Is this cheating?

[mostly sunny]

I was wondering why it took so long for an "Understanding Exposure" plug to pop up.

It has been metioned like, 7 times to me. I did just order it this weekend.:thumbup:

 

[icassell]

You might consider something like this, too:

Amazon.com: Canon EOS 7D Digital Field Guide (9780470521298): Charlotte K. Lowrie: Books

(there are others too, such as 7D for dummies)

I haven't seen the one for the 7D yet, but I bought this for my 30D when I bought the camera and it was very helpful until I had a good handle on how to operate it. She writes in an easy-to-follow style.

 

[mostly sunny]

You might consider something like this, too:

Amazon.com: Canon EOS 7D Digital Field Guide (9780470521298): Charlotte K. Lowrie: Books

(there are others too, such as 7D for dummies)

I haven't seen the one for the 7D yet, but I bought this for my 30D when I bought the camera and it was very helpful until I had a good handle on how to operate it. She writes in an easy-to-follow style.

I have that one!! = ) I like that one, I understand that one.:lmao:

PS- the dummies one was supposed to of been shipped to me on Dec 21st.. I think the last email I got from BN is that it's not out yet, or they don't have the stock yet.

 

[KmH]

+1 ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^. There are other options in print for explanations of all the features of your 7D.

Amazon.com: Introduction to the Canon 7D Volume 1 : Basic Controls: Graham Sterling, Blue Crane Digital: Movies & TV

Amazon.com: Magic Lantern Guides: Canon EOS 7D (9781600596643): Michael Guncheon: Books

Unfortunately, Canon users manuals are some of the worst ever produced for consumer electronics.

Nikon's are much better, but still a cold users manual devoid of personality.

 

[mostly sunny]

How many books do you think I am going to need?

(is that a loaded question?)

 

[PatrickCheung]

well, saying that its not cheating and whatever gets you the picture sounds all nice and dandy, but you sound like you are trying to learn how the camera works, and thus throwing it in auto is a sign that you are getting frustrated and you then "cheat" to get some results.

I would suggest getting a good book and reading through it. One that helped me ALOT was Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson. He does not write in technical terms and is easy to understand.

So I think what you are doing, based on my assumption of what I am reading, that you are cheating.

what he said. technically you're not "cheating" when it comes to getting the shot... i dont think there's such a thing as cheating in photography... just creative thinking.

however, the question you should ask yourself is "am i learning something from doing this?" if you have to flip the camera to auto every time you want to get a shot... then what's the point of using the manual exposure modes? trust me, you'll be a LOT more proud of your photos if you've taken them on your own... without the aid of an auto mode.

while the manual may not be the easiest thing to read (hell, my SB-600 manual was a pain to read)... theres always the internet. why buy a book and risk "getting mad at it" when you can find the answer here for free!

 

[Psycho]

I don't think there is anything that can be considered cheating. Whatever gets you the results. People can argue about methodology but in the end all that matters is the quality of pictures you take.

People think the easier methods are "cheating", but if someone takes an equivalent photo with half the effort, I see that as smart photography, not "cheating". You could even consider reading the manual to learn about your camera as "cheating".

I understand that from a learning perspective, that using auto might be cheating yourself. But I still think you are learning something. You can flounder away with trial and error to find the right settings from scratch, or you can use Auto to give you a reference to build on.

I do worry that maybe using auto in this way has a potential to confuse rather than teach however. So you could see this as the reverse of cheating actually I'm not a super pro like everyone here, but in my opinion, the best "cheat" to learning is to learn the fundamentals and apply them to your settings with the camera.

 

[SoonerBJJ]

*yawn*

This.