I was talking with a fellow T2i owner over on my Facebook page and she was wondering if there are any courses online that teach about the camera. I thought it would be beneficial to share our conversation with all of you...
Karlee's Question: I just got a canon T2i for christmas and I love it! This site is great but I was just wondering if anyone knows of any online courses to really get to know the camera and everything you are able to do with it!
Moose's Answer: Most online courses will focus more on general photography, rather than teaching you how to use your T2i. In no time, you'll be swamped with technical terms and information overload. In my experience, it's best to learn one particular area of photography at a time...like portraits, macro, landscapes, etc. I always recommend starting with the scene modes, which are located on the mode dial (big round knob on top our your camera). When you select a scene mode (portrait, landscape, sports, etc...), the T2i will automatically adjust the settings to capture that specific type of shot.
Eventually, you'll tend to focus on a particular aspect of photography and once you figure which aspect of photography you like best, then you can break out of the scene modes and start experimenting with Tv (shutter priority), Av (aperture priority) and M (manual) modes. At that time, you'll also want to start buying lenses that are designed for that particular type of photography.
One book you might want to look into is the Digital Photography book by Scott Kelby. It's not your average book, full of long chapters and technical jargon. Rather, it's made up of bit sized tips and techniques. Each page is dedicated to a particular shooting situation or scenario, complete with a photoexample to make learning easier.
Karlee's Reply: I mostly like to take portraits of people (individuals and groups) and nature. I will look into buying Kelby's book for sure because right now I have the basic 18-55mm lens and plan on buying a lens in the future!, probably a portrait lens once I figure out all of the settings! With that being said, which lens would you suggest I look into buying for taking pictures of people and also for taking picture of nature (ex. trees, flowers, etc). I have always wondered how photographers make people's eyes really stand out? Like when people have blue eyes they seem extra blue. Can this be achieved by a setting on the camera or is it from a photoshop program!?
Moose's Reply: For the types of shots that you're after, the "nifty fifty" Canon 50mm f/1.8 would be my recommendation. Not only is this lens super affordable, but it will allow you to do things that just aren't possible with your 18-55m kit lens. More specifically, it'll allow you to capture a very shallow depth of field (small area of focus) which isolates subjects against a silky smooth blurry background. This effect really makes portraits pop and jaws drop. :) It's also great for food photography, product photography and macro subjects like flowers, insects and textures (like bark).
In regards to the eye-popping color you're referring to, this effect is achieve in post-processing. A program like Photoshop Elements (which is a scaled down version of Photoshop), will give you the ability to select the eyes with a circle selection tool and then allow you to increase the saturation for the area that's selected. There are tons of tutorials (Google and Youtube) for this very effect. If you want your colors to have a bit more saturation, you can create a custom picture style and increase the saturation. See page 75 and 91 of your manual for more info on how to customize and enable.
Comments
I must admit that I am beginning to find HDR photos a bit tedious. When HDR is applied to the right subject in a good way, the results can be dramatic. But as more photographers get on the HDR bandwagon the results can sometimes be awful.
I'm very old fashioned and still think that a well taken picture straight out of the camera is the best way to go. For some photographers, a version of Adobe Photoshop which actually goes out and takes the pictures for you and then does all the post processing would be an absolute dream.
There's nothing wrong with a little sharpening or saturation increase, but it depends whether you want to picture the world as it is or through the eyes of Photoshop. There, this old codger has said his piece so I will leave you with one thought - it is not the camera that creates the picture, it is you. Happy snapping - PBked