General Canon EOS 40D Help & Hints

[Gas Man]

Hey all,

I have had my Canon EOS 40D for alittle while now but am just starting to get into portrait and scenic side of photography as I have spent most of the time with action and sports photography.

Can anyone give me some tips and ideas on which settings to use, ISO speends, anything at all that you think would come in handy for me please, much appreciated, thanks.

[[ kane ]]

Same applies to most cameras. Basic settings follow.

- ISO 100/200.
- f2.8/f5.6 to blur the background.
- Either a mid zoom lens (24-70), or small telephoto, (70-200), or a prime, (85mm 1.8 prime)
- Shutter to match the focal length, I.e double the length, 200mm, min shutter of 1/400, work on that concept and you will ovoid camera shake (well you should) increase ISO or for faster or alter the lighting, depending on the finish you want.

- Camera settings can be set to the portrait mode, else just use the Av function and set low f stop, make sure you focus around the eye, also lighting is the key here, natural is fine, you might want to learn about hard and soft light, use a diffuser and or bounce flash.

Have a play, ask the models to close their eyes, then open the, click, click, fire off a few shots, get the wide shot, then move in for the crop shot.

Have fun.

[Gas Man]

Thanks for that, much appreciated, will have a play with the camera and settings later, cheers.