traderjohn Loc: New York City

I hope you are able to get some help there are a few here who aren't in constant need of ego gratification.

Papa j Loc: Cary NC

Understanding Exposure. By Bryan Peterson easy read shoot Manuel in minutes very helpful

Joe

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

You have a lot of questions and apparently little understanding of how cameras work. I am NOT being snarky... we were all the same place at one time... just stating a fact.

Your EOS Rebel T5i is not really an entry-level model. It's a couple steps more advanced than that.

You're asking for way more than info than we can provide on a forum. If you're serious about learning to use your T5i more fully, I recommend:

1. Ditch the "Dummies" book (some people like em, but those have never impressed me).

2. Get Bryan Peterson's "Understanding Exposure"... read it, study it, learn it. This is an excellent "how modern cameras work" overview and will answer most of your questions far more fully than we can here. Might be the best $18 you ever spend on your photography hobby!

3. Get one of the other guide books for Rebel T5i. These complement the manual that was provided (also check the Canon website... many of their printed manuals are heavily abridged, only available in their entirety as PDFs. The print manual for my Canon 7D Mark IIs is 150 pages. The PDF is 500 pages and there's a separate 50 page PDF just for the focus system!) I just looked to see what guides are available and I recognize David Taylor and David Busch as authors whose books are pretty good. Some of the others may be good, too... I just am not familiar with them. These guides are specific to your camera and will help you apply what you learn from Peterson's book.

Join a local photography club that goes out and shoots regularly (meetup.com is a good place to find local groups). Take some classes locally. Take some classes online.

You are correct... Using "AUTO" on your camera is basically the same as using a point-n-shoot or a camera phone for snapshots. Don't confuse it with "auto exposure".... "AUTO" takes over control of far more than just exposure... it also limits your focusing mode, white balance, even what type file you can save.

Your camera also has some highly automated "Scene" modes.... The little icons on the dial such as the "running man" for sports, "mountain" for scenic, etc. Those are also more than just auto exposure. They set other things that someone, somewhere decided are appropriate for those types of photography, but may or may not be what you actually want.

Canon calls them the "creative zone" modes.... The more traditional exposure controls that you have on your camera, which allow you to make most decisions:

M = Manual, which is just what it sounds like.... fully manual exposure mode. You control everything in order to make the image look the way you want. You set the lens aperture (f-stop), the shutter speed and the ISO (sensor sensitivity) that you want.

Av = Aperture Priority auto exposure. You choose the aperture and set the ISO, while the camera is allowed to select what it thinks is an appropriate shutter speed.

Tv = Shutter Priority auto exposure. You choose the shutter speed and set the ISO, and the camera is allowed to choose an appropriate lens aperture.

P = Program auto exposure. You choose only the ISO and the camera selects both lens aperture and shutter speed.

All four of the above exposure modes have their uses. Today there is a fifth mode on many digital cameras... Manual with Auto ISO, with which you choose both the shutter speed and the aperture, while the camera chooses an ISO it thinks will make for a correct exposure. If your camera has Auto ISO, please note that that even when used with M this is another auto exposure mode... even though the camera is set to M, it's NOT manual exposure. To be useful, Auto ISO needs to be able to have an upper limit set. It also needs to be usable in conjunction with Exposure Compensation. (I has a camera with it where neither of these were possible, so I never used Auto ISO. Also, I cannot think of any good reason to use Auto ISO with any of the other auto exposure modes: Av, Tv or P.... if it's even possible to do so.)

With Av, Tv and P (and possible M + Auto ISO), your camera has Exposure Compensation. This feature allows you to still use those AE modes, but to override them a bit in order to "correct" for things that tend to fool the camera into making incorrect exposures. The camera's metering system is smart, but it ain't as smart as you and it sees the world as if everything were "neutral gray". If you're pointing the camera toward a bride in a white gown in a snow storm, the camera will want to under-expose to make everything gray, which you can counteract by dialing in some + plus Exposure Compensation. Conversely, if you're photographing a black bear in coal mine, the camera will want to over-expose and make everything gray, so you need to dial in some - minus Exposure Compensation.

Another feature you'll find on the mode dial of your camera is "CA" which stands for "creative auto". This is sort of a learning mode, where the camera will display a wizard on the screen to help you choose manual settings. It can be helpful, though it slows you down and uses a lot of battery power constantly displaying info on the rear LCD monitor. Use it as a learning tool, but eventually you'll probably want to stop using it and just set things directly.

Finally, your camera's mode dial also has an "A-DEP" setting, which is "automatic depth of field". I would recommend you avoid it, at least until you better understand depth of field and how it effects your images. Personally I never use A-DEP any more, since I know what settings I want and never found it to work all that well.

Working hand-in-hand with the above exposure modes is the cameras metering system. There are several modes of that which you can choose among. I'd recommend leaving it set to "Evaluative" for now. That's a fairly good, all around metering pattern. It measures the entire screen area, but it puts extra emphasis on the area immediately around active AF points, which are likely (or should be) your primary subject. Other common metering patterns in Canon cameras are "Center Weighted", "Partial" and "Spot". Center weighted measures the entire scene, too.. but it doesn't put any emphasis on the active AF points. Partial only measures a limited portion of the image... usually about 15 or 20%. Spot is similar, but smaller area.. usually 1.5 to 5% of the scene. Both Partial and Spot are "centered" in the viewfinder.

All these metering patterns serve purposes and you probably will want to experiment with and learn to use them eventually. But for now I'd recommend keeping it simple... just use and learn Evaluative, for now.

You also can select from a number of White Balance settings. This is to accommodate different "colors" of light. Again, keep it simple for now and just use "AWB" or "Auto White Balance". That works pretty well, most of the time. (Note: and if you shoot "RAW", you can easily change it any way you like, later in your computer.) In fact, I only use AWB or Custom WB, where I set it myself using a target and taking a sample image for reference. I have no use for any of the other white balance modes. They simply aren't precise enough for my liking.

You also have choices of Auto Focus modes. It's pretty simple on your camera.... you can either set the camera to use All Points and Auto Select among them itself... Or you can set the camera to Single Point, where you Manually choose one active AF point yourself. Much of the time I use the latter. It's the most accurate, but it's also the most work for me to keep the AF point right on the subject. In fact, when I used cameras with AF systems similar to yours, I used Single Point/Manual almost exclusively. (Note: One difference with more advanced models is a more sophisticated AF system that has a lot more AF points and additional focus patterns to choose among... That means more complexity and more stuff to learn to use well!)

Your camera has a "Q" button on the back. That's a "Quick Menu" access, which displays a blue screen with most or all of the above settings on the rear monitor of your camera. You can navigate around that screen using the dials and buttons of the camera, to make changes to the settings. If your camera has a Touch Screen, you can use that to easily navigate the Quick Menu and select items you wish to access and change. The Quick Menu can be particularly helpful with a camera like your T5i, which doesn't have an LCD screen on top displaying all the camera settings.

A couple other important things to get in the habit of using on your camera are image review ("playback" button) and the "Info" button. You can display the last image shot on the rear screen of the camera, then press the Info button and you toggle through several different ways of displaying it. The most useful one shows a "histogram" alongside the image. This is a graphical display of the exposure values in the image and is your best reference to check for how accurately you exposed that particular image. Once you understand how to read that graph, it provides better feedback than the actual image playback.

This is a quick overview... You really need to spend time with the manual, the books you have or are recommended above.... and get out and practice. Experiment. Make mistakes (we all do, we just don't share them). Learn from your mistakes. It's a lot to learn, so don't expect it all to happen at once. Just keep at it and in time a lot of this becomes second nature. Post-processing your images is another huge topic.

jaycoffman Loc: San Diego

Lots of good ideas here. What I would suggest (beyond classes and photo clubs which are great ideas) is to start with manual. I would actually start with manual priority and practice, practice, practice. Start thinking of and checking out depth of field and stop motion and show motion both close and far. It sounds tricky but with some help and lots of practice it will come to you.

Once you feel good with manual then you can fine tune for your preferred shots to aperture and shutter priority which will make it just a little easier and faster. After you get comfortable with that you can also try working with your ISO settings. If you can get even semi-good at these skills you'll be able to do almost anything you want. Of course there are many refinements you may want to try at that point but I'd recommend starting with manual as I advise. It's well worth it and will allow you to enjoy photography that much more. Good luck!

Bob Boner

If you expose an image, if it is not correct, you can usually tell from it how to get the proper exposure. Experiment! Take a few images of each site, one at what the meter in the camera suggests and one a stop or two over that exposure. Look at the histogram. Practice. Exposing more digital images doesn't cost you a thing and it can teach you a lot.

PHRubin Loc: Nashville TN USA

Had you explained what you were trying to do in the first place you might have gotten a better response. Also, post an example of the problem. Make sure you "(store original)", "Add Attachment" so we can better analyze the issue.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

I would start using the Av mode. (creative mode) That is short for Aperture Value or Aperture priority mode. This is a creative mode that allows you to choose the aperture value for the depth of field you'd like your picture to have. If you need a really sharp and focused picture from foreground to background, you stop down (larger aperture number like f/16-f/22). If you want your subject to be in focus, but the background to be a blur of colors or simply out of focus to give your image a sense of depth, then open up (smaller aperture number like f/2.8 to f/4) Open up means the aperture is larger and the opening is allowing more light on the sensor and stopping down means the aperture is smaller and the opening is restricting the amount of light to the sensor. Just keep in mind, opening up with give more light and therefore your camera will automatically use a shorter shutter duration (sometimes referred to as a fast shutter). If you stop down, you have less light and your shutter will automatically be a longer duration and if the shutter is too slow, you could shake or the subject could move causing the whole image to be blurry. Also, when you use Av mode, if the subject is backlit or it's a very bright background, you have to use EC or exposure compensation + to correctly expose the subject. You will learn with experience when you use +EC and -EC. You will use +EC when your subject is in the shade or backlit. You will use -EC when you have indirect lighting and the subject is colorful like flowers. This will make your color popl

Good luck.

jamesl Loc: Pennsylvania

If "Backlight" is a scene mode on your camera, you are no longer in manual "M" mode, your in an "auto" mode and you probably won't be able to change shutter speed, aperture etc. For that you would need to go back to manual mode "M".

JD750 Loc: SoCal

I looks like you go the answer to your question. So I will give you a suggestion to help you figure things out.

(1) Sit down with your camera. Inside outside, wherever you feel comfortable where there are some areas of light and shadow that you can see. Mount a zoom lens. Put the camera in auto exposure mode and select matrix metering. Set the lens wide and point at the scene with light and shadow. Note the meter readings. Move it around slightly. Note the meter readings. Now zoom in. Do the same thing. Note how the meter readings change.

(1a) Set the camera in auto exposure mode. Zoom out, take a shot and look at the result. Is it ok, to light too dark?


(2) Now try this. Set the camera in spot metering mode. Spot meter different aspects of the scene light and dark. Zoom in and out. Note the results.

(2a) Now set the camera in spot metering mode and M exposure. Zoom in on a dark area and using the f-stop, adjust it so the meter is about neutral. Snap a shot. Now zoom out and snap a shot. Compare the results to the shot in auto mode. What happened?

(2b) With the camera in spot metering mode and M exposure. Zoom in on a light area and using the f-stop, adjust it so the meter is about neutral. Snap a shot. Now zoom out and snap a shot. Compare them both to the two prior shots in manual mode and the auto exposure shot. What happened?

(2c) Now one more thing. With the camera in spot metering mode and M exposure, zoom in and take meter readings of light and dark areas. Try to set the f-stop so you get balance, so for example if the light areas are +2 then the dark areas are -2. Zoom out and snap a shot. How does it compare to the other 5 shots? It should look similar to the zoomed out shot in auto exposure mode.

Take your time doing this. It will teach you a lot about how your camera works and give you some confidence in using M mode.

And above all have fun. :)

bjwags

Ok, thank you for responding - I read more about it and find that the backlit option is in the scene mode and it cannot be used on any motion pictures - i wanted to try using it when photographing hummingbirds and they would be in a backlit situation taken from my porch. Guess that if aI choose scene mode, I am then out of Manuel. I will figure it out eventually.
Betsy

bjwags

Thank you Lyle, I have one and refer to it frequently. thats where i saw about the backlight choice. In reading further and studying it, it is in the scene mode in my camera, and cannot be used for moving opjects - I want to photograph hummingbirds from my porsch, so that option is out for that situation.

bjwags

thank you Linda for your response, i found it and in reading further, it is under the scene mode and i cannot use it with motion, and i want to get a pic. of a hummingbird from my porch using a small feeder and it is backlit . But I am little by little figuring it out. So fare this is what i got, mostly by changing the angle so the white house across the street is not a factor. Changing the angle places an evergreen there instead. I will keep working on it to get a good pic of a hummingbird.

bjwags

thanks for replying, I am learning about different exposures, shutter speed , f stops, etc. thats ok, i will figure it out. I just didnt understand the backlight feature under the scene mode on my camera. Im ok with it now.

bjwags

yes, thank you, i have both an refer to them frequently. i just didnt quite understand the backlight option - but i looked at it again and the backlight option is under the scene mode. I will figure it out.

bjwags

thank you for the suggestion i will definitely check it out. I have watche a few U tube clips on photographing hummers. But I was just questioning the use of the backlight option on my camera. It is under the scene mode and i cannot use it for moving objects. I fugured it out on my own. But I will keep working on getting a good hummer pic.
Betsy