SPORTS

N
ot just for sports, this mode is suited to anything that moves- such as children and wildlife! lt uses your D-SLR 's fastest Continuous Mode (eg 5fps) and sets a fast (around 1/500 sec) shutter speed to freeze the action . To do this, your camera often sets a high ISO, especially in low-light situations -and could be as high as 1506400.

Prloltty: Freezing
movement

Exposure program: Sets the fastest shutter speed it thinks suitable for the lighting conditions Picture style: Standard Drive mode: Continuous Af mode: AI Servo Flash: Disabled

NewEOS650D

Picture Modes

he new EOS 650D gets two brand-new shooting modes in the Image Zone. Handheld Night Scene helps you to capture shots after dark without using a tripod. lt does this by pumping up the ISO and combining consecutive shots to create a 'stable image'. HDR Backlight Control helps when shooting something with bright and dark areas in your frame . lt fires three bracketed exposures and combines them in-camera to try and improve shadow and highlight detail. Both modes only record one JPEG.

Prloltty: Balanced flash

exposures in low light with nearby subjects

Exposure program: Sets the shutter speed slow

enough so the background is not dark Picture style: Standard Drive mode: Single Af mode: One-shot Flash: Auto

MOVIE MODE F
Priority: Restricting depth
offield

Exposure program: Sets the aperture to the widest it thinks wise for the lighting, in order to blur the background Picture style: Portrait Drive mode: Continuous AF mode: One-shot Flash: Auto (with red-eye reduction option)

or those used to newer EOS D-SLRs, you may not realise that older models didn't have the ability to record video. Now all Canon D-SLRs are ready to shoot home movies- this is found on the Mode Dial on most cameras, but on newer models it can have its own switch; on the EOS 6500, Movie mode is initiated by the On/Off/Movie mode switch under

the Mode Dial, while on the 50 Mk Ill, there's a live View/Movie Mode switch by the eyepiece. For all cameras, you need to press the Record Start/Stop button to begin recording video.

Priority: Restricting depth

of field

Exposure program: Sets as wide an aperture as it thinks wise for the lighting conditions, so as to try to blur the background Picture style: Standard Drive mode: Single AF mode: One-shot
Flash: Auto

deal for landscape photographers who aren't confident manually setting their apertures. Best used with a wide-angle lens to further increase your depth of field so scenes are in focus from near and far. Your camera will set a narrow aperture as possible Priority: Maximising depth of field (but could be as wide as f/5.6 Exposure program: Sets the in low light) to maximize aperture to the narrowest it thinks depth of field, and will wise for the lighting conditions, for capture vivid blues and maximum sharpness greens and sharp images Picture style: Landscape Drive mode: Single suited to landscape shots. AF mode: One-shot Flash: Disabled

Full Auto is fine for quick snaps but offers little control - this shot is underexposed, the f/6.3 aperture gives very limited depth of field, and white balance is a bit too cool

FULL AUTO/A+

hether your EOS camera has Full Auto (green square) or A+ (Scene Intelligent Auto) mode, they both work in a similar way -you concentrate on framing your pictures, while the auto mode analyses the scene and automatically picks the best settings to capture it. In A+ it will also set an 'Auto' Picture Style, which makes fine adjustments to colours. So, you simply aim at your scene or subject, press the shutter button halfway and wait for an AF point to highlight and beep to confirm you've achieved focus , then fully press the button to take the shot. Your camera sets

everything from exposure brightness to ISO to metering, and will also change the autofocus mode from One-Shot AF to AI Servo AF if your subject moves. The flash might pop up if you 're shooting indoors, it's dark or lighting conditions are low. Full Auto/ A+ is a good all-rounder for shooting 'everything', but of course, like the Image Zone picture modes, you have no control or ability to tweak settings if your shots are too bright or dark, if the flash pops up, if the ISO is too high or low, of if the aperture is too wide or the shutter speed is too fast, or white balance a little off.

DIFFERENT EOS D-SLR MODE DIALS

Entry-level cameras have the most auto shooting modes as beginners will be comfortable with the picture modes found on compact cameras they've upgraded from.

Mid-range models have the usual Image and Basic Zone modes, the Creative Zone of P, Tv, Av, M and B - and also c for registering a custom mode of your choosing.

Semi-pro models forego the Image Zone modes altogether, but offer custom exposure modes for creating your own presets for different shooting scenarios.

The higher-spec the EOS, the fewer shooting modes you get. Note that lD-series cameras don't even have a Mode Dial - and only have P, Av, Tv and M modes! ~

PROGRAMAE

he P (Program Auto Exposure) mode is suited to those of you trying to break out of the Full Auto/ A+ modes, but you 're not confident to know which aperture or shutter speed to set. In P mode your EOS 0 -SLR pairs aperture and shutter speed , but you can adjust them by using Program Shift. If you want a wider aperture or faster shutter speed , turn the top dial to the right. If you want a narrower aperture or slower shutter speed, turn the top dial to the left. In P. you can also control other settings. See the 'Benefits of using Creative Zone' boxes right and over the page.

Exposure Compensation

egardless of which shooting mode you use, your camera can sometimes set inaccurate exposure compared to the picture you're envisaging. To get around this. in P. Av and Tv modes, you can adjust Exposure Compensation in one-third stop steps (up to+/3 or 5 stops, depending on your EOS camera). On 0-SLRs like the 5500/ 6000, hold down the Av+/- button and turn the top dial - or on larger EOS 0-SLRs like the 600/70, use the rear dial. Watch the exposure level indicator and the index mark on the top or rear LCO, or through the viewfinder. To brighten exposures, turn the dial to the right; to darken exposures, turn the dial to the left. Set between 1 13 and 1 stop of compensation, take another shot, and see if the result is darker or brighter enough.

Camera Register User Settings

Aperture choice and depth of field

he wider the aperture, the shallower the depth of field- or the more blurred the background . At a wide aperture of f/4, everything behind the foreground manhole is blurred . The

background gets progressively sharper as the aperture narrows and depth of field increases, and so at f/22, both the foreground and background houses are in focus and sharp.

f your EOS D-SLR has Con its Mode Dial (or Cl, C2 and C3 on some models), then you can register your preferred shooting setup. These custom modes can be helpful if you want to quickly access your setups for, say, landscapes , wildlife and portraits. These custom settings work much like an advanced version of Image Zone modes, enabling you to, for instance, set the ISO high, burst mode, AI Servo, Auto AF Points Selection, and a wide aperture ready for fast-moving subjects -then register these settings under the C camera user setting.

Benefits of using Creative Zone #1

When you use P, Av, Tv and M you're also able to take control of a wealth of important settings to help capture the image you want- rather than what you camera thinks you want. You can adjust ISO speed, helpful if you're shooting handheld (high ISO) or using a tripod (low ISO); you can tweak the Picture Styles according to your subject matter; and you can adjust the White Balance in camera to warm up or cool down your image's colour temperature for a mode creative result. And depending on your EOS, you may be able to set Auto Lighting Optimizer to your taste. More over the page. ~

ISO speed

settings
I
n the Creative Zone, you can set the ISO manually. This is helpful as it's up to you how high or low it needs to go. If you need to obtain a fast shutter speed (eg 1/1000 sec), and you 're already at your widest aperture (eg f/2 .8), then increase the ISO from 100 to 400, 800, 1600 or 3200, until you have the desired shutter speed. Bear in mind that high ISO settings can create unwanted noise, but it's better to have a noisy sharp shot then a blurred less noisy shot. If you want a slower shutter speed, keep the ISO at 100. If you 're at you're narrowest aperture (eg f/22), and the shutter speed still isn't slow enough to capture movement in, for instance, water in a landscape, then you'll need to use an ND filter. Always use a tripod for slow shutter speeds shots!

Auto Depth of Field (A-DEP)

ound on older EOS cameras like the 11000, 400, 4000, 4500, 5000 and 5500, the unique A-DEP (Automatic Depth of Field Auto Exposure) mode uses all the AF point s to detect the subject or scene, and then set a suitably narrow aperture (eg f/ 16) to obtain the maximum depth of field for a sharp shot from front to back of the frame. Good for landscape photos. Use a tripod as shutter speeds could be slow if your ISO is at 100.

Benefits of using Creative Zone #2

As we discussed on the previous page, when you use P, Tv, Av and M you're also able to take control of many more important settings. These also include the AF (autofocus) mode from One-Shot (static subjects), AI Focus (static/ moving subjects) and AI Servo (moving subjects); you can manually chose single AF points for more accurate focusing; you can adjust the metering mode from Evaluative to Partial to Spot and Centreweighted, depending on which part of the scene or subject you need to expose for; you can also set the Drive mode from Single-shot to Highspeed Continuous to Self-timer. ...

When Bulb mode is selected, the shutter remains open as long as you press the shutter. B mode is brilliant for night shots when you need exposures more than 30 secs (the maximum available in P, Av, Tv and M modes), as you can set exposures minutes (or hours!) long. On some cameras Bulb isn't found on the Mode Dial, but is selected by setting Tv to 'more than' 30 secs.

When to dial M for Manual

eing able to control aperture and shutter speed independently has distinct advantages. Semi-auto modes can get confused when shooting in mixed lighting, such as when your subject is against a very bright or dark background, for example. Or you might want to deliberately shoot

your subject in silhouette and expose for the bright. sky behind it rather than the darker foreground area. When using a flashgun or studio lights, Manual mode gives you free reign to set whichever aperture and shutter speed you like for the crispest shot (f/11 at 1/ 200 sec, for example), then

simply adjust the power output of the flash until you get the desired exposure. In fact. the shutter speed has little effect on the exposure of the subject as this is determined by the duration of the flash (typically 1/ 1000 sec or faster). but it does establish the exposure of the background ambient light.