People love taking photos on their family vacation trips. Here are some tips and tricks that may help you to take better vacation photos.
- Capture the whole picture so you can tell the story. Don’t just zoom onto your family’s smiling faces. Remember this is travel photography, not portrait photography. Capture the surroundings, the backgrounds, landmarks, etc. Sometimes if you try to capture the whole building behind your family, the people may become too small in the frame. In this case, take multiple shots with the lens zoomed in and out. So you will be able to tell where the photos were taken later. Bring a wide angle lens for your SLR, or a P&S with a wide angle zoom.
- Don’t forget to capture the entire family, including you. I have taken tons of photos of my wife and my son happily smiling. However I don’t see many with myself being part of the valuable memory. Kindly ask other tourists to take photos of your entire family. Prepare your camera so all they need to do is point and shoot. Be careful when you hand over your camera, especially heavy ones like DSLRs. The weight may surprise some people and accident can happen. It may become challenging if you cannot find people to help you. In this case, bringing your tripod so you can setup a shot with timer.
- Capture the moment. Don’t just pose up and say “cheese”. Try to capture the very precious, nature flow of feelings. That means that you need to have the camera ready to shoot all the time.
- Record the whole experience. Keep the tickets, guides, maps, etc until you are done organizing your photos after the trip. Make sure the clock on your camera is synced properly. Take a picture of the signs, attraction maps, placards, etc, at the places you visit, so you can recount the whole trip from beginning to end.
- Bring extra batteries and flash cards.
- Finally, learn the lesson and don’t lose the memories to thieves or hardware failures.
Posted in
Tips and techniques on August 15th, 2007.
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If you are not sure what the differences are between “CMOS” or “CCD” image sensors, this Kodak article may help you to understand. Historically, CCD image sensors have superior image quality. However, CMOS image sensors have been catching up fast, starting from low end applications, especially in mobile phones, to high end applications, in DSLRs. Do you know who has the largest CMOS image sensor market share? Read More…
Posted in
Beginner Tips on August 14th, 2007.
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Macro photography opens up a whole new world of amazing nature with details the naked eyes cannot see. It is often beyond imagination and stunning. To capture more details, you need high magnifications. Most dedicated macro lenses can achieve 1:1 life size magnification (subject and image on the sensor has the same size) without any accessories. If you cannot afford them, reverse-mounting a lens with short focal length (<~50mm) is a good alternative. Check out these great examples and how it is done.
With dedicated macro lens, you have fully functional auto-focus and metering. With a reverse-mounted lens, you may not have either. It can become difficult and frustrating at beginning. Practice will make it easier and reward you with great photos without spending a fortune.
For in-depth information on alternative macro photography methods, please visit this Nikonlinks page.
“It’s one thing to come back with great stories from your travels, it’s even better to come back with the pictures to back them up.”
National Geographic photographer Mark Thiessen shares tips, tricks, and techniques to help you take better pictures on your next adventure with this great multimedia tutorial. Even though Mark is still a film guy, the principles should apply to digital shooters nicely.
As a side note, Great Falls National Park (where Mark took his illustration photos) is a great place to have fun with photography. You will have chances to see canoers/kayakers, rock climbers, hikers, wildlife, and landscapes.
If you love nature and wildlife photography but cannot afford a Safari trip to Africa, shooting in a zoo is a great alternative. However the animals in zoo are often kept behind chain link fence for the safety of both visitors and the animals. Don’t give up though. Sometimes you can still get a great shot without getting any indication of the fence between the lens and the subject in your image.
The two photos above illustrated this clearly. The photo on left is what I got when the lens focused on the fence. The photo on right is what I captured when I managed to focus on the bald eagle behind the fence. The fence seems to have disappeared! Here are some tips for you. Read More…
Posted in
Tips and techniques on August 10th, 2007.
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Focus and recompose is a very commonly used photography technique. Photographer focuses on the subject that needs to be in sharp focus then recomposes the photo in order to achieve a more pleasant composition by adhere to photography rules such as the rule of the third and golden section. Modern cameras have multiple focus sensors, which appears to have made this technique not as useful as it once was. Some even claim that it causes focus errors due to the optical characteristics of modern camera lenses. However there are still occasions that you find the focus and recompose technique useful and without focus errors. Read on to find out some tips of focus and recompose technique. Read More…
Posted in
Tips and techniques on August 7th, 2007.
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This is a funny story, with lessons to be learned. If you return a digital camera, make sure you remove your card or reformat the included memory card, at least. The best practice is to “shred” it, not with your paper shredder, but with a software such as this one. When buying memory cards, pay attention to the extra software bundled with them. Some provide encryption and shredding features for free.
Good panorama landscape photos are impressive and contain breathtaking beauty due particularly to its wide angle of view. Here are some tips on shooting better landscape panorama. Read More…
Posted in
Tips and techniques on July 29th, 2007.
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