Revell - Canon EOS 7D mark II : from snapshots to great shots

From Snapshots to Great Shots

Jeff Revell

Canon EOS 7D Mark II: From Snapshots to Great Shots

Jeff Revell

Peachpit Press
www.peachpit.com

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Peachpit Press is a division of Pearson Education.

Copyright 2015 by Peachpit Press
All images copyright 2015 by Jeff Revell

Project Editor: Valerie Witte
Production Editor: Danielle Foster
Copyeditor: Patricia Pane
Proofreader: Liz Welch
Composition: Danielle Foster
Indexer: Valerie Haynes Perry
Cover Image: Jeff Revell
Cover Design: Aren Straiger
Interior Design: Mimi Heft

Notice of Rights

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. For information on getting permission for reprints and excerpts, contact .

Notice of Liability

The information in this book is distributed on an As Is basis, without warranty. While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of the book, neither the author nor Peachpit shall have any liability to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the instructions contained in this book or by the computer software and hardware products described in it.

Trademarks

From Snapshots to Great Shots is a trademark, in the U.S. and/or other countries, of Pearson Education, Inc. or its affiliates.

All Canon products are trademarks or registered trademarks of Canon Inc.

Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and Peachpit was aware of a trademark claim, the designations appear as requested by the owner of the trademark. All other product names and services identified throughout this book are used in editorial fashion only and for the benefit of such companies with no intention of infringement of the trademark. No such use, or the use of any trade name, is intended to convey endorsement or other affiliation with this book.

ISBN-13: 978-0-13-400945-2
ISBN-10: 0-13-400945-2

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed and bound in the United States of America

For my good friend Ted

Back in 2007, I was sitting in an airport lounge with my buddy Scott Kelby waiting for our connecting. I was checking my emails when I came across an interesting message from an agent who was asking if I would be interested in writing a book about iPhoto for a popular how-to series of books. Id never given book writing any consideration, but had read an article that I had written on my blog about using iPhoto and thought I might like to expand it into a book. I showed the email to Scott, and he said that if I was interested in writing books, hed have his editor get in touch with me.

A few weeks later I received a call from Ted Waitt, acquisitions editor at Peachpit. Ted said Scott had mentioned that I might be interested in writing a book and that he should give me a call. He asked a lot of questions and said he had already read a lot of my articles on my blog. We talked for a couple of hours and, at the end of our conversation, we had developed the framework of what would become the Snapshots to Great Shots series of books.

Ted held my hand on the project and we successfully got my first book, Canon 50D: From Snapshots to Great Shots, on the store shelves. It was a new experience for me, but Ted was patient and offered advice and suggestions when needed. We went on to publish many more books in the series and expanded beyond just camera books into all corners of photography. More important, though, was the friendship that Ted and I developed over the six years and 14 books that I have since that initial phone call.

Ted recently moved on to another career adventure in publishing and I will miss our bull sessions, speculations over the next big camera, or just whatever was going on in our lives. Even though I feel a loss on some levels, I know that he has moved on to challenges that will bring him happiness and success for years to come.

I would also like to acknowledge the good folks at B&H Photo. They worked with me to ensure that I had a brand-new camera in hand as soon as they started arriving on our shores. Of course, this doesnt surprise me at all, because I have been purchasing photography equipment from B&H for years. I can say without a doubt that they are fantastic at what they do. They are always courteous and helpful, their knowledge is second to none, and they always give me a great deal. B&H is my number one go-to resource for anything photographic, so check them out on the Web when you get the chance: www.bhphotovideo.com.

Walk into any bookseller, go to the photography section, and you will see countless books on the subject of photography. Look a little further and you will locate the camera-specific books. It is this divide between the camera-specific and instructional photography books that inspired me to write this book. I was seeing a lot of books that were just sort of missing the markespecially when it came to using a specific brand and model of camera along with actual photographic instruction. So with that, I set about to write the Snapshots to Great Shots books, not as a rehash of the owners manual but as a resource to teach photography with the wonderful technology present in the 7D Mark II. I have put together a short Q&A to help you get a better understanding of exactly what you can expect from this book.

Q: Is every camera feature going to be covered?

A: Nope, just the ones I felt you need to know about in order to start taking great photos. Believe it or not, you already own a great resource that covers every feature of your camera: the owners manual. Writing a book that just repeats this information would have been a waste of my time and your money. I did, however, want to write about how to harness certain camera features to the benefit of your photography. As you read through the book, you will also see callouts which point you to specific pages in your owners manual that are related to the topic being discussed. For example, in , I discuss the quality settings, but more information on this feature is available in the manual. I cover the function that applies to our specific needs but also give you the page numbers in the manual to explore this function even further.

Q: So if I already own the manual, why do I need this book?

A: The manual does a pretty good job of telling you how to use a feature or turn it on in the menus, but it doesnt necessarily tell you why and when you should use it. If you really want to improve your photography, you need to know the whys and whens to put all of those great camera features to use at the right time. To that extent, the manual just isnt going to cut it. It is, however, a great resource on the cameras features, and that is why I treat the manual like a companion to this book. You already own it, so why not get something of value from it?

Q: What can I expect to learn from this book?

A: Hopefully, you will learn how to take great photographs. My goal, and the reason the book is laid out the way it is, is to guide you through the basics of photography as they relate to different situations and scenarios. By using the features of your 7D Mark II and this book, you will learn about aperture, shutter speed, ISO, lens selection, depth of field, and many other photographic concepts. You will also find plenty of large, full-page photos that include captions, shooting data, and callouts so you can see how all of the photography fundamentals come together to make great images. All the while, you will be learning how your camera works and how to apply its functions and features to your photography.