Beginner Camera Tips, Advice and Recommendations

Howdy T1i friends! I wanted to make an official announcement about my new site that's all about giving camera tips and advice to beginners. You can find the new site by going to CameraTips.com

Camera Tips is dedicated to helping those who are just getting started in the world of photography. Most people begin their photographic journey with a budget compact camera and a creative mind. Some of those people get bit by the "photo bug" and begin to learn the ins and outs of taking great images.

As their interest grows, they decide to upgrade their budget compact to an advanced compact, a superzoom or even a DSLR. That's where I step in to guide them through the process.

I answer beginners questions about equipment, lenses, external flashes, memory cards, bags and anything else you can think of when it comes to using a digital camera.

This blog will remain as a helpful resource for T1i owners! If you've got questions about your T1i, I'd still be glad to help you out...just mosey on over to camera tips and shoot me a comment or question.

Happy shooting!

Which focus mode should you use with your Canon Rebel T1i?

While shooting some photos this weekend at my family's Christmas party, I found myself accessing the AF mode menu a few times and decided to write a quick post about the Canon Rebel T1i focusing options.

On the back of the Canon T1i next to the LCD you will see the four way controller with a 'Set" button in the middle of it. Click on the right arrow button that's labeled 'AF'. Once the 'AF' button is clicked you will see the AF mode menu with options.

The first option is One Shot AF. In this mode focus is set when you half press the shutter button. This can be helpful in a couple different scenarios. If you are taking a picture of someone against a beautiful landscape or monument, this mode allows you to lock focus on your subject and then gives you the freedom to reframe the shot for better composition.

The second option is called AI Servo AF, also known as Continuous Autofocus. This mode is best suited for sports or kids who can't sit still to take a picture. In this mode when you half press the shutter button, the camera begins to focus on the subject. The Canon T1i will continue adjusting focus as long as long as the shutter button is still half pressed. This mode is not suited for 'framing' your subject like the One Shot AF mode...again it is best suited for subjects with lots of movement.

The last option is AI Focus AF, which is a combination of One Shot and AI Servo. In this mode you can half press to focus on your subject and then frame the shot for better composition. If your subject, say your kids decide to run towards you the T1i will then switch automatically into AI Servo, or continuous autofocus.

Of the three options, I found myself using the AI Focus AF on my Rebel T1i at the Christmas party. It allowed me to get some great shots of my nephews and nieces playing outside, while also giving me the ability to lock focus on family members and reframing for better composition.

If you haven't experimented with the different autofocus modes on the Canon T1i, I highly recommend it.

A Review of The Digital Photography Book by Scott Kelby and Tips for taking Great photos with your Canon T1i

Tell me if this has ever happened to you…you purchase a new camera and immediately snap into photo overdrive taking images of anyone and everything.

Photo taken by Aaron M Jones

After a few months, the excitement wears off or you take a series of bad photos and you think to yourself, “It may be time to get a new camera.”

Let me answer that little voice in your head… “It’s not time for a new camera, it’s time to practice!”

I know what you’re thinking, nobody likes practice. Growing up I played every kind of sport. I absolutely hated practice. If it was up to me I would just show up to the game and play with absolutely no preparation…mind you I was 10 years old at the time. :)

This happens to beginner photographers all the time. They want to take amazing photos right out of the box without ever reading the manual or knowing the basics of photography.

Imagine if I had shown up to baseball practice and swung a bat like my favorite golfer. Would I actually hit anything? Now imagine if I learned the fundamentals of baseball like the proper way to swing a bat and how to keep my eye on the ball. Would I have a better chance at hitting the baseball? I know it’s a cheesy comparison, but the message is still the same… “Practice makes perfect.”

Now that my pep talk is out of the way, I want to encourage beginner photographers to open up that boring manual and start going through the different features on your Canon T1i. You’ll be surprised at the wealth of knowledge you’ll find in that little booklet.

As you go through the manual, follow along with your T1i. I find that a change of scenery can help your brain absorb more information than it’s normally used to. So go down to a local park, find a nice grassy spot and make yourself comfortable. As you go through the manual, get up and experiment with each setting. Even if it’s just a few photographs, you’ll find that by applying what your reading it will make much more sense to you.

I also recommend that you purchase a great “How to” book that won’t put you to sleep...that book is called “The Digital Photography Book” written by Scott Kelby who is a well known photography speaker and teacher.



I personally own Volume’s 1, 2 and 3 and can tell you from experience that there are no better books out there for learning HOW to take amazing photographs in different shooting situations.


Scott Kelby's Digital Photography Boxed Set is
On Sale at Amazon, click here to see the sale price!

What I like about Scott Kelby’s books is that he doesn’t overload you with tons of details, instead he shows you how to take a photo as if he were standing right next to you. This type of hands-on approach really helped me grow as a beginner photographer.

He covers many of the most popular topics like macro photography, portrait photography, photographing kids, wedding photography, sports photography, etc..

My wife began reading his books. She made it a point to go out every Thursday for 1 hour to practice the different shooting situations he talks about in his books. Most of the time she had to shoot at 7am or 5pm due to her work schedule, but as you’ll find out...those are the best times to take extraordinary photographs due the way the sun is positioned in the sky.

Her photographs began to look better and better each time she went out. I remember her first Thursday practice...she took almost 600 images. Out of those 600 images I would consider 10 of them to be “good” and 1 of them was “amazing.”

The second time she went out and took 500 photos and out of those she had 50 “good” images and 10 “amazing” images.

The third time she went out and took 200 photos and out of those she had 75 “good” images and 20 “amazing” images.

Every time she went out, she spent more and more time focusing on lighting and composition, versus taking lots and lots of photos hoping to find a needle in the haystack.

The number of images she took went down, while the number of “keepers” went up.

In fact, I walked by my wife's computer after her third practice and thought she had purchased a bunch of photos from some stock photography site. When she got home, I was like “Why did you purchase a bunch of photos online? Isn’t that why we got you such a nice camera?” She decided to play along and said, “Well honey, I’m trying to learn how to become a better photographer so I wanted something to strive for.” I said "You should go return that camera if you intended on purchasing photos rather than taking them." She then broke out in laughter and told me that the photos were hers. It took some convincing, but eventually I believed the real story and was extremely impressed with what she had accomplished.

You’ll find that with practice, photo opportunities just seem to appear in front of you, almost as if you’ve opened your eyes for the very first time.

This is when photography becomes really, really FUN...although I’ll warn you, it becomes very addicting!

If you’re ready to go out into the world and begin practicing your newly found photography skills, take a moment and freshen up on the following…

1. Aperture Priority (Allows you to play with depth of field…like blurry backgrounds called ‘Bokeh’ or sharp landscape photos where everything is in focus.)
   
   Photo taken by Lucid-Dreams
   
   
2. Shutter Priority (Allows you to play with movement…like a photo that shows fast moving water or one that stops a motocross biker in mid-air.)
   
   Photo taken by digitaltree515
   
   
3. ISO Speeds (Allows you to play with light…like a photo on a bright sunny day or a photo of a city skyline at night.)
   
   Photo taken by jddroske
   
   

If you can learn these 3 basic features which are found on the Canon Rebel T1i and many other digital cameras, you’ll have the tools necessary to begin experimenting with everything from high action sports photography to in your face macro photography.

Until next time, happy shooting!

Canon T1i Rebate - And an Update!

Hello friends and T1i photogs! It's been a few weeks since I last updated this great blog for my fellow Canon Rebel T1i owners, so I thought I would let you know what I was up to.

My brother Griz and I have been working on a few photography projects together. I can't give out the name just yet, but we are working on a site that will allow Canon T1i photographers from across the world to share insights, tips and photographs so that you can get the best out of your camera.

Until we get the site up and running I wanted to let you know about a brand spankin' new Canon T1i rebate. Essentially Canon has offered a $200 instant rebate when you purchase the Canon T1i kit which includes the (18-55 IS Lens) and the Canon EF-S 55-250mm IS lens together at the same time between November 29, 2009 and January 16, 2010.

Now I know that searching for rebates can be a real hassle since Canon doesn't always display them on their site and when they do list them, it's quite hard to figure out which cameras, lenses and flashes are included in the rebate.

You may not know this, but some of their rebates are given out to camera shops without any mention about it online. To bridge the gap my brother and I launched a Canon rebates site that lists out all of the current Canon rebates in a sortable table. The table will allow you to sort cameras, lenses, and flashes in alphabetical order, by rebate value, expiration date, etc...



The idea with the site is to provide a valuable resource to Canon owners about the current rebates that Canon is offering in a clear and easy list that's updated on a regular basis.

I've received numerous emails from people I have met through this blog and they have given me some great ideas and ways to make the rebates site even better.
So if you're eyeing a lens to add to your Canon T1i or wishing for a point and shoot that can slip into your pocket, mosey on over to Canon-Rebates.com so you can save a few extra dollars on your next purchase.

I promise that if you've sent me an email I will get to it. I've received lots of emails over the past few weeks and I'm writing each and every one of you back, I promise!

In the meantime, I'd like to start a friendly Canon T1i photo competition with a giveaway to the winner. If you have any ideas for some photo competitions that we could post on this site, leave me a comment or shoot me and email to canont1i@gmail(dot)com.

Until next time, happy shooting!

Canon T1i Lenses

This guide will shed some light on the best lenses for the Canon T1i. It will also help you decide which lens is right for you're style of photography.

There are two groups of Canon T1i owners out there, those who purchased the kit which included the 18-55mm IS lens and those who purchased the Canon T1i body without the included lens.

When deciding on purchasing a lens for the Canon T1i, there are a few things to consider:

Price - Going out and purchasing expensive lenses can be hard to do, especially in today's economy. As a beginner photographer, it is best to keep your lens budget between the $100 and $300 range. Don't worry there are many great T1i lenses for that price.

Zoom - If you purchased the Canon T1i kit, chances are you're going to want a telephoto lens that has a little more reach. If you didn't purchase the T1i kit, you're probably going to want to purchase 2 lenses...one for wide angle shots and another for telephoto shots.

Aperture - When purchasing lenses for the T1i, you'll want to make sure that the maximum aperture value is at least f/3.5. The lower your f/stop number, the more light the lens is emitting to the image sensor...which translates to better photos in low light conditions.

Image Quality - Lenses can vary in image quality, so it is imperative that you choose lenses that have been proven to produce very sharp images. Continue below to see my recommended lenses for the T1i.

Size - You'll want to think about size, especially if you plan on doing a lot of photography that requires you to walk around the with Canon T1i strapped to your neck. A big heavy lens can be cumbersome, especially on an all day outing, so make sure you think about lens size when purchasing.

Recommended Canon T1i Lenses...
In rating these lenses, I took all of the above factors into consideration.

Best Starter Lens for the Canon T1i

For around $100, the Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens offers amazing image quality for a great price. The thing to remember with this lens is that you won't be able to zoom in or out, however, on the upside it's small, light, and capable of getting great photos in low light conditions. It's a wonderful walk around lens, allowing you to get photos with lots of bokeh (blurry background behind your subject) which adds lots of drama to ordinary subjects. Click here to see the Amazon sale price for this lens.

Best Zoom Lens for the Canon T1i

For around $250 the Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS Telephoto lens allows you to get in close to far away subjects. This lens is equipped with Image Stabilization which is a must for telephoto lenses. The Image Stabilization will help cut down on camera movements when you are fully zoomed. Don't forget that the Canon T1i has a crop factor of 1.6x, which basically means that this 55-250mm lens is actually a 88-400mm lens when compared side by side to Canon Film cameras. This means that your getting an Image Stabilized lens that goes all the way out to 400mm for around $250, now that's a bargain! Click here to see the Amazon sale price for this lens.

Best Wide Angle Lens for the Canon T1i

For this lens type, I 'm going to recommend two different lenses. The first is the Canon T1i kit lens that goes for $160 when purchased separately from the Canon T1i. The Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 Image Stabilized lens is not a 'true' wide angle lens, but with the T1i crop factor it still allows you to shoot images starting at 29mm wide. Click here to see the Amazon sale price for this lens.

If you're a real estate agent or a photographer looking to get even wider shots, then I recommend the Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 EX DC HSM Lens which is priced at around $470.

The $470 price tag may seem high to you...but the next closest Canon lens, the EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5, goes for about $730. The Sigma 10-20mm lens will allow you to capture images between 16mm and 32mm wide which is great for architectural photography. Click here to see the Amazon sale price for this lens.

Best All-In-One Canon T1i Lens

If you're looking to get by with only one lens instead of having to carry around two or three lenses, then I highly recommend the Canon EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 Image Stabilized lens. This lens is a bit pricey at $550, but it has been hailed as the best 'All-In-One' lens on the market. Now, if you were to purchase the T1i kit lens and the recommended Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS Telephoto lens you would have a zoom range of 29mm to 400mm (with the crop factor applied) for about $410. The downside to this combination is that you would have to carry two lenses instead of one. For about $140 more, you could get the Canon EF-S 18-200mm lens which would give you a zoom range of 29mm to 320mm (with the crop factor applied), and allow you to travel much lighter. Click here to see the Amazon sale price for this lens.

I hope this guide has helped you in your decision towards finding the perfect lens for your Canon T1i.

Canon T1i Battery

In order for the Canon T1i to operate at its highest level, I always insert a fully charged LP-E5 lithium-ion battery before setting out on my shooting adventures.
The LP-E5 lithium-ion batttery is good for taking roughly 600 shots with the Canon T1i under normal circumstances, so if you plan on being out all day I highly recommend purchasing a few backups just in case anything happens. When purchasing backups, ALWAYS purchase Canon batteries. If you put in a battery from a third party manufacturer and it explodes or leaks inside your camera, Canon will NOT honor your warranty. I can't stress this enough. Spend the few extra dollars and get the official Canon LP-E5 Lithium-Ion Battery Pack from a reputable store like Amazon or B&H photo.

If you plan on going to an indoor event and plan on taking 90% of your shots WITH flash, then you can expect the total number of shots per charge to drop in half (roughly 300 photos per battery pack).

Other things like viewing pictures on the LCD, browsing the menu, and image stabilization will also eat up the battery life, so try to limit picture viewing until you're done with the event.

For those of you in colder climates, frigid temps can actually reduce your overall battery capacity so I recommend that you go out and shoot until your battery is exhausted and count the number of exposures you were able to take. You can use this number as a gauge to how many photos you can take on a full charge.

If you're planning a vacation and wondering how many batteries you might need, ask yourself a few questions...

1. Can I plug my battery charger into the electrical socket in my hotel room? Some international hotel rooms don't come equipped with US three pronged outlets, so you may need to get an outlet converter.

2. How close will you be to your hotel room during the day? If you plan on hanging around the resort for most of the day, you can probably get by with two batteries. When one battery gets exhausted, you can swap it with the battery that's charging in your hotel room.

3. How many ALL DAY excursions will you be going on? If you plan on taking an all day adventure away from the resort you may want to have 2 to 3 backup batteries in your purse or camera bag...this will allow you to take roughly 1200 to 1800 shots on your all day trip.

Charging the Canon T1i Battery
When the LC-E5 battery is inserted into the charger, the light on the charger will turn orange-red. Once the battery has completed charging (usually 2 hours), the lamp will turn green and it will be ready to use.

One really important thing to remember is that lithium-ion batteries will typically lose a few percent of their charge every day when not in use. So even if you have a fully charged backup battery in your camera bag, make sure you charge it the night before so that you will have maximum power should you need it.

Again, if you need to pick up a few extra batteries for your Canon T1i, I highly recommend purchasing the Official Canon LP-E5 Lithium-Ion Battery Pack versus cheaper third party alternatives.

Until next time...Happy shooting!

Canon T1i Live View Shooting

The Canon T1i is equipped with Live View shooting which allows you to take photos while viewing the LCD screen. If you're like me, you've tried using the Live View feature with poor to down right horrible results! Over the last few weeks, I've played around with Live View shooting and have come up with a few tips to help you out!

Before we go any further, I want to point out that Canon implemented this feature for "studio" and "tripod" shooting. It was not developed for shooting high action sports or subjects with a lot of movement.

On page 106 of the Canon T1i Manual you will find instructions for the Live View Shooting feature.



1. The first step is to set the mode dial to P (Program), TV (Shutter Priority), AV (Aperture Priority), M (Manual) or A-DEP (Automatic Depth of Field).

2. The second step is to press the "Camera Icon" button located on the back of the Canon T1i next to the LCD screen. Once you do this you will see the live view image on the LCD screen.

3. The third step is to select your Live View focusing mode. While the Live View image is displayed on the LCD screen, you can press the "Set" button located in the middle of the four way buttons located on the back of the Canon T1i. From here you can select one of three AF modes...Live View, Live View with Face Detection, and Quick Mode.



- Live View will focus while keeping the image on the LCD screen at all times, however, this AF mode is very slow.

- Live View with Face Detection will focus on the subjects face while keeping the image on the LCD screen at all times. This mode is even slower than Live View AF and is utterly useless.

- Quick Mode will focus much quicker than the first two AF modes, but the Live View on the LCD screen will be interrupted momentarily while the camera focuses.

- You can also switch your lens to MF (Manual Focus) which will allow you to manually focus the image on the LCD screen. If you choose to use manual focus, try pressing the "Magnifier Icon" located to the right of the thumb rest on the back of the Canon T1i to magnify the image. This will enlarge the image on the LCD screen, making it easier for you to see if the subject is in focus.

In my experience, I highly recommend shooting with the Quick Mode option when in Live View mode.

4. The final step is to focus using the "Star Icon" located just to the right of the thumb rest on the back of the Canon T1i. Once focus is achieved, press the shutter button and the image will be captured.

Remember that the Canon T1i Live View shooting mode is designed to shoot subjects that do not move like landscapes, portraits, still life, etc...If you plan on shooting subjects with a lot of movement like tracking planes at an airshow, I highly recommend using the optical viewfinder and the normal focusing modes.

When should I use RAW mode on the Canon T1i?

I've received a few emails asking "When should I use RAW mode on the Canon T1i?" so lets answer this question together...

If you spend most of your time looking at photos on your computer monitor, then there is no reason to use RAW on the Canon T1i.

If you're looking to quickly upload those family photos to flickr, smugmug or facebook, then there is no reason to use RAW on the Canon T1i.

If you're looking to quickly print off an image straight from your memory card, then there is no reason to use RAW on the Canon T1i.

The ONLY time you should consider shooting in RAW mode on the Canon T1i is when you want to control every aspect of the image...such as lightness, white balance, hue, saturation and most importantly image compression. All of these thing are done outside of the camera, meaning you will have to import the RAW file into an image editing program and adjust each aspect of the image before you can save the file to (.jpeg) format.

Let me ask you a question...

When you wash your car, do you spend a few hours waxing it each and every time? No...you wax your car when it's absolutely necessary or if your taking that special someone on a date! :)

In case you're wondering, I only use RAW mode when I have an opportunity for a really great shot...like a beautiful sunset, a gorgeous landscape, or a once in a lifetime moment.

The last thing to consider when shooting in RAW mode is memory card space. Each RAW image will require about 20MB of space compared to 5MB for a high quility (.jpeg) photo. For those of you who are bad at math (including myself), that means you can take 4 times the amount of photos in (.jpeg) format when compared to RAW.

I'm hoping that this post answers a few of your questions regarding the Canon T1i RAW mode.

Canon T1i Kit On SALE!

(UPDATE: December 14, 2009) Amazon has the Canon Rebel T1i with Lens for $699! This is the hottest deal of the day!

Canon also has a $200 Instant Rebate for the Canon EOS Rebel T1i. In order to redeem the rebate you must purchase the Canon Rebel T1i kit (EF-S 18-55mm IS lens) and a Canon EF-S 55-250mm IS lens together at the same time between November 29, 2009 - January 16, 2010. You have to add both items to your cart in order to receive the $200 Instant Rebate.

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Amazon is currently selling the Canon T1i for $90 OFF the original retail price.

Having monitored the Canon T1i price since it was released, this is the lowest price I've seen for the Canon T1i Kit (includes 18-55mm lens).

Anyways, I just wanted to let everyone know about this great Canon T1i Sale! Click Here to see the Canon T1i Kit on Amazon

Thanks for reading!

- Moose

How to Shoot Movies with the Canon T1i

How many of you are frustrated with shooting movies on the Canon T1i? Well, I've created a guide which might help some of you take better videos...


Now before I go into a long rant about the clunky and akward video recording capabilities of the Canon T1i, I do want to point out that Canon could have easily waited another 2 to 3 years to implement the video function on the Canon T1i. Instead they saw an opportunity to slowly move the new technology in with the product, so that over time they could perfect it using the constructive criticism of the general public.

Having said that, Canon has always prided themselves on developing cameras with an easy learning curve. While many of the "photographic" controls are in the right place, it feels as if the "video" controls were an afterthought or a last minute addition.

Now, don't get me wrong...you can take EXCELLENT video with the Canon T1i, but it depends heavily on the subject your shooting.

On page 122 of the user manual, it states "Before shooting a movie, Autofocus or Manual focus."


Canon is basically saying..."Before you hit the record button, focus on your subject and then shoot your movie clip."

Now, that's all fine and dandy, but you might be asking...

"How am I going to shoot video of my children running around the backyard?"

You have two options:
1. You can press the (*) button located on the back of the Canon T1i, to autofocus while video recording.


The problem with this is that it's slow and akward. The autofocus takes a long time, especially when shooting moving objects. The location of the (*) button is also a bit perplexing...my natural instinct is to half-press the shutter button.

2. You can travel back in time and shoot using Manual focus. Now, this actually sounds harder that it actually is. I was able to capture some great videos at a family reunion, using only Manual focus while video recording.

Of the two options, I much prefer shooting my videos in Manual focus. This will take some practice, but over time you'll get the hang of it.

Here are some tips to shooting video with the Canon T1i while using Manual focus...
1. If you're shooting movies of moving objects (children playing, sporting events, etc...)...try to focus on a solid (non-moving) object close to the action. This will allow you to achieve the best possible focus. For example, let's say your shooting videos of your son playing Tee Ball. You could focus on the tee, so that when your son comes up to bat you're not fumbling with the controls trying to lock focus.

2. Try to manual focus as quietly as possible. All of your movements are going to get picked up on the microphone if you are agressively adjucting focus or mashing buttons on the back of the Canon T1i.

3. Try shooting scenes and then piece them together later using a video editing software. Many hollywood films are shot without the use of "zooming". They usually frame a shot, shoot the video for that scene, and then yell "Cut!" So using the example of your son playing Tee Ball. You could get a close-up shot of his face for the first swing. On the second swing or second at bat, you could zoom out and get his whole body into the shot and take video of him as he runs to first base. With these two scenes, you could piece them together with some music for a great family video!

I'm by no means a video expert, so if there are any other Canon T1i users who use the Video function and have some tips to share...please send them to me at canont1i@gmail(dot)com and I will add them to this blog post.

Thanks for reading!

- Moose