Mac Photography Tips

Note: I wrote this article during the week of Macworld ‘09, but I never got around to posting it. But since the topic is really not about Macworld itself, but about the Canon 50D, it’s still a topical piece.

There’s much that I could say about the lackluster product announcements at this year’s Macworld ‘09, but I’d prefer to wear my photographer’s hat and focus on my use of the Live View feature of the Canon 50D camera during the Apple keynote at Macworld.

I recently purchased the 50D, (the latest release of Canon’s EOS digital cameras), and one of its features I was looking forward to is the Live View mode. Live View is a feature of nearly all of Canon’s point-and-shoot and compact digital cameras, such as the Powershot G9 and G10. In fact, the Live View mode of compact digital cameras is typically the only way to effectively capture photos. It’s almost impossible to view subjects in the tiny optical viewfinders of most of these compact cameras. So being a owner of Powershot G9, I’ve grown accustomed to Live View feature. The nice 3″ size LCD monitor on the back of these cameras is a great way to view and capture images. These monitors typically include the ability to bring up exposure information (e.g. ISO, aperture, and shutter speed settings) about a photo before and after it’s shot. So basically the Live View acts like a video camera where you view your subjects and compose the shot using the LCD screen, and then click the shutter button to capture the photo.

Though this feature is really great for compact cameras, it hasn’t been a traditional feature of most 35mm DSLR cameras like the Canon Xti or the 50D. I believe the Canon XS/1000D was the first of the EOS line of cameras to include this feature. Why has this feature been missing from DSLRs? Well, Ben Long explains it best in his book, The Canon EOS Digital Rebel XS/1000D Companion Book: “To create an image on LCD screen, the image sensor needs to be able to see out the lens. But in an SLR [35mm single reflects camera], there’s a shutter and mirror between the sensor and lens, so the sensor is effectively, blind. This means there’s no way for it…to show you an image on the LCD screen. The XS, though, provides a special feature called Live View that does let you use the LCD screen as the viewfinder.”

It’s for this reason that when I first started using my Canon 50D, I found the Live View mode a little clunky and not as nearly as fast as with my using the same feature on my Canon Powershot G9 (which is not a 35mm camera.) When you click its activation button, you can actually hear the camera’s mirror flip up so that subject you’re capturing appears in the LCD screen. This activation is a little slow and somewhat distracting to use on a 35mm camera. As a wedding photographer, I knew I would not be using the LCD monitor of the camera to capture photos. It takes longer to gain autofocus, and you can’t compose shots as quickly as you can using a traditional viewfinder.

So up until attending Macworld I had not used Live View mode with my Canon 50D, nor had I yet used the camera to shoot a wedding. But when I arrived at Macworld keynote, I was instantly reminded of how Live View could be very useful for shooting live presentations.

At the keynote, I sat in the media section, about ten rows back from where Phil Schiller was to give his presentation. As I was configuring the settings on my camera, I looked up and saw some other media reps using the LCD screen of their compact cameras to frame shots at the keynote. In the past when I photographed the keynote, I would stand up from my seat and quickly take shots with a long zoom lens attached to the camera. This would sometimes mean blocking the view of one or two other people behind me. So seeing those small point-and-shoot cameras and cell phones in action, I realized I could use Live View on my own camera.

During the keynote I didn’t know everything about using this feature on the 50D, but I did figure out how to activate it and was able to take some fairly decent shots. Though I sat two seats away from the isle, I still didn’t have a good vantage point in order to take photos of the keynote. So in raising the camera over my head, I was surprised about how good the viewing angle was in order to frame shots. While you can’t pull out and re-adjust the monitor, as can do with with some other cameras using this feature, you do get a very nice and clear view of your subject in the 3″ LCD screen. And according to the camera’s manual, what you view in the monitor is 100% coverage. So what you view in the screen is what appears in the photo.

After I left the keynote and started playing around with the Live View feature I discovered that there are a couple of ways to achieve good focus using Live View mode, and there are some significant limitations to using this feature as well.

Advantages
As I said, this feature is great for shooting live events where your viewing access to the subjects being photographed are difficult to achieve. This feature is also useful for micro and night photography shots. Mounting your camera on a tripod, you can often get a better view of your subject using the live feature mode. In addition, because the live feature on some digital cameras includes what is called “exposure simulation,” you are able to see the brightness level of the photo before you take the shot. When the camera’s meter’s the shot, you can make changes to the exposure and see how those changes will impact the image.

Also, all Canon cameras using Live View include what is called Face Detection mode which, when enabled, helps you get a better focus on the faces that you’re trying to capture.

Disadvantages of Live View
Just as with point-and-shoot cameras, there are some disadvantages to using the LCD monitor for capturing images on a 35mm camera. First off, in this mode, you typically get more camera shake because you can’t hold the camera as steady as you can when using the optical viewfinder. It works best if have the camera is on a tripod. I see people holding their small camera all the time using one hand, and that’s often the reason why they get fuzzy or out-of-focus images. As you can see in the shot I’ve included in this article, Live View mode makes getting well focused and sharp pictures a challenge. I took numureous shots at the keynote by raising the camera over my head, but I was not always able to hold the camera steady, especially in the low light conditions.

Trying to capture subjects moving across or back and forth from the camera can also be tricky in the Live View mode. In addition, autofocusing is much slower in Live View than when using the viewfinder. Live View also consumes more battery power than in normal operation. The same goes with using the LCD monitor on a video camera. Battery power can be cut in half.

While these disadvantages are significant, Live View is still a very useful feature, and it’s great to have it now on Canon EOS cameras.

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Before the year is out, I thought I’d upgrade my Canon 30D to the Canon 50D, to take advantage of, among other reasons, the little tax write off and the financing deal offered by Circuit City. But my financial objectives are not the reason I’m writing about Canon 50D.

Since there are a plethora of articles already written about Canon’s most recent EOS camera (see here, here, and here), I thought I’d point out some some function features of the camera that I have already found useful. Keep in mind, I’ve only had the camera less the 24 hours, but since this is my third Canon DSLR camera (in addition to owning the Canon Powershot G9), the features of this newest model are not foreign to me.

If you do a quick Google search about the 50D, you’ll see that many reviews rightly compare the camera to it’s predecessor, the 40D. There have been mixed reviews about how much better the 50D is than the 40D. I won’t get into that because I never purchased the 40D. But if you’re a 20 or 30D owner like myself, stepping up to the either 40D or the 50D is almost a no brainer, especially if you’re a serious amateur or professional photographer.

The features of the 50D (which can also be said for the 40D) are very useful for shooters who take lots of pictures, especially in demanding situations. Canon has greatly streamlined the 50D, making controls and features easier to get at. And though image quality is of course primary in selecting a camera, the function features should not be overlooked. When you pay for a camera like this, you should definitely know and use all its features to your advantage.

So here a list of my “first impression” features that I would like to share. As I get more time to play around the camera, I will try to share others.

1. Custom Menu: The 50D comes with a feature called “Registering My Menu” (page 185 in the Manual) which enables you to create a set of six of your favorite or most used menu items. After you select and set up the items, you can push the Menu button on the back of the camera, and your custom set of menu items will be the first to appear. So for instance if you use the Format, Quality, and Auto Bracketing menu items a lot, they will be included in your custom set which means you don’t have to scroll to get at them. This little feature doesn’t have anything to do with quality photos, but it does save you scrolling and clicking time. (By the way, have you ever stopped and wondered how many times you click and scroll on your computer everyday? It’s worse than changing channels on your television.)

2. Auto Rotate: With my Canon Powershot G9, you can turn the camera in a vertical position and the image displayed will rotate into full screen viewing. When you tilt the camera back to horizontal position, the selected image will turn back to that position. It’s totally sweet. Well, you can’t do that with the 50D, and I’m bummed out about that. However, I did discover that you can turn off the auto rotation of vertical images on the 50D so that images will appear full screen in playback. You can do this so that the images only rotate on your camera and not on your computer. If you don’t this, you simply don’t get the full advantage of viewing your vertical images on the 3″ screen. This is described on page 146 of the camera’s manual.

3. Quick Control Screen: Though I haven’t used it much yet, I think I will like the Quick Control Screen feature of the camera. This feature displays camera settings on the LCD monitor. You can select items and change settings while viewing them in the monitor. This may prove quicker than viewing some of the exposure settings on the top side of the camera, or having to go into the menu and change settings there.

4. Highlight Alert: I think all the digital EOS cameras have had a feature called Highlight Alert. When enabled, this alert (when viewing photos in playback) will point out areas of the selected image that are overexposed. Some camera users call this the “blinkie” feature. I used this feature all the time on the 30D, but you have to push the Info button to get at it, and the selected image in playback is almost thumbnail size, preventing you from getting good assessment of what is blown out. Well, that problem has been corrected in the 50D. Now you can get Highlight Alert while the image is played back in full screen mode. Totally lovely. Page 133 of the manual.

5. Custom Mode Dials C1 and C2: Similar to the custom menu feature I discussed above, this feature allows you to register a set of camera settings (shooting mode, menus, etc.) as presets and dial them up anytime you like simply by turning to the C1 or C2 positions on the camera’s mode dial (page 186 of the manual). I use this feature on my Canon G9 and it’s great. I’ve read that the 40D has three, instead of just 2, of these preset positions. Canon took away one of the positions on the 50D and replaced it with what they call Creative Auto mode. I haven’t played with that mode yet, so I can’t say if it’s worth getting rid of one of the positions. But I do know that once you get your camera presets the way you want, these C1 and C2 positions can be quite handy. You could for example, have one position set for shooting outdoor photos and another position set for shooting indoors. Perhaps I’ll write more about this later in another blog entry.

Well, that’s my five function features that I like so far. I would have included the Live View feature in the list, but I haven’t played around with it enough to like it. It’s more clunky and difficult to use than on the G9, in which I use the Live View all the time.

I didn’t of course talk about image quality features, but it’s going to be interesting to see how the camera performs in this area. I’ve read that you can shoot at higher ISOs and get really acceptable photos. So I’m looking forward to seeing the results of this performance feature. By the way, check out this article on the Ins and Outs of ISO by Bryan Peterson. It has very interesting insights about higher ISO.

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