Mode Dial/Camera Functions - Canon 650D DLSR
Creative Zone
This zone gives the camera operator most control over the outcome of the image.
P: Program – This mode is able to automatically set up the best settings for the camera, but it still gives the camera operator more control than the basic modes. This works well where quick setting adjustments are necessary during swift changes in the environment. The operator is able to change the ISO manually.
Tv: Shutter-Priority – Like the Program mode, this setting allows the camera to do most work but gives the operator slightly more control. The operator is able to adjust the shutter speed – adjusting the camera’s sensor to light. It’s often used to emphasise movement with motion blur or quickly shoot a fast-moving subject – depending on the shutter speed. A longer shutter speed would create a bigger blur from anything that moves in the image. It is also commonly used to capture light over a long period of time during night-time shots.
Av: Aperture-priority – The Aperture changes the depth of field. This is very useful when focusing on the subject of the image, so gives the camera operator great control over what they are taking. The numeric value of the aperture is known as F-stop. The smaller the F-stop, the smaller the depth of field.
M: Manual Exposure – This mode gives the camera operator full control over the aperture, shutter speed and ISO. This is most tricky when capturing shots as the operator has to balance between the settings.
Basic Zone
This zone "intelligently" adjusts its own camera settings, with just a slight variation between 'Scene Intelligent Auto', 'Flash Off' and 'Creative Auto'.
Image Zone
Adjusts settings to suit 'scenes'; Portrait, Landscape, Close-up, Sports, Night Portrait, Handheld Night Scene, HDR Backlight Control. These settings adjust to match typical conditions during such scenarios, i.e. 'Sports' setting has a quick shutter speed to quickly shoot a fast-moving subject.
ISO
The ISO speed (The image sensor’s sensitivity to light) can be adjusted to match the ambient light level of the subject. The higher the ISO speed, the more noise and grain (low quality image) will occur. Below is a ISO speed guide.
Technical Design
Sunny/Bright daylight Cloudy/Overcast Evening Time Dark Indoors/Night
ISO 100 ISO 200 ISO 400 ISO 800 ISO 3200
White Balance
Colour tones can vary within the subject. With the auto white balance feature, the DSLRs are generally good at correctly potraying the whites in the subject. However, they can also vary between blue and orange, depending on the ambient light level.
RAW Image Editing
RAW files offer a much more versatile format to adjust images to specific requirements. With JPEG and TIFF images, cameras automatically process the image slightly to adjust certain aspects such as sharpening or even white balance. RAW files take the original information from the digital sensor, which is then able to be manually adjusted to create a final desired image. RAW editing software allows photographers to correct and add effects to the images. Once modified and saved as a separate JPEG format, the modified RAW file holds data that remains as a set of ‘instructions’ for the original image to remain unaffected. It has the ability to adjust images by causing much less data loss. Metadata is particularly effective when it comes to storing copyright, technical and contact information – with the ability to be fully searchable across the internet and file systems through the use of keyword input. I used this to copyright my images from the project.
Above is an original image I captured. With the use of RAW editing I reduced the saturation and increased the vibrance. By reducing the saturation I was able to achieve a popular documentary style image. However, due to the topic of the documentary being My Little Pony, it has bright coloured plush toys and animations associated with it. By desaturating, these vibrant colours were lost. So to overcome this I increased the vibrance which brought back life into those bright colours within the image but maintained those washed out dull colours. I then opened the image in Photoshop and checked the 'Gamut Warning' to make sure the image would stay top quality on large screens.