Julie Adair King is a veteran digital photography educator. Her best selling books include Digital Photography For Dummies and thirty titles on Canon and Nikon cameras.
Robert Correll is a digital media expert who authored Digital SLR Photography All-in-One For Dummies.

Introduction 1

A Quick Look at What's Ahead 2

Icons and Other Stuff to Note 3

eCheat Sheet 3

Practice, Be Patient, and Have Fun! 4

Part 1: Fast Track to Super Snaps 5

Chapter 1: Getting the Lay of the Land 7

Looking at Lenses 7

Choosing a lens 8

Attaching and removing a lens 11

Zooming in and out 12

Using an IS (image stabilizer) lens 13

Getting acquainted with focusing 14

Adjusting the Viewfinder 15

Adjusting the Monitor Position 16

Using the Touchscreen 17

Working with Memory Cards 20

Exploring External Camera Features 22

Topside controls 22

Back-of-the-body controls 24

Front odds and ends 27

Connection ports 29

Ordering from Camera Menus 30

Navigating the Custom Functions Menu 32

Monitoring Critical Camera Settings 34

The Info button: Choosing what the screen shows 35

Checking the Camera Settings display 36

Viewing the Shooting Settings display 37

Decoding viewfinder data 38

Reading the LCD panel 40

Changing Settings via the Quick Control Screen 41

Getting Help from Your Camera 43

Reviewing Basic Setup Options 43

Cruising the Setup menus 43

Setting up the Lock switch 49

Taking two final setup steps 50

Chapter 2: Choosing Basic Picture Settings 51

Choosing an Exposure Mode 52

Changing the Drive Mode 54

Getting Familiar with the Built-in Flash 57

Using flash in the fully automatic modes 58

Enabling flash in advanced exposure modes 60

Using Red-Eye Reduction flash 60

Controlling Picture Quality 61

Diagnosing quality problems 62

Decoding the Image Quality options 64

Considering Resolution: Large, Medium, or Small? 66

Understanding File Type (JPEG or Raw) 69

JPEG: The imaging (and web) standard 69

Raw (CR2): The purist's choice 71

Our take: Choose Fine or Raw 73

Setting the Photo Aspect Ratio 73

Chapter 3: Taking Great Pictures, Automatically 75

As Easy As It Gets: Auto and Flash Off 76

Taking Advantage of Scene (SCN) Modes 79

Modifying scene mode results 88

Gaining More Control with Creative Auto 94

Chapter 4: Exploring Live View Shooting and Movie Making 99

Getting Started 100

Reviewing Live View and Movie mode cautions 102

Customizing the display 103

Focusing in Live View and Movie Modes 107

Continuous autofocusing in Movie mode 107

Choosing an AF (autofocus) mode 109

Manual focusing 114

Zooming in for a focus check 115

Exploring Other Live View Options 116

Adjusting other Live View picture settings 116

Using the touch shutter 122

Recording Your First Movie 123

Customizing Movie Recording Settings 126

Shooting Menu 4 (Movie) 128

Shooting Menu 5 (Movie) 129

Using Movie Digital Zoom 134

Playing Movies 136

Part 2: Working with Picture Files 139

Chapter 5: Picture Playback 141

Disabling and Adjusting Image Review 141

Exploring Playback Mode 142

Switching to Index (thumbnails) view 143

Using the Quick Control screen during playback 145

Jumping through images 146

Rotating pictures 149

Zooming in for a closer view 150

Viewing Picture Data 151

Basic Information display data 152

Shooting Information display mode 153

Understanding histograms 157

Enabling a few display extras 159

Deleting Photos 159

Erasing single images 159

Erasing all images on the memory card 160

Erasing selected images 160

Protecting Photos 162

Protecting (or unprotecting) a single photo 162

Protecting multiple photos 163

Rating Photos 165

Viewing Your Photos on a Television 167

Chapter 6: Downloading, Printing, and Sharing Your Photos 169

Installing the Canon Software 170

Sending Pictures to the Computer 171

Connecting camera and computer via USB 172

Connecting to the computer via Wi-Fi 173

Downloading from the camera 176

Downloading from a card reader 178

Processing Raw (CR2) Files 178

Processing Raw images in the camera 179

Converting Raw images in Digital Photo Professional 182

Planning for Perfect Prints 185

Preparing Pictures for Online Sharing 186

Part 3: Taking Creative Control 189

Chapter 7: Getting Creative with Exposure 191

Kicking Your Camera into High Gear 192

Introducing Exposure Basics: Aperture, Shutter Speed, and ISO 193

Understanding exposure-setting side effects 195

Doing the exposure balancing act 199

Monitoring Exposure Settings 200

Choosing an Exposure Metering Mode 203

Setting ISO, f-stop, and Shutter Speed 206

Controlling ISO 206

Adjusting aperture and shutter speed 209

Sorting through Your Camera's Exposure-Correction Tools 212

Overriding autoexposure results with Exposure Compensation 212

Improving high-contrast shots 216

Experimenting with Auto Lighting Optimizer 221

Correcting vignetting with Peripheral Illumination Correction 223

Dampening noise 225

Locking Autoexposure Settings 227

Bracketing Exposures Automatically 229

Setting up for automatic bracketing 230

Shooting a bracketed series 232

Using Flash in Advanced Exposure Modes 233

Understanding your camera's approach to flash 234

Using flash outdoors 237

Adjusting flash power with Flash Exposure Compensation 238

Locking the flash exposure 240

Exploring more flash options 242

Chapter 8: Manipulating Focus and Color 245

Reviewing Focus Basics 246

Introducing the AF-ON button 247

Adjusting Autofocus Performance 248

AF Area mode: One focus point or many? 249

Changing the AF (autofocus) operation mode 252

Choosing the right autofocus combo 254

Manipulating Depth of Field 254

Controlling Color 259

Correcting colors with white balance 259

Changing the White Balance setting 261

Creating a custom White Balance setting 263

Fine-tuning White Balance settings 265

Bracketing shots with white balance 269

Taking a Quick Look at Picture Styles 273

Chapter 9: Putting It All Together 279

Recapping Basic Picture Settings 279

Setting Up for Specific Scenes 282

Shooting still portraits 282

Capturing action 287

Capturing scenic vistas 291

Capturing dynamic close-ups 293

Part 4: the Part of Tens 297

Chapter 10: Ten Features to Explore on a Rainy Day 299

Enabling Mirror Lockup Shooting 300

Adding Cleaning Instructions to Images 300

Tagging Files with Your Copyright Claim 301

Exploring Wi-Fi Functions 302

Experimenting with Creative Filters 304

Shooting in Multiple Exposure Mode 307

Investigating Two More Printing Options 308

Presenting a Slide Show 309

Editing Movies 309

Creating Video Snapshots and Time Lapse Movies 310

Chapter 11: Ten More Ways to Customize Your Camera 313

Creating Your Own Exposure Modes 314

Creating Your Very Own Camera Menu 315

Creating Custom Folders 318

Changing the Color Space from sRGB to Adobe RGB 318

Changing the Direction of the Dials 319

Changing All the Furniture Around 319

Disabling the AF-Assist Beam 321

Controlling the Lens Focus Drive 322

Making the Flashing Red AF Points Go Away 323

Considering a Few Other Autofocusing Tweaks 323

Index 327