Canon Eos 600d Tutorial For Beginners

[Chadwick Bosse]

When I take pictures with it. The Images on the Camera Screen have High Contrast. When I downloaded and save the Images on my Computer. the Images are Low Contrast, Dull Images.. ... I have to adjust increase the Picture Style Contrast on the Camera to make a a Bit better.

It does seem to lack contrast, but you have to see it from the camera's point of view. If it simply added more contrast, the highlight in the cloud would get brighter, but the foreground would probably get even darker. IMO, the biggest problem is in the exposure level. Most of the picture is too dark, but the camera is trying to avoid a blown highlight. You could tell some cameras to meter on a selected autofocus point, but I doubt the 600D supports that. What you could try is changing the metering mode from evaluative (the default) to center-weighted averaging. Since the center of the picture is dark, the change in metering should increase the exposure somewhat. If that doesn't work, you could apply, say, a half stop of exposure compensation. Or shoot in RAW mode and brighten the picture in post-processing.

On the left edge of the histogram, you see a "0" and you can think of this as "black", on the right edge you see "255" and you can think of this as "white". The X axis on this graph represents each value of tonality from black to white (ever possible shade of gray the camera can produce. (it is also possible to look at the histogram for an individual color channel, but this is the combined histogram and is all you'll usually need to review.)

Here you can see the data is jammed over to the left side... if we were taking a photo that was actually SUPPOSED to be mostly blacks then this would be expected and wouldn't indicate a problem. But this photo isn't supposed to be mostly blacks... so this tells us that the image is underexposed.

And here you have the opposite problem... all the data is jammed over to the right. This image is over-exposed. Again... if we were expecting to capture a mostly "white" photo, then we'd expect a correct exposure to show more whites than darks and that wouldn't indicate an overexposure. But since this isn't supposed to be a mostly white photo, it does indicate that your image is over-exposed.

But back to that first image... the histogram is spread across the whole thing... but it looks like two mountains with a vally between them. This means you have a lot of fairly dark stuff and a lot of fairly bright stuff... but not many mid-tones. Consequently the brights aren't particular spread out (if you isolate JUST the sky, it doesn't have high contrast) and similarly neither do the darks (if you isolate JUST the land, it doesn't have particularly high contrast). But as a whole image, it does have high contrast even though you don't particularly like the shot.

The gradient neutral density (or sometimes called "grad ND" or "ND grad" and sometimes just "grads" for short (even though there are color grads which are not neutral) are easier to understand. These filters are clear on one half and tinted on the other half. You place the filter in front of the lens so that the tint is covering the sky, and the view to the land is going through the clear half of the filter. This allows you to bring up the exposure of the land (so it's not so dark) while REDUCING the exposure on the sky (so it's not so bright.) It makes a more balanced result.

This is a good tutorial into how Grad ND filters work if you're curious, but... don't go out and try to do this yet. You need to learn more about controlling the basic exposures on your camera first.

I also mentioned the HDR technique. HDR stands for "High Dynamic Range" and it actually involves taking several exposures (usually 3 or more) which are all identical EXCEPT for the exposure (which is varied only by changing shutter speed and NOT by changing the aperture value.) That implies that you have a tripod. There are lots of videos which explain how this works. But the general idea is one image captures the "right" exposure, another is deliberately underexposed, and another is deliberately over-exposed. The computer assesses the area that was too dark in the "right" exposure, and grabs those very same pixels from the "over-exposed" version of the image. It identifies the bright area in the "right" exposure and it grabs the same pixesl from the "under-exposed" version of the image. I've massively over-simplified how it works to convey the general ideal... but the result is an image in which everything is nicely exposued and you see lots of details in the dark areas as well as lots of details in the bright areas.

I do see that you're leaving the camera in "Aperture Priority" (Av) mode and that you've been adjusting the exposure compensation for several of them. In other words, the camera is doing EXACTLY what you told it to do... but probably not what you WANT it to do.

I HIGHLY recommend that you pick up a copy of Bryan Peterson's book "Understanding Expousre" -OR- you pick up the Scott Kelby "Digital Photography" series of books (now up to 5 volumes in the Scott Kelby series, but what you want to learn is in the first couple of books.) Both of these are probably the most recommend books for beginners and they do use language that doesn't assume you speak the lingo (they wont throw around terms that leave you confused.) The books are actually written for beginners.

With Labor Day weekend coming up, I know a lot of us are going to be out there taking pictures! Since we have a long weekend to practice, I wanted to share with you this basic DSLR beginners photography guide. If you have an SLR camera and are nervous to take it out of auto mode, this is the tutorial for you.

In this picture, the aperture was set to 16, a high aperture, allowing everything to be in focus. However, when you take pictures with a high aperture, you need to have a lot of light, like outside during the day.

Note: Depending on what lens you have, you may not be able to set your aperture much lower than 3.5. And at 3.5, you may not be able to achieve much of a blurred background. If you like the blurred background look, you might consider purchasing a lens with a low aperture.

Turn the dial on your camera so that you are shooting in Aperture Priority mode. That means that you will be setting the Aperture, and the camera will automatically adjust the shutter speed. The camera will attempt to give you a correct shutter speed so that your photo turns out just right- not too bright, not too dark.

Try taking a few pictures in Aperture Priority mode with the exposure set to 0. If the pictures need to be brighter, move your exposure to the right a few notches, until it looks right to you. I like bright pictures, so my exposure is usually set above 0! :)

Now turn the dial on your camera so that you are shooting in Shutter Priority mode. That means you will be setting the shutter speed, and the camera will be adjusting the aperture. Shutter speed is how fast the camera records the picture.

Note: Be sure to keep an eye on your aperture as your change your shutter speed. If your aperture number starts flashing, that means that the shutter speed you selected is too high to or too low to correctly expose the picture.

After all your practice in Aperture Priority and Shutter Priority, you are probably familiar with what shutter speeds and apertures you prefer. Now you can put them together! When changing the shutter speed and aperture, be sure to keep an eye on your exposure. You normally want to keep your exposure right around 0. Again, most of the time, I keep mine between 0 and 1 because I like brighter pictures. :)

Canon 50mm f/1.8 and Canon 85mm f/1.8. I normally use these two lenses for portraits and food photos. The low aperture gives me that super-blurred background, and allows me to take pictures in low-light situations (like my kitchen!). The 85mm zooms in a little closer than the 50mm, which means I have to be farther away from the subject than I do when shooting with the 50. So if space is an issue, I use the 50. If space is not an issue, I use the 85, because it gives a slightly blurrier background than the 50.

Thanks a ton for posting this tutorial in very easy to understand and relate to terms. You are a true blessing for those of us who really want to learn about our cameras, but are to intimidated by all the tech talk and even where to begin.

Hello Kevin, It is so attentive session for me as I am very new to photography but badly admiring to be..!
I am going to by a DSLR camera, which one you will prefer Canon or Nikon..? apart from that what is your comment on a Nikon D5300..? I think it is an entry level equipment..!

You guys blew my mind away. I came here to find some information about cinematography, but I found a gate that opened my mind for photography world. I guess I need to master my photography skills first, if I want to become a better cinematographer. I have to understand the very basics of my camera and how to get a clean high quality professional looking picture.

hi, hw r u ..?
I purchased Nikon D7000 from Chicago but I lived in Lahore Pakistan. I read your informative blog and articles, but I could not find button or options in camera to change the setting as per your instructions. I m new user of DSLR and may be I m confused now.

Greetings from the UK.
I just wanted to thank you! I bought a DSLR Camera a few months ago along with several books to teach myself photography.
I have learnt more using this tutorial in one quiet night shift than from trying to understand the books in several months
Thank You Thank You Thank You

Thank you for your tutorial. I have referred back to it multiple times. I have a Ti2 canon with the kit lenses and I am currently in the process of buying a new lens. Price is an issue so I am limited to getting either the 50mm or the 85mm. Which one is better for shooting group shots? I have a family of 5 and I take pictures for other family members and would love to have really crisp family photos. Do you have a suggestion on which lens would be best?

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