How to use Canon 60D to the max on CA roadtrip?
March 8, 2012 11:20 AM
Travelling through California to Las Vegas, and I want to know how to take the best possible pictures with the camera equipment I have.
I'm going on a road trip from San Francisco to Las Vegas, and on the way I'll be hitting some national parks and the natural beauty of southern CA. I want to primarily want to take landscape and nature pictures on the way, as well as standard holiday snaps.
I have a Canon 60D with the Canon EF-S 18-135mm lens, plus a polarizing filter. I currently don't have a tripod. My knowledge of how to use the camera is pretty basic - I can set the exposure time to try and get the kind of shots I want, but that's about it.
What can I do to take the best shots I can? Photography is a bit of a secondary hobby for me, but I very much enjoy the process of finding, framing and taking pictures, and I want to make the most of the opportunity. I've thought about investing in another more suitable lens, and am open to suggestions, but most generic advice I see for photography says learns to use what you have well.
Thanks in advance!
I'm going on a road trip from San Francisco to Las Vegas, and on the way I'll be hitting some national parks and the natural beauty of southern CA. I want to primarily want to take landscape and nature pictures on the way, as well as standard holiday snaps.
I have a Canon 60D with the Canon EF-S 18-135mm lens, plus a polarizing filter. I currently don't have a tripod. My knowledge of how to use the camera is pretty basic - I can set the exposure time to try and get the kind of shots I want, but that's about it.
What can I do to take the best shots I can? Photography is a bit of a secondary hobby for me, but I very much enjoy the process of finding, framing and taking pictures, and I want to make the most of the opportunity. I've thought about investing in another more suitable lens, and am open to suggestions, but most generic advice I see for photography says learns to use what you have well.
Thanks in advance!
I have to agree with the advice you've already seen. Nice camera, all-purpose lens. Learn to use them. Any significant improvement in your photos will be 95% usage-related, not equipment.
The quickest thing you could learn is how to use the semi-automatic mode (it's a 'P' on my low-end Canon dSLR). You can control when the flash comes on, and do some amount of control of exposure. For instance, say you're shooting a landscape with a bright cloudy sky. On automatic mode, it will likely expose the landscape too dark because of the bright clouds. On P mode, you point the camera where more of the land is in the photo, less sky, then press the 'take photo' button half down. This sets the exposure for the current view, then raise the camera to get more sky. Exposure will be better adjusted for the ground.
Same for focus. Let's say you want to take a photo of a person in the near foreground and a big landscape background, but with the person towards the edge of the frame. Automatic mode will set for the landscape to be in focus, person might be fuzzy. Point the camera more directly at the person, so that it autofocuses on them, half-press and hold the button then reframe the shot with the person on the side.
posted by tippiedog at 1:24 PM on March 8, 2012
The quickest thing you could learn is how to use the semi-automatic mode (it's a 'P' on my low-end Canon dSLR). You can control when the flash comes on, and do some amount of control of exposure. For instance, say you're shooting a landscape with a bright cloudy sky. On automatic mode, it will likely expose the landscape too dark because of the bright clouds. On P mode, you point the camera where more of the land is in the photo, less sky, then press the 'take photo' button half down. This sets the exposure for the current view, then raise the camera to get more sky. Exposure will be better adjusted for the ground.
Same for focus. Let's say you want to take a photo of a person in the near foreground and a big landscape background, but with the person towards the edge of the frame. Automatic mode will set for the landscape to be in focus, person might be fuzzy. Point the camera more directly at the person, so that it autofocuses on them, half-press and hold the button then reframe the shot with the person on the side.
posted by tippiedog at 1:24 PM on March 8, 2012
I agree with the gorillapod or I have one of these that I like a lot.
Also, if you're not already doing it, these days, post-processing can make such a dramatic improvement. Learn to use a simple photo editing app. I use and love Picasa.
posted by tippiedog at 1:35 PM on March 8, 2012
Also, if you're not already doing it, these days, post-processing can make such a dramatic improvement. Learn to use a simple photo editing app. I use and love Picasa.
posted by tippiedog at 1:35 PM on March 8, 2012
Pick the right time of day. Just after sunrise and the last hours before sunset.
posted by pianomover at 2:46 PM on March 8, 2012
posted by pianomover at 2:46 PM on March 8, 2012
This thread is closed to new comments.
Gorillapod: a flexible tripod with articulating legs that can attach your camera to virtually anything (and do some regular tripod stuff). So, attach it to a tree or signpost. I have a 5D Mark II (with a battery grip) and much bigger lenses than the 18-135, and the Gorillapod does fine by it (though I'm less inclined to be adventurous with it--I it for applications well within its capabilities--I don't hang the camera upside down with this camera/lens).
Shutter release cable. You can get them pretty cheap; link is to a knockoff. You can set the length of an exposure (or use it to take a series of images, i.e., 1 a minute for an hour). It's great fun. With the Gorillapod, you will be able to take some great night shots in national parks.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 11:29 AM on March 8, 2012