Back to basics, A-DEP mode

Continuing the the series of articles on the different shooting modes available on many EOS cameras it's time to look at one of the modes in the creative shooting section of the mode dial; A-DEP. 

Canon divides the mode dial on the EOS xxD, EOS xxxD and EOS xxxxD series models in to the basic zone and the creative zone. Modes in the creative zone are typically P, Tv, Av, M, A-DEP, Bulb and also the C modes. Choosing a creative zone mode gets you the full range of options, and you will even find that more menu tabs display than when using the basic zone modes.

A-DEP mode is designed to automatically choose the optimum settings to deliver an image with all the subjects covered by the AF points being in focus. A-DEP is one of the most automated and clever modes. First thing you notice is that the camera will always select all the AF points, you can't choose your preferred centre AF point for example. Then the camera looks at each focus point in turn to determine the closest subject and the furthest. Factoring in information about the lens then the camera calculates the required focus distance and the aperture to give sufficient depth of field to allow the closest subject and furthest to be in focus. Often the calculation throws up some surprises as to how little you need to close the aperture for a given depth of field and also that the lens never seems to need to be set to infinity. Remember the camera knows about the 1/3 in front of the AF point and 2/3 behind that is the usual for depth of field calculations.

Some photographers think of A-DEP as a kind of aperture priority mode, though in fact it's not just choosing the aperture and hoping (or knowing) the end result, it's using knowledge of the lens and the focus points to give you the precise results. Often used for landscape work with subjects in the foreground and the scene stretching in to the background A-DEP is equally useful for taking frame-filling portraits ensuring that only the main subject covered by the AF points is sharply focussed.

Like many of the creative modes you get to choose from a wide range of settings including:

• Metering pattern
  
• Picture Style
  
• Colour profile
  
• White balance including white balance shift & bracketing
  
• Auto exposure bracketing
• Exposure compensation
• Flash exposure compensation
• Drive mode selection
• Flash usage - though if you use flash the camera works like it's in Program (P) mode
• Image quality / image type
• ISO speed setting
• AE lock / FE lock
• AF lock

AF mode is set to one-shot with all the AF points active. So the key here is to make sure the AF points cover the correct parts of the scene you want in focus. 

Blinking aperture or shutter speed settings in the viewfinder indicate troubles

If the shutter speed in the viewfinder shows a blinking 30s then the subject is took dark and you need to change the ISO to a higher setting - to avoid an underexposed shot. Similarly if it shows 8000 blinking then you have too bright a scene and need to drop the ISO or use a neutral density [ND] filter to avoid an overexposed shot. 

If the aperture blinks this indicates that the exposure level is correct but that the camera couldn't achieve the needed depth of field, usually you need to use a wider angle lens or move further back from the closest subject.

-blabpictures-

Back to basics, Portrait mode

Moving the mode dial just one click round from green square to Portrait (the head symbol) mode changes your pictures quite significantly.

In short the camera changes the main program to try and give you less depth of field so that your perfect portrait stands out from the background; out of focus background, sharp subject. It does this by opening the aperture more than the green square mode, which also helps you by increasing shutter speed and reducing camera shake and subject movement.

Second big change is to continuous shooting, you hold the shutter button down and the camera keeps on taking pictures until the buffer fills. The idea is that a portrait picture capture the fleeting expressions of people, continuous shooting gives you more chance to capture a good expression by taking more pictures. However the expectation of the Canon engineers is that people are stationary when you take their portrait so the AF mode is set to one shot. You get focus lock with one of the AF points and then all the rest of the sequence of pictures you take whilst mashing down the shutter button will be focussed at the same point. Get the focus wrong for the first shot and you get a set of nicely out of focus shots. Also if your target is hyper active children and pets then this is not the mode for you.

The camera will also select the AUTO ISO setting, but lock it to ISO 100 in daylight to give you the maximum noise free picture quality. When the flash is popped up then the ISO will be ISO 400 to help the little on board flash reach a bit further.

As the light levels drop you will find the camera will pop up the built in flash when needed and it does a good job to try and fill-in shadows on the face as long as the person in your portrait is around 3 meters away. 10 meters and you will run out of flash range. You can't manually pop-up the flash in this mode.

The next and most striking change to pictures is how the camera processes them. Skin tones are a little more subtle, dayglo clothing tends to look a bit muted as the camera selects portrait Picture Style [much more to come on Picture Style in a future article]. This tries to give a good skin tone and softens the skin a little so that you don't get super sharp wrinkles on the models face; in camera botox lite!

As with many of these basic zone modes, selecting the appropriate mode gives the camera more information about what you want to acheive, the more you tell it what you want to acheive the better it can take photos to match your intentions.

Most digital EOS cameras have the portrait mode, though if you're using an EOS-1D or EOS 5D series model then you have to make all the settings yourself.

-blabpictures-

Back to basics, flash off mode

In the first article of this series the full auto or green square mode was covered, so to keep it light here's the next simplest one - flash off mode. The flash off mode icon is the square with the lightning bolt in it that's crossed through. On most cameras is the last one of the basic zone modes.

Flash off mode can be simply thought of as green square but the built-in or pop-up flash won't be activated. If you happen to be a guest at a wedding then often the officials state that no flash photography is allowed during the wedding ceremony; now you know to move the dial to flash off mode.

If you're new to this photography thing, then select flash off and the camera will not switch on or use the flash. The only downside is that if it's dark then the camera will need to increase the ISO to make it more sensitive to light and most likely also lower the shutter speed.

Increasing the ISO will give you pictures that have more visible noise on them. Though usually noise is not noticeable in prints up to A4 or letter sizes. (All the purists will complain about this statement I'm sure). However you only have a limited range of ISO speeds depending on your camera model.

Slower shutter speeds is the next thing that will happen. This is not helpful as you will shake during the exposure and more than likely your subjects will move too. Camera shake and subject movement in the same picture makes for some pretty terrible images, thoug hit appeals as art to some. If the shutter speed shown in the viewfinder of the camera is less than one over the focal length of the lens you may get shake. So if you've zoomed in with your EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS lens to 55mm then you need to be looking for 1/60 as the shutter speed. Sure Image Stabilizer (IS) will help a lot; maybe down to 1/8 but you're pushing your luck. Best is to brace you and the camera steady against the wall or put it on a solid surface.

The big thing with all these basic zone modes is that all the camera autofocus points are active, so you can't really control which subject the camera thinks is the right one. Its programming says that the closest thing to the camera is the subject! The lady in two rows in front of you is the subject not the couple getting married four rows in front of her.

Not sure - find a dark room or wait for nightfall and then shoot a picture of someone or something in both green square and flash off mode. This will help commit this one to memory.

Seems strange that the post following the one about the visit of the Strobist is all about stopping the flash firing.

-blabpictures-

Back to basics, full automatic 'green square' mode

Canon cameras and many others have a wide selection of shooting modes some that employ sound photo techniques to help you take the shots you want to, some that leave you on your own to mess it all up with no-one else to blame. Apart from EOS-1D models all the range of Canon cameras have a mode dial featuring a green square where you pass almost all the photographic control to the camera and the wisdom of the Canon camera dept. Fortunately they know a whole lot about setting up your camera for taking pictures; the choices for the photographer are mostly when to take the picture, which direction to point the camera in, and how much to put in the frame. So the most important decisions are left with the photographer then.

The great thing is that green square will try it's best to see how much light is falling on your subject, where the main important part of the subject is in the frame, work out if the subject is moving toward or awy from you, decide if you would be better off using flash, and make some judgement calls on the ieal combination of shutter speed and aperture. In fact the green square function talks to the lens to find out where it's zoomed to since the more you zoom in the longer the focal length becomes and the more chance of camera shake - the camera will try to compensate by increasing the shutter speed and if necessary the sensitivity of the camera (ISO speed). You just thought it was easy shooting mode...

The camera can't tell if you want a lot of depth of field, or a really narrow depth of field to isolate your subject from the background, or maye you want to freeze some fast moving action. The camera will choose middle of the road settings to get you a technically competent picture. So if you want to concentrate on choosing the moment to take your picture, framing the scene it can really help out. Mostly the green square mode is used by people who are new to photography with a DSLR camera or people not sure what all the other stuff means - and too scared to ask or read the manual.

Green square is a great start but soon you'll want to take better pictures and that means you have to tell the camera more of what you want to acheive in the final picture. Give the camera better instructions about your intended results and it can help you make pictures that acheive them.

Green square is the first of several automated modes that go round the dial - these modes Canon calls basic zone modes, though in the days of film EOS cameras they were known as PIC modes. [PIC - programmed image control]
These basic zone modes are listed below and will be covered in future posts;

• portrait
• landscape
• close-up
• sport
• night portrait
• flash off

Recently the EOS 50D and EOS 5D Mark II added a new kind of green square called Creative Auto and it has a logo on the mode dial with CA. More on this later.

So green square is a nice start in DSLR photography, but better pictures need you to take more control over the settings.

-blabpictures-