the Flash Button 341

Adding Cleaning Instructions to Images 342

Turning Off the Shooting Settings Screen 345

Creating Your Very Own Camera Menu 346

Creating Custom Folders 348

Tagging Files with Your Copyright Claim 349

Setting Up an Eye-Fi Memory Card 351

Installing Eye-Fi software 352

Using Eye-Fi 354

Coming to grips with transfer speeds 356

Index 357