Chapter Twelve: The Live View Shooting Menus

Live View Shoot1

Figure 12-1. Selecting the Live View Shoot1 tab

Live View Shooting

Live View is the name given to a camera’s ability to let you see, in real-time on the large and sharp LCD Monitor, just what the lens is passing to the image sensor. Normally, the reflex mirror that redirects the image from the lens up through the pentaprism to the viewfinder screen interrupts that image. For general photography, the conventional approach of composing a photograph and determining depth of field using just the viewfinder works quite well. But when sharp focus is required, depth of field in a macro shot is critical, or you want to be able to control the camera from a connected computer, Live View is the way to go.

In Live View, the mirror is raised, which takes an element of protection away from the shutter. Do not point the camera at the sun while in Live View, as the highly focused sunlight can easily warp the curtains in the shutter, blinding it or worse.

A full-color LCD is one of the major power-consuming features of any camera, and Live View makes extensive and prolonged use of the LCD Monitor, so keep a close eye on the battery status indicator.

Figure 12-2. Selecting the Live View Shoot. option

Figure 12-3. Setting the Live View Shoot. value

In the Live View Shoot1 menu, shown in figure 12-2, select the Live View Shoot. option. Press SET. This option has only two states: Enable and Disable. If you wish to work in Live View, this option must be enabled.

AF Method

With Live View enabled, the selection of autofocus method is next. In the Live View Shoot1 menu, select AF Method and then press SET. Choose one of the three parameters and press SET. In FlexiZoneAF, the image sensor is used for focusing. A white-bordered rectangle will appear in the center of the screen, and it will function as the AF point. You can use the Multi-controller to position that AF point rectangle where you want to focus; to return the AF point to the center of the screen, press the SET button. Now, when you press the Shutter button halfway, the camera attempts to focus. If it’s successful, the white border on the rectangle turns green; otherwise, it turns orange. With a green border on the AF point, press the Shutter button completely to capture the picture.

Figure 12-4. Selecting the Live View AF Method option

Figure 12-5. Choosing the AF Method setting

The Face Detection Live Mode choice allows you to quickly focus on a person’s face. Instead of a white rectangle, the AF point becomes a segmented square, with the segments being just the four corners of the square. Now, as long as an eligible face is found in the frame, the camera will automatically recognize it and position the segmented square on it. Press the Shutter button halfway. If the border of the segmented square turns green, press the Shutter button completely to capture your image. If the border of that segmented square turns orange, focus could not be achieved; resolve that problem and try again. Even though there is a face in the frame, it may not be recognized as a face if it is very small or very large, if the face is too bright or too dark, if the head has been turned away from the camera, or if the head is tilted to the horizontal or diagonal plane.

The third option for AF Method is Quick Mode. This uses the camera’s dedicated AF sensor, not the image sensor, to implement One-Shot AF mode, operating the same way it does in standard viewfinder shooting.

In reality, you can also set the lens’s focus mode switch to MF, magnify the image in Live View, and focus manually.

Grid Display

Live View can superimpose a grid on the image displayed on the LCD Monitor. This grid is for composition purposes, only, and does not appear in the image recorded on the memory card.

Figure 12-6. Selecting the Live View Grid Display option

Figure 12-7. Selecting a Live View grid

If desired, the grid can be in any one of three configurations, as shown in figure 12-7. The first, the 3x3 grid, is for those who try to follow the rule of thirds approach to composition. With this grid, it becomes quite easy to position your subject at one of the intersections of lines, satisfying the rule of thirds and, quite likely, improving the appearance of your composition. The 6x4 grid is good for assisting in aligning with strong lines in the picture, and the 3x3+Diag grid is very useful for improving the balance in a composition.

Aspect Ratio

Figure 12-8. Selecting the Live View Aspect Ratio option

Figure 12-9. Choosing a Live View Aspect Ratio setting

Live View provides the opportunity for you to set an aspect ratio other than the standard 3:2 ratio. For an optimal fit on an older computer monitor or TV, try the 4:3 ratio, but for the newer wide-screen computer monitors and TVs, use the 16:9 ratio. For those times when you want a perfectly square image, use the 1:1 ratio. When you choose an aspect ratio other than 3:2, a black mask is superimposed on the LCD Monitor’s display to identify the portion of the frame that will be recorded. When recording images as JPEGs, the resizing of the image is done in the camera and the stored image has the requested aspect ratio, but for images recorded as RAW, the new aspect ratio data is recorded in the normal 3:2 ratio RAW file. The Canon Digital Photo Pro (DPP) software can be used to process the RAW files, including the encapsulated aspect ratio data.

The standard 3:2 ratio captures the largest image; all other ratios are essentially crops of the 3:2 image. Therefore, I don’t attempt to do this cropping in the camera. I shoot to record as much information as possible and then do my additional processing on my computer.

Expo. Simulation

Figure 12-10. Selecting the Expo. Simulation option

Figure 12-11. Setting the Expo. Simulation value

In the Live View Shoot1 menu, shown in figure 12-10, select Expo. Simulation and press SET. As shown in figure 12-11, you will find three choices:

• Enable, which lets the LCD Monitor simulate the brightness of the image to be captured, using the exposure settings you’ve made.

• During, which allows the LCD Monitor to display the image at the brightness of the image to be captured, but only while the Depth-of-Field Preview button is depressed.

• Disable, which allows the LCD Monitor to display the image at the standard settings.

Live View Shoot2

Figure 12-12. The Live View Shoot2 tab

Silent LV Shoot.

With the Silent LV Shoot option selected in the Live View Shoot2 menu, shown in figure 12-13, Mode 1 is the default.

In Mode 1, you do enjoy quieter mechanical operation of the camera, even if you have selected a continuous drive mode. In fact, you should be able to shoot just over four frames per second in a high-speed continuous mode.

In Mode 2, only a single exposure is captured, even if the drive mode has been set to one of the continuous options. The trick here is to depress the Shutter button, then hold it for a second or two, and then release it. That technique can significantly reduce the shooting noise.

Figure 12-13. Selecting the Silent LV Shoot. option

Figure 12-14. The available Silent LV Shoot. settings

Disable is used primarily when you attach a non-Canon flash to the hot shoe. The flash will not fire if either Mode 1 or Mode 2 has been set. If you use a Canon Speedlite, silent shooting is suspended, regardless of the settings here.

Metering Timer

Use the Live View Shoot2 menu’s Metering Timer option, shown in figure 12-15, to specify the amount of time you want the exposure system’s metering to remain active after you press the Shutter button halfway. The 16 Sec. choice is generally adequate, but for work like studio shooting, you may find a longer time appropriate.

Figure 12-15. Selecting the Live View Metering Timer option

Figure 12-16. The list of Metering Timer values

Use either the Quick Control Dial or the Multi-controller to select a value, and then press SET.