A Couple Questions...

"H" (ISO 12800 equivalent) Is there a reason to turn that setting on? What would that be used for, or is it ever used?

And in "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson. He says he mostly leaves the WB setting on "Cloudy" ...wondering what others thought about that?

reneefk wrote in post #13719960
Probably more to come before I finish these books!

Working my way through David Busch's T3i book:
The "H" (ISO 12800 equivalent) Is there a reason to turn that setting on? What would that be used for, or is it ever used?

Well, "H" is a convenience when you are setting your exposure, and you are willing to "trust" your camera's internal processing to boost the "native" high ISO. If shooting jpegs, I'd definitely recommend using it if needed because the camera is boosting the Raw data before compressing it down to the jpeg. If shooting Raw you have more latitude in making the adjustment in Raw software so it's really up to you whether to take the convenience and trust the camera or not.

I actually use Auto WB if I'm shooting outside or with a flash (or using "available daylight" indoors, because I'm pretty happy with the Canon Auto WB in those conditions. But I also shoot Raw and with Raw White Balance is not "cooked in" and so is quick and easy to "set" in software.

If I were shooting jpegs, I'd give more thought to White Balance, although still I'm pretty happy with Auto in many settings. As to Peterson's choosing Cloudy (assuming he's referring to daylight shooting) well, of course that's a choice for him, although it may not work so well on a bright sunny day, and it certainly wouldn't work so well indoors with, say, tungsten artificial light: a Cloudy White Balance "warms" the picture, whereas tugsten light is already "warm" and so a Tungsten WB "cools" the shot.

So, I'd set the WB to suit the scene. If you are shooting Raw you have flexibility, but still you might want a proper "starting point". If shooting jpeg, it really is best to at least use a proper preset.

If you want to "examine" White Balance more closely, the camera manual has a list of the presets and their "Kelvin" temperature values, high being "warmer" and low being "cooler", and also Raw processors such as Lightroom, Camera Raw and Digital Photo Professional let you "play around" with White Balance, although you need a Raw file to get the full functionality.

reneefk wrote in post #13719960
Working my way through David Busch's T3i book:
The "H" (ISO 12800 equivalent) Is there a reason to turn that setting on? What would that be used for, or is it ever used?

I am in the same situation - working through a book to learn all the option on my new camera. The way I see it, is that ISO 12800 gives me an additional stop of freedom to shoot in low light situation. Better grainy then blurry....

tonylong- thank you so much! that makes sense and is really helpful. I realize I could probably Google search this stuff up, but everyone here makes it so much easier to understand.

drmaxx- Busch does a great job at explaining where everything is and how to turn it on/off, but not always what it does. By the time I stop and look up what he's talking and sometimes re-read some of the same paragraph two or three times...well, I might just get through this book by next year! I have been working on it for quite awhile and I'm still only 100 pages in (of 500)

I am quite selective with reading. There is waaay to much information to digest and I mainly want to spend my time making pictures.

So, I focus on adjusting all the nobs and buttons so that the camera is adjusted to what I want from the camera. I ignored all the filming stuff, which lenses to buy, etc.

I think it is better to get a good start and once you somewhat familiar with the stuff you use go back and read some more. I usually can only focus on one or two things that I learn and improve on. E.g. right now using the on-camera flash in combination with the high-ISO to get natural looking pictures. That's keeping me busy - probably for quite some time...

drmaxx wrote in post #13720766
I think it is better to get a good start and once you somewhat familiar with the stuff you use go back and read some more. I usually can only focus on one or two things that I learn and improve on.

This sounds like a good way to go about it, I think I'm starting to suffer from information overload.

drmaxx wrote in post #13720336
I am in the same situation - working through a book to learn all the option on my new camera. The way I see it, is that ISO 12800 gives me an additional stop of freedom to shoot in low light situation. Better grainy then blurry....

I had no choice but to shoot 12,800. The fastest shutter speed was only 1/500 even at that high ISO. I learned the meaning of fast lenses that shoot.

^^ great shot.

Well, some of what you're suffering from is the books you have.

Put those down, then try this one, then pick those other two back up:
http://www.amazon.com …Scott-Kelby/dp/032147404X

As for the WB: leave it on auto for now.

digital paradise wrote in post #13724637
I had no choice but to shoot 12,800. The fastest shutter speed was only 1/500 even at that high ISO. I learned the meaning of fast lenses that shoot.

Indeed a great shot and a nice example for the power of high ISO

S.Horton wrote in post #13725495
Well, some of what you're suffering from is the books you have.

Put those down, then try this one, then pick those other two back up:
http://www.amazon.com …Scott-Kelby/dp/032147404X

The Busch's T3i book is fairly good to get a grip on your camera, but not the most inspiring source to learn how to make great pictures.

drmaxx- Agree, that is the only reason I got it, to learn about the camera inside and out.

Sam- Thanks for the suggestion, I will definitely pick that one up!

digital paradise- great pic! thanks for the example.

Unless you have serious OCD and can not tolerate noise, and would rather NOT get the shot in low light conditions, than leave "H" on so that you can take full use of the camera. On the 5D ISO3200 is "H" but it does a very good job with it considering.

For WB setting it to cloudy might work okay on a bright sunny day to get warm looking pictures, but I find Canon's are generally warm enough to begin with (compared to Nikon for example). This is one thing in the book I don't necessarily agree with, it's just his personal taste. Leaving it on AWB is probably a better idea. Read up more on WB and learn how to use a grey card and custom WB for indoor shots will give you the best results.