All shutterbugs love tips, tricks and techniques. Certain aspects of the Canon EOS system, while as a whole is well-documented by Canon, can be rather obscure, and the good stuff is often buried deep within the dry language used in the manuals. And who really reads manuals, right?

Here are some tips I have gathered along the way.

1. How to always have an extra CF card wherever you go
If you use a battery grip with your EOS camera, there is a small space near where the battery contact is that is designed by Canon to house the battery compartment cover you’ll have to remove to attach a battery grip. This space is perfect for stashing a CompactFlash card. Now you will always have a spare CompactFlash card wherever you go.

2. Use autofocus to assist in manual focusing
When you are focusing manually, half-depress the shutter release button (or the * button, if you have disengaged AF lock via Custom Functions), turn the focusing ring on your lens till the AF point over your desired focal point lights up in red in the viewfinder.

3. When middle gray isn’t really middle gray
Meters in cameras are calibrated to meter for middle gray, either at 18% or 13%. In complex lighting scenarios, the meter can be fooled. A rule of thumb I use is this (and this is only if you are using Evaluative Metering): if the scene contains mostly whites, push your exposure by 2/3 stops over, and if the scene contains mostly blacks, pull your exposure by 2/3 stops under. Yes, contrary to common sense, I overexpose for whites and underexpose for blacks.

Imagine you are taking a shot of a black cat. Since your camera will attempt to meter for middle gray, the exposure it thinks is best for the shot will turn the black cat into a gray cat.

Likewise, when you are talking a shot of a white cat, your camera will think the scene is overexposed and recommend an exposure that will turn the white cat into a gray cat. This rule of thumb is especially useful when you are unable to check your exposure after each shot, such as when you are racing against time to catch that moment in a wedding.

4. With a little help from gravity
When brushing off dirt on a lens, hold the lens such that it is pointing downwards. Gravity will help the dirt fall instead of being whisked around the lens.

5. Your Speedlite comes with a modeling light
If you have shot with studio strobes, you would know that the modeling light feature is extremely useful in setting up your shots. Canon Speedlites also come with a modeling light feature that may not be immediately apparent, since there is no dedicated switch for it. When a Speedlite is mounted on the camera, you can trigger it to fire a modeling light by pressing the depth-of-field button on the camera body. This button is usually found to the left-bottom of the lens mount. You may have to go into the Custom Function menu of your Speedlite to enable this.

6. Ditch that Canon lens cap
As mentioned before in a separate article, I really dislike having to fumble with Canon lens caps. Go Nikon; the release catches on their lens caps are in the middle and not at the sides, and if you use a lens hood with your lens, their design makes a lot more sense.

7. Detach AF Lock from the shutter release button
By default, your EOS camera initiates AF and AE lock when you half-depress the shutter release button. Letting go of the shutter release button after you’ve done this means that your camera will attempt to lock both AF and AE again when you half-depress later. A Custom Function in most digital EOS cameras allows you to detach AF lock from the shutter release button and, instead, reassigns AF lock to the * button located at where your thumb would be at. Reassigning AF lock to the * button is especially useful when you don’t want to disturb the AF point in your shot.

8.  Don’t use 1/3 ISO increments for cleaner images

Recent discussions and studies on the internet have shed light to an interesting phenomenon, whereby 1/3 ISO settings actually produce images noisier than those shot in full ISO settings; i.e., ISO 125, 500, etc., as versus ISO 100, 200, 400, etc.

9. Disable ‘Auto Rotate’ for a bigger review picture

Your digital EOS camera comes with an option in its menu that automatically rotates images shot in a portrait orientation when you review them on the LCD playback screen. By turning ‘Auto Rotate’ off, you get a bigger picture on the LCD screen. Simply rotate your camera to view it upright.

10. Tuck that lens hood away

You may already know this, but the bayonet-mounting style of an EOS lens hood allows you to flip it 180-degrees around, and mount it the other way around onto a lens, making it easier to carry around.