BETTER PHOTOS TODAY
21 TRICKS & FAST FIXES!
Quickly raise your Canon photography game with our skills and shortcuts
Sometimes you just need a quick tip to solve your Canon photography problems. It could be as simple as changing your exposure mode on your Canon EOS camera, perhaps adjusting your autofocus setup, or maybe using a different focal length. Of course, there are plentyof other ways you can quickly improve your photos, it might be a white balance tweak, or working more on compositions. In this issue’s big Canon techniques guide, we’ll look at all of these key areas, plus lots of other fast fixes to help you get your photographic mojo back…
GET YOUR PHOTO MOJO BACK!
01
Manual mode
The big benefit of Manual exposure mode is that your camera can’t alter the exposure settings once you’ve dialled them in. You set the aperture, shutter speed and ISO, and your exposures will remain consistent. It’s essential when using studio lights for portraits, so that you can independently adjust aperture and shutter speed to suit your flash sync speed (such as f/8 at 1/160 sec), and then set the lighting power for the correct subject brightness.
02
Tv mode for shutter speed control
If you want control over the way movement appears in your photos, choose the semi-auto Shutter Priority (Tv) mode.
You can use it to preset a specific shutter speed and then get on with the job of composing your shot while the camera sets the aperture for a standard exposure. Shooting this scene (right) with water over a weir is a great way to illustrate how a fast shutter speed of around 1/500 sec will freeze the water, while a slower shutter speed of 1/15 sec captures that moving water as a blur.
Going to extremes, using a 10-stop ND filter has extended the shutter speed to 30 secs (even in daylight), which has blurred that water more creatively.