I have just bought a EOS 200D which arrived earlier today. I bought it to take photos of my son’s Army passing out parade on Thursday where there’ll be hundreds of soldiers at a distance. This is my first proper camera and I’ve got so much to learn but not a lot of time to do it in! I have the EF-S 18-55 and the EF-S 55-250. Please can you recommend what shooting modes I should try using as there seem to be so many? Should I just stick with the intelligent auto and hope for the best?!
Well you can surely try the auto settings and see what you get. I don't have experience with the auto modes a s they do things you can do in other ways. Canon has this article https://snapshot.canon-asia.com/art...est-eos-dslr-camera-with-a-vari-angle-monitor and the Ch6 link on the right talks about some things you can do with the creative auto setting. I am also guessing your manual will give you a brief idea of what each mode is for and keep it pretty simple. That said you specified marching from a distance so it seems you going to want to use the 55-250 so you can zoom in as desired. You also will want to freeze action as they will be marching. The longer the zoom and the faster they are moving the faster the shutter speed will need be lets just guess you will want something around 1/500th. The more of the group you want in focus you will want to have a smaller aperture for example f11 (bigger number, smaller hole in aperture, more depth of field). Those are a few basics of what you would be trying to do in manual, shutter, or aperture priority modes. Will f11 at 1/500th work in th lighting situation you will be in? I have no idea, you can adjust the ISO or tweek those number up or down accordingly and see what the camera says for if the exposure is over or under. I guess what I am really trying to say is your auto mode may get what you want or it may not, going the next step in learning will give you control where you want it, I would suggest playing with the modes and doing some practice shots before hand. May kids in back yard or riding a bike down the street to test some movement at a distance.
I am a bit late with offering any advice but I hope you are pleased with the results from yesterday. My advice is; Use auto mode to start with if you need to get some keepers. Other modes you can use when you are more familiar with it. Try to keep the lens hoods on when shooting. Try and keep the camera as steady as you can, IS will not be able to compensate well enough if it is trying to cope with very shaky hands. Try and keep the sun behind or to the side or shoot from shade if possible. Your camera is a great tool, if you make any mistakes learn from them. Experience will come. Enjoy.
