How to Add Photo Effects with Creative Filters on the Rebel t5i

Let’s try something entertaining on your Canon Rebel t5i. With the Creative Filters, you can add special effects to your pictures. For example, you can use this feature to create the three versions of a city scene.

You can choose from the following filters:

• Grainy B/W: This filter turns your photos into old-fashioned, grainy, black-and-white photos.

• Soft Focus: This filter blurs the photo so details look all soft and fuzzy, as if you had rubbed petroleum jelly on the lens.

• Fish-eye: This option distorts your photo so that it appears to have been shot using a fish-eye lens.

• Art Bold: Like your colors bold — really, over-the-top vivid? Give this filter a try.

• Water Painting: Sort of the opposite of Art Bold, this filter sucks some color out of your image. The resulting image looks similar to a painting done in pastel colors.

• Toy Camera: This filter creates an image with dark corners — called a vignette effect. Vignetting is caused by poor-quality lenses not letting enough light in to expose the entire frame of film. When you choose this effect, you can also add a warm or cool tint.

• Miniature: This filter creates a trick of the eye by playing with depth of field. It blurs all but a very small area of the photo to create a result that looks something like one of those miniature dioramas you see in museums.

You can apply the filters to still photos only. The fastest post-processing option is to use the Quick Control screen during Playback mode, as follows:

1. Switch to Playback mode and display the photo in single-image view.

2. Press the Quick Control button to enter Quick Control mode.

   The Quick Control icons appear on the screen.

3. Choose the Creative Filters icon.

   

   Either tap the icon or use the up/down cross keys to highlight it. You then see a row of icons along the bottom of the screen: seven representing the filters and one Off icon to remove a filter effect.

4. Press the right/left cross keys or rotate the Main dial to select a filter. Or just tap the filter's icon.

   As you do, the name of the filter appears on the screen, but the image itself doesn't change to reflect the filter's effects.

5. Press the Set button or tap the Set icon.

   Now you see a screen with options available for the selected filter.

   

6. Adjust the effect as desired.

   Which controls appear depend on the effect, as follows:

   • Grainy B/W: You see a scale that lets you set the level of contrast to Low, Standard, or High. Press the right or left cross keys to change the value or just tap the bars of the effect scale. The onscreen preview updates to show you the result.

   • Soft Focus, Fish-eye, and Art Bold: You also can adjust the intensity of the effect for these filters, setting the effect to Low, Standard, or Strong. Again, choose from three levels by using the cross keys or tapping the effect scale.

   • Water Painting: This filter's three effect options — Light, Standard, and Deep — affect color density.

   • Toy Camera Effect: Choose from three color tones: Cool, Standard, or Warm. Cool makes the photo look bluer, and Warm makes it look more golden. Standard leaves colors alone.

   • Miniature Effect: A box appears to indicate the area that will remain in sharp focus when the rest of the image is blurred. Use the cross keys to move the box up or down or tap the spot on the screen where you want to position the box. To change the box orientation from horizontal to vertical, press the Info button or tap the Info icon.

7. Press Set or tap the Set icon.

   You’re asked to confirm that you want to save the adjusted image as a new file.

8. Tap OK or highlight it and press the Set button.

   The camera creates a copy of your image, applies the effect, and then displays a message telling you the folder number and last four digits of the file number of the altered photo. If the original was captured using the Raw Quality setting, the altered image is stored in the JPEG format.

9. Tap OK or press the Set button one more time.

   You’re returned to the Quick Control screen. Tap the return arrow or press the Quick Control button to exit the screen and return to Playback mode.

   

Shooting with Creative Filters isn’t that much different than applying them to photos during playback. However, you can’t use Creative Filters in Live View with the Image Quality set to RAW+JPEG or RAW, when you have auto exposure bracketing (AEB) or white balance bracketing enabled, or when you plan to use multi-shot noise reduction. Disable these features and set the Image Quality to JPEG only. Then, follow these steps:

1. Enter any shooting mode except Handheld Night Scene or HDR Backlight Control.

2. Activate Live View by pressing the Live View Shooting button.

3. Press the Quick Control button to enter Quick Control mode.

4. Choose the Creative Filters icon.

   It's the same icon as that found on the Quick Control during playback screen, except that it appears on the lower-right side of the screen in Live View. Once you select it, the individual filter icons appear along the bottom of the screen

5. Press the right/left cross keys, rotate the Main dial to select a filter, or tap the filter's icon.

6. Press the Set button to use this filter or tap the Info icon to adjust it.

   The exception to this is the Miniature effect. Press Set to adjust it.

   When you're done adjusting an effect, press the Set button.

7. Focus and take your photo.

   The altered image is stored in the JPEG format. You don’t get an unprocessed photo.