Category: Technology

Sometimes your flash will be too bright or too dark for your subject. While the E-TTL system is highly advanced and will get the flash’s output close to where it should be, it doesn’t always know what you want the image to look like. Like exposure compensation, flash compensation allows you to dial in a…

There are going to be times when you have to turn to your camera’s built-in flash to get the shot. The pop-up flash on the 60D is not extremely powerful, but with the camera’s advanced metering system, it does a pretty good job of lighting up the night… or just filling in the shadows. The…

Sometimes you’ll want to shoot in low light and use a long exposure, such as when photographing fireworks, star trails, or streaks of light coming from cars on the street. The first thing you’ll need in order to capture quality images with long shutter speeds is a sturdy tripod. It’s also a good idea to…

When you are taking photos in low-light situations, you will find that the camera’s autofocus doesn’t always work. But before you can properly and consistently find focus in these instances, you need to understand how your camera’s focusing system operates. First, you should know that when you are trying to focus on your subject, the…

Many of today’s Canon lenses come with a feature called image stabilization (IS). If you happen to have one of these lenses, you have a little extra help keeping your lens stable while doing any type of handheld photography. This is extremely useful in situations where the light is low and, to prevent camera shake,…

If you’re finding that ISO 6400 just isn’t high enough for you, you have the option of increasing it to the next level, ISO 12800. This setting won’t appear as a number, but as an “H” on your top LCD Panel and within the viewfinder. Once again, we’ll tap into the 60D’s custom settings to…

Capturing moments in low-light situations is easy with digital cameras—just raise the ISO. Adjusting the ISO on the fly is easy; simply press the ISO button on the top of the camera and change the ISO number by using the Main dial (see Chapter 1, “The 60D Top Ten List,” for more information). In most…

The built-in pop-up fl ash on the 7D is a nice addition to the camera and, as you’ve learned in this chapter, it can be useful, but as far as quality of light goes, it’s average. I don’t use this fl ash very frequently in my photography since I fi nd that there are other,…

The 7D has two fl ash synchronization modes: fi rst curtain and second curtain. The term curtain relates to the opening and closing of the shutter—the fi rst curtain refers to when the shutter is being opened, and the second curtain describes the point just before the shutter is closed (try to visualize a curtain…

When photographing people with an on-camera fl ash, one thing that we’ve all seen and would like to avoid is red-eye. This effect is the result of the light from the fl ash entering the pupil and then refl ecting back as an eerie red glow. This is especially true when it is dark and…