Canon EOS: I just bought a Canaon EOS T3i. Need some ideas on how to use it effectively.

Nattybongo

I just bought a Canaon EOS T3i. Need some ideas on how to use it effectively.

Hank Radt

Welcome to UHH.

What, in particular, do you want to do? Landscape, portrait, street, sports, wildlife, or....?

If you're looking for help on the functions, best is to look into some of the books or guides written for a specific brand and model - the manuals that come with the camera often leave a lot to be desired. There is also a ton of online info, just search on your model.

Also, how much photography experience do you have - rank beginner, some experience but new to digital, hobbyist with a good understanding of digital settings?

Generally, the more specific your question, the better the answer.

dsmeltz Loc: Philadelphia

The t3i is a great starter DSLR camera. It behaves well with Canon lenses and third party lenses. As to how to use it effectively, I would need to know more about what you want to achieve. But as a general starting point start for any DSLR try "Understanding Exposure" by Peterson.

Marionsho Loc: Kansas

Nattybongo wrote:

I just bought a Canaon EOS T3i. Need some ideas on how to use it effectively.

Welcome, Nattybongo.
Start out shooting full manual, so you get an idea of what's happening when you change the settings.
Marion

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

Nattybongo wrote:

I just bought a Canon EOS T3i. Need some ideas on how to use it effectively.

Welcome. T3i is a very good DSLR to learn with. We could suggest more if we knew a little more, such as any previous photographic experience. Reading the manual is a good start.
What do you like to photograph? What lens / lenses do you have? What if anything did you use previously? How comfortable are you with photography? How would you rate your basic knowledge about the effects of shutter speed, aperture, and ISO?

Good luck.

achesley Loc: SW Louisiana

Do your self a favor and google Lessons for Cannon T3i. That's the way I found a good instructional video which I paid for to learn all the camera functions. Out of the 5 cameras I use, it is my high end camera. LOL! Does everything I want/need to do.

flathead27ford Loc: Colorado, North of Greeley

Nattybongo wrote:

I just bought a Canaon EOS T3i. Need some ideas on how to use it effectively.

Best two places I have found to learn are the manual, read the whole thing, and YouTube. Great resources. Welcome and good luck! Cheers.

Nattybongo

Thanks. I need to take pictures while on vacation. I am a beginner. I will Google Canon T3i and start from there.

Hank Radt

After you get an understanding of the basic functions (don't try to apply them all at once, focus on a couple at a time), just get out and shoot (just walk around your neighborhood), then decide which are your best and worst shots (don't worry, we all delete a lot of images), and try to understand why there's a difference.

As you start noticing differences, there's a bunch of stuff online, search on beginning photography. Mike Browne's (free) videos, starting here are pretty good: https://www.photographycourses.biz/cgi-bin/showpage.fcgi. Scroll down and start from the beginning - the early ones are short and cover some of the basics like composition, light and exposure.

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

Nattybongo wrote:

Thanks. I need to take pictures while on vacation. I am a beginner. I will Google Canon T3i and start from there.

My personal recommendation would be to set the camera to P mode initially, set ISO to a fixed number such as 200 and then experiment with both shutter priority (Tv) and aperture priority (Av) modes. You might find a book like Understanding Exposure to be useful as you experiment.

Have fun and a great vacation.

Hank Radt

One other thing - train yourself to turn your camera off between shots. While your camera is rated for 440 shots per charge, it can be annoying if you're out for a couple hours and come up on something you want to shoot, only to find no juice left. I learned the hard way... If you're finding that you're consistently running low on power, consider a spare battery or two, and a charger.

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

Hank Radt wrote:

One other thing - train yourself to turn your camera off between shots. While your camera is rated for 440 shots per charge, it can be annoying if you're out for a couple hours and come up on something you want to shoot, only to find no juice left. I learned the hard way... If you're finding that you're consistently running low on power, consider a spare battery or two, and a charger.

I've not experienced that issue with my T3i, but the camera is set to power down if inactive. I use a battery grip, so have two batteries and have never drained them except in video usage. Extensive use of live view could also drain batteries faster. Certainly at least one spare battery is a good idea. However, I do also follow your general guidance, not powering down between shots, but for longer periods of inactivity.

3dees

yeah, you can put it in P mode and probably get some good shots, but you won't learn much. start by reading the manual, then read it again. I realize that people hate reading manuals but your camera's manual will have very useful info on photography in general and not just how your camera works. lots of info on line but I would start with the manual.

Hank Radt

Peterff wrote:

I've not experienced that issue with my T3i, but the camera is set to power down if inactive. I use a battery grip, so have two batteries and have never drained them except in video usage. Extensive use of live view could also drain batteries faster. Certainly at least one spare battery is a good idea. However, I do also follow your general guidance, not powering down between shots, but for longer periods of inactivity.

Also a sound idea, as is the grip. Unfortunately, my Sony (a notorious battery eater) doesn't have a Sony grip and the reviews for the 3rd party ones aren't great. So I always leave with the battery fully charged and carry a spare with me. Digital (not photography) was new to me, and I didn't realize how much the battery could drain if it was on all the time. Like I said, I learned.

An unexpected side benefit to turning it on and off was that I became more conscious of what I was shooting - more time composing than just firing away.

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

3dees wrote:

yeah, you can put it in P mode and probably get some good shots, but you won't learn much. start by reading the manual, then read it again. I realize that people hate reading manuals but your camera's manual will have very useful info on photography in general and not just how your camera works. lots of info on line but I would start with the manual.

I certainly support reading the manual, but the manual depends on a certain amount of underlying knowledge about photography, and a companion book may be helpful to fill those gaps. I've been using Canon cameras since 1976 (Canon AE-1) also T90, one of the most advanced electronic manual focus film cameras, also Canon P&S cameras, but even with that background the learning curve for a modern DSLR can be a little steep and intimidating. Multiple sources of information are helpful, and best is probably a friend that knows more and is willing to help.