Choosing Basic Picture Settings

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. Remember that before you can rotate the dial, you must press and hold the lock button in the center of the dial.

FIGURE 2-1: Settings on the Mode dial determine the exposure mode.

Your exposure mode 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, autofocusing, and flash photography.

Canon categorizes the exposure modes as follows:

Basic Zone: The Basic Zone category 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 then handles everything but framing and focusing.
- Flash Off: Just like Scene Intelligent Auto except that flash is disabled.
- Creative Auto: Like Scene Intelligent Auto on steroids, this mode takes control of most settings but gives you an easy way to tweak some picture qualities, such as how much the background blurs.
- Scene modes: You also get ten fully automatic modes geared to capturing specific types of scenes:
  
  Portrait, for taking traditional portraits.
  
  Landscape, for capturing scenic vistas.
  
  Close-up, for shooting subjects at close range.
  
  Sports, for capturing moving subjects.
  
  Food, for those times when you want to photograph what you cooked for dinner. The JPEG is processed to look bright and colorful.
  
  Kids, when you want rapid-fire photographs of active children using continuous focus.
  
  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.)
  
  After setting the Mode dial to SCN, choose the specific scene type via the Quick Control screen, as shown in Figure 2-2.
- Creative Filters: Depending on the camera, Creative Filters are special effects that you apply after you shoot a photo. With the 80D, however, you can select between ten Creative Filters directly by setting the Mode dial to the Creative Filter icon and have them applied immediately. (Chapter 10 offers more information about Creative Filters.)
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 full control over the camera, step up to one of the Creative Zone modes. This category includes the advanced exposure modes (P, Tv, Av, and M), which we detail in Chapter 7. In addition, this zone offers B mode, which stands for bulb. With a bulb exposure, the shutter stays open as long as you keep the shutter button pressed; this option is handy for shooting fireworks and other special subjects where you want to control exposure time “on the fly” rather than dialing in a specific shutter speed between shots. This zone also offers C1 and C2 modes, which are custom modes you can create using your own favorite settings. Chapter 11 explains how to register the settings you want to use in either C mode.

FIGURE 2-2: Use the Quick Control screen to select from the available SCN (scene) modes.

Keeping track of all these zones is a little confusing, so to keep things a little simpler, we use the generic term fully automatic exposure modes to refer to the Basic Zone modes and advanced exposure modes to refer to the Creative Zone modes.

Changing the Drive Mode

The Drive mode setting tells the camera what to do when you press the shutter button: Record a single frame or a series of frames, or record one or more shots after a short delay.

Your camera offers the following Drive modes, which are represented by the symbols you see in the margin:

Single: This setting, which is the default for all exposure modes except the Portrait and Sports Scene modes, records a single image each time you press the shutter button. In other words, this is normal photography mode.
Continuous: Sometimes known as burst mode, this mode records a continuous series of images as long as you hold down the shutter button. You can choose from two burst-mode settings:
- High-speed continuous: At this setting, the camera can capture a maximum of about 7 frames per second (fps). This setting is the default for Sports Scene mode.
- Low-speed continuous: This setting drops the maximum capture rate to about 3fps. It’s the default for Portrait Scene mode.
Why would you want to capture fewer than the maximum number of shots? Well, frankly, unless you’re shooting something that’s moving at a really, really fast pace, not too much is going to change between frames when you shoot at 7 fps.

Keep in mind that the number of frames you can record per second depends in part on your shutter speed. To achieve 7fps at the High-speed Continuous setting, you need a shutter speed of 1/500 second or faster. Also, some other functions, such as using flash, slow down the capture rate. The speed of your memory card plays a role in how fast the camera can capture images, too, as well as the number of images it can capture in a single burst. For example, the 80D has a maximum burst of up to 110 Large/Fine JPEG or 25 full-resolution RAW exposures using a UHS-I card.
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 three 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 when shooting at slow shutter speeds. 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.
2-Second Self-Timer/Remote Control: This mode is available only in P, Tv, Av, M, C1, and C2 exposure modes. It works just like the other Self-Timer/Remote Control mode but with just a 2-second capture delay.

You can view the current Drive mode in the Shooting Settings screen and the LCD panel, in the areas labeled in Figure 2-3.

FIGURE 2-3: Look here for the symbol representing the Drive mode.

To change the Drive mode, you have two options:

Drive button: Press the Drive button on the top of the camera to display the available modes on the monitor, as shown in Figure 2-4. Tap the setting you want to use or highlight it by using the Main dial, the Quick Control dial, or the Multi-controller. To lock in your choice, tap the return arrow or press the Drive button or the Set button.

In the LCD panel, all data except the Drive mode disappears as soon as you press the Drive button. As you change the setting, the icon updates to show the currently selected option. Press the Drive button again or press Set after you choose your setting.
Quick Control screen: After activating the Quick Control screen, highlight the Drive mode icon, as shown in Figure 2-5. The name of the current setting appears at the bottom of the screen. Rotate the Main dial to cycle through the available Drive mode options. Alternatively, tap the Drive mode icon or highlight it and press Set to access the same selection screen featured in Figure 2-4.

FIGURE 2-4: You can access all these Drive options only in advanced exposure modes.

FIGURE 2-5: You also can change the Drive mode setting via the Quick Control screen.

Your selected Drive mode remains in force until you change it or switch to an exposure mode for which the selected Drive mode isn’t available.

Finally, your 80D offers automatic time-lapse photography, which enables you to record a series of shots over a specified period of time without having to stick around to press the shutter button for each shot. You can space the shots minutes or even hours apart, and you can record as many images as your memory card can hold. Canon calls this feature Interval Timer Shooting, and it’s located in Shooting Menu 4.

Several restrictions apply: This feature won’t work in Live View or Movie modes, nor can you set the camera to Bulb mode. You have to take the first shot yourself, and you’ll get better mileage if you use a study tripod and the optional GB-E14 Battery Grip accessory, or the Canon AC Adapter and DC Coupler instead of a battery.

Getting Familiar with the Built-in Flash

The built-in flash offers an easy, convenient way to add light to a dark scene. Whether you can use flash depends on your exposure mode, as outlined in the next few sections.

Before you digest that information, note these universal tips:

The viewfinder offers cues regarding flash status. A lightning bolt like the one in the lower left of Figure 2-6 tells you that the flash is enabled. The word Busy along with the lightning bolt means that the flash is occupied calculating the flash setting or, after the shot, needs a few moments to recharge. The Busy alert also appears on the Shooting Settings screen.
The effective range of the built-in flash depends on the ISO setting. The ISO setting affects the camera's sensitivity to light; Chapter 7 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 about 3.5 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.

FIGURE 2-6: A Busy signal means that the flash is recharging.

Using flash in the fully automatic modes

Whether flash is available and how much control you have over it depends on the exposure mode. Here’s how things shake out:

Flash Off and Landscape, Sports, Candlelight, HDR, and HDR Backlight Control Scene modes, and the Miniature Effect and HDR art Creative Filters: Flash is disabled.
Scene Intelligent Auto, Creative Auto, and Portrait, Close-up, and Kids Scene modes, and the remaining Creative Filters: Choose from three flash settings:
- Auto flash: The camera decides when to fire the flash, basing its decision on the lighting conditions.
- On: The flash fires regardless of the lighting conditions. You may hear this flash mode referred to as force flash because the camera is forced to trigger the flash even if its exposure-brain says there’s plenty of ambient light. This flash mode is sometimes also called fill flash because it’s designed to fill in shadows that can occur even in bright light. Whatever you call it, this option causes the flash to pop up as soon as you press the shutter button halfway. The flash will fire for subsequent shots until you change the flash mode to Auto or Off.
- Off: The flash does not fire, no way, no how. Even if the built-in flash is raised because you used it on the previous shot, it still won’t fire.
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.

For exposure modes that allow flash, you can view the current flash setting in the Shooting Settings screen. Figure 2-7 shows you how the screen appears in Scene Intelligent Auto mode.

FIGURE 2-7: This symbol tells you that the flash is set to Auto mode.

To change the flash setting, press Q to bring up the Quick Control screen. The left screen in Figure 2-8 shows you how the screen looks in Scene Intelligent Auto mode. Next, highlight the Flash mode setting, as shown in the figure, and then rotate the Main dial or Quick Control dial to cycle through the available settings. Or, if you prefer, tap the flash icon or press Set to display all your choices on one screen, as shown on the right in the figure. Make your selection and then tap the return arrow or press Set to go back to the Quick Control screen. Then press the Q button again or give the shutter button a quick half-press to exit the Quick Control screen.

FIGURE 2-8: Change the flash setting via the Quick Control screen.

Enabling flash in advanced exposure modes

In the advanced exposure modes, you don’t choose from the Auto, On, and Off flash modes as you do for some of the automatic shooting modes. Instead, if you want to use the built-in flash, you press the Flash button on the side of the camera. (See Figure 2-9.) The flash pops up and fires on your next shot. Don’t want flash? Just close the flash unit.

FIGURE 2-9: In the advanced exposure modes, press the Flash button to raise the built-in flash.

You do, however, have access to flash options that aren’t available in the fully automatic exposure modes. Chapter 7 explains them all. Until you’re ready to dig into those features, just make sure that flash firing is enabled. Bring up Shooting Menu 1, select Flash Control, and verify that Flash Firing is set to Enable, as illustrated in Figure 2-10.

FIGURE 2-10: Set this option to Enable for normal flash firing in the advanced exposure modes.

Using Red-Eye Reduction flash

For any exposure mode that permits flash, you can enable a Red-Eye Reduction feature. When you turn on this feature, the Red-Eye Reduction lamp on the front of the camera lights when you press the shutter button halfway. The light constricts the subject’s pupils, which helps reduce the chances of red-eye. The flash fires when you press the shutter button the rest of the way. Turn the feature on and off via Shooting Menu 1, as shown in Figure 2-11.

FIGURE 2-11: Turn Red-Eye Reduction flash mode on and off via Shooting Menu 1.

The viewfinder, LCD panel, and Shooting Settings display don’t offer any indication that Red-Eye Reduction is enabled. However, the Camera Settings screen displays a little eyeball icon and the word Enable or Disable. To display the screen, press the Info button until it appears; see Chapter 1 for more about this display.

After you press the shutter button halfway in Red-Eye Reduction flash mode, signal flashes, then a row of vertical bars appears in the center of the viewfinder data display. A few moments later, the bars turn off one by one. 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.) In addition, when you use the default autofocusing settings, the built-in flash may pulse briefly to help the camera find its focusing target; you can disable this feature via the AF-Assist Beam Firing option, found in the Autofocus Custom Functions category.

Controlling Picture Quality

One final control to check before any shoot is the Image Quality setting, which 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.

As the setting name implies, resolution and file format play a role in the quality of your photos, so selecting the right Image Quality option is an important decision. Why not just dial in the maximum quality level and be done with it? Well, that’s the right choice for some photographers. But because choosing that maximum setting has some disadvantages, you may find that stepping down a notch or two on the quality scale is a better option for some pictures.

To help you figure out which setting meets your needs, the rest of this chapter explains exactly how resolution and file format affect your pictures. Just in case you’re having quality problems related to other issues, though, the next section provides a handy quality-defect diagnosis guide.

Diagnosing quality problems

When we use the term picture quality, we’re not talking about the composition, exposure, or other traditional characteristics of a photograph. Instead, we’re referring to how finely the image is rendered in the digital sense.

Figure 2-12 illustrates the concept: The first example is a high-quality image, with clear details and smooth color transitions. The other examples show five common digital-image defects.

FIGURE 2-12: Refer to this symptom guide to determine the cause of poor image quality.

Each defect is related to a different issue, and only two are affected by the Image Quality setting. So if you aren’t happy with your image quality, first compare your photos with those in the figure to properly diagnose the problem. Then try these remedies:

Pixelation: When an image doesn’t have enough pixels (the colored tiles used to create digital images), details aren’t clear, and curved and diagonal lines appear jagged. The fix is to increase image resolution, which you do via the Image Quality setting. See the upcoming section, “Considering Resolution: Large, Medium, or Small?” for details.
JPEG artifacts: The “parquet tile” texture and random color defects that mar the third image in Figure 2-12 can occur in photos captured in the JPEG (jay-peg) file format, which is why these flaws are referred to as JPEG artifacts. This defect is also related to the Image Quality setting; see the “Understanding File Type (JPEG or Raw)” section, later in this chapter, to find out more.
Noise: This defect gives your image a speckled look, as shown in the lower-left example in Figure 2-12. Noise is caused by a high ISO setting or by a long exposure time; Chapter 7 explores these topics and discusses possible remedies.
Color cast: If colors are out of whack, as shown in the lower-middle example in Figure 2-12, try adjusting the camera’s White Balance setting. Chapter 8 covers this control.
Lens/sensor dirt: A dirty lens is the first possible cause of the kind of defects you see in the last example in Figure 2-12. If cleaning your lens doesn’t solve the problem, dust or dirt may have made its way onto the camera’s image sensor.

Your camera has an internal sensor-cleaning mechanism that runs every time you turn the camera on or off. You also can request a cleaning session at any time via the Sensor Cleaning option on Setup Menu 3. If that proves inadequate, a manual sensor cleaning is necessary.

You can do this job yourself, but we don’t recommend it because you can easily damage your camera if you aren’t careful. Instead, find a local camera store that offers this service. Sensor cleaning typically costs about $50, but some places offer the service for free if you bought the camera there.

We stress that we took some image-processing liberties to exaggerate the flaws in the example images to make the symptoms easier to see. With the exception of an unwanted color cast or a big blob of lens or sensor dirt, these defects may not even be noticeable unless you print or view your image at a very large size. And the subject matter of your image may camouflage some flaws; most people probably wouldn’t detect a little JPEG artifacting in a photograph of a densely wooded forest, for example.

In other words, don’t consider Figure 2-12 as an indication that your camera is suspect in the image quality department. By following the guidelines in this chapter and the others mentioned in the preceding list, you can resolve any quality issues that you may encounter.

Decoding the Image Quality options

Your camera’s Image Quality setting determines both the image resolution and file format of the pictures you shoot. To access the control, you can go two routes:

Quick Control screen: In the advanced exposure modes, you can choose the option via the Quick Control screen. To do so, select the Image Quality option, as shown on the left in Figure 2-13. Then rotate the Main dial or Quick Control dial to cycle through the available settings. Or give the option symbol a tap or press the Set button to display the screen shown on the right, which contains all the possible options.

On this screen, tap the options you want to use. Or, if you want to go old-school, use the Main dial to change Raw settings, and the Quick Control dial or the Multi-controller to select a JPEG setting. Tap the Return arrow or press the Set button to finish the job.
Shooting Menu 1: You also can access the Image Quality options via this menu, as shown in Figure 2-14. After you select the menu option, you see the screen shown on the right in Figure 2-13. Going the menu route is the only way to change the setting in the fully automatic exposure modes.

FIGURE 2-13: You can change the Image Quality setting via the Quick Control screen.

FIGURE 2-14: You also can select the option via Shooting Menu 1.

If you’re new to digital photography, the available settings won’t make much sense until you read the rest of this chapter, which explains format and resolution 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 Figure 2-13, the options are presented in rather cryptic fashion, so here’s your decoder ring:

At the bottom of the Quick Settings screen, you see two bits of information about the current setting, as labeled in Figure 2-13: the resolution (pixel count) and the number of subsequent shots you can fit on your memory card at that setting. The next section explains pixels and resolution.
This same information bar appears at the top of the screen when you change the setting via Shooting Menu 1 or the settings screen (refer to the right screen in Figure 2-13). The first value here, though, tells you the total pixel count, measured in megapixels (MP). (A megapixel equals 1 million pixels.)
The next two rows of the settings screen show icons representing the Image Quality settings. The settings marked with the little 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 JPEG 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. Check out the upcoming section “JPEG: The imaging (and web) standard” for details about 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.
For all shooting modes except the HDR Backlight Control and Handheld Night Scene modes, you can select the Raw file format, and you can specify whether you want the file captured at the maximum pixel count (the plain old Raw setting), medium resolution (M), or small (S). The upcoming section “Raw (CR2): The purist’s choice” explains the Raw format.
You can capture the image in both the Raw and JPEG formats. Of course, this option fills up your memory card faster because you’re creating two image files. To bypass one of the two formats, select the horizontal bar at the start of the line. (In Figure 2-13, we deselected the Raw format, for example.)
The Main dial and arrow icons to the right of the file types are a reminder that you can use the Main dial to cycle through the Raw settings and press the Multi-controller right/left to select the JPEG settings. You also can use the Quick Control dial to change the JPEG setting. If the touchscreen is enabled, though, it’s easier to simply tap the setting you want to use.

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 your images on your computer. The rest of this chapter explains these and other issues related to the Image Quality settings.

Considering Resolution: Large, Medium, or Small?

To decide upon 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 2-15, which shows a greatly magnified view of the eye area in the left image.

FIGURE 2-15: Pixels are the building blocks of digital photos.

The number of pixels in an image is referred to as its resolution. Your camera offers five resolution levels, which are assigned the generic labels Large, Medium, and Small (1–3) and are represented by the initials L, M, and S (1–3). Table 2-1 shows you the pixel count that results from each option.

TABLE 2-1 The Resolution Side of the Quality Settings

Symbol	Setting	Pixel Count
L	Large	6000 x 4000 (24MP)
M	Medium	3684 x 2656 (11MP)
S1	Small 1	2976 x 1984 (5.9MP)
S2	Small 2	1920 x 1280 (2.5MP)
S3	Small 3	720 x 480 (0.30MP)

In the table, the first pair of numbers in the Pixel Count column represents the image pixel dimensions — the number of horizontal pixels and the number of vertical pixels. The values in parentheses indicate the total resolution, which you get by multiplying the horizontal and vertical pixel values and dividing by 1 million. 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 2-13). Either way, 1MP equals 1 million pixels.

To choose the right setting, you need to understand the three ways that pixel count affects your pictures:

Print size: Pixel count determines the size at which you can produce a high-quality print. If you don’t have enough pixels, your prints may exhibit the defects you see in the pixelation example in Figure 2-12 — or worse, you may be able to see the individual pixels, as in the right example in Figure 2-15. Depending on your photo printer, you typically need anywhere from 200 to 300 pixels per linear inch, or ppi, of the print. To produce an 8 x 10 print at 200 ppi, for example, you need a pixel count of 1600 x 2000, or just less than 2MP.

Even though many photo-editing programs enable you to add pixels to an existing image, doing so isn’t a good idea. For reasons we won’t bore you with, adding pixels — upsampling — doesn’t enable you to successfully enlarge your photo. In fact, it typically makes matters worse.
Screen display size: Resolution doesn’t affect the quality of images viewed on a monitor, television, or other 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 6. For now, just know that you need way fewer pixels for onscreen photos than you do for printed photos. In fact, the smallest resolution setting available on your camera, 720 x 480 pixels, is plenty for e-mail sharing. At larger sizes, the recipient usually can’t view the entire picture without scrolling the display (or the photo is resized to fit the monitor, which defeats the purpose of having a large file in the first place).
File size: Every additional pixel increases the amount of data required to create a 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, on your computer’s hard drive, and on removable storage media, such as a DVD or external hard drive. (Your camera manual contains a chart showing how many pictures will fit on a specific size memory card at each of the Image Quality settings, if you’re interested.)
- The camera needs more time to process and store the image data on the memory card after you press the shutter button.
- When you share photos online, larger files take longer to upload and download.
- Some email programs refuse to let you attach very large photo files to your messages.
- When you edit photos in your photo software, your computer needs more resources and time to process large files.
Aspect Ratio: The pixels dimensions in Table 2-1 are for photos shot in the standard 3:2 aspect ratio. Different ratios (4:3, 16:9, and 1:1) will produce JPEG files with different dimensions and sizes (3:2 being the largest). Raw files are unchanged, no matter what aspect ratio you choose. See the later section, “Setting the Photo Aspect Ratio,” for information on how to change aspect ratio.

So what do you do 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? Here are our recommendations:

Always shoot at a resolution suitable for print. You then can create a low-resolution copy of the image in your photo editor for use online. Chapter 6 shows you how.
For everyday images, Medium is a good choice. We find the Large setting to be overkill for most casual shooting, creating huge files for no good reason. Keep in mind that even at the Medium setting, your pixel count (3984 x 2656) is enough to produce an 8 x 10 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 2-16 offers an example. When shooting this photo, Julie couldn’t get closer to the butterfly than the first picture shows. But because she had the resolution set to Large, she was able to crop the shot to the composition in the right image and still produce a good print. In fact, she could print it much larger than fits here.
Reduce resolution if shooting speed is paramount or you’re running out of space on your memory card. When you’re shooting action and the shot-to-shot capture time is slower than you’d like, dialing down the resolution may help. And of course, fewer pixels means that you can fit more images in the space available on your memory card. You’ll see the shots-remaining value in the displays increase as you choose a lower resolution setting.

FIGURE 2-16: When you can’t get close enough to fill the frame with the subject, capture the image at the Large resolution setting and crop later.

Understanding File Type (JPEG or Raw)

In addition to establishing resolution, the Image Quality setting determines the file format, which refers to the type of image file that the camera produces. Your 80D offers two formats — JPEG and Raw (sometimes seen as raw or RAW), with a couple variations of each. The next sections explain 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 for digital photos. All web browsers and email programs can display JPEG files, so you can share photos online immediately after you shoot them. You also can get JPEG photos printed at any online or a local printer. Additionally, any program that has photo capabilities, from photo-editing programs to word processing programs, can handle JPEG 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. (Again, look in the camera manual for a chart that shows how many pictures fit within a specified amount of memory at each of the Image Quality settings.)

The downside is that JPEG creates smaller files by applying lossy compression. This process actually throws away some image data. Too much compression leads to the defects you see in the JPEG artifacts example in Figure 2-12.

On your camera, the amount of compression depends on whether you choose an Image Quality setting that carries the label Fine or Normal. The difference between the two breaks down as follows:

Fine: At this setting, represented by the symbol you see in the margin, very little compression is applied, so you shouldn’t see many compression artifacts, if any.
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, as shown in the margin? That’s your reminder that all may not be “smooth” sailing when you choose a Normal setting.

Note, though, that even the Normal setting doesn’t result in anywhere near the level of artifacting that you see in Figure 2-12. Again, that example is exaggerated to help you recognize artifacting defects. In fact, if you keep your print or display size small, you aren't likely to notice a great deal of difference between the Fine and Normal compression levels. The impact of the setting becomes apparent only when you greatly enlarge a photo.

Given that the differences between Fine and Normal aren’t 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 external storage you need for archiving purposes. 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 stick with Fine when shooting in the JPEG format. Or, if you don’t want any risk of artifacting, change the file type to Raw (CR2), explained next.

Whichever format you select, be aware of one more important rule for preserving the original image quality: If you retouch pictures in your photo software, don’t save the altered images in the JPEG format. Every time you alter and save an image in the JPEG format, you apply another round of lossy compression. And with enough editing, saving, and compressing, you can eventually get to the level of image degradation shown in the JPEG example in Figure 2-12, at the start of this chapter. (Simply opening and closing the file does no harm.)

Always save your edited photos in a nondestructive format. TIFF is a good choice and is a file-saving option available in most photo-editing programs. Should you want to share the edited image online, create a JPEG copy of the TIFF file when you finish making all your changes. That way, you always retain one copy of the photo at the original quality captured by the camera.

Raw (CR2): The purist’s choice

When you shoot in any exposure mode except the HDR Backlight Control or Handheld Night Scene mode, you can choose a format called 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). You’ll see that three-letter designation at the end of your picture filenames on your computer.

Raw is popular with advanced photographers, for three 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 settings you chose). With Raw, the camera simply records the original, unprocessed image data. The photographer then copies the image file to the computer and uses raw conversion software 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.
Higher bit depth: Bit depth is a measure of how many distinct 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 the 80D, 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 really 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 of course, as with most things in life, Raw isn’t without its disadvantages. To wit:

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 (available online), 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 must spend in front of the computer.

For times when you want to process Raw files and a computer isn’t handy, your camera has a built-in Raw-to-JPEG converter. We show you how to use it as well as the converter in the Canon software in Chapter 6. Note that the in-camera converter works only on files captured at the first (largest) Raw setting, though. It refuses to play with files captured using the Raw (M) or Raw (S) setting.
Raw files are larger than comparable JPEGs. Unlike JPEGs, Raw doesn’t apply lossy compression to shrink files. This means that Raw files are significantly larger than JPEGs, so they take up more room on your memory card and on your computer’s hard drive or other picture-storage devices. Thankfully, the 80D has three sizes of Raw files for you to choose from:
- Raw: Captures the photo at the Large setting (6000 x 4000 pixels)
- M Raw: Produces a Medium file (4500 x 3000 pixels)
- S Raw: Limits the pixel count to 3000 x 2000 (about the same as the JPEG Small 1 option)
That enables you to shrink the file size by reducing the photo’s resolution, but not at the expense of overall quality. (It may interest you to know that Medium and Small Raw exposures are only slightly larger than Medium and S1 JPEGs on the 80D.)

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.

Our take: Choose Fine or Raw

At this point, you may be finding all this technical goop a bit much — that baffled look on your face is a giveaway — so allow us to simplify things for you. Until you have time or energy to completely digest all the ramifications of JPEG versus Raw, here’s a quick summary:

If you require the absolute best image quality and have the time and interest to do the Raw conversion process, shoot Raw. Choose a size that matches your output need: Small for onscreen, Medium for most printing needs, and Large for the largest size possible. Again, though, remember that the in-camera converter works only on the Large size Raw files (that is, not M Raw or S Raw). See Chapter 6 for more information on the conversion process.
If great photo quality is good enough and you don’t have wads of time to process Raw images, stick with one of the Fine JPEG settings (Large/Fine, Medium/Fine, or Small/Fine).
To enjoy the best of both worlds, consider capturing the picture in both formats — 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.
Finally, remember that the format and resolution together determine the ultimate picture quality. So be sure that you select the Image Quality setting that offers both the appropriate number of pixels and format for how you plan to use your image. If you capture an image at the Small/Normal setting, for example, and then print the photo at a large size, the combination of a lower pixel count and a higher level of JPEG compression may produce disappointing picture quality.