Your World 60D

Real World 60D 0 Your World 60D Your World 60D The Still Photographer’s Guide to Operation and Image Creation with the Canon EOS 60D by Douglas J. Klostermann Full Stop. good writing for better photography 1 Your World 60D All rights reserved. This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only and may not be re- sold or given away. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronically or in print, without expressed permission from the author. Every effort has been made to make this e-book as accurate as possible, but no warranty of fitness is implied. The information is provided on an as-is basis. The author shall have no liability or responsibility with respect to any loss or damages arising from the information provided in this e-book including but not limited to the use of any of the materials or methods described, the products, retailers, Internet web sites, or links provided. All contents including cover design, text, and photographs, with the exception of products, brands, and logos, are copyright by the author. All products, brands, and logos are property of the respective companies and websites. Use of terms which are trademarks or service marks in this e-book should not be regarded as affecting the validity of any trademark or service mark. Douglas Klostermann is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. Copyright 2012 Douglas J. Klostermann Cover design and photograph by the author. Your World 60D The Still Photographer’s Guide to Operation and Image Creation With the Canon EOS 60D by: Douglas J. Klostermann ISBN: 978-1-4524-2300-5 Version 3.0 March 2012 Author’s website: www.dojoklo.com Author’s blog: http://blog.dojoklo.com Published by Full Stop. good writing for better photography A division of Douglas J. Klostermann Photography Cambridge, MA 02138 USA http://www.dojoklo.com/Full_Stop/ 2 Your World 60D CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................... 4 2. MENUS and CUSTOM FUNCTIONS ........................................................................... 9 2.1 Menu Settings.......................................................................................................... 9 2.2 My Menu ................................................................................................................19 2.3 Movie Shooting Mode Menus................................................................................19 2.4 Custom Functions Menus......................................................................................22 3. CAMERA OPERATION ..............................................................................................27 3.1 JPEG vs. RAW ......................................................................................................27 3.2 Focusing ................................................................................................................29 3.2a Using Auto Focus.............................................................................................29 3.2b Focus Modes ...................................................................................................31 3.2c Autofocus Points and Composition..................................................................34 3.2d Live View and Movie Autofocus Modes...........................................................36 3.2e Back Button Focusing......................................................................................37 3.3 Drive Modes........................................................................................................... 38 3.4 Exposure................................................................................................................ 38 3.4a Aperture, Shutter Speed and ISO....................................................................38 3.4b Aperture Priority Mode (Av) and Shutter Priority Mode (Tv)............................41 3.4c Full Stops .........................................................................................................44 3.4d Manual Exposure Mode (M) ............................................................................45 3.5 Metering Modes.....................................................................................................46 3.5a Evaluative Metering .........................................................................................46 3.5b Partial Metering................................................................................................47 3.5c Spot Metering...................................................................................................48 3.5d Center-Weighted Average Metering ................................................................49 3.6e Manual Metering ..............................................................................................51 3.6f Metering Modes and Exposure.........................................................................52 3.5g Exposure Lock .................................................................................................54 3.6 Histograms............................................................................................................. 55 3.7 Exposure Compensation .......................................................................................56 3.8 Auto Exposure Bracketing.....................................................................................57 3.9 Highlight Tone Priority and Auto Lighting Optimizer .............................................59 3.10 White Balance .....................................................................................................59 3.11 Picture Styles and Ambience ..............................................................................61 3.12 Flash ....................................................................................................................62 3.13 Sensor Cleaning ..................................................................................................63 4. THE IMAGE TAKING PROCESS...............................................................................64 5. COMPOSITION...........................................................................................................66 6. LENSES ......................................................................................................................73 6.1 Lens Notations.......................................................................................................73 6.2 Which Lens to Buy Next ........................................................................................76 7. VIDEO - AN INTRODUCTION....................................................................................78 8. PHOTOGRAPHY ACCESSORIES.............................................................................79 9. CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................84 3 Your World 60D 1. INTRODUCTION With the introduction of the 60D, Canon has continued its well respected line of powerful and versatile digital SLR cameras. Boasting features such as an 18 megapixel sensor, 63-zone dual-layer exposure metering system, high ISO performance, and Digic 4 image processor, the 60D shares many of the capabilities of Canon’s higher-end models. And with its 5.3 frames per second shooting speed, articulating high resolution rear LCD Monitor, and customization options it has the ability to meet most any dedicated photographer’s needs. The Canon 60D is a powerful, advanced tool for digital photography and is fully capable of capturing professional quality images in most any situation you wish to use it. But it is merely a tool. It is up to you to make use of its features and capabilities to create the images you envision. While the camera’s manual can tell you about the settings and controls and how they function, this guide will build upon that and tell you when and why you want to use them. Every button, menu item, and Custom Function setting of the 60D is there for a reason: to help you capture the images you want. Some of them are more useful to different types of photographers and shooting situations and you don’t need to learn and use them all immediately, but this guide should help to give you the knowledge to confidently use the ones that turn your Canon EOS 60D into an image capturing tool that works best for you. Figure 1 - Detail of the Canon EOS 60D 4 Your World 60D Take Control of Your Camera Since the camera is a tool to take the images you want to take, you can’t always allow the camera to make decisions for you. You have to take control of the camera to ensure that you capture exactly the images you intend - by autofocusing where you want, setting the aperture or shutter speed that you want, and obtaining the exposure you want. While the 60D is an intelligent camera, it cannot read your mind and your intentions and does not know that you wish to focus on and properly expose the small blossoms in the foreground, while making the background appear out of focus, and the branches to be caught still and not be blurred from the motion of the wind, on this bright, sunny day (see Figure 2). You have to tell the camera to do all of this, through the various controls and settings, such as the autofocus AF Mode

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