Learn Photography Tips Blog

10 Fantastic Videos Shot With A Canon T2i / 550D

// July 29th, 2010 // No Comments » // Random Photography

So far on LearningTheLight.com, I’ve not tended to talk about the video side of DSLRs – but that’s about to change. Although many people buy DSLRs for their photographic prowess, more and more are investing because of their fantastic video quality: high-definition, the ability to use all different types of lenses, and great overall quality mean that our trusted still-memory taker can also be our best-friend movie maker!

One of the more recent cameras that particularly excels with video is Canon’s T2i (known as the 550D in the UK). With full 1080P, 30 frames per second recording capabilites, the video you can take with it is just awesome – check out these examples, all taken with the T2i:

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Canon EOS Rebel T2i / 550D Digital Field Guide Review

// July 19th, 2010 // No Comments » // Photography Book Reviews

If you’ve just splashed out on the brilliant Canon T2i (knows as the 550D in Europe), then you may be a little bewildered with all the controls and functions your new camera has to offer. If you’re anything like me, and you devour any reading material to do with photography, then you might want to look into getting the Digital Field Guide for the T2i, available at Amazon US and UK.

What You’ll Learn

One of the best things about buying a book made specifically for your camera model, is that everything the book talks about is designed just for you – there are no ‘general’ settings and exposure talk,  instead each feature, such as aperture and shutter speed, is explained according to the T2i’s buttons and dials.

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15 Great Photos Shot With A Canon Rebel T2i / 550D (And How They Were Taken)

// May 3rd, 2010 // 7 Comments » // Great Photo Collections (And How They Were Taken)

Canon have surely created a winner with the Rebel T2i (known as the 550D in Europe). Building on the already fantastic performance of the 500D, the new model has received great reviews around the ‘net, and will no-doubt be in the minds of a lot of prospective DSLR owners.

So, with that in mind, I thought I’d feature some great photos that have all been taken with the T2i / 550D, along with some information on how they were taken.

By Paul Hudson

An apt way to kick-off this 550D / T2i collection is with a great self-portrait. A large aperture of f/5 means the photographer himself is a bit blurry, drawing our attention to the sharp camera – the true subject of the photo.

By David Watson

The range of colours taken in this shot are just gorgeous, and it works to keep your eye moving across the shot, from one colour to the next. As virtually everything in the shot is the same distance away from the camera, the choice of aperture (in this case, f/5.6) does not really matter, as a large or small aperture would still keep the majority of the photo in focus. Composition, and the great skill of the photographer to ‘see’ that this would make such a good photo, is more important than the technicalities of the shot in this instance.

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How To Take Sharp Photos In Low Light Without A Flash

// April 27th, 2010 // 11 Comments » // How To...

If you’re anything like me, then one of the reasons you’re interested in photography – and why you shelled out on a nice camera – is to take some lovely shots of your family and friends. And, most of the time, I find that these photographic opportunities occur inside, where the light is low. Sure, there are the occasional barbeques outside, and holidays in the sun, but for the most part, I find I’m taking photos of my loved ones indoors.

And do we want to use our flash? Of course we don’t! As Scott Kelby says, and I’m paraphrasing here, “If you have a worst enemy, make sure you take a photo of them with your flash’. Shots taken with our little pop-up flashes look dreadful – either washed out, too dark, and always flat and just ugly looking. (By the way, you can check out my digital photography book review, a fantastic book written by Scott Kelby, if you like).

So, what can we do to take great photos indoors – where the light levels are often less than ideal – without using a tripod (as families and friends don’t stay still all the time, unfortunately!), and all this without using our flash?

The good news is that there are quite a few things we can do to attain this, including the use of Aperture, ISO, Burst Mode and more

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The Perils Of Photography Via Google Search

// April 19th, 2010 // No Comments » // Random Photography

Google have released a really nifty new tool, called Search Stories – where you can create your very own video to tell a story via Google search. It’s really quick and easy to do – see the one I knocked up in about 5 mins below, entitled ‘Photography Perils’:

What do you think? Pretty fun, huh? Why not try making your own video – if it’s photography-related, and you let me know of its existence (you can contact me through the site, or follow me on twitter) I may feature it on the site sometime.

Go on, you know you want to!

500D vs 550D: Which One Should You Buy?

// February 22nd, 2010 // 7 Comments » // Gear Reviews

With Canon’s new 550D now unleashed (available at Amazon UK via this link or Amazon US here, where it’s knows as the T2i) I thought I’d do a ‘real world’ comparison of how this new model compares to the existing 500D, which I have. This will be a ‘real world’ comparison in the sense that I won’t just be listing the various features of the cameras; instead I’ll be talking about what each difference means to us, as photographers, and what it will mean for our photographs.

All the comparisons are based on the information from Canon, and my own thoughts/analysis on how the camera will thus differ from the 500D (known as the T1i ‘over the pond’) – and, more importantly, what this will mean for our photos and videos.

Resolution

Comparison:

The new 550D (known as the T2i in the US market) sports a class-leading max resolution of 18MP, which is around 20% higher than on the 500D (T1i). That’ll mean photos as large as 5184 x 3456, compared to the 500D’s max of 4752 x 3168.

What will that mean for my photos?

Well, although the increase in Megapixels looks good on paper, and is an obvious selling point, it doesn’t actually mean your photos are going to look that much – if at all – better. In theory it means you will be able to record more detail, and print out larger prints – but you would only need this extra resolution if you were printing larger than A2! If you never print larger than A3 (have you ever printed larger than that?) then you wouldn’t notice a difference.

However, one plus point for the extra resolution is that it means you can crop more of a picture whilst still retaining a lot of quality – handy when you can’t compose the best possible shot at the time, so you can crop and make a great composition at home.

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