Category: Technology

Face detection in digital cameras has been around for a few years, but it still seems like magic the first time you use it. When you turn on Face Detection focusing, the camera does an amazing thing: It zeroes in on any face and places a box around it (Figure 6.9). When you press the…

It has been said that the eyes are the windows to the soul, and nothing could be truer when you are taking a photograph of someone (Figure 6.7). You could have the perfect composition and exposure, but if the eyes aren’t sharp the entire image suffers. The G12 offers a few techniques for helping to…

AE (Auto Exposure) Lock lets you use the exposure setting from any portion of the scene that you think is appropriate and then lock that setting in regardless of how the scene looks when you recompose. An example of this would be when you’re shooting a photograph of someone and a large amount of blue…

For most portrait situations, the Evaluative metering mode works well. (For more on how metering works, see the “Metering Basics” sidebar.) This mode measures light values from all portions of the viewfinder and then establishes a proper exposure for the scene. The only problem that you might encounter when using this metering mode is when…

If you took a poll of portrait photographers to see which shooting mode was most often used for portraits, the answer would certainly be Aperture Priority (Av) mode. Selecting the right aperture is important for placing the most critically sharp area of the photo on your subject, while simultaneously blurring all of the distracting background…

The automatic Scene (SCN) modes. One of them, the Portrait mode, is dedicated to shooting portraits. While this is not my preferred camera setting, it is a great jumping-off point for those who are just starting out. The key to using this scene is to understand what is going on with the camera so that…

GIVE THEM SOMEWHERE TO GO It can be easy to get wrapped up in the moment when photographing fast-moving subjects, but it’s important that you remember some basic rules of composition and framing. One of my goals is to keep the elements of the photo within the frame so that the viewers’ eyes focus on…

When photographing a moving subject, you might not always want to freeze everything in its tracks—sometimes you’ll want to convey to the viewer the sense of movement in the image. Two techniques you can use to achieve this effect are panning and motion blur. PANNING One of the most common ways to portray motion in…

I tend to stick with autofocus for the majority of my work; however, sometimes when photographing fast-moving subjects, focusing manually can actually make it easier to get the shot. In Figure 6.10, I knew that the young girl was going to be jumping straight up, and if I were to rely on autofocus it might…

In order to photograph fast-moving subjects, get several shots at a time, and stay focused on the subject through the entire process, you’ll need to make a few changes to your camera settings. The 60D makes the process simple, but it can be a bit confusing when you first start to work with it. Here,…