What do you all think of my photos?

Are waveform & false colors available in photo mode?

I like to shoot in aperture priority and boost the ISO if I need a faster shutter speed, but I have to tweak the metering mode and exposure compensation depending on where the sun is in the sky. Maybe the reflective meter is better in newer cameras.
 
Are you asking me about my cameras, or the OP about his T2i?

If you are asking me, I have no idea if waveform or false color are avaiable in photo mode because I would have no use for them if they are available. I cna tell you that Zebras work in photo mode, but I ignore them for photos. I use them only for video but don't bother to turn them off for photos.

In photo mode, I do have exposure compensation on both my cameras and I often have it pushed 1-stop over. But ultimately I'm still using auto-exposure 100% of the time for photos. I can't even remember the last time I set exposure to full manual for photos except for a really long-duration exposure (i.e., star trails).

Just to be clear, I'm talking about photos only. For video, my approach is 180 degrees opposite and I'd never use auto-exposure under any circumstances. And there you have one of the major differences between shooting photos and video.
 
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I meant the false color question for Paul, since he suggested it over the histogram, but I'm not sure if he was referring to photo or video mode.

Auto exposure works well in photo mode, but you have to trust but verify, hence tweaking the metering mode and exposure compensation. My D7000's reflective meter tends to overexpose more than it under exposes, so I often set exposure compensation to -3/4 or -1 stop if I'm shooting JPEG.
 
There are some good photos in that imgur page, and quite a few bad ones.

With regards to the "bad" ones, it always helps if there is some sort of backstory to the photo. I have various photos which are not particularly impressive either technically or artistically, but they do a decent job of showing the subject matter, or there is some story there; so the picture depicts something which happened, or some specific period in time, so the story is more important than the quality of the picture.

I have the Canon 500D, which is one generation older than your T2i. Compared to modern cameras, it is terrible in low light - when you turn the ISO up beyond 400 it really shows, and the viewfinder really makes it hard to see whether it is in focus or not. I've used a few old adapted manual lenses with it, but I cannot focus it reliably with the stock viewfinder and my so-so eyesight. Now if you use such a lens of an old fashioned camera with a proper ground glass and split prism focusing screen, its a different matter :). I predominantly use my EOS in AF mode with Canon EF lenses.

I do find my EOS has a tendency to overexpose. If you aren't sure, it can be worth taking some at different exposures and picking the best one. In my experience, things look different on the camera's LCD screen to what they look like on my computer screen.

For any still life shots, I highly recommend turning the ISO down to 100, setting the aperture to whatever you need to get the DOF you want, and then doing a long exposure (10/20/30 seconds if necessary), with a tripod. Perfect pictures every time :).

If you don't have an external flash, I recommend playing with small mirrors and bits of paper to diffuse the light and/or bounce it off the ceiling. That can make a world of difference if you are doing handheld shots in low light. The results may be a bit random, but you can take a few and pick the best one.

These things are always subjective. I like the photo of the wren. Imamacuser suggests editing out the grass blade at the top, but I rather like having the grass blade there. It lines up perfectly with the bird's beak and looks like the birds is aiming specifically for it. Of course one can nitpick the details like this all day and ultimately Zach has to make the decision as to what is best.

I like the cat photos... but people who don't like cat photos are banned from the internet :cool:.

I hope that helps. There is still plenty of life left in these older EOS cameras yet.
 
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