Canon EOS 70D Manual
  1. Manuals
  2. Brands
  3. Canon Manuals
  4. Digital Camera
  5. EOS 70D
  6. Manual
Canon EOS 70D Manual

Canon EOS 70D Manual

Hide thumbs Also See for EOS 70D:
Table of Contents

Advertisement

Quick Links

Download this manual
Get great detail
in your subjects!
Canon EOS 70D
From Snapshots to Great Shots
Nicole S. Young
Learn the best
ways to compose
your pictures!

Advertisement

Table of Contents
loading

Related Manuals for Canon EOS 70D

Summary of Contents for Canon EOS 70D

  • Page 1 Get great detail in your subjects! Canon EOS 70D From Snapshots to Great Shots Learn the best ways to compose your pictures! Nicole S. Young...
  • Page 2 Canon EOS 70D: From Snapshots Great Shots Nicole S. Young...
  • Page 3 “From Snapshots to Great Shots” is a trademark, in the U.S. and/or other countries, of Pearson Education, Inc. or its affiliates. All Canon products are trademarks or registered trademarks of Canon Inc. Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks.
  • Page 4 Dedication To Brian, my husband, best friend, and biggest fan. I love you!
  • Page 5 Acknowledgments There are a lot of things that go on behind the scenes when creating a publication, such as this book. This being my fifth print book with Peachpit, I’ve come to really appreciate the efforts and contributions that everyone puts into making things come together beau- tifully.
  • Page 6 Contents INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 1: THE 70D TOP TEN LIST Ten tips to make your shooting more productive right out of the box Poring Over the Camera Poring Over the Camera 1. Charge the Battery 2. Turn Off the Release Shutter Without Card Setting 3.

  • Page 7: Table Of Contents

    CHAPTER 3: CAMERA SHOOTING MODES Using the camera’s mode settings Poring Over the Picture Poring Over the Picture The Basic Zone The Creative Zone The Custom Setting Mode How I Shoot: A Closer Look at the Camera Settings I Use Chapter 3 Assignments CHAPTER 4: SAY CHEESE! Settings and features to make great portraits...

  • Page 8: Poring Over The Picture

    CHAPTER 6: MOVING TARGET Techniques and tricks with action photography Poring Over the Picture Stop Right There! Using Shutter Priority (Tv) Mode to Stop Motion Using Aperture Priority (Av) Mode to Isolate Your Subject Setting Up Your Camera for Continuous Shooting and Autofocus Manual Focus for Anticipated Action A Sense of Motion Tips for Shooting Action...

  • Page 9: How I Shoot: A Closer Look At The Camera Settings I Use

    Patterns, Textures, and Shapes Color Leading Lines Rule of Thirds Frames within Frames Chapter 8 Assignments CHAPTER 9: LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION! Making movies with the Canon 70D Poring Over the Video Camera Getting Started Exposure Settings for Video Composition Focusing Audio...

  • Page 10: Chapter 3 Assignments

    Q: What can I expect to learn from this book? A: My goal in writing this book is to help owners of the Canon 70D learn more about the camera’s specific settings and features, and put that knowledge to use to make great images.
  • Page 11 ISO 160 • 1/125 sec. • f/2.8 • 40mm lens...

  • Page 12: Chapter 4: Say Cheese

    Say Cheese! Settings and features to make great portraits Photographing people is challenging, rewarding, and fun all at the same time. When you photograph a person, you are capturing a memory, a moment in time. Images of friends and family often become our most cherished possessions.

  • Page 13: Poring Over The Picture

    Poring Over the Picture Whenever I visit my family back in Nebraska, my nieces and nephews end up being the main subjects of my photographs. Oftentimes I bring them outside and have them smile for me, or just play around, in order to get photos for the family. For this photo, the front yard was shaded, which gave me a good opportunity to get some nice images of my nephew playing in the grass.
  • Page 14 I positioned his face in the upper-right third of the image for a pleasing composition. Because my nephew was on the ground, I got down low to photograph him at eye level.

  • Page 15: Poring Over The Picture

    Poring Over the Picture It was a cloudy day, so I was able to achieve a balanced exposure with nice, soft light throughout the entire scene. Her brightly colored pink shirt was very complementary to the green fields in the background. ISO 400 •...
  • Page 16 I used a very fast shutter speed to “freeze” the dirt in midair. A wide aperture combined with a long lens allowed me to blur the background, giving separation between the woman and the fields behind her. While on a trip to Vietnam, I decided to be adventurous and hire a man with a motorbike to drive me around the countryside.

  • Page 17: Using Aperture Priority Mode

    Using Aperture Priority Mode In the previous chapter, you learned about the different shooting modes, and that when photographing people you’re likely to be most successful using Aperture Priority (Av) mode. With portraits, we usually like to see a nice, soft, out-of-focus background, and you can only guarantee that you’ll achieve those results if you have control of the aperture setting (Figure 4.1).
  • Page 18 Go Wide for Environmental Portraits Sometimes you’ll find that a person’s environment is important to the story you want to tell. When photographing people this way, you will want to use a smaller aperture for greater depth of field (which will put more of your background in focus) so that you can include details of the scene surrounding the subject.

  • Page 19: Lighting Is Everything 100

    Lighting Is Everything Photography is all about capturing light, so the most important thing in all of your images is the quality of the light on your subject. When you photograph people, you typically have a lot of control over when and where the image is taken, so you can manipulate your environment and find the best-possible light for your subject.
  • Page 20 The second way to light your images outdoors is to use the light that occurs during the “golden hour” of the day. This is the time period that occurs one hour after sunrise and one hour before sunset (many photographers are more likely to use the evening light since it’s more convenient).
  • Page 21 The flash can also be useful if you are in a situation where the afternoon sunlight is the only light available and you need to use a fill light. A fill light will “fill in” the areas in your subject that are not already lit by the main light—in this case, the sun. When pho- tographing people outdoors in the direct sunlight, you don’t want them to face directly into the light.
  • Page 22 3. Use the Multi-Controller to select Flash Exposure Compensation (B), and then press the Set button. 4. Use any dial to increase or decrease the flash exposure (this is similar to exposure compensation, but you are affecting only the amount of light that your flash will generate for each shot).
  • Page 23 There are other options for filling in areas of your image that need additional light. A reflector is a very common and inexpensive accessory that you can use to bounce light back onto your subject. You can buy these at any camera store, but you could even use a large piece of white foam core or anything that is reflective (like a sunshade for the wind- shield of your car) to get similar results.
  • Page 24 2. Press the Set button, and then choose the metering mode that you would like to use (I recommend starting with Evaluative) (B). 3. You can also change this setting on the LCD panel on the top of the camera. Just press the Metering Mode selection button and use the Main Dial to scroll through the different settings (C).

  • Page 25: Focusing: The Eyes Have It 106

    Focusing: The Eyes Have It When you look at a person, probably the very first thing you notice is their eyes—it’s just natural to make eye contact with other people, and we even do this with pets and other animals. This is extremely important when creating photographs, because you want to be sure that your focus is on your subject’s eyes (Figure 4.8).
  • Page 26 Figure 4.9 I focused on this woman’s right eye because it was closest to the camera. ISO 200 • 1/125 sec. • f/2.8 • 35mm lens 4 : S AY C H E E S E !
  • Page 27 Focusing tip for portrait work When focusing on your subject’s eyes, do your best to focus on the iris (the colored part of the eye- ball). This is especially important if you are doing a very close-up portrait where the person’s face fills most of the frame, since the focus area will be much more noticeable.
  • Page 28 Another option for photographing people is to use Live View’s facial detection features. The Canon 70D has the ability to detect and track human faces, allowing you to focus on those faces quickly. Basically, the camera...
  • Page 29 Setting up face tracking in Live View 1. Click the Menu button and scroll to the first Live View shooting menu item (the fifth menu item from the left). Scroll down to the AF Method option and press the Set button (A). (Also make sure that your lens is set to AF.) 2.

  • Page 30: Composing People And Portraits 111

    Note: If you have more than one person in the scene, the camera will recognize this and give you the option to select which face you would like to focus on and track (E). When this hap- pens, two arrows will appear on either side of the white frame;...
  • Page 31 you should get in so close that you have nothing in the shot but your subject’s face, but rather that you should be close enough so that you aren’t adding anything to the image that you don’t want to see. This is usually done by sticking to the third-line principle of framing the head near the top third of the frame.
  • Page 32 Perspective When shooting with your 70D, it’s very easy to take all of your images from a standing position. This of course will vary in height from person to person, but so will the people you are photographing. I usually carry a small stepladder when I go on location so I can vary my height with the people I’m photographing, especially since I’m shorter than most other people.
  • Page 33 Break the Rules! So now that I’ve given you all of these great rules to follow when composing your image, the last rule I’m going to tell you is to break all of them! Don’t think that you always need to keep an image off-center or that you have to photograph children at their level all the time (Figure 4.14).

  • Page 34: Quick Tips For Shooting Better Portraits 115

    I encourage you to do the same. You can make black-and-white conversions, along with many other types of adjustments to your images, using the Canon Digital Photo Professional software on the disc included with your camera. Another option is to play with the 70D’s “Grainy Black and White”...
  • Page 35 Avoid the Center of the Frame This falls under the category of composition. Place your subject to the side of the frame (Figure 4.16)—it just looks more interesting than plunking them smack dab in the middle. Figure 4.16 An off-center image creates a pleasing composition.
  • Page 36 Use Your Surroundings Close-up portraits are always nice, but don’t forget about what’s all around you! Including a person’s surroundings and environment can add a lot to a portrait image, and even tell a story or help portray a person’s personality (Figure 4.18). Sunblock for Portraits The midday sun can be harsh and can do unflattering things to people’s faces.
  • Page 37 Keep an Eye on Your Background Sometimes it’s so easy to get caught up in taking a great shot that you forget about the smaller details. Try to keep an eye on what is going on behind your subject so they don’t end up with things popping out of their heads.
  • Page 38 Get Down on Their Level If you want better pictures of children, don’t shoot from an adult’s eye level. Getting the camera down to the child’s level will make your images look more personal (Figure 4.22). Don’t Be Afraid to Get Close When you are taking someone’s picture, don’t be afraid of getting close and filling the frame (Figure 4.23).
  • Page 39 Find Candid Moments Sometimes the best images are the ones that aren’t posed. Find moments when people are just being themselves (Figure 4.24) and use a faster shutter speed to capture expres- sions that happen quickly (Figure 4.25). Figure 4.24 Sometimes the best photos are the ones that weren’t...
  • Page 40 Figure 4.26 Try photographing portraits from different angles and perspectives. ISO 100 • 1/30 sec. • f/13 • 14mm lens 4 : S AY C H E E S E !
  • Page 41 Figure 4.27 Unique points of view can make a photograph fun and exciting. ISO 100 • 1/1000 sec. • f/4.5 • 18–50mm lens C A N O N E O S 7 0 D : F R O M S N A P S H O T S T O G R E AT S H O T S...

  • Page 42: Chapter 4 Assignments 123

    Chapter 4 Assignments Play with depth of field in portraits Let’s start with something simple. Grab your favorite person and start experimenting with using differ- ent aperture settings. Shoot wide open (the widest your lens goes, such as f/2.8 or f/4) and then really stopped down (such as f/22).
  • Page 43 Index AE Lock/FE Lock/Index/Reduce shutter speed, 84 Button, 3 using, 83–84 AEB (Auto Exposure Bracket) mode, backgrounds using with HDR images, 150 blurring, 47 AF (autofocus) considering in portraits, 118 action photography, 165–169 in creative compositions, 214 Basic Zone assist beam, 193–194 AF Area Selection Mode Button, 4 Ambience setting, 63 2nd Curtain option...
  • Page 44 271 Mode dial, 4 environmental portraits, shooting, 99 Soft Focus, 258 Mode Dial Lock-Release Button, 4 EOS 70D Wi-Fi Instruction Manual, 25 Toy Camera, 258 Shutter Button, 4 EOS Remote app, downloading, 21 Water Painting, 258 Strap Mount, 4 Erase Button, 3 creative photography.
  • Page 45 exposure time, increasing, 130 setting AF point, 108 resizing, 262 exposure triangle tip for portraits, 108 reviewing, 31 aperture, 48 using AF-ON button for, 201 sharpening via self-timers, 195 ISO, 48 formats, RAW vs. JPEG, 40–43. See also viewing up close, 30 shutter speed, 48 image formats in-camera image editing...
  • Page 46 focusing tips, 140 taking in dark, 206 reducing red-eye, 199–201 golden hour, 138 low light, focusing in, 191 resetting focus point, 192 HFD (hyperfocal distance), 140, 152 low-speed continuous shooting, 166 second curtain sync, 202–203 ISO, 134–136 shooting long exposures, 194–196 shooting, 130 motion.
  • Page 47 199–201, 207 playing movies, 236–237 Connect Smartphone option, 22 Red-Eye Reduction/Self-Timer Lamp, 2 point of view, 218–219 connecting to Canon 70D, 21–24, Release Shutter Without Card setting, pop-up flash turning off, 6–7 setting up, 102 Easy Connection, 23...
  • Page 48 using with videos, 242 Video mode white balance settings image quality, 235 Auto, 12 warning about IS lenses, 131 RAW/JPEG setting, 235 Cloudy, twilight, sunset, 12 Tv: Shutter Priority mode. See also video quality Color temperature, 12 shutter speeds 280×720, 232 Custom, 12 controlling time, 91 640×480, 232...

Table of Contents