I’ve been running the AU review for over 6 years now. During that time we’ve had over a hundred photographers come through our doors around the country – probably more… and though I’ve been behind plenty of video cameras, I’ve never dabbled much in photography myself. It can’t be that hard can it? Well, the folks at Canon took me up on that very challenge and set me up with their entry level DSLR- the EOS 700D – to answer that question for myself.
Firstly, to get comfortable with the camera, I stuck with what I knew: videography. I’ve used plenty of Canon cameras over the years and they couldn’t be easier to get working. There are of course differences between models that might take some adjusting, but for the most part, you set up your levels, get it focused and press record. Within minutes I had the camera on the tripod and I was knocking out a couple of interviews:
It was a typical day for me, jumping between local up-and-coming artists and rising superstars. Above is the former, Village Echoes and below is the latter, ITCH.
Now you might notice that I’m quite close up to these artists, and this brings us to lesson number one: know your lenses! When I pitched this idea with Canon, it was to shoot portraits, a music festival and some action at the circus – which we’ll get to shortly. In mind of this, I was provided with two lenses – the EF 70-200 f/4L USM Sports Lens, favoured amongst festival photographers, and an EF 50mm f/1.4 USM Portrait Lens, which I used for the videos above. Though versatile, these lenses were built for distance – so I thought I better head off to the music festival to get the most of the lenses.
I headed along to The Blurst of Times Festival in Sydney with the intention to photograph bands on and off the stage. Unfortunately there wasn’t much of a “backstage” area to speak of and so the reality started seeping in: I wasn’t going to have much opportunity to switch between lenses. I decided to stick with the EF 70-200mm as such and work it out as I went.
Talk about jumping in the deep end. But the more time I spent with it, the more comfortable I got with changing settings on the fly and capturing a great shot.
(Note: no editing has been done to this photo or any you see on this page).
Body: Canon EOS 700D, Lens: EF 70-200 f/4L USM Sports Lens, F-Stop f/9, Exposure Time 1/13 sec., ISO-5000, 70 mm Focal Length, No Flash
The above was an early shot. Naturally, I improved as I went along. Here are photos of Rolls Bayce and Chicks Who Love Guns that I’m pretty proud of:
Body: Canon EOS 700D, Lens: EF 70-200 f/4L USM Sports Lens, F-Stop f/4, Exposure Time 1/50 sec., ISO-800, 70 mm Focal Length, No Flash
Body: Canon EOS 700D, Lens: EF 70-200 f/4L USM Sports Lens, F-Stop f/4, Exposure Time 1/50 sec., ISO-1600, 70 mm Focal Length, No Flash
With most of these photos, I had turned the ISO down to either 800 or 1600, the exposure time to 1/50 or 1/100 and the f-stop was at f/4. And the EF 70-200mm f/4L USM Sports Lens was used in all photos. I can’t say that this was definitely the way that a professional might shoot entirely, but with some trial and error I was able to find the best settings and manoeuvre between indoors and outdoors with ease. With the EF 70-200mm I was also able to sneak to the very back of the audience and still zoom in enough to get a shot of the band in action, with plenty of detail. Here’s Velociraptor:
Body: Canon EOS 700D, Lens: EF 70-200 f/4L USM Sports Lens, F-Stop f/4, Exposure Time 1/50 sec., ISO-800, 70 mm Focal Length, No Flash
In the context of a festival, you have to think and act quickly to get the perfect shot, anticipate the band’s next move and adapt your camera to the lighting conditions as soon as anything changes. Cameras like the 700D are made for manoeuvrability – there are plenty of options built in to the camera to help you find the setting, and when you set everything up manually, there are buttons to help you make quick changes to the ISO (how much light you let in) and shutter speed (how quickly the photo is taken). Both of which are essential for the “perfect shot”.
And with the EF 70-200mm, your control over the focus is phenomenal. You can see here in this live shot of Bloods how the focus is fixed in on one of the artists and it looks pretty slick if I do say so myself. Not bad for a day’s work (and a $800 lens):
Body: Canon EOS 700D, Lens: EF 70-200 f/4L USM Sports Lens, F-Stop f/4, Exposure Time 1/100 sec., ISO-1600, 70 mm Focal Length, No Flash
But I also wanted to get some photos of some of the people there to enjoy the music, as well as band members off-duty. Without the comfortable position to change lenses at ease, I ended up sticking with the EF 70-200mm, meaning I had essentially pre-cropped the photo. You can see in the first photo here that one of the subjects is slightly more focused than the other – again, this is something that comes down to skill and practice to get right. The 50mm would have been preferred here with its excellent depth of field.
Body: Canon EOS 700D, Lens: EF 70-200 f/4L USM Sports Lens, F-Stop f/4, Exposure Time 1/100 sec., ISO-400, 70 mm Focal Length, No Flash
As the day progressed, again I improved on my portraits and this one of Simon from DZ Deathrays came out much clearer.
Body: Canon EOS 700D, Lens: EF 70-200 f/4L USM Sports Lens, F-Stop f/4, Exposure Time 1/100 sec., ISO-800, 70 mm Focal Length, No Flash
When you watch the professionals in the pits, they make those adjustments like they’re picking up a fork: to them, it’s second nature. For a photographer just starting out what you are able to achieve in a day with the Canon 700D is pretty incredible. I am coming in to this with general knowledge of the system, and some advice from the photographers I work with, but I’m still very much a novice at the art of the DSLR. And given that – and the fact that there was no editing done to any of these photos (“yeah! we can tell!” screams some guy in the back of the room), I’m pretty impressed with what I was able to achieve on the go at a festival that jumped between indoors and outdoors in a high energy environment. It was no Soundwave, but it wasn’t a bad place to start.
My next assignment took me backstage to Cirque du Soleil’s Totem in Sydney, where I had much more opportunity to switch between the EF 50mm Portrait lens and the EF 70-200mm Sports lens. And I couldn’t have been happier! First up I grabbed some photos of a high moving target: the beautiful Native American Hoop Dancer Shandien Larance. As she moved about with the art of a professional, I fumbled around like an amateur and played around with a few settings. Here’s what I got on the camera’s inbuilt “SPORTS” mode.
I wasn’t quite happy with the first photos I took, so I adjusted the settings and came up with something I was happier with. You can see the colours are natural and everything is very crisp. It captures her in action nicely:
Body: Canon EOS 700D, Lens: EF 50mm f/1.4 USM Portrait Lens, F-Stop f/1.4, Exposure Time 1/320 sec., ISO-800, 50 mm Focal Length, No Flash
Switching to the stage, I moved between the two lenses as I moved about the room and was able to grab some fantastic in action photos of the gymnasts jumping around the high bars. I was able to stand right at the back of the tent and get a series of photographs I was proud of, particularly the shots taken with the EF 50mm.
Body: Canon EOS 700D, Lens: EF 50mm f/1.4 USM Portrait Lens, F-Stop f/5, Exposure Time 1/125 sec., ISO-6400, 50 mm Focal Length, No Flash
Body: Canon EOS 700D, Lens: EF 50mm f/1.4 USM Portrait Lens, F-Stop f/1.4, Exposure Time 1/200 sec., ISO-6400, 50 mm Focal Length, No Flash
There’s certainly an idea that with modern DSLRs the learning curve is no longer as steep as they once were (well, depending on the camera anyway). With the Canon EOS 700D, and the amount of in-built setting options, it’s like a bridge between the high-end DSLR world and the pocket digital camera landscape. And it works magnificently well. I took the camera into one high intensity environment and another to a professional circumstance and in both cases came out with photos (and video) that I’m proud of.
Like anything, it’s a matter of practice and consistency to become as good as a professional photographer – when you see the professionals in action you know that immediately – but what you are able to put together within 24 hours of picking up the device is truly phenomenal. So, just how hard is it to become a professional photographer? I guess the question really is: how much time are you willing to give it?
The Canon 700D and lenses were provided by Canon. Click here to see the full range.
