Canon Eos 600d Tips And Tricks
Clara Vanliere
If your camera has a crop factor of 1.6 then, take the focal length of your lens and multiply it by 1.6. That is how your lens will look when taking pictures. For example, the ever popular 50mm lens will give you an image as if you took the picture with an 80mm lens.
So I noticed that most food bloggers use the 50mm lens. I think it started from a food blogger a while back that had a kit camera (a less expensive camera like the Canon Rebel series that comes with a lens) and they used it well (meaning their photos looked nice) and other bloggers followed suit. In class, when I see a student with this lens and I ask them why they use that lens they either say, a blogger they admire uses it, OR it came with the camera (kit lens).
Both the 35mm and the 50mm can be useful for overhead shots where shallow depth of field is not needed. The more lenses you have, the more flexibility you have for making creative food photos. I think it would be ideal for you to have a 50mm lens and also a 100mm macro or equivalent.
So this is interesting. The zoom lens on the left is a pro grade zoom lens and the 100mm is the consumer grade prime lens. A prime lens means that it is not a zoom and is only that one focal length, in this case a 100mm macro.
Consumer grade means the less expensive quality type of lenses. All manufacturers of lenses make consumer and pro grades. Consumer grades are cheaper and pro lenses are a lot more money. I was surprised at how different the focal lengths were between these two lenses. The 100mm zoom lens on the left looks much wider than the prime 100mm on the right. Very strange.
Hi Christina. This post was very helpful, and I learned a lot about my camera as a result.
My Nikon D7100 has a 1.5x crop on normal settings, but has the ability to change that to 1.3x changing the focal length from 75mm to 65mm. Am I better off using the 1.3x for food photography, even though it reduces resolution a little? This is still a bit confusing to me.
Thanks so much,
TIna
Thanks for this article, great information! I am a food blogger and just getting into photography lenses, and have been doing a bunch of research. I am curious what you think about the Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM vs the EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM Zoom you recommend in this article? Differences/uses, etc. ? Thanks in advance!
Hi Christina, thanks so much for the help! I will start my search for the 17-40mm, looks like it will be a good combo with the 60mm. Great site, really appreciate you taking the time to answer. Have a super day!
Hi Christina, thank you for the explanation in this article. I am a food blogger, and I have been using my Canon Rebel XSi (cropped sensor) with its lens kit for a very long time now. If I keep my camera and upgrade my lens, would you say the Canon EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro USM Lens ($469) is a good candidate? Or do you have another suggestion for the very first lens upgrade to get? Thank you ?
Thank you for your reply Christina. Another question, if I only have the budget for either Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM Zoom Lens, or Canon EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro USM Lens, but not both. Which one would you suggest to get first? Thanks again ?
Thank you, Christina. I checked about the crop just like you suggested and I saw that my canon is a cropped sensor camera. But the price difference between the 60 mm and the 100 mm is only about 200 Euro (I got a good offer), so if the 100 mm is better than I would pay the 200 extra. Unless you think the difference between the two is not worth 200 euro. Or is the 100 mm macro lens not appropriate at all for cropped sensor cameras? Thank you again.
Hi Teresa, you will be able to use that lens, you will just have to back up away from your set more as you figured out. What will be tricky is doing overhead shots because you might not be able to get the camera far enough away from your set.
Hello christina, thank you so much for this useful article . I wanna ask you I have nikon d5200 with kit lens 18-55 dx lens. I want to shoot cooking videos with different angles but this lens does not give good quality images and videos. I want your advice and this will help me a lot in upgrading my lens. Thank you so much
I was wondering your opinion of extension tubes? I currently use a Nikon D5100 (cropped sensor) with the 50mm 1/4 G. I plan on renting the 105 macro to try it out. Would extension tubes work just as well?
Love the tips! I use a 50 mm on a canon 5D mark ii and have been feeling like I need another lens to add, I think I will look into the 100 mm macro ? I also LOVED your e-book, especially the lighting portion! Thanks!
2) Right now I have a semi old Canon EOS Rebel XT, but if I were to get a new DSLR camera, which one would you recommend? This is my second priority and it would have to be towards the cheaper end since my budget is approx. 1000 US dollars, and the lens would steal a big chunk of that.
Also, for overhead shots, you have to use a wider lens or you will dangerously be handing off of ladders or step stools. One lens will not do all the jobs. If you really want good shots, you need lenses that are appropriate for all your shooting scenarios.
Christina,
I liked your tips here and I am intrigued now (I.e. looking for a possible upgrade in my lens)
Currently I shoot with sigma 50mm f/1,4 EX DG HSM, but I was looking at a Sigma 105 f2.8 ex dg macro os
Would it make much difference in your opinion?
Great blog, I love it
R.
Hey Christina! This is an awesome post! By the way, I totally feel you when you say the purple carrots stopped you in your tracks! I was exactly the same way recently when I saw Purple Cauliflower in Whole Foods. Seriously thought I had died and gone to heaven, and shouted OMG and ran over to it!
The great thing about working with a dSLR camera is that I can always feel confident that some things will remain unchanged from camera to camera. For me, these are the Aperture Priority (Av) and Shutter Priority (Tv) shooting modes. Although I like to think of myself as a generalist in terms of my photography, I do tend to lean heavily on the landscape and urban photography genres. Working in these areas means that I am almost always going to be concerned with my depth of field. Whether it's isolating my subject with a large aperture or trying to maximize the overall sharpness of a sweeping landscape, I always keep an eye on my aperture setting.
If I do have a need to control the action, I use Shutter Priority. If I am trying to create a silky waterfall effect, I can depend on Tv to provide that long shutter speed that it will deliver. Maybe I am shooting a motocross jumper. I definitely need the fast shutter speeds that will freeze the fast-moving action. While the other camera modes have their place, I think you will find that, like myself and most other working pros, you will use the Av and Tv modes for 90 percent of your shooting.
The other concern that I have when I am setting up my camera is just how low I can keep my ISO. I raise the ISO only as a last resort because each increase in sensitivity is an opportunity for more digital noise to enter my image. To that end, I always have the High ISO Noise Reduction feature turned on Standard (see Chapter 7).
To make quick changes while I shoot, I often use the Exposure Compensation feature (covered in Chapter 7) so that I can make small over- and underexposure changes. This is different than changing the aperture or shutter; it is more like fooling the camera meter into thinking the scene is brighter or darker than it actually is.
One of the reasons I change my exposure is to make corrections when I see the "blinkies" while looking at my images on the rear LCD. Blinkies are the warning signal that part of my image has been overexposed to the point that I no longer have any detail in the highlights. The highlight alert will flash wherever the potential exists for overexposure. The only unfortunate thing about this feature is that it doesn't work with the full-screen preview mode. You have to set your camera display to one of the Histogram modes and then you will see the highlight alert (Figure 4.15).
As you work your way through the coming chapters, you will see other tips and tricks I use in my daily photography, but the most important tip I can give is that you take the time to understand the features of your camera so that you can leverage the technology in a knowledgeable way. This will result in better photographs.
This privacy notice provides an overview of our commitment to privacy and describes how we collect, protect, use and share personal information collected through this site. Please note that other Pearson websites and online products and services have their own separate privacy policies.
For inquiries and questions, we collect the inquiry or question, together with name, contact details (email address, phone number and mailing address) and any other additional information voluntarily submitted to us through a Contact Us form or an email. We use this information to address the inquiry and respond to the question.
For orders and purchases placed through our online store on this site, we collect order details, name, institution name and address (if applicable), email address, phone number, shipping and billing addresses, credit/debit card information, shipping options and any instructions. We use this information to complete transactions, fulfill orders, communicate with individuals placing orders or visiting the online store, and for related purposes.
Pearson may offer opportunities to provide feedback or participate in surveys, including surveys evaluating Pearson products, services or sites. Participation is voluntary. Pearson collects information requested in the survey questions and uses the information to evaluate, support, maintain and improve products, services or sites; develop new products and services; conduct educational research; and for other purposes specified in the survey.
93ddb68554