Canon EOS 70D For Dummies

387 Pages·2013·1.85 MB·English

by  Julie Adair King

Canon® EOS 70D
by Julie Adair King
Canon® EOS 70D For Dummies®
Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774, www.wiley.com
Copyright © 2014 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey
Published simultaneously in Canada
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2013949523
ISBN 978-1-118-33596-3 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-118-338596-3 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-46187-7 (ebk)
Manufactured in the United States of America
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Table of Contents
Introduction ................................................................. 1
A Quick Look at What’s Ahead ......................................................................1
Icons and Other Stuff to Note ........................................................................2
eCheat Sheet .....................................................................................................3
Practice, Be Patient, and Have Fun! ...............................................................3
Part I: Fast Track to Super Snaps ................................... 5
Chapter 1: Getting the Lay of the Land . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Looking at Lenses ............................................................................................7
Choosing a lens ......................................................................................8
Attaching and removing a lens...........................................................11
Zooming in and out ..............................................................................12
Using an IS (image stabilizer) lens .....................................................13
Getting acquainted with focusing ......................................................14
Adjusting the Viewfinder ..............................................................................15
Adjusting the Monitor Position ....................................................................16
Using the Touchscreen .................................................................................17
Working with Memory Cards .......................................................................20
Exploring External Camera Features ...........................................................22
Topside controls ..................................................................................22
Back-of-the-body controls ...................................................................24
Front odds and ends ............................................................................27
Connection ports .................................................................................28
Ordering from Camera Menus .....................................................................30
Navigating the Custom Functions Menu .....................................................32
Monitoring Critical Camera Settings ...........................................................34
The Info button: Choosing what the screen shows .........................34
Checking the Camera Settings display ..............................................35
Viewing the Shooting Settings display ..............................................36
Decoding viewfinder data ...................................................................38
Reading the LCD panel ........................................................................40
Changing Settings via the Quick Control Screen .......................................40
Getting Help from Your Camera ..................................................................42
Reviewing Basic Setup Options ...................................................................42
Cruising the Setup menus ...................................................................43
Setting up the Lock switch .................................................................49
Taking two final setup steps ...............................................................50
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Canon EOS 70D For Dummies
Chapter 2: Choosing Basic Picture Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Choosing an Exposure Mode .......................................................................52
Changing the Drive Mode .............................................................................54
Getting Familiar with the Built-in Flash ......................................................56
Using flash in the fully automatic modes ..........................................57
Enabling flash in advanced exposure modes ...................................59
Using Red-Eye Reduction flash ...........................................................60
Controlling Picture Quality ..........................................................................60
Diagnosing quality problems..............................................................61
Decoding the Image Quality options .................................................63
Considering Resolution: Large, Medium, or Small? ...................................65
Understanding File Type (JPEG or Raw) ....................................................68
JPEG: The imaging (and web) standard ............................................68
Raw (CR2): The purist’s choice ..........................................................70
My take: Choose Fine or Raw .............................................................72
Chapter 3: Taking Great Pictures, Automatically . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
As Easy As It Gets: Auto and Flash Off ........................................................74
Taking Advantage of Scene (SCN) Modes ...................................................77
Modifying scene mode results ...........................................................88
Gaining More Control with Creative Auto ..................................................94
Chapter 4: Exploring Live View Shooting and Movie Making . . . . . . . 99
Getting Started .............................................................................................100
Reviewing Live View and Movie mode cautions ............................102
Customizing the display ....................................................................103
Focusing in Live View and Movie Modes ..................................................106
Disabling continuous autofocusing .................................................106
Choosing an AF (autofocus) mode ..................................................109
Manual focusing .................................................................................118
Zooming in for a focus check ...........................................................118
Exploring Other Live View Options ...........................................................119
Setting the photo aspect ratio ..........................................................120
Adjusting other Live View picture settings ....................................120
Using the touch shutter ....................................................................127
Recording Your First Movie .......................................................................128
Customizing Movie Recording Settings ....................................................131
Movie Menu 1 .....................................................................................133
Movie Menu 2 .....................................................................................134
Using Movie Digital Zoom ...........................................................................139
Snapping a Photo During Recording .........................................................140
Playing Movies .............................................................................................141
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Table of Contents
Part II: Working with Picture Files ............................ 145
Chapter 5: Picture Playback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Disabling and Adjusting Image Review .....................................................147
Exploring Playback Mode ...........................................................................148
Switching to Index (thumbnails) view.............................................149
Using the Quick Control screen during playback ..........................150
Jumping through images ...................................................................151
Rotating pictures ...............................................................................154
Zooming in for a closer view ............................................................156
Viewing Picture Data ...................................................................................157
Basic Information display data ........................................................159
Shooting Information display mode ................................................160
Understanding Histogram display mode ........................................162
Enabling a few display extras ...........................................................165
Deleting Photos ............................................................................................166
Erasing single images ........................................................................166
Erasing all images on the memory card ..........................................167
Erasing selected images ....................................................................167
Protecting Photos ........................................................................................169
Protecting (or unprotecting) a single photo ..................................169
Protecting multiple photos ...............................................................170
Rating Photos ...............................................................................................172
Viewing Your Photos on a Television .......................................................174
Chapter 6: Downloading, Printing, and Sharing Your Photos . . . . . . 177
Installing the Canon Software ....................................................................178
Sending Pictures to the Computer ............................................................180
Connecting camera and computer via USB ....................................180
Connecting to the computer via Wi-Fi .............................................181
Downloading from the camera .........................................................185
Downloading from a card reader .....................................................187
Processing Raw (CR2) Files ........................................................................189
Processing Raw images in the camera ............................................189
Converting Raw images in Digital Photo Professional ..................192
Planning for Perfect Prints .........................................................................196
Check the pixel count before you print ..........................................196
Allow for different print proportions ..............................................198
Calibrate your monitor......................................................................200
Preparing Pictures for Online Sharing ......................................................201
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Canon EOS 70D For Dummies
Part III: Taking Creative Control ................................ 205
Chapter 7: Getting Creative with Exposure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Kicking Your Camera into High Gear ........................................................207
Introducing Exposure Basics: Aperture,
Shutter Speed, and ISO ............................................................................209
Understanding exposure-setting side effects .................................211
Doing the exposure balancing act ...................................................215
Monitoring Exposure Settings ....................................................................216
Choosing an Exposure Metering Mode .....................................................219
Setting ISO, f-stop, and Shutter Speed ......................................................222
Controlling ISO ...................................................................................222
Adjusting aperture and shutter speed ............................................225
Sorting through Your Camera’s Exposure-Correction Tools .................227
Overriding autoexposure results
with Exposure Compensation .......................................................227
Improving high-contrast shots .........................................................231
Experimenting with Auto Lighting Optimizer ................................236
Correcting vignetting with Peripheral
Illumination Correction .................................................................239
Dampening noise................................................................................242
Locking Autoexposure Settings .................................................................244
Bracketing Exposures Automatically ........................................................246
Setting up for automatic bracketing ................................................247
Shooting a bracketed series .............................................................250
Using Flash in Advanced Exposure Modes ..............................................250
Understanding your camera’s approach to flash ..........................251
Using flash outdoors..........................................................................255
Adjusting flash power with Flash
Exposure Compensation ...............................................................256
Locking the flash exposure ...............................................................259
Exploring more flash options ...........................................................260
Chapter 8: Manipulating Focus and Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
Reviewing Focus Basics ..............................................................................265
Introducing the AF-ON button ...................................................................267
Adjusting Autofocus Performance ............................................................268
AF Area mode: One focus point or many? ......................................269
Changing the AF (autofocus) mode .................................................271
Choosing the right autofocus combo ..............................................273
Manipulating Depth of Field .......................................................................274
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Table of Contents
Controlling Color .........................................................................................279
Correcting colors with white balance .............................................279
Changing the White Balance setting ................................................281
Creating a custom White Balance setting .......................................283
Fine-tuning White Balance settings .................................................285
Bracketing shots with white balance ..............................................288
Taking a Quick Look at Picture Styles ......................................................293
Chapter 9: Putting It All Together . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
Recapping Basic Picture Settings ..............................................................299
Setting Up for Specific Scenes ....................................................................302
Shooting still portraits ......................................................................302
Capturing action ................................................................................307
Capturing scenic vistas .....................................................................311
Capturing dynamic close-ups ...........................................................314
Part IV: The Part of Tens ........................................... 317
Chapter 10: Ten Features to Explore on a Rainy Day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
Enabling Mirror Lockup Shooting .............................................................320
Adding Cleaning Instructions to Images ...................................................320
Tagging Files with Your Copyright Claim .................................................321
Exploring Wi-Fi Functions ...........................................................................322
Experimenting with Creative Filters ..........................................................324
Shooting in Multiple Exposure Mode ........................................................328
Investigating Two More Printing Options ................................................329
Presenting a Slide Show ..............................................................................329
Editing Movies ..............................................................................................330
Creating Video Snapshots ..........................................................................331
Chapter 11: Ten More Ways to Customize Your Camera . . . . . . . . . . . 333
Creating Your Own Exposure Mode ..........................................................333
Creating Your Very Own Camera Menu ....................................................335
Creating Custom Folders ............................................................................337
Changing the Color Space from sRGB to Adobe RGB .............................338
Changing the Direction of the Dials ..........................................................339
Changing All the Furniture Around ...........................................................339
Disabling the AF-Assist Beam .....................................................................341
Controlling the Lens Focus Drive ..............................................................342
Making the Flashing Red AF Points Go Away ...........................................343
Considering a Few Other Autofocusing Tweaks ......................................343
Appendix: Glossary of Digital Photography Terms ....... 347
Index ....................................................................... 359