Understanding the Image Quality setting (resolution and file type)
Illuminating with flash
Every camera manufacturer strives to ensure that your first encounter with the camera is a happy one. To that end, the camera’s default (initial) settings are selected to make it easy to take a good picture the first time you press the shutter button. At the default settings, your camera works about the same way as any point-and-shoot camera you may have used in the past: You compose the shot, press the shutter button halfway to focus, and then press the button the rest of the way to take the picture.
Although you can get a good photo using the default settings in many cases, they’re not designed to give you optimal results in every situation. You may be able to take a decent portrait, for example, but probably need to tweak a few settings to capture action. Adjusting a few options can help turn that decent portrait into a stunning one, too.
So that you can start fine-tuning settings to your subject, this chapter explains the most basic picture-taking options, such as the exposure mode, shutter-release mode (officially called Drive mode), the Image Quality option, and flash settings. They’re not the most exciting options (don’t think we didn’t notice you stifling a yawn), but they make a big difference in how easily you can capture the photo you have in mind.
Note: This chapter relates to still photography; for information about shooting movies, see Chapter 8.
Choosing an Exposure Mode
The first picture-taking setting to consider is the exposure mode, which you select via the Mode dial, shown in Figure 2-1.
For still photography, exposure modes are grouped into two categories, Basic Zone and Creative Zone, labeled in the figure. Your choice determines how much control you have over two critical exposure settings — aperture and shutter speed — as well as many other options, including those related to color and flash photography.
Figure 2-1: Settings on the Mode dial determine the exposure mode.
Here’s a look at your options:
Basic Zone: Includes the following point-and-shoot modes, represented on the Mode dial with the icons shown in the margins:
Scene Intelligent Auto: The most basic mode; the camera analyzes the scene and selects the settings it thinks would best capture the subject.
Flash Off: Works just like Scene Intelligent Auto except that flash is disabled.
Creative Auto: This mode is like Scene Intelligent Auto but with some manual override. You can exercise a little creative control by tweaking some picture qualities, such as how much the background blurs.
Portrait: For taking traditional portraits.
Landscape: For capturing scenic vistas.
Close-up: For shooting flowers and other subjects at close range.
Sports: For capturing moving subjects (whether they happen to be playing a sport or not, and actually works well when you’re moving, too).
Special Scene Modes: Several specialized scenes are grouped together in the Special Scenes Mode on the Mode dial. All are fully automatic. They are:
Kids, when you want rapid-fire photographs of active children using continuous focus.
Food, for those times when you want to photograph what you cooked for dinner. The JPEG is processed to look bright and colorful.
Candlelight, for those special, candlelit scenes.
Night Portrait, for outdoor photographs of people at night.
Handheld Night Scene, for taking pictures in dim lighting without a tripod.
HDR Backlight Control, for getting better results with high-contrast scenes, such as a dark subject set against a bright background. (The HDR stands for high dynamic range; dynamic range refers to the range of brightness values in an image.)
Chapter 3 tells you more about these modes, but be forewarned: To remain easy to use, all these modes prevent you from taking advantage of advanced exposure, color, and autofocusing features. You can adjust options discussed in this chapter, but the camera controls most everything else.
Creative Zone: When you’re ready to take more control over the camera, step up to one of these modes, which include P (programmed autoexposure), Tv (shutter-priority autoexposure), Av (aperture-priority autoexposure), and M (manual exposure) modes. Chapter 4 provides the basics of using these modes.
One often-misunderstood aspect about exposure modes: Although your choice determines access to exposure and color controls, as well as to some other advanced camera features, it has no bearing on your focusing choices. You can choose from manual focusing or autofocusing in any mode, assuming that your lens offers autofocusing. However, access to options that modify how the autofocus system works is limited to P, Tv, Av, and M modes.
Changing the Drive Mode
Setting the Drive mode tells the camera what to do when you press the shutter button: Record a single frame, record a series of frames, or record one or more shots after a short delay. Your camera offers the following Drive mode settings:
Single: This setting records a single image each time you press the shutter button. It’s the default setting for all exposure modes except Portrait and Sports.
Continuous: Sometimes known as burst mode, this mode records a continuous series of images as long as you hold down the shutter button. The camera can capture roughly 5 frames per second, but your mileage may vary, for the following reasons:
The number of frames per second depends in part on your shutter speed. At a slow shutter speed, the camera may not be able to reach the maximum frame rate. (See Chapter 4 for an explanation of shutter speed.)
Some other functions can slow down the continuous capture rate. For example, when you use flash, the frame rate slows because the flash needs time to recycle between shots. And if you use the AI Servo AF (autofocus) mode, detailed in Chapter 5, the rate may slow because the camera adjusts focus continually between frames in that mode. Finally, the size and quality of the photos, as well as the speed of your memory card, also play a role in how fast the camera can transfer data to the card, which in turn affects the burst rate. In other words, consider 5 shots per second a best-case scenario.
Continuous Drive mode is the default setting for Portrait and Sports modes. Having continuous capture available for portraits may seem odd, but it can actually help you capture the perfect expression on your subject’s face — or, at least, a moment between blinks! (But if you use flash for your portrait, keep the previous tip in mind.)
Silent Single Shooting: Although your camera isn’t entirely silent in this mode, some sounds are less audible than in normal Single mode. There’s a drawback, though: The delay that occurs between the time you press the shutter button and the picture is recorded — shutter lag, in photo lingo — is slightly longer than with the normal Single mode.
Silent Continuous Shooting: This mode, too, tries to dampen some camera sounds while permitting you to fire off about 3 frames a second. The warning about shutter lag time applies here, too.
In some autofocusing situations, the camera beeps when focusing is achieved even in the silent modes. To silence that sound, set the Beep option on Shooting Menu 1 to Disable.
10-Second Self-Timer/Remote Control: Want to put yourself in the picture? Select this mode, depress the shutter button, and run into the frame. You have about 10 seconds to get yourself in place and pose before the image is recorded. If you change your mind in the meantime, you can cancel the self-timer countdown by pressing the Drive button.
You can also use the self-timer function to avoid any possibility of camera shake. The mere motion of pressing the shutter button can cause slight camera movement, which can blur an image. Put the camera on a tripod and then activate the self-timer function. This enables “hands-free” — and therefore motion-free — picture-taking.
As an alternative, purchase one of the Canon remote-control units. You can opt for a wireless unit or one that plugs into the remote-control terminal on the left side of the camera. (Read about both in Chapter 1.) Either way, set the Drive mode to this option or the following one when you want to trigger the shutter release with the remote control.
Your camera offers one other remote-trigger option, too: You can connect the camera wirelessly to a smartphone, tablet, or computer and trigger the shutter release through that device. Chapter 10 talks more about this feature.
Self-Timer: 2 Second: This mode works just like the regular Self-Timer mode, but the capture happens 2 seconds after you press the shutter button.
Self-Timer: Continuous: With this option, the camera waits 10 seconds after you press the shutter button and then captures a continuous series of images. You can set the camera to record two to ten images per each shutter release.
A symbol representing the current Drive mode setting appears in the Shooting Settings and Live View displays, as shown in Figures 2-2 and 2-3. The icon representing the Drive mode appears in a different area depending on your exposure mode. The left screens in the figures show you where to look when shooting in Scene Intelligent Auto, for example, and the right screens show where the icon hangs out when you use the advanced exposure modes. Both figures show the icon that represents the Single Drive mode.
Figure 2-2: The Shooting Settings screen displays an icon indicating the current Drive mode.
Figure 2-3: In Live View mode, look here for the Drive mode symbol.
How you change the Drive mode depends on whether you’re using Live View or the viewfinder to compose the picture:
Press the left cross key (not available in Live View mode). As shown in Figure 2-4, the key is marked by two of the Drive mode icons to help you remember its function. After you press the cross key, you see the settings screen displayed in the figure. Select your choice by tapping it or by using the right/left cross keys. Then tap Set or press the Set button.
For the Self-Timer: Continuous mode, selected in the Figure 2-4, press the up or down cross key or tap the up or down arrows to set the number of continuous shots you want the camera to capture.
Use the Quick Control screen. Select the Drive mode icon, as shown in Figure 2-5. (The left screen in the figure shows you where to look on the Shooting Settings screen; the right screen, the Live View display.) The name of the current setting appears at the bottom of the screen. Rotate the Main dial to cycle through the available settings. Press the Set button to display the selection screen shown in Figure 2-4. Alternatively, you can simply tap the Drive mode icon after entering Quick Control mode to immediately jump to the selection screen.
Figure 2-4: For viewfinder photography, the fastest way to get to the Drive mode setting is to press the left cross key.
Figure 2-5: But you also can change the setting via the Quick Control screen.
When you use the Self-Timer modes for viewfinder photography or shoot in Live View mode, it’s a good idea to use the cover provided on the camera strap to cover the viewfinder. Otherwise, light may seep in through the viewfinder and mess up the camera’s exposure calculations.
Setting Resolution and File Type (The Image Quality Setting)
The T6i/750D can capture top-notch pictures, but getting the maximum output from your camera depends on choosing the right capture settings. Chief among them is the appropriately named Image Quality setting.
This control determines two important aspects of your pictures: resolution, or pixel count; and file format, which refers to the type of computer file the camera uses to store your picture data. The next section shows you how to view and adjust the setting. Following that, you can get background information to help you select the right resolution and file type.
Adjusting the Image Quality setting
An icon representing the current Image Quality setting appears on the Shooting Settings and Live View displays. Figure 2-6 shows you where to find the symbols when shooting in the P, Tv, Av, and M modes. In other modes, the symbols appear elsewhere on the screen. (Help with decoding the symbols arrives shortly.)
Figure 2-6: These symbols represent the Image Quality setting.
Your options for changing the Image Quality setting depend on your exposure mode, as follows:
Shooting Menu 1 (any exposure mode): After selecting the Image Quality option, shown on the left in Figure 2-7, press Set to display the available settings, shown on the right.
Quick Control screen (P, Tv, Av, and M modes only): After choosing the setting (see Figure 2-6), rotate the Main dial to cycle through the available settings. If you want to display all the options at once, select the Image Quality icon and then press the Set button. You can also display all the options by tapping the Image Quality icon (whether it’s selected or not) once you enter Quick Control mode.
Figure 2-7: You can set the Image Quality option via Shooting Menu 1.
If you’re new to digital photography, the Image Quality settings won’t make much sense until you read the next few sections, which explain resolution and file type in detail. But even if you’re schooled in those topics, you may need some help deciphering the way that the settings are represented on your camera. As you can see from Figures 2-6 and 2-7 the options are presented in rather cryptic fashion, so here’s your decoder ring:
At the top of the Shooting Menu’s Image Quality selection screen, you see three bits of information, labeled in Figure 2-7: the resolution, or total pixel count (measured in megapixels), the pixel dimensions (number of horizontal pixels, followed by the number of vertical pixels), and the number of subsequent shots you can fit on your current memory card at the current Image Quality setting. This same information appears at the bottom of the Quick Control screen when the Image Quality setting is selected. The next two rows of the menu screen contain icons representing the available Image Quality settings.
The settings marked with the arc symbols capture images in the JPEG file format, as do the S2 and S3 settings. The arc icons represent the level of JPEG compression, which affects picture quality and file size. You get two options: Fine and Normal. The smooth arcs represent the Fine setting; the jagged arcs represent the Normal setting. Both S2 and S3 use the JPEG Fine recording option. And no, we don’t know why they don’t sport the arc icons — maybe the arc-supplier guy was sick the day that S2 and S3 got added to the mix. At any rate, check out the upcoming section “JPEG: The imaging (and web) standard” for details about all things JPEG.
Within the JPEG category, you can choose from five resolution settings, represented by L, M, and S1, S2, and S3 (large, medium, and small, smaller, smallest). See the next section for information that helps you select the right resolution.
You also can capture images in the Raw format. Raw files are always created at the Large resolution setting, giving you the maximum pixel count. One of the two Raw settings also records a JPEG Fine version of the image at the maximum resolution. The upcoming section “Raw (CR2): The purist’s choice” explains the Raw format.
Which Image Quality option is best depends on several factors, including how you plan to use your pictures and how much time you care to spend processing images on your computer. The next several sections explain these and other issues related to the Image Quality setting.
Considering resolution: Large, Medium, or Small?
To choose an Image Quality setting, the first decision you need to make is how many pixels you want your image to contain. Pixels are the little square tiles from which all digital images are made; pixel is short for picture element. You can see some pixels close up in the right image in Figure 2-8, which shows a greatly magnified view of the eye area in the left image.
Figure 2-8: Pixels are the building blocks of digital photos.
When describing a digital image, photographers use the term image resolution to refer to the number of pixels it contains. Every image starts with a specific number of pixels, which you select on your camera via the Image Quality setting. You can choose from these options: Large, Medium, and Small (1–3), represented on the list of Image Quality settings by the initials L, M, and S (1–3).
Table 2-1 shows you the pixel count that results from each option. If you select Raw as your Quality setting, images are always captured at the Large resolution value.
Table 2-1 The Image Resolution Side of the Quality Settings
Symbol
Setting
Pixel Count
L
Large
6000 x 4000 (24MP)
M
Medium
3984 x 2656 (10.6MP)
S1
Small 1
2976 x 1984 (5.9MP)
S2
Small 2
1920 x 1280 (2.5MP)
S3
Small 3
720 x 480 (0.35MP)
In the table, the first pair of numbers in the Pixel Count column represents the pixel dimensions — the number of horizontal pixels and vertical pixels. The values in parentheses indicate the total resolution, which you get by multiplying the horizontal and vertical pixel values. This number is usually stated in megapixels, or MP for short. The camera displays the resolution value using only one letter M, however. (Refer to Figure 2-7.) Either way, 1 MP equals 1 million pixels.
Resolution affects your pictures in three ways:
Print size: Pixel count determines the size at which you can produce a high-quality print. When an image contains too few pixels, details appear muddy, and curved and diagonal lines appear jagged. Such pictures are said to exhibit pixelation.
Depending on your photo printer, you typically need anywhere from 200 to 300 pixels per linear inch, or ppi, for good print quality. To produce an 8 x 10-inch print at 200 ppi, for example, you need a pixel count of 1600 x 2000, or about 3.2 megapixels.
Even though many photo-editing programs enable you to add pixels to an existing image — known as upsampling — doing so doesn’t enable you to successfully enlarge your photo. In fact, upsampling typically makes matters worse.
To give you a better idea of the impact of resolution on print quality, Figures 2-9, 2-10, and 2-11 show you the same image at 300 ppi, at 50 ppi, and then resampled from 50 ppi to 300 ppi (respectively). As you can see, there’s no way around the rule: If you want quality prints, you need the right pixel count from the get-go.
Figure 2-9: A high-quality print depends on a high-resolution original.
Figure 2-10: At 50 ppi, the image has a jagged, pixelated look.
Figure 2-11: Adding pixels in a photo editor doesn’t rescue a low-resolution original.
Screen display size: Resolution doesn’t affect the quality of images viewed on a monitor or television, or another screen device, the way it does for printed photos. Instead, resolution determines the size at which the image appears. This issue is one of the most misunderstood aspects of digital photography, so we explain it thoroughly in Chapter 10. For now, just know that you need way fewer pixels for onscreen photos than you do for prints. In fact, even the Small resolution setting creates a picture too big to be viewed in its entirety in many e-mail programs.
File size: Every additional pixel increases the amount of data required to create a digital picture file. So a higher-resolution image has a larger file size than a low-resolution image.
Large files present several problems:
You can store fewer images on your memory card, your computer’s hard drive, and removable storage media such as a DVD.
The camera needs more time to process and store the image data, which can hamper fast-action shooting.
When you share photos online, larger files take longer to upload and download.
When you edit photos in your photo software, your computer needs more resources to process large files.
As you can see, resolution is a bit of a sticky wicket. What if you aren’t sure how large you want to print your images? What if you want to print your photos and share them online? We take the better-safe-than-sorry route, which leads to the following recommendations:
Shoot at a resolution suitable for print. You then can create a low-resolution copy of the image for use online. In fact, your camera has a built-in Resize tool that can do the job. Chapter 10 shows you how to use that feature.
For everyday images, Medium is a good choice. Even at the Medium setting, your pixel count (3984 x 2656) is far more than you need for an 8 x 10-inch print at 200 ppi, and a bit over what you need for an 8 x 10-inch print at 300 ppi.
Choose Large for an image that you plan to crop, print very large, or both. The benefit of maxing out resolution is that you have the flexibility to crop your photo and still generate a decent-sized print of the remaining image.
Figure 2-12 offers an example. Julie wanted to fill the frame with the butterfly, but couldn’t do so without getting so close that she risked scaring it away. So she kept her distance and took the picture at the Large setting, resulting in the composition shown on the left in the figure. Because she had oodles of pixels in that photo, she could crop it and still have enough pixels left to produce a great print, as you see in the right image.
Figure 2-12: When you can’t get close enough to fill the frame with the subject, capture the image at the Large resolution setting (left) and crop later (right).
Understanding file type (JPEG or Raw)
In addition to establishing the resolution of your photos, the Image Quality setting determines the file type, which refers to the kind of data file that the camera produces. Your camera offers two file types — JPEG and Raw (sometimes seen as raw or RAW), with a couple variations of each. The next sections explain the pros and cons of each setting.
JPEG: The imaging (and web) standard
This format is the default setting on your camera, as it is for most digital cameras. JPEG is popular for two main reasons:
Immediate usability: JPEG is a longtime standard format for digital photos. All web browsers and email programs can display JPEG files, so you can share them online immediately after you shoot them. You also can get JPEG photos printed at any retail outlet, whether it’s an online or local printer. Additionally, any program that has photo capabilities, from photo-editing programs to word-processing programs, can handle your files.
Small files: JPEG files are smaller than Raw files. And smaller files mean that your pictures consume less room on your camera memory card and on your computer’s hard drive.
The downside (you knew there had to be one) is that JPEG creates smaller files by applying lossy compression. This process actually throws away some image data. Too much compression produces a defect called JPEG artifacting.Figure 2-13 compares a high-quality original (left photo) with a heavily compressed version that exhibits artifacting (right photo).
Figure 2-13: The reduced quality of the right image is caused by excessive JPEG compression.
On your camera, the amount of compression that’s applied depends on whether you choose an Image Quality setting that carries the label Fine or Normal:
Fine: At this setting, very little compression is applied, so you shouldn’t see many compression artifacts, if any. Canon uses the symbol that appears in the margin here to indicate the Fine compression level; however, the S2 and S3 settings both use the Fine level even though they don’t sport the symbol.
Normal: Switch to Normal, and the compression amount rises, as does the chance of seeing some artifacting. Notice the jaggedy-ness of the Normal icon, shown in the margin? That’s your reminder that all may not be “smooth” sailing when you choose a Normal setting.
Note, though, that the Normal setting doesn’t result in anywhere near the level of artifacting that you see in the example in Figure 2-13. Again, that example is exaggerated to help you recognize artifacting defects and understand how they differ from other image-quality issues. In fact, if you keep your image print or display size small, you aren’t likely to notice a great deal of quality difference between the Fine and Normal compression levels. The differences become apparent only when you greatly enlarge a photo.
Given that the differences between Fine and Normal aren’t all that easy to spot until you really enlarge the photo, is it okay to shift to Normal and enjoy the benefits of smaller files? Well, only you can decide what level of quality your pictures demand. For most photographers, the added file sizes produced by the Fine setting aren’t a huge concern, given that the prices of memory cards fall all the time. Long-term storage is more of an issue; the larger your files, the faster you fill your computer’s hard drive and the more space you need for archiving purposes.
But in the end, we prefer to take the storage hit in exchange for the lower compression level of the Fine setting. You never know when a casual snapshot is going to be so great that you want to print or display it large enough that even minor quality loss becomes a concern. And of all the defects that you can correct in a photo editor, artifacting is one of the hardest to remove. So we stick with Fine when shooting in the JPEG format.
If you don’t want any risk of artifacting, bypass JPEG and change the file type to Raw (CR2). The next section offers details.
Raw (CR2): The purist’s choice
The other picture-file type that you can create is Camera Raw, or just Raw (as in uncooked) for short.
Each manufacturer has its own flavor of Raw files; Canon’s are CR2 files (or, on some older cameras, CRW). Because these flavors are always being updated and refined, you must update any third-party software that you plan to use with the T6i’s Raw files. Otherwise, the software won’t be able to decode them. Indeed, you should also update old versions of any Canon software you might be using. You’ll see that three-letter designation at the end of your picture filenames on your computer.
Raw is popular with many advanced photographers for these reasons:
Greater creative control: With JPEG, internal camera software tweaks your images, adjusting color, exposure, and sharpness as needed to produce the results that Canon believes its customers prefer (or according to certain camera settings you chose, such as the Picture Style). With Raw, the camera simply records the original, unprocessed image data. The photographer then copies the image file to the computer and uses software known as a raw converter to produce the actual image, making decisions about color, exposure, and so on, at that point. The upshot is that “shooting Raw” enables you, not the camera, to have the final say on the visual characteristics of your image.
More flexibility: Having access to the Raw photo data means that you can reprocess the same photo with different settings over and over again without losing any quality.
Higher bit depth:Bit depth is a measure of how many color values an image file can contain. JPEG files restrict you to 8 bits each for the red, blue, and green color components, or channels, that make up a digital image, for a total of 24 bits. That translates to roughly 16.7 million possible colors. On your camera, a Raw file delivers a higher bit count, collecting 14 bits per channel.
Although jumping from 8 to 14 bits sounds like a huge difference, you may not ever notice any difference in your photos — that 8-bit palette of 16.7 million values is more than enough for superb images. Where having the extra bits can come in handy is if you really need to adjust exposure, contrast, or color after the shot in your photo-editing program. In cases where you apply extreme adjustments, having the extra original bits sometimes helps avoid a problem known as banding or posterization, which creates abrupt color breaks where you should see smooth, seamless transitions. (A higher bit depth doesn’t always prevent the problem, however, so don’t expect miracles.)
Best picture quality: Because Raw doesn’t apply the destructive compression associated with JPEG, you don’t run the risk of the artifacting that can occur with JPEG.
But just like JPEG, Raw isn’t without its disadvantages:
You can’t do much with your pictures until you process them in a Raw converter. You can’t share them online, for example, or put them into a text document or multimedia presentation. You can print them immediately if you use the Canon-provided software, but most other photo programs require you to convert the Raw files to a standard format first. Ditto for retail photo printing. So when you shoot Raw, you add to the time you spend in front of the computer instead of behind the camera lens. Chapter 10 gets you started processing your Raw files using your Canon software.
Raw files are larger than JPEG files. Unlike JPEG, Raw doesn’t apply lossy compression to shrink files. This means that Raw files are significantly larger than JPEG files, so they take up more room on your memory card and on your computer’s hard drive or other file-storage devices.
Whether the upside of Raw outweighs the down is a decision that you need to ponder based on your photographic needs, schedule, and computer comfort level. If you decide to try Raw shooting, you can select from the following Image Quality options:
RAW: This setting produces a single Raw file at the maximum resolution (18 MP).
RAW+Large/Fine: This setting produces two files: the Raw file plus a JPEG file captured at the Large/Fine setting. The advantage is that you can share the JPEG online or get prints made immediately and then process your Raw files when you have time. The downside, of course, is that creating two files for every image eats up substantially more space on your memory card and your computer’s hard drive.
Our take: Choose Fine or Raw
At this point, you may be finding all this technical goop a bit much, so allow us to simplify things until you have enough time or energy to completely digest all the ramifications of JPEG versus Raw:
If you require the absolute best image quality and have the time and interest to do the Raw conversion process, shoot Raw.
If great photo quality is good enough for you, you don’t have wads of spare time, or you aren’t that comfortable with the computer, stick with one of the Fine JPEG settings.
If you want to enjoy the best of both worlds, consider Raw+Large/Fine — assuming, of course, that you have an abundance of space on your memory card and your hard drive. Otherwise, creating two files for every photo on a regular basis isn’t really practical.
Select JPEG Normal if you aren’t shooting pictures that demand the highest quality level and you aren’t printing or displaying the photos at large sizes. The smaller file size also makes JPEG Normal the way to go if you’re running low on memory card space during a shoot.
Adding Flash
The built-in flash on your camera offers an easy, convenient way to add light to a too-dark scene. But whether you can use flash and what flash features are available depend on your exposure mode, as outlined in the next few sections.
Before you digest that information, note these universal tips:
The effective range of the built-in flash depends on the ISO setting. The ISO setting affects the camera’s sensitivity to light; Chapter 4 has details. At the lowest ISO setting, ISO 100, the maximum reach of the flash ranges from about 7 to 11 feet, depending on whether you’re using a telephoto or wide angle lens, respectively. To illuminate a subject that’s farther away, use a higher ISO speed or an auxiliary flash that offers greater power than the built-in flash.
Don’t get too close. Position the lens at a minimum distance of a little over 3 feet from the subject, or the flash may not illuminate the entire subject.
Watch for shadows cast by the lens or a lens hood. When you shoot with a long lens, you can wind up with unwanted shadows caused by the flash light hitting the lens. Ditto for a lens hood.
While the flash is recycling, you see a “Busy” signal. In the viewfinder, a lightning bolt like the one in the lower-left corner of Figure 2-14 tells you that the flash is enabled. The word “Busy” along with the lightning bolt means that the flash needs a few moments to recharge. You also may see the Busy alert on the monitor when shooting in Live View mode.
For brighter backgrounds in flash photos, use a slower shutter speed. Explained fully in Chapter 4, shutter speed is the setting that determines how long the shutter remains open, allowing light to hit the image sensor and expose the photo.
At a slow shutter speed, the camera has time to soak up ambient light and thus needs less flash power to illuminate the subject. As a result, background objects beyond the reach of the flash are brighter than when you use a fast shutter speed, and the flash light that hits your subject is less harsh. Figure 2-15 offers an example: The left image was taken at a shutter speed of 1/60 second; the right, at 1/8 second.
To control shutter speed, set the Mode dial to Tv (shutter-priority) or M (manual) exposure mode and rotate the Main dial. You can select a shutter speed as slow as 30 seconds. In other exposure modes, the camera determines the shutter speed for you.
If you’re not up to using Tv or M mode yet but want slow-shutter flash results, set the Mode dial to the Night Portrait setting, which automatically uses a slower shutter speed than other modes that permit flash.
Either way, remember that a slow shutter speed can produce blurring if the camera or subject moves during the exposure. So use a tripod and tell your subject to remain as still as possible.
The fastest shutter speed you can use with the built-in flash is 1/200 second. This limitation is due to the way the camera has to synchronize the flash firing with the opening of the shutter. Because a quickly moving subject may appear blurry even at 1/200 second, flash isn’t a good tool for shooting action shots.
Figure 2-14: A Busy signal means that the flash is recharging.
Figure 2-15: When you use a slow shutter speed with flash, backgrounds are brighter, and the flash light is softer.
Enabling and disabling flash
Whether you can use flash or control its firing depends on the exposure mode. Here’s how things shake out:
Flash Off, Landscape, Sports, Candlelight, and HDR Backlight Control Scene modes: Flash is disabled.
Scene Intelligent Auto, Creative Auto, Portrait, Close-up, and Kids modes: Choose from three flash settings:
Auto Flash: The camera decides when to fire the flash, basing its decision on the lighting conditions. This is the default setting for these modes.
On: The flash pops up and fires regardless of the lighting conditions. Using a fill flash is an effective way to light people’s faces even in bright conditions.
Off: The flash does not fire, no way, no how, even if the flash is raised because you used it on the previous shot.
You can view the current flash setting in the Shooting Settings and Live View displays, which appear in Creative Auto mode, as shown in Figure 2-16. Chapter 3 explains the other stuff you see on the screen and provides more details about using Creative Auto mode.
Set the flash mode via the Quick Control screen. Select the flash setting and then rotate the Main dial to cycle through the three settings. You can also display a selection screen with all the available flash settings (when not in Live View mode) by pressing the Set button or tapping the current flash setting.
Food Scene mode: The flash is disabled by default, but you can enable it should you need to.
Night Portrait Scene mode: Auto flash is used for this mode; the camera decides whether flash is needed.
Handheld Night Scene mode: In this exposure mode, the camera takes four frames in rapid succession and merges them to get a sharper result than you might otherwise obtain when hand-holding the camera in dim lighting. By default, flash is turned off, and this is the best choice if you’re shooting landscapes. If you’re photographing people or a close-up subject at night, you can enable flash to help illuminate the subject. The flash will fire on the first shot only; warn people to keep smiling until all four frames are captured.
P, Tv, Av, and M modes: If you want to use the built-in flash, press the Flash button on top of the camera. The flash pops up and fires on your next shot. Don’t want flash? Just close the flash unit. There is no such thing as auto flash in these exposure modes — but don’t worry, because using flash (or not) is one picture-taking setting you definitely want to control.
As explained in the preceding section, your flash results depend in part on the shutter speed. And the range of available shutter speeds for flash photography depends on which of the four exposure modes you use:
P mode: The camera selects a shutter speed ranging from 1/60 to 1/200 second.
Av mode: By default, the camera selects a shutter speed ranging from 1/200 to 30 seconds when you use flash in Av mode. However, if you want to avoid the potential problems that can arise with a slow shutter — camera shake and blurred moving subjects — you can bump up the slow limit of this range via the Flash Sync Speed in Av Mode option (found in Shooting Menu 1, under Flash Control), shown in Figure 2-17.
The default setting is Auto, which uses the 1/200-to-30 seconds range. At setting 2, the shutter speed range is 1/200 to 1/60 second; and at setting 3, the camera always sets the shutter speed to 1/200 second.
Tv mode: You can select a shutter speed from 1/200 to 30 seconds. Remember that at slow shutter speeds, you need to use a tripod and tell your subject to remain still to avoid a blurry photo.
M mode: You can access the same range as in Tv mode, but with one additional setting available: Bulb, which keeps the shutter open as long as you keep the shutter button pressed. By default, the flash fires at the beginning of the exposure. If you want it to fire at the end of the exposure, make the change via the Shutter Sync setting that we explain in the last section of this chapter.
Figure 2-16: Look here to view the current flash setting in Creative Auto mode.
Figure 2-17: You can limit the camera to a fast shutter when using Av mode with flash.
Using Red-Eye Reduction flash
Red-eye is caused when flash light bounces off a subject’s retinas and is reflected back to the camera lens. Red-eye is a human phenomenon, though; with animals, the reflected light usually glows yellow, white, or green.
Man or beast, this issue isn’t nearly the problem with the type of pop-up flash found on your T6i/750D as it is on non-SLR cameras. Your camera’s flash is positioned above the lens where it lessens the chances of red-eye. However, red-eye may still be an issue when you use a lens with a long focal length (a telephoto lens), you shoot subjects from a distance, or the ambient lighting is very dim.
If you notice red-eye, try enabling Red-Eye Reduction flash. When you turn on this feature, the Red-Eye Reduction Lamp on the front of the camera lights up when you press the shutter button halfway and focus is achieved. The purpose of this light is to shrink the subject’s pupils, which helps reduce the amount of light that enters the eye and, thus, the chances of that light reflecting and causing red-eye. The flash itself fires when you press the shutter button the rest of the way. (Warn your subjects to wait for the flash, or they may stop posing after they see the light from the Red-Eye Reduction Lamp.)
You can enable this feature in any exposure mode that permits flash. The control lives on Shooting Menu 1, as shown in Figure 2-18. Note that the camera doesn’t display any symbols in the viewfinder or on the Shooting Settings or Live View displays to remind you that Red-Eye Reduction mode is in force.
Figure 2-18: Turn Red-Eye Reduction flash mode on and off via Shooting Menu 1.
After you press the shutter button halfway in Red-Eye Reduction flash mode, a row of vertical bars appears in the bottom of the viewfinder display, replacing the exposure index. The bars quickly turn off from the outside and work their way toward the center. For best results, wait until all the bars are off to take the picture. (The delay gives the subject’s pupils time to constrict in response to the Red-Eye Reduction Lamp.) This feature isn’t available in Live View mode; it only works when you use the viewfinder to compose your photos.
Exploring advanced flash features (P, Tv, Av, and M modes)
When you shoot in the P, Tv, Av, and M exposure modes, you have access to some flash features not available in the automatic or Creative Auto modes. You can adjust the flash power, tell the camera to stick with the same flash output for a series of shots, and tweak a few other aspects of flash performance, as outlined in the rest of this chapter.
Adjusting flash power with Flash Exposure Compensation
On some occasions, you may want a little more or less light than the camera thinks is appropriate. If so, you can adjust the flash output by using Flash Exposure Compensation.
Flash Compensation settings are stated in terms of exposure value (EV) numbers. A setting of EV 0.0 indicates no flash adjustment; you can increase the flash power to EV +1.0 or decrease it to EV –2.0.
Figure 2-19 shows an example of the benefit of this feature — again, available only when you shoot in the P, Tv, Av, and M modes. The leftmost image shows you a flash-free shot. Clearly, a little more light was needed, but at normal flash power, the flash was too strong, blowing out the highlights in some areas, as shown in the middle image. Reducing the flash power to EV –1.3, resulted in a softer flash that straddled the line perfectly between no flash and too much flash.
Figure 2-19: When normal flash output is too strong, lower the Flash Exposure Compensation value.
As for boosting the flash output, well, you may find it necessary on some occasions, but don’t expect the built-in flash to work miracles even at a Flash Exposure Compensation of +2.0. Any built-in flash has a limited range, so the light simply can’t reach faraway objects.
Here are the ways you can adjust flash power:
Quick Control screen (not available in Live View mode): This path is by far the easiest way to travel. After shifting to the Quick Control display, highlight the Flash Exposure Compensation value, as shown on the left in Figure 2-20. (Note that this value does not appear on the initial Shooting Settings screen unless you already dialed in Flash Compensation.)
Rotate the Main dial to raise or lower the amount of flash adjustment. Or tap the icon or press the Set button to display the second screen in the figure, which contains a meter along with a text note that tells you that if you use an external flash, any compensation you dial in via the flash itself overrides the on-camera setting. Press the right/left cross keys or tap the arrows at the end of the meter to adjust the flash power on this screen. You also can drag your finger along the scale to adjust the setting. Tap the return arrow or press Set when you finish.
Shooting Menu 1: On Shooting Menu 1, select Flash Control to display the left screen in Figure 2-21. Choose Built-in Flash Settings to display the right screen. Highlight Flash Exp Comp and press Set to activate the control. You can use the left/right cross keys to adjust the value or tap the Brighter and Darker arrows to adjust the setting. Tap the return arrow or press Set when you finish.
Figure 2-20: The quickest way to adjust flash power is via the Quick Control screen.
Figure 2-21: You can also change flash power by using the menus, but it’s a tedious task.
You also have the option of customizing the Set button to whisk you directly to the Flash Exposure Compensation setting. You make this change via Custom Function 11. (Chapter 11 shows you how.) If you use Live View and flash compensation a lot, this tweak can save you loads of time because you no longer have to wade through Shooting Menu 1 to adjust the flash compensation setting.
When flash compensation is in effect, the value appears in the Shooting Settings screen, in the area occupied by the icon in the left screen in Figure 2-22. In the Live View display, the setting appears in the area labeled on the right in the figure. In the viewfinder, you see a plus/minus flash symbol without the actual Flash Exposure Compensation value. If you change the Flash Exposure Compensation value to 0, the flash-power icon disappears from all the displays.
Figure 2-22: When flash compensation is enabled, the value appears onscreen during Live View shooting.
Any flash-power adjustment you make remains in force until you reset the control, even if you turn off the camera. So be sure to check the setting before using your flash. Additionally, the Auto Lighting Optimizer feature, covered in Chapter 4, can interfere with the effect produced by flash exposure compensation, so you might want to disable it.
Locking the flash exposure
You might never notice it, but when you press the shutter button to take a picture with flash enabled, the camera emits a brief preflash before the actual flash. This preflash is used to determine the proper flash power needed to expose the image.
Occasionally, the information that the camera collects from the preflash can be off-target because of the assumptions the system makes about what area of the frame is likely to contain your subject. To address this problem, your camera has a feature called Flash Exposure Lock, or FE Lock. This tool enables you to set the flash power based on only the center of the frame.
Unfortunately, FE Lock isn’t available in Live View mode. If you want to use this feature, you must abandon Live View and use the viewfinder to frame your images.
Follow these steps to use FE Lock:
With the flash raised, frame your photo so that your subject falls under the center autofocus point.
You want your subject smack in the middle of the frame. You can reframe the shot after locking the flash exposure, if you want.
Press the shutter button halfway.
The camera meters the light in the scene. If you’re using autofocusing, focus is set on your subject. (If focus is set on another spot in the frame, see Chapter 5 to find out how to select the center autofocus point.) You can now lift your finger off the shutter button, if you want.
While the subject is still under the center autofocus point, press and release the FE Lock button.
You can see the button in the margin here. The camera emits the preflash, and the letters FEL display for a second in the viewfinder. (FEL stands for flash exposure lock.) You also see the asterisk symbol — the one that appears above the FE Lock button on the camera body — next to the flash icon in the viewfinder.
If needed, reestablish focus on your subject.
In autofocus mode, press and hold the shutter button halfway. (Take this step only if you released the shutter button after Step 2.) In manual focus mode, twist the focusing ring on the lens to establish focus.
Reframe the image to the composition you want.
While you do, keep the shutter button pressed halfway to maintain focus if you’re using autofocusing.
Press the shutter button the rest of the way to take the picture. The image is captured using the flash output setting you established in Step 3.
Flash exposure lock is also helpful when you’re shooting portraits. The preflash sometimes causes people to blink, which means that with normal flash shooting, in which the actual flash and exposure occur immediately after the preflash, their eyes are closed at the exact moment of the exposure. With flash exposure lock, you can fire the preflash and then wait a second or two for the subject’s eyes to recover before you take the actual picture.
Better yet, the flash exposure setting remains in force for about 16 seconds, meaning that you can shoot a series of images using the same flash setting without firing another preflash at all.
Investigating other Shooting Menu 1 flash options
In the P, Tv, Av, and M modes, selecting the Flash Control option on the Shooting Menu 1, shown in Figure 2-23, enables you to take advantage of the following flash settings:
Flash Firing: Normally, this option is set to Enable. If you want to disable the flash, you can choose Disable instead. However, you don’t have to take this step in most cases — just close the pop-up flash head on top of the camera if you don’t want to use flash.
What’s the point of this option, then? Well, if you use autofocusing in dim lighting, the camera may need some help finding its target. To that end, it sometimes emits an AF-assist beam from the flash head — the beam is a series of rapid pulses of light. If you want the benefit of the AF-assist beam but you don’t want the flash to fire, you can disable flash firing. Remember that you have to pop up the flash unit to expose the lamp that emits the beam. You also can take advantage of this option when you attach an external flash head.
E-TTL II Metering: Your camera uses a flash-metering system that Canon calls E-TTL II. The E stands for evaluative, TTL stands for through the lens, and II refers to the fact that this system is an update to the first version of the system.
This menu option enables you to choose from two flash metering setups. In the default mode, Evaluative, the camera exposes the background using ambient light when possible and then sets the flash power to serve as fill light on the subject. If you instead select the Average option, the flash is used as the primary light source, meaning that the flash power is set to expose the entire scene without relying on ambient light. Typically, this results in a more powerful (and possibly harsh) flash lighting and dark backgrounds.
Flash Sync. Speed in Av Mode: As explained earlier, this option prevents the shutter speed from dropping beyond a certain level when you shoot in the Av exposure mode.
Built-In Flash Setting: If you choose this option, you display the screen shown in Figure 2-24, which offers the following settings related to using the built-in flash:
Built-in Flash: This function enables you to configure the built-in flash for normal use or choose between two wireless flash methods. In that case, the built-in flash triggers remote flash units. See the sidebar, “Using one flash to control others” for more on this possibility.
Flash Mode: Ignore this option. It’s related to using an external flash and isn’t adjustable when you use the built-in flash. (Don’t ask us why it’s on the menu; Canon never consults with us on this stuff.)
Shutter Sync: By default, the flash fires at the beginning of the exposure. This flash timing, known as 1st curtain sync, is the best choice for most subjects. However, if you use a very slow shutter speed and you’re photographing a moving object, 1st curtain sync causes the blur that results from the motion to appear in front of the object, which doesn’t make much visual sense.
To solve this problem, you can change the Shutter Sync option to 2nd curtain sync, also known as rear-curtain sync. In this Flash mode, the motion trails appear behind the moving object. The flash fires twice in this mode: once when you press the shutter button and again at the end of the exposure.
Flash Exposure Compensation: This setting adjusts the power of the built-in flash; see the earlier section “Adjusting flash power with Flash Exposure Compensation” for details. (This menu option is the only way to adjust flash power for Live View shooting.)
External Flash controls: The last two options on the Flash Control list relate to external flash heads; they don’t affect the performance of the built-in flash. However, they apply only to Canon EX-series Speedlites that enable you to control the flash through the camera. If you own such a flash, refer to the flash manual for details.
Clear Settings: Choose this option to access three settings that restore flash defaults. The first one, Clear Built-in Flash Set, restores the settings for the built-in flash. Sorry, you probably could have figured that out for yourself. The second option restores defaults for external flash settings, and the third restores the external flash head’s Custom Function menu settings.
Figure 2-23: You can customize additional flash options through the Shooting menu.
Figure 2-24: These advanced flash options affect only the built-in flash.
You can probably discern from these descriptions that most of these features are designed for photographers schooled in flash photography who want to mess around with advanced flash options. If that doesn’t describe you, don’t worry about it. The default settings selected by Canon will serve you well in most every situation. The exception is flash exposure compensation, which you can just as easily adjust via the Quick Control screen instead of digging through the menus.
Spinning the Mode dial
Scene Intelligent Auto: The most basic mode; the camera analyzes the scene and selects the settings it thinks would best capture the subject.
Flash Off: Works just like Scene Intelligent Auto except that flash is disabled.
Creative Auto: This mode is like Scene Intelligent Auto but with some manual override. You can exercise a little creative control by tweaking some picture qualities, such as how much the background blurs.
Portrait: For taking traditional portraits.
Landscape: For capturing scenic vistas.
Close-up: For shooting flowers and other subjects at close range.
Sports: For capturing moving subjects (whether they happen to be playing a sport or not, and actually works well when you’re moving, too).
Special Scene Modes: Several specialized scenes are grouped together in the Special Scenes Mode on the Mode dial. All are fully automatic. They are: 
One often-misunderstood aspect about exposure modes: Although your choice determines access to exposure and color controls, as well as to some other advanced camera features, it has no bearing on your focusing choices. You can choose from manual focusing or autofocusing in any mode, assuming that your lens offers autofocusing. However, access to options that modify how the autofocus system works is limited to P, Tv, Av, and M modes.
Single: This setting records a single image each time you press the shutter button. It’s the default setting for all exposure modes except Portrait and Sports.
Continuous: Sometimes known as burst mode, this mode records a continuous series of images as long as you hold down the shutter button. The camera can capture roughly 5 frames per second, but your mileage may vary, for the following reasons: 
Silent Single Shooting: Although your camera isn’t entirely silent in this mode, some sounds are less audible than in normal Single mode. There’s a drawback, though: The delay that occurs between the time you press the shutter button and the picture is recorded — shutter lag, in photo lingo — is slightly longer than with the normal Single mode.
Silent Continuous Shooting: This mode, too, tries to dampen some camera sounds while permitting you to fire off about 3 frames a second. The warning about shutter lag time applies here, too.
In some autofocusing situations, the camera beeps when focusing is achieved even in the silent modes. To silence that sound, set the Beep option on Shooting Menu 1 to Disable.
10-Second Self-Timer/Remote Control: Want to put yourself in the picture? Select this mode, depress the shutter button, and run into the frame. You have about 10 seconds to get yourself in place and pose before the image is recorded. If you change your mind in the meantime, you can cancel the self-timer countdown by pressing the Drive button.
Self-Timer: 2 Second: This mode works just like the regular Self-Timer mode, but the capture happens 2 seconds after you press the shutter button.
Self-Timer: Continuous: With this option, the camera waits 10 seconds after you press the shutter button and then captures a continuous series of images. You can set the camera to record two to ten images per each shutter release.
Use the Quick Control screen. Select the Drive mode icon, as shown in 
The settings marked with the arc symbols capture images in the JPEG file format, as do the S2 and S3 settings. The arc icons represent the level of JPEG compression, which affects picture quality and file size. You get two options: Fine and Normal. The smooth arcs represent the Fine setting; the jagged arcs represent the Normal setting. Both S2 and S3 use the JPEG Fine recording option. And no, we don’t know why they don’t sport the arc icons — maybe the arc-supplier guy was sick the day that S2 and S3 got added to the mix. At any rate, check out the upcoming section “
In the table, the first pair of numbers in the Pixel Count column represents the pixel dimensions — the number of horizontal pixels and vertical pixels. The values in parentheses indicate the total resolution, which you get by multiplying the horizontal and vertical pixel values. This number is usually stated in megapixels, or MP for short. The camera displays the resolution value using only one letter M, however. (Refer to 
Fine: At this setting, very little compression is applied, so you shouldn’t see many compression artifacts, if any. Canon uses the symbol that appears in the margin here to indicate the Fine compression level; however, the S2 and S3 settings both use the Fine level even though they don’t sport the symbol.
Normal: Switch to Normal, and the compression amount rises, as does the chance of seeing some artifacting. Notice the jaggedy-ness of the Normal icon, shown in the margin? That’s your reminder that all may not be “smooth” sailing when you choose a Normal setting.
On: The flash pops up and fires regardless of the lighting conditions. Using a fill flash is an effective way to light people’s faces even in bright conditions.
Off: The flash does not fire, no way, no how, even if the flash is raised because you used it on the previous shot.
P, Tv, Av, and M modes: If you want to use the built-in flash, press the Flash button on top of the camera. The flash pops up and fires on your next shot. Don’t want flash? Just close the flash unit. There is no such thing as auto flash in these exposure modes — but don’t worry, because using flash (or not) is one picture-taking setting you definitely want to control.
While the subject is still under the center autofocus point, press and release the FE Lock button.
