Canon EOS Rebel T4i/650D For Dummies

Introduction 1 A Quick Look at What’s Ahead 1 Part I: Fast Track to Super Snaps 2 Part II: Working with Picture Files 2 Part III: Taking Creative Control 2 Part IV: The Part of Tens 2 Icons and Other Stuff to Note 3 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 7 Attaching a lens 8 Removing a lens 9 Zooming in and out 10 Shifting from autofocus to manual focus (and back) 11 Using an IS (image stabilizer) lens 11 Getting Familiar with the Monitor 12 Adjusting the Monitor Position 13 Using the Touchscreen 15 Working with Memory Cards 18 Exploring External Camera Controls 20 Topside controls 21 Back-of-the-body controls 22 Front odds and ends 26 Connection ports 27 Viewing and Adjusting Camera Settings 29 Ordering from menus 29 Exploring the Shooting Settings display 33 Taking advantage of the Quick Control screen 35 Decoding viewfinder data 38 Checking the Camera Settings display 39 Reviewing Basic Setup Options 41 Setup Menu 1 41 Setup Menu 2 43 Setup Menu 3 45 Setup Menu 4 46 Chapter 2: Choosing Basic Picture Settings 49 Choosing an Exposure Mode 50 Changing the Drive Mode 51 Using the Flash 56 Using flash in the fully automatic modes 57 Using flash in Creative Auto mode 58 Enabling flash in the advanced exposure modes 59 Using Red-Eye Reduction flash 60 Controlling Picture Quality 61 Diagnosing quality problems62 Decoding the Image Quality options 64 Considering Resolution: Large, Medium, or Small? 66 Understanding File Type (JPEG or Raw) 70 JPEG: The imaging (and web) standard 71 Raw (CR2): The purist’s choice 72 My take: Choose Fine or Raw 74 Chapter 3: Taking Great Pictures, Automatically 75 As Easy As It Gets: Auto and Flash Off 76 Taking Advantage of Scene (Image Zone) Modes 80 Trying out the scene modes 81 Modifying scene mode results 93 Gaining More Control with Creative Auto 102 Chapter 4: Exploring Live View Shooting and Movie Making 107 Getting Started 108 Live View and Movie mode cautions 111 Customizing the display 113 Focusing in Live View and Movie Modes 116 Disabling continuous autofocusing 116 Choosing an AF (autofocus) mode 119 Manual focusing 127 Zooming in for a focus check 128 Shooting Pictures in Live View Mode 130 Setting the photo aspect ratio 130 Adjusting other Live View picture settings 131 Taking a shot in Live View mode 138 Using the touch shutter 139 Recording Your First Movie 140 Customizing Movie Recording Settings 142 Movie Menu 1 144 Movie Menu 2 145 Snapping a Photo During Movie Recording 149 Playing Movies 150 Part II: Working with Picture Files 153 Chapter 5: Picture Playback 155 Disabling and Adjusting Image Review 155 Exploring Playback Mode 156 Switching to Index (thumbnails) view 157 Using the Quick Control screen during playback 158 Jumping through images 159 Rotating pictures 162 Zooming in for a closer view 165 Viewing Picture Data 166 Basic Information display data 168 Shooting Information display mode 168 Understanding Histogram display mode 171 Deleting Photos 174 Erasing single images 174 Erasing all images 174 Erasing selected images 175 Protecting Photos 177 Protecting a single photo 177 Protecting (or unprotecting) multiple photos 178 Rating Photos 179 Viewing Your Photos on a Television 181 Chapter 6: Downloading, Printing, and Sharing Your Photos 185 Choosing the Right Photo Software 185 Four free photo programs 186 Four advanced photo-editing programs 188 Sending Pictures to the Computer 189 Connecting your camera and computer 190 Reviewing the transfer process 191 Downloading images with Canon ImageBrowser EX 192 Processing Raw (CR2) Files 197 Planning for Perfect Prints 200 Check the pixel count before you print 201 Allow for different print proportions 203 Get print and monitor colors in sync 203 Preparing Pictures for Online Sharing 206 Part III: Taking Creative Control 209 Chapter 7: Getting Creative with Exposure 211 Kicking Your Camera into Advanced Gear 212 Introducing the Exposure Trio: Aperture, Shutter Speed, and ISO 213 Understanding exposure-setting side effects 215 Doing the exposure balancing act 220 Monitoring Exposure Settings 221 Choosing an Exposure Metering Mode 224 Setting ISO, f-stop, and Shutter Speed 227 Controlling ISO 227 Adjusting aperture and shutter speed 229 Sorting through Your Camera’s Exposure-Correction Tools 231 Overriding autoexposure results with Exposure Compensation 231 Improving high-contrast shots with Highlight Tone Priority 235 Experimenting with Auto Lighting Optimizer 237 Correcting vignetting with Peripheral Illumination Correction 240 Dampening noise 242 Locking Autoexposure Settings 245 Bracketing Exposures Automatically 247 Turning auto bracketing on and off 249 Shooting a bracketed series 251 Using Flash in Advanced Exposure Modes 252 Understanding your camera’s approach to flash 254 Using flash outdoors 257 Adjusting flash power with Flash Exposure Compensation 259 Locking the flash exposure 262 Exploring more flash options 263 Chapter 8: Manipulating Focus and Color 269 Reviewing Focus Basics 269 Adjusting Autofocus Performance 272 AF Selection Point: One focus point or many? 273 Changing the AF (autofocus) mode 274 Choosing the right autofocus combo 276 Manipulating Depth of Field 277 Controlling Color 284 Correcting colors with white balance 284 Changing the White Balance setting 287 Creating a custom White Balance setting 289 Fine-tuning White Balance settings 291 Bracketing shots with white balance 293 Taking a Quick Look at Picture Styles 298 Chapter 9: Putting It All Together 305 Recapping Basic Picture Settings 305 Setting Up for Specifi c Scenes 308 Shooting still portraits 308 Capturing action 314 Capturing scenic vistas 318 Capturing dynamic close-ups 321 Coping with Special Situations 323 Part IV: The Part of Tens 327 Chapter 10: Ten More Ways to Customize Your Camera 329 Changing the Function of the Set Button 329 Customizing the AE Lock and Shutter Button 330 Disabling the AF-Assist Beam 332 Silencing the Camera 333 Preventing Shutter Release without a Memory Card 334 Reducing the Number of Exposure Stops 335 Creating Your Very Own Camera Menu 336 Creating Custom Folders 339 Turning Off the Shooting Settings Screen 340 Changing the Color Space from sRGB to Adobe RGB 341 Chapter 11: Ten Features to Explore on a Rainy Day 343 Enabling Mirror Lockup 343 Adding Cleaning Instructions to Images 345 Tagging Files with Your Copyright Claim 347 Exploring Two Special Printing Options 350 Playing with the Creative Filters 351 Tagging Pictures for a Photo Book 355 Presenting a Slide Show 356 Creating Video Snapshots 359 Editing Movies 364 Getting Free Help and Creative Ideas 366 Appendix: Glossary of Digital Photography Terms 367 Index 379