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By Anne Davis, May 10, 2010 9:02 am

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1. There is a correct way to press the shutter button. After you frame the shot, press and hold the shutter button  halfway down. When focus is established, the camera will give a little beep.  The focus indicator is a little green light that indicates that the camera has locked focus. It is located on the far right side of the viewfinder screen. Then you press the shutter button the rest of the way down to record the image.
2. Early morning and late afternoons (right before the sunrise) usually provide the best lighting so try to take your photographs at that time of day. For any time of day though make sure the sun is at your back as much as possible.
3. You can adjust the viewfinder focus to suit your eyesight. Right at the top-right edge of the viewfinder is a tiny black knob called the dioptric adjustment control.  To do this first remove the lens cap from the front of the lens. Look through the viewfinder and you will see the focusing screen which contains a group of nine autofocus points. They are little squares with dots inside. Rotate the viewfinder adjustment knob until the autofocus points seem to be in focus. Don’t worry about the actual picture now; just pay attention to the sharpness of the autofocus points.
4. A lot of the buttons on the T1i have multiple names because they serve multiple purposes. It all depends on if you are taking pictures, reviewing pictures, or doing some other function.
5. You access many of your camera’s features through the internal menus that appear on the monitor when you press the Menu button. There are nine menus. Color has a purpose on these menus. Shooting Menus and the Movie Menu are red. Playback menus are blue. The “My Menu” icon is green.

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By Anne Davis, January 26, 2010 1:44 pm

Sometimes you can have mixed-lighting scenes and not be sure which preset white balance option to choose. Aha! There’s a good solution. You can set a custom white balance that will work for the exact, specific light or combination of light types in your setting. Here’s how:

1. Get a piece of white paper or you can elect to buy cards from camera shops that are made for just this specific purpose.
2. Set the camera to the exposure mode you use the most. (I use Av but you could also choose P, Tv, M, A-DEP exposure mode.)
3. Set the white balance setting to any setting except Custom.
4. Get in the light where you will be shooting.
5. Set the camera to Manual Focusing. Manual Focusing is found on a switch on the side of the lens. You will see AF/MF. Select MF.
6. Make sure you frame the shot so that your white paper fills the center area of the view finder. The center auto focus pont and the six surrounding points need to fall over the white paper.
7. Press the Menu button. Turn the Main dial to select the Shooting 2 (red) menu.
8. Press the up and down cross keys to highlight Custom White Balance, and then press the SET button.  You should see the image of the white paper with a Custom White Balance icon in the upper left corner. If you do not see the image of the white paper keep pressing the left key until you do.
9. Press the SET button again. A  screen will appear asking if you want to use the white balance data from this image of the custom white balance. Press the right arrow to highlight OK, and then press the SET button. A second  screen appears. Press the SET button to select OK. Press the Shutter button to eliminate the menu. The camera imports the white balance data from the selected image.
10. Press the WB button on the back of the camera, and then press the arrows to select Custom White Balance. The White balance screen appears. The Custom White Balance setting is identified with text and is labeled by an icon with two triangles on their sides with a black dot between them.
11. Press the SET button.

AGAIN, this is worth a repeat – you do have to remember to change the white balance when the light changes.

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By Anne Davis, January 23, 2010 12:47 pm

Learning about white balance has definitely helped improve my photographs. My shots are less blue and the overall casts are less cold looking. One technique I discovered lets you preview different white balance settings using Live View. Here are the steps:

1. Press the Live View Button.
2. Press the SET button. You will see a small menu that appears on the left side of the screen.
3. Use the up and down arrows to choose the white balance menu item.
4. Turn the Main dial to navigate through the different white balance settings.

The display on the T1i may not be totally color accurate, but it will let you note the differences between the white balance settings.

One thing you do have to remember though is to change the white balance when the light changes. It is really hard to correct a bad whilte balance later in a software image editing program so try to get the white balance correct from the start.

I’ve been learning a lot about white balance and trying different things out. More practice is needed on these last two posts but I have other things yet to try. I’ll be back in a bit with more!

One last thing – even though there is so much to learn it is a lot of fun to learn and I’m OK with my slow pace now. I’m immersed in a web of information, terms and confusion still reigns but I’m weaving my way through it.  I’m learning a lot by just taking in the shots other people are making on the Flickr: 2010/365 photo group.  There are some amazing shots to view – hope to get there one day in the future!!

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By Anne Davis, January 3, 2010 9:39 pm

I decided to start the new year by joining a Flickr group called 2010/365photos. Here’s a blurb from their description of the group:

This group was started for 2008/366photos, was used for 2009/365photos, and will likely be running for years to come.

A photo per day project for 2010 – 365 photos by the end of the year. No rules, except that you shoot one photo per day. Doesn’t matter of what, or with what.

The group started when a bunch of folks, mostly edubloggers, on Twitter decided to do the project in 2008. It grew like crazy in 2009. Who knows what 2010 will bring…

I’ve also started a new blog, Anne’s 2010/365 Photos,  to display my 365 photos. This commitment is what I need and I think this project will be a lot of fun as well as give me plenty of opportunities to practice!

D’Arcy Norman pointed us to Jason Webber’s post Tips for ‘One Photo a Day’ project. He makes excellent suggestions. I laughed when I read one tip as I have already spent way too much time thinking about these first 3 pictures!  So as I travel this journey I will keep tip #9 on my mind! I’m sure I will have more than one or two shots a month as cop-outs but I hope to stay the course!

9. Accept the odd ‘cop-out’ shot
This project is a marathon, not a sprint and even the most enthusiastic of us have our low, un-inspired days. On days like these, take a shot of anything and just live with it and certainly don’t beat yourself up for not keeping to your usual standard. At least one or two of my shots a month are cop-outs, but the point is that I haven’t missed a day!

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