Category Archives: Tame Your Rebel
Tame Your Rebel; Week 2: Focus Already!
So now you’ve had some time to shoot in manual I hope!
You may be wondering what else is there now that you know how to shoot in manual…your pictures never looked so good right?
So much more is coming!
One of my personal favorite things when you shoot in manual is that you get to CHOOSE what to focus on.
This is super useful for when your camera is trying to focus on the glass of milk and you want to focus on your son’s eyes who is drinking said milk.
For now you still want to keep your lens on Auto Focus…unless you are ready to try manual focus…if that’s the case then have fun!
To manually choose your focus point you need to look at the back of your camera again. While your camera is in Manual mode you want to push the button on the far right that has a little square with dots above it. Then you will see this screen on the back.
It’s great and all to see this screen, but to see what you are focusing on you need to look through your lens. You will see similar dots through your lens when you have this selected. Hold your shutter half way down and if your camera is still auto focusing, it will auto focus. To change your focus point, use your scroll wheel and you will see the little red dot move around the diamond. Stop on the point you want to focus on. Press the shutter all the way down and…
CLICK!
You just manually chose your focus point and your photo will be sharpest at that point.
This will be even more useful when you start setting your aperture for a shallower depth of field or when you try to get stop motion when adjusting your shutter speed.
For now…just play around with changing your focus point while still shooting in manual and see what you come up with!
Share your unedited images here!
Tame Your Rebel; Week 1
Do you have a naughty little Rebel that needs to be tamed?
What I mean by that, before you start thinking this is not a family friendly blog, is do you have a Canon Rebel (or any other DSLR) and can only point and shoot with it in Auto?
Well I want you to tame that Rebel and let it know who’s boss!
You can take AMAZING photographs with this little beauty. Yes, the nicer more expensive cameras can do more…but, if you are trying to get great photos of your kids and family, or product images for your shop, or step by step images on how to make your world famous brownies for your cooking blog, or a photo of the beautiful view from your back porch…your little Rebel can deliver.
I don’t want to overwhelm you with all the technical stuff right off the bat, but I do want you to start shooting in Manual.
Yup, Manual.
No baby steps here, turn your little dial to the little M…you know the one that has metaphorical dust on it.
Take a deep breath, and look at your LCD screen.
For this week you just need know about 2 things.
Your shutter dial and your light meter (which tells you the exposure).
Your light meter is on the back of your camera, and inside when you look through the lens.
Focus your lens on something while in the manual setting and look to see where the little line is at.
Move your shutter dial until the line is at the zero. (0).
“Click!”
You just took your first, properly exposed photo in Manual.
Not that scary at all, huh?
Now it’s time to put all your new found knowledge to use! Practice, practice, practice!
Go out and find a pretty landscape…or an ugly landscape if that’s your thing.
Shoot! Shoot in manual and shoot properly exposed images.
Shoot lots of them, from different angles, different perspectives, close up, far away. Just shoot. You’re not wasting film, so shoot!
Then upload them to your computer, and without editing them, share your favorites here!
Look at others who have shared their images and leave them feedback, I promise to do the same.
Have fun, and show that Rebel who’s boss!