The array of camera controls at your fingertips
Digital cameras and particularly Digital SLR cameras come with a mesmerising amount of settings and controls these days so here is a quick camera setting guide to some of the most important ones and what they do.
Control Dial settings:
The Canon 5D MK2 doesn't have the automatic modes of some consumer level DSLR's
:Green Rectangle mode- a simple automatic mode which will choose all your settings for you, surely not why you bought a DSLR
:P (Program Mode) – This mode automatically sets your aperture and shutter speeds for you while letting you decide other settings like ISO, metering and focussing.
:TV (Time Value) – This mode lets you choose your desired shutter speed and then it automatically adjusts aperture to suit. This mode is useful when the choice of shutter speed is critical to your photo, for example in sports or wildlife shots.
:AV (Aperture Value) – This mode allows you to set your desired aperture value and then it will adjust shutter speed accordingly. I use this mode quite often for shooting landscapes. It’s useful when the choice of aperture is critical to the shot, such as the use of small apertures (large numbers) for landscapes and large apertures (small numbers) for portraits. :Manual Mode- Manual mode allows you to set and adjust all settings yourself. It can be particularly useful when you need to keep exact settings, for example when I’m shooting a landscape by the sea and I wish to have a slow shutter speed to capture movement in the Ocean and at the same time need a small aperture to keep everything in focus. It is also useful when you are photographing in unusual lighting conditions and the other modes are not providing the exposure you want. Other settings
Your DSLR button layout may vary but the buttons do the same thing
ISO – ISO values are part of the photographic triangle of exposure settings. They determine how quickly your sensor can gather light. The higher the number the quicker your sensor gathers light and can therefore allow you to use faster shutter speeds or smaller apertures. However with the increase in speed comes an increase in image noise because to gather the light more quickly the camera has to increase the voltage to the sensor causing interference. Try and keep to as low an ISO value as possible to produce the best possible quality images. For my photography I rarely leave ISO100 but anything up ISO400 produces first rate images and up to 3200 images can be useable on my Canon 5dMK2. High ISO performance is improving with every generation of cameras so you may find that ISO6400 and beyond produces images that you are happy with on the latest cameras. Setting your camera to auto ISO will allow the camera to adjust the ISO in conjunction with the aperture and shutter speed. Some newer models allow you to restrict the maximum ISO selectable while in auto mode so you can limit it to whatever value you are happy shooting at.
White Balance: White balance determines the colour warmth of your images and is affected by the colour of the light in your scene. If you shoot in Raw format as I do then WB can be left to automatic as you can change this in post processing to suit the image. However if you shoot in Jpeg then you have to pay closer attention to this setting as you have limited ability to adjust it after you have taken the shot. The choices are pretty self-explanatory ranging from tungsten at one end of the scale to cloudy at the other. Metering Modes: Evaluative or average- This mode takes readings from all areas of the scene and tries to work out an average exposure value to give a correct exposure. For most scenes this metering mode will do a perfectly fine job. If you are photographing particularly bright or dark scenes then you may need to apply exposure compensation to get a correct exposure. Spot- This metering mode takes a reading from the middle 3% of your viewfinder. It is a very specific metering mode that can be used to take readings from known value targets or if you are able to identify mid tones in a scene which you can take an accurate reading from. It is a useful mode to use when photographing difficultly lit scenes. Partial- Partial metering is virtually the same as spot mode but takes its reading from a larger area of roughly 10% of the image in the centre. Centre Weighted- Centre weighted as it sounds, takes readings from all over the image but gives greater weight to the centre portion. This mode is great if you are photographing a subject such as an animal against a bright sky where you want the animal to be properly exposed but you want the camera to also consider the background and not blow out the highlights.
AF/Drive mode – These refer to the Auto focus mode and drive mode. The AF mode can be selected from:
One shot AF where you half depress the shutter button and the camera will lock onto its subject and stay locked on to that same subject until you either take the shot or release the shutter button completely. This mode is the most commonly used and is suitable for static subjects.
AI Focus- Which allows the camera to make the choice of whether your subject is moving or not and therefore selects either one shot AF for stationary subjects or AI Servo for moving subjects.
AI Servo- So as you probably worked out, AI Servo is for use on moving subjects where the camera will lock on to the subject and continue to track it and keep it in focus while you have the shutter button pressed down halfway or all the way when combined with multi shot drive mode. This mode is perfect for sports and wildlife shooting.
So why would you choose AI Servo over AI Focus?
Simple, it’s quicker because the camera doesn’t have to assess your subject to see if it is moving or not so it can instantly concentrate on getting the subject in focus.
Drive Mode- refers to how the camera reacts when you depress the shutter button. Single shot will take just one shot each time your press the shutter button. Multi shot will fire off successive shots at high speed until either the buffer becomes full or you lift your finger. Finally there is usually the option to have a timed shot so the camera will countdown 2 or 10 seconds after you press the shutter button and then take the shot. Useful if you want to run into shot or if you want to give the camera a few seconds to minimise vibrations before taking your photo
There are of course hundreds of different combinations of controls on modern cameras but the above are the some of the most important. The only other one that I shall mention here is the option to adjust the exposure by way of exposure compensation.
Exposure compensation
The thumbwheel or crosshairs on some DSLR's control a variety of functions including exposure compensation
Exposure compensation can be used in P, TV and AV modes to adjust the exposure that the camera decides upon for you.
So let’s say you’re in AV mode and you have selected an aperture value of f/8 and ISO is set to 100, to get your initial exposure the camera meters the scene and decides that a shutter value of 1/125 of a second is correct. After taking the image and reviewing it you decide the camera got it wrong and the image is too bright….. Well you would use exposure compensation to correct the camera. In this case you would add negative exposure compensation to get the camera to make the scene darker. If you set -1 exposure compensation then the camera will decrease the exposure by 1 whole stop so shutter speed would increase to 1/250 of a second resulting in a darker image and hopefully a correct exposure.
If you want more tips on everything from your cameras basic controls through to simple techniques that the Pro’s use then Scott Kelby’s series of books are a great place to start.
