PLEASE HELP WITH MY CANON 40D

Can anyone help me on what settings to have my appature,shutterspeed,ISO,etc for all sorts of photography moments as well as what to have my external flash programmed to. If not does anyone know of a great place for me to learn.

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Permalink Reply by Ieva on August 18, 2008 at 10:53am: first start from your manual booklet; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Michael Bruenning on August 18, 2008 at 1:34pm: Well if you look at some of the photo's on my page you will see the settings i took the photo's in. Also NYIP is a great school to learn. I am currently going to the school and learning ALOT!!! But I will be happy to help how ever I can.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Kim on August 22, 2008 at 9:19pm: Hi Mandy
Maybe the best thing to do is find a photo that you like, something you have been trying to capture and ask the photographer how they set the shot up.

The more specific you can be, the better.

One way I have learned to start is by determining if shutter speed or aperture is more important. So if I am shooting sports, I shoot in shutter priority mode and if I am shooting portraits or need control over depth of field, I will shoot aperture priority mode -- and adjust the other accordingly.

Let us know if you see a photo you like and we can try to help from there ;o)

Kim; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by rob jillson on September 4, 2008 at 1:14pm: okay - here are some general rules of thumb.... and remember - at one point most rules are meant to be broken.

iso - if you are looking for the most versatile setting - use 400. The general rule is "the higher the iso (ie 800, 1600, 3200...) the less light the camera will need to take a picture but the higher the iso then the more noisey, grainey, or whatever you want to call it the picture will be" part 2 of the rule is "the lower the iso (ie 200, 100, 50...) the more light the camera will need but the image will be more clear or less grainey." these rules don't totally apply these days - but think back to those old time grainey black and white shots that you may have seen - think 400iso film. think of those crisp color shots where you don't see any grain - think iso50 slide film.

these days with a digital slr you will do just fine staying at or under iso 400. Depending on the camera will can up the iso with good results if you don't have enough light. If you have a very bright day then you may want to try iso200 but I to the average person I don't think you are going to see less grain or anything. so, start at iso400 and go from there.

shutterspeed - there are 3 general rules with shutterspeed - 1st - if you shoot at less than a 1/60th of a second and your subject is moving or your camera is jiggled then you will probably get some blur to your picture. This is a general rule - so if you have really steady hands or a tripod and/or you have a still subject then no problems. Many journalistic photographers will hand hold long lense at exposures of 1/15. 1/60th is a general rule. 2nd - if you jiggle or move the camera you could get a less sharp image. the rule of thumb is this - take the focal length of your lens and don't set your shutterspeed below that number. so - if you are shooting a 70-200mm lens then at 70mm you should have a shutter speed of no less than 1/60th. if you zoom to 200mm you should have a shutter speed of no less than 1/200th. However - if you are shooting a digital slr (single lens reflex) then you most likely have a image sensor that is smaller than a standard size film negative. The 40D's is smaller by a factor of 1.6 so - you need to take that into consideration. a 70-200 zoom is actually functioning like a 112-320mm lens and then the shutter speeds should be 1/120th to 1/250 or so.

3rd rule of thumb - if you want to freeze something in motion (a kid running, water splashing, etc...) you will need a faster shutter speed - start at 1/250th and go from there. if you want something blurred (maybe flowing water down a stream) then start at 1/15th and go slower.

If I wanted a standard "no blur" good for everything setting I would use 1/125th or so

aperture - a general setting would be around 5.6 to 9.0 the general rule here is the higher the number (9,10,13,14,16...) the greater the depth of field. the lower the number (5.6, 4, 3.2, 2.8....) the shallower the depth of field.

I have the 40D. I like to set the camera to Av (aperture priority) when I'm not using manual. What that does is allows me to set the aperture to control my depth of field. the camera then picks the shutterspeed to get the right exposure. I like this because my depth of field is important to me and I constantly watch what shutterspeed the camera picks as I am taking the picture. If you are starting out - you may want to try Tv (shutter priority) which lets you pick the speed (so no blur - you know your limits) and the camera picks the depth of field. Then, as you get more experience you will want to control that depth of field.

flash - well - that is a whole other course since you are talking about an external. but general rule of thumb - set it on ttl and go.

hope that helps; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Bernard Elvin Simene on September 22, 2008 at 5:30am: hi rob,
Your answer helps me too...thank you. I'm also a beginner in photography, i'm using a canon 40D.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Thomas Kelley on September 22, 2008 at 6:34am: I too am a beginner. Thanks for your advice to Mandy.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by rob jillson on September 23, 2008 at 2:36pm: glad it could help - sometimes I open my mouth too much - but I do wish someone had put all this info in one place for me so I'm glad to do it for you. cheers; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Michele Walden on September 23, 2008 at 8:56pm: you need to get a really good book or take a class. there is no definate answer, it all depends on what you are shooting, distance, lighting, etc..; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Vicki DeVico on September 27, 2008 at 7:55pm: Mandy...it's tough to give a lot of information in a forum like this, but there are a lot of great resources out there...one of my favorites is www.shortcourses.com. I bought the book on the 40D when I got mine and it's helped immensely. There's also information on "Using Your Digital Camera" at http://www.shortcourses.com/use/ (same site different page). As I said, there's a lot of help out there, but I think this is one of the most user-friendly. Good luck.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by DonnaLynn on October 4, 2008 at 11:20am: I just started the New York Institute of Photography and it seems to be covering a lot of that information!
Lucky You to have the 40D!!!
Donna; ▶ Reply to This