Canon Eos Rebel T4i/650D Digital Field Guide

Rosh Sillars is a veteran photographer with a background in photojournalism. A digital photography instructor at the University of Detroit Mercy, he also teaches photojournalism at Wayne State University. Rosh writes, speaks, and consults on photography and marketing, and maintains his own studio, Octane Photography.

Acknowledgments xiii Introduction xx Quick Tour 1 Getting Started 2 Camera Controls 3 The top of the camera 4 The back of the camera 5 Choosing Image Quality 6 Selecting a Focus Mode 6 Using a Flash 7 Reviewing Images or Video 8 Taking Better Photos 8 CHAPTER 1 Exploring the Canon EOS Rebel T4i/650D 11 The Top of the Camera 12 The Bottom of the Camera 14 The Front of the Camera 14 The Back of the Camera 16 The Sides of the Camera 20 Lens Controls 21 The Viewfinder Display 22 The LCD Touch Screen and Live View Mode 25 CHAPTER 2 Setting Up the Canon EOS Rebel T4i/650D 29 The Shooting Menus 30 Shooting menu 1 30 Settings and corrective functions 30 Flash control 31 Shooting menu 2 33 Shooting menu 3 34 The Live View Shooting Menu 35 The Movie Shooting Menus 36 Movie shooting menu 1 36 Movie shooting menu 2 37 The Playback Menus 38 Playback menu 1 38 Playback menu 2 39 The Setup Menus 40 Setup menu 1 40 Setup menu 2 41 Setup menu 3 42 Setup menu 4 43 My Menu Settings 44 CHAPTER 3 Choosing the Right Settings for Your Camera 45 The Basic Zone Modes 46 The Creative Zone Modes 50 Focus Modes 52 Picture Styles 56 Drive Modes 59 White Balance Settings 60 Flash Modes 64 ISO Settings 68 Choosing File Quality and Format 69 Image size and file numbering 70 The RAW file format 71 The JPEG file format 71 Movie Modes 72 Exposing for video 72 Setting the file size and focus 73 CHAPTER 4 Using Lenses with the Canon EOS Rebel T4i/650D 77 Choosing a Good Lens 78 Focal lengths 80 Autofocus 82 Aperture and depth of field 82 Image Stabilization 84 Vignetting 84 Types of Lenses 85 Prime versus Zoom Lenses 89 Understanding prime lenses 89 Understanding zoom lenses 89 Specialty Lenses 90 CHAPTER 5 Exploring Exposure and Composition 95 Choosing the Right Exposure 96 Setting the shutter speed 99 When to use fast shutter speeds 99 When to use slow shutter speeds 100 Night photography and painting with light 104 Setting the aperture 107 Setting the ISO 108 Using Exposure Compensation 110 High Dynamic Range Photography 111 Exposing for Video 113 Composition 113 Rule of Thirds 115 Fill the frame 116 Lines and shapes 116 Foreground and background 118 Keeping it simple 118 CHAPTER 6 Working with Lighting and Flash 121 The Importance of Light and Shadow 122 The Direction of Light 123 Frontlighting 123 Overhead lighting 124 Sidelighting 124 Backlighting 126 The Quality of Light 127 Hard lighting 128 Soft lighting 129 Types of Lighting 130 Natural light 130 Continuous light 132 Flash 132 Shutter speed and flash 133 Aperture and flash 134 Manual mode and flash 134 The Color of Light 136 White balance options 137 Using Picture Styles 137 Ambience Effects 138 Choosing a color space 138 Measuring Light 139 Choosing the proper exposure 139 Metering modes 141 Evaluative metering mode 141 Center-weighted metering mode 141 Spot metering mode 141 Partial metering mode 142 The Canon Flash System 142 The pop-up flash 143 Using an external flash 144 Using multiple fl ashes 145 CHAPTER 7 Shooting Photos 147 Portrait Photography 148 Equipment 148 Best practices 150 Tips 152 Shooting Action and Sports 155 Equipment 156 Best practices 157 Tips 159 Capturing Events 160 Equipment 160 Best practices 161 Tips 162 Landscape and Nature Photography 164 Equipment 164 Best practices 165 Tips 167 Macro Photography 170 Equipment 170 Best practices 171 Tips 172 Shooting at Night or in Low Light 173 Equipment 174 Best practices 174 Tips 175 Travel Photography 176 Equipment 176 Best practices 177 Tips 179 CHAPTER 8 Shooting in the Live View and Movie Modes 181 Using the Live View Shooting Mode 182 The Quick Control/Print button 185 Shooting stills 185 Focus modes 186 Live View and Video 187 Shooting Video 188 Setting up for a video shoot 190 The frame rate 192 The shutter speed 192 Lighting 194 Sound 196 Choosing a focus mode 198 Recording video 200 Equipment 202 Types of video 203 Helpful Hints for Shooting Video 205 CHAPTER 9 Viewing, Editing, and Sharing Your Images 207 Viewing your Images 208 Viewing images or videos on the camera 208 Playback 208 The Quick Control/Print and Info buttons 209 Viewing images on a TV or smart device 210 Downloading and storing your images 210 Storage 211 The 3-2-1 rule 213 Editing Images and Videos on the Camera 213 Sharing your Photos 215 E-mailing 216 Printing 216 Uploading images to a website 216 Sharing photos via social media 218 APPENDIX A Postproduction 221 Photo-editing Software 222 Digital Photo Professional 224 Image Browser EX 227 Lightroom 227 iPhoto 229 Photoshop 230 Video-editing Software 232 Image Browser EX 234 iMovie 234 Windows Live Movie Maker 235 Other video-editing software 236 APPENDIX B Accessories 237 Grips and Remotes 237 Video Accessories 240 Microphones 241 Tripods 243 Bags 245 APPENDIX C How to Use the Gray Card and Color Checker 247 The Gray Card 247 The Color Checker 248 Glossary 249 Index 257