How To Camera Shooting Mode for Canon Rebel T3i

Aside from learning what buttons to push, another important thing you need to know is how to select the shooting mode.
Settings from A-DEP to P are your creative modes, which means they allow you to do some custom settings based on your surrounding and the type of shoot you're going for.
Settings from A+ to Night Portraits are the basic shooting modes. They don't give you the flexibility that the creative modes do. These are fully automatic and preset on your camera so you will give your camera the power to make those judgment calls. Honestly, from my experience, you shouldn't always trust or rely on the camera to make these adjustments for you. Yes, sometimes it gets it right but you will always get the best result when you do your own custom settings.

Even if you don't own a DSLR camera, most digital camera nowadays do offer a variety of shooting mode and that will vary from one camera to another. It's essential to understand what each mode allows you to do so that you can make an informed decision on which ones to select for your image in order to get optimal result.

A-DEP (Auto Depth of Field) - This mode will allow you chose what you want in focus. The camera will choose the shutter speed and aperture to keep your point of focus sharp and your background blurred. You can choose your ISO and exposure compensation.

M (Manual) - This allows you to have full control over the camera. This mode works best for people are comfortable adjusting their own settings and ideal for advance users.

AV (Aperture Value) - Allows you select the aperture but the camera will adjust the shutter speed for you. Ideal for putting your subject in focus and blur the background.

TV (Time Value) - also known as shutter priority. This mode allows you to choose the shutter speed but lets the camera select the aperture depending on how much light is coming through the camera's sensor. This is ideal for shooting fast moving subjects or for long exposure shots.

P (Program) - Partially automatic. Camera will chose aperture and shutter speed but still allows you some flexibility and to change certain settings such as your ISO, white balance, and exposure compensation.

A+ (fully automatic) - the camera will select and adjust the aperture, shutter speed, and ISO for you. This mode is for people who are new and not very comfortable with adjusting their own settings. Occasionally, if your camera feels like flash is needed, it will automatically fire the flash as well.

No Flash - Automatic but without flash.

CA (creative auto) - this mode lets the camera make automatic adjustments for you but also allows you to adjust the aperture and choose the color tone that you want for your images. I pretty much never use this setting and didn't quite figure it you until recently, lol.

Portrait - camera will select wide aperture and auto correct your skin tone so that it looks more natural.

Landscape - camera will change to a smaller aperture and which will give you a wider depth of field so that everything is in focus. It will also auto adjust saturation of the blues and greens to make them more vivid.

Macro - allows you to take sharp close up shots. I see only a very slight difference in sharpness when I shoot in macro mode and it may have something to do with the lens. I think you would need to pair the macro mode with a macro lens in order to get a true macro picture. One thing that really annoys me when shooting under macro mode is that sometimes the camera feels that there isn't enough light so it might fire the flash unexpectedly.

Sport - ideal for shooting fast moving subjects. The camera will auto adjust to allow you to capture the moment. If you leave your finger on the shutter, it will continuously shoot until you release.

Night Portrait - this is for night portraits and the camera will automatically determine what aperture, shutter speed, and ISO is needed. Whenever you are shooting at night or with a slow shutter speed, you absolutely need a tripod in order to avoid blurry images.

Video - for shooting videos.

Once you get more familiar and comfortable with these shooting modes, you will be able to determine what works best for you. Personally, I rarely use the basic modes and the only one I've mostly used there is the Macro mode. Otherwise, I'm always switching around between the creative modes and honestly, the best way to go is Manual because you have full control over your camera. It can be intimidating and frustrating when you don't know what you're doing and which buttons to push but you'd be surprised how much you'll learn through trial and error.

Hope this was helpful. What mode do you typically go for and why?

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Canon Rebel T3i - What Are All These Buttons and What Do They Do?

With a DSLR cameras, you have at your fingertips much more options to choose from to help you get the perfect shot. A better camera doesn't necessarily means that you will automatically take better pictures. You need to understand all the functionality and the capability of your camera in order for you to maximize the quality of your images.

So I'm going to briefly going over the buttons on the Canon Rebel T3i. The first time I got my hands on it, it was a bit intimidating trying to figure out what is what and if you are like me, you probably won't look at your manual, lol, but figure things out through trial and errors.

Even though you don't have this particular model, I think most Canon DSLR cameras have very similar buttons. In future posts, I will go a bit more in depth with the camera settings and give you tips I learned.

On/Off - This is pretty self-explanatory and use to turn on or off your camera.
Shooting Mode - Each of these shooting modes serves as a purpose and you typically would pick the one that works best for you.
DISP. - To turn on and off the display on your LCD screen. I rarely touch this button so I don't know what else it does beside that.
ISO - use this button to select your ISO based on your lighting and camera settings. I use this a lot.
Left/Right Scroll - This is to mainly move your selection left or right on your menu screen.
Shutter - press half way to allow your camera to focus and then completely to take the shot.

MENU - To access your camera's menu
INFO. - gives you several options on what info you want to display your LCD screen
LCD/View Finder Display - allows you chose to view on your LCD screen or through the view finder.
Exposure Lock - I haven't quite played with this feature but it is supposed to lock the exposure on a certain area and allow you to recompose the image and keep that exposure the same. This button will also allow you to zoom out from a picture during preview.
Auto Focus Point Selector - choose which points you want in focus or this can also be used to zoom in our pictures during preview.
AV - allows you to select the aperture
Quick Menu - allows to change some settings quickly without having to go through the MENU.
WB - allows you to select  your white balance.
Drive Mode - single shooting, continuous shooting, or self-timer options.
AF - Auto focus mode
Picture Style - allows you to select a pre-defined picture style, which will alter the color, saturation, contrast, and sharpness of your image.
SET - use to select the settings you want.
Preview - allows you to see the pictures or videos after you have taken them.
Delete - allows you to delete the pictures you don't want.

AF/MF - let's you choose to auto-focus or manual focus.
Image Stabilizer - helps reduce camera shake and blurring in pictures.
Focus Range - let's you know the focusing length that your camera is using.
Flash - This button with force the flash to pop up. Some shooting mode won't allow you to force the flash.
Lens Release - allows you to remove your lens from the camera.
Depth of Field Preview - allows you to view in real time the depth of field of your image.


So this is it for my quick take on the camera buttons. I hope this was helpful in some ways. I think my next project, would be to go over the shooting modes.

My Camera and BFF

Hello there,

I think it's important that I introduce to you my BFF, Rebella (yes, I gave her a name!).
She's a Canon Rebel T3i (AKA EOS 600D) and I received the body plus kit lense.

If you follow me on my beauty blog, then you probably might have seen these images. Yes, they are mine but I still have the watermark of my other blog on them. 

If that is something that interests you, you can click HERE and read more about the specs and feature on Canon's website. It currently retails for $600-$700, depending on where you purchase it from.

Since this is my first DSLR, I'm pretty much a noobie but I have used it for about 5 months now so I will give you my two scents, from a noobie's point of view of course.

Generally, any noobie will be pleased with the picture quality taken with this camera and the kit lense. You will definitely notice a difference in quality from this camera and your pocket digital cam.
It does a pretty good job at capturing colors that are very close to what it is in real life.

For a beginner, you might feel a little overwhelmed but I think overall, this camera is fairly simple to use. Of course, there's probably a zillion other settings I have not tried but what I'm trying to say is it won't take you long to figure the basics. At least I don't think so...unless this is the first digital camera you have ever used. 

The first flaw I quickly noticed is that the kit lens is a little slow. The one that came with my camera is the 18-55mm IS II f/3.5-5.6. It does take a few seconds for it to focus so it's definitely not going to do the job if you plan on using it for taking pictures of sports, kids, and pets. Your subject will get out of your way before your camera has the chance to focus.

The second flaw I noticed is that the lens does a poor job at taking pictures in low light condition. It's widest aperture is 3.5, which makes is slow and background blur isn't the greatest. It's also not the greatest for macro photography and the sharpness leaves something to be desired.

After doing my research, I've figured that the lens play a big part in the outcome of your pictures. In another word, I'm not very pleased with the kit lens that came with my camera. Don't get me wrong, it does take beautiful pictures, especially when you get the right lighting and I'm sure any casual shooters will not mind that BUT you should take into consideration what types of photography you will be using it for.

If you are serious about photography, then I would advise you to buy the camera body and then choose a lens that fit the type of photography you are going for. Lenses are expensive and are probably your best investment so you don't want to end up wasting money on a lens that doesn't work for you. That's the first lesson I learned.

Here are pictures of what is included in the box...