Sharper shots with Canon’s Av mode
Use Aperture Priority mode when light levels inconveniently change
Aperture Priority (Av) mode is one of the most popular creative modes, allowing photographers to choose the depth of field, while the camera chooses metering and shutter speed. One of the limitations is the shutter speed range extends as far as 30 secs. As a result when shooting in low light, blurred photos often result due to camera shake and subject movement.
One option for most cameras is to set the camera to Auto ISO. This causes the camera to factor in the focal length of the lens and raises the ISO to avoid camera shake as much as possible, and especially in low-light situations. But if you shoot with a 24mm lens a 1/30 sec shutter speed is likely, which is still a little slow for photos with moving subjects.
More advanced cameras provide extra ways to limit the shutter speed with Av. Change the minimum shutter speed for Auto ISO with program or Av. In Auto ISO the camera uses the focal length of the lens to determine the minimum shutter speed, but this setting lets you increase the minimum shutter speed, either in relation to the focal length or a selected value. In low-light with flash the ISO is locked to ISO400, which renders this option slightly less useful. The camera ignores your minimum shutter speed setting, and chooses shutter speeds for a correct exposure with ISO400.
One of the best ways to limit the shutter speed in Av is by limiting the shutter speed range. Once you limit the range, you also need to activate safety shift with ISO to avoid underexposed shots in low-light. With ISO safety shift activated the camera will override the selected ISO when the shutter speed reaches the minimum you’ve chosen. If you use flash, then it is best to choose a fixed ISO, not Auto ISO. Then ISO will be adjusted and not limited to ISO400 with flash. If you pick this method, use a custom shooting mode, C1/C2/C3 to make a copy of Av and implement the settings. Other modes outside of the custom mode will then allow the full range of shutter speeds to be selected.
Brian Says… You need to connect the camera to a computer and use Canon’s EOS Utility software to load a custom Picture Style. You can either create your own styles with the Picture Style editor software, or download Picture Style files from the internet, including Canon in Japan via quick link bit.ly/pp155style.
Your EOS 7D Mark II requires the .pf2 format Picture Style files. When you create a Picture Style it’s based on the pre-set styles originally supported by your camera and it’s Raw files. If you start with an EOS 7D Mark II image it doesn’t offer Fine Detail as a starting style. (Also see page 80.)