TUTORIAL: Full auto and basic modes

This tutorial will take you through the Full auto and Basic Zone modes, starting with Full Auto and then moving into the Basic Zone which includes Portrait mode, Landscape mode, Close-up mode, Sports mode and Night scene mode.

Key Terms

DSLR
Digital Single-Lens Reflex

Mode dial
The dial on top of your EOS DSLR camera.

Full Auto
In the Full Auto mode, the image is automatically optimised. The shutter speed, aperture, ISO and flash settings are automatically selected and transforms the camera into a straight point-and-shoot interface.

Basic Zone
Portrait, Landscape, close-up, sports, night scene modes.

Portrait mode
This is a picture style to make skin tones lighter and softer.

Landscape mode
This is a picture style designed to make blue skies and green trees more vivid.

Close-up mode
This setting works with your camera lens to allow it to focus from a very short distance and allow you to get very close to small objects such as flowers, insects and faces.

Sports mode
This mode is for fast-moving objects when you want to freeze the action. It uses faster shutter speed combined with higher ISO setting.

Depth of field
The range in front of and behind the point of focus where objects will appear to be in focus. The depth-of-field becomes narrower with a larger aperture (lower f-number), longer
focal length lens, and shorter distance between the camera and subject.

Focus
This is where the photo looks the sharpest. Technically, focus is achieved at only one point (plane) and other objects may appear to be in focus within the depth of field.

Camera shake
This is the shaking of the camera caused by unsteady hands during exposure (when the shutter is open), resulting in image blur. The blur is prone to occur with slow shutter speeds and telephoto lenses.

Shutter speed
The shutter controls the amount of time that the light can strike the imaging sensor. Along with the aperture that controls the amount of light, the shutter speed works in combination to control the total amount of light the imaging sensor receives. With the same aperture, using a shutter speed of 1/2 sec. decreases the amount of light by half compared to a shutter speed of 1 sec. And a shutter speed of 1/4 sec. yields one-fourth the amount of light. Unlike the aperture, the difference in the shutter speed readily corresponds to the difference in the amount of light. The shutter speed is indicated by the denominator. For example, "500" means 1/500 sec. Since the sensor can record an image only while the shutter is open, it can freeze (with a fast shutter speed) or blur (with a slow shutter speed) a moving subject.

Exposure
This is when the shutter opens to expose the sensor to the incoming light. Long exposures can occur with the shutter left open for a long time.