Practical Tips & Camera Settings for Family Trips

One question that people often ask me is "What was the setting that you used for that picture?". I am sure many photographers around the world are being asked this question and most of them do not have any answers, because 'really' speaking - the settings/numbers don't matter. It is the process of reaching that number that really matters. 

For a landscape shot, there is no magic settings that will give you great pictures every single time. You need to know the In's and Out's of the process of reaching the right setting that will give you the results that you need. This process is usually time consuming, where you are trying different settings and checking the results, until you come to that one setting that you like. But that settings is only good for that place, at that time, under that lighting conditions. You go to a different place or a different lighting situation, and those settings won't work and you will have to repeat the above process and come up with a new camera setting.

But for a family trip, all the equations and all the processes change because 
A) You do not have a lot of time. You are constantly moving and you do not have time to mess with the settings for every single shots (or not even every 10 photographs). 
B) You have your wife & kids on that trip and they have Expectations. I am sure most of us photographers would agree that, our wives do not like us messing around with settings a lot. They just want to photograph that moment. However we as a photographers think about - direction of light, subject distance, perspective etc. But wife & kids - they don't care ! And frankly speaking - they should not. After all, it is a 'family' trip and not a photography trip. 

So you are basically in a situation where you cannot spend time figuring out camera settings, you cannot be fussy about the light, direction, perspective etc but you still have to get good pictures. Pictures that you would like as a photographer and more importantly pictures that your family will like. Therefore - I have come up with a simple process when it comes to photographing a family trip. These settings can be used on any camera that support manual/semi-manual modes. The settings are not system specific, so it doesn't matter which brand of camera that you are using.  These settings will give you a properly exposed image in most of the situations, but not all. So occasionally, you will have to wear your photographer hat and tweak as needed to get the best results.

So without wasting more time, here are the settings:

• Camera Mode: Shutter Priority
• Shutter Speed: at least 1/125. Higher if required
• Aperture: Camera will take care of it
• ISO: Auto
• Exposure Compensation: Usually +1
• Metering Mode: Evaluative/Matrix

That's it. That's the settings that I use. Let me explain why !

Why Shutter Priority?
I know most of the photographers would question my decision to use the Shutter Priority Mode instead of using the Aperture Priority or Full Manual Mode. Here's the reason: The Aperture Priority mode would work great if I have sufficient light. That way, camera would pick a fast enough shutter speed to prevent any camera shake or blur.  Manual mode is the best, but it is 'manual', which means that if the lighting conditions change, you have to re-adjust. And as I mentioned earlier, time is of the essence so I would rather not re-dial my settings for every situation. With shutter priority, I am selecting the shutter speed high enough so I am sure that my photos won't have camera shake or blur.

The only down-side of selecting shutter priority is that you will not have control over the aperture which in turn means you will not have control over the depth of field (which 'usually' is not of a major concern in family trips). 

Why Shutter Speed of 1/125 or higher?
This one should be obvious. This would prevent camera shake/blur. 1/125 is just a ball park number. Use a higher shutter speed that suits your need. If you subject is moving fast, use higher shutter-speeds like 1/250 or 1/500, depending on how much light you have available and how high ISO can your camera support. 

Why Auto ISO?
This one should be easy to understand (& easy to explain as well). I am sure all of you would agree that our wife & kids do not care about camera noise ! They don't care if the photos have slightly visible noise. All they care about is recording that moment. So it is OK if the pictures have noise. As long as you are able to get good sharp, well exposed pictures, ISO should not really matter.  

Why Exposure Compensation?
This article isn't really about 'what' exposure compensation is and why do we need it. So therefore, I will keep my explanation short, more like a cookbook. If you are shooting outdoors on a sunny day, keep your exposure compensation positive, usually +1. If you are shooting indoors, you would probably not need exposure compensation, but if feel the pictures are coming darker than you would like, dial a +1/3 or +2/3.  If you are capturing a lovely sunset scene and want a good silhouette, dial -1 or -2 depending on your taste. 
 
Hope this articles helps you capture great family pictures on your next trip. I hope following these tricks will free you from worrying about the camera settings and focus more on enjoying those precious moments with your family. 

If this article helped you, post your pictures in the comments and on my facebook link. 
 
 

Visit to Vionovich Park in Cleveland

Summer time usually means a lot of sports (cricket, tennis etc) for most of us Indians over here in Cleveland. Me and my few friends were playing Tennis one day. The weather was not particularly great for tennis. It was very windy and the ball kept swinging in the air. But still, we managed to play a couple sets and finally decided that we should stop for the day and go home. While returning home, one of my friend suggested that we go out and shoot.

We started hunting for various locations. He mainly wanted to capture those fancy "Car Trail" pictures during night time and wanted to get something with the downtown skyline. Interesting concept, but we could not find any location from where we could take such a picture (at least not in the time that we had that day).  So we ultimately decided to take picture of downtown, mainly the skyline. Some evening/night shots. 

So again, the question was "Where should we go?". We had a few options in mind 

1. Edgewater Park 
2. Vionovich Park
3. Heritage Park

All these places offered some great views of Cleveland skyline. I have been to Edgewater Park multiple times and had some of my favorite shots from that location. Heritage Park was new for me and him too. But ultimately we decided that we will go to Vionovich Park. 

We started about 8:30 pm and reached in about 30 mins or so. It was almost sunset and we started setting up our tripods and what not ! We started taking different shots and just as it always is, the first dozen shots were really crappy. So what did we do? We did what most amateur photographer (like us) does. We started by blaming the nature - bad light, lots of cloud cover, too windy etc etc. 

Then we settled down and did what a good photographer would do ! We 'worked' the scene (as Scott Kelby says) i.e we tweaked our settings and composition and overall perspective and the result is what you see below. 

The first picture here is not a 'bad' picture in my mind. It's just that I felt something is missing in this picture. 

Exposure: 1.3 sec @ F/16, ISO-100

So I stepped back a little bit, zoomed out further more and changed the perspective slightly and this is what I got. To my mind, the next picture is a better picture because it gives much wider view and it shows the waving flag, indicating that it was a windy day. 

Exposure: 1.3 sec @ F/16, ISO-100

The next one here isn't really a 100% natural, out of camera picture. I always wanted to try a picture with 'perspective distortion', so I tried this. I bent low and took a shot of Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame Museum. The shot straight out of camera was hardly distorted. So I did a little bit of post processing and got the following shot.

Exposure: 1.3 sec @ F/16, ISO-100

The next shot, is a full view of the skyline and Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame Museum. 

Exposure: 8 sec @ F/16, ISO-100

The next shot here is my favorite shot from the lot. I just like the overall balance of the shot and how the Key Tower stands out. Also the start burst in the steel lights below. 

Exposure: 30 sec @ F/16, ISO-100

Next one is also very beautiful shot in my mind. I like how every element in the scene is adding a sense of depth in the picture. That moon in the scene,by the way, was much more beautiful than what you could see in the picture. This was a day before the Friday 13th Honey Moon !

Exposure: 15 sec @ F/16, ISO-100

This is another shot without the chains. 

Exposure: 20 sec @ F/100, ISO-100 

And next one is the Star Burst shot. I often at least take one shot that has this star burst effect, if I am shooting during night hours. The results usually are very pleasing, especially if you have street lights like these.

Exposure: 13 sec @ F/13, ISO-100

At the end when we were returning home, we decided to take the "Car Trail" shot. After all, that was the original shot that my friend always wanted. I did a bit of post processing here and de-saturated all the colors except the red one. 

So - these are the pictures that I clicked at Vionovich Park. Hope you liked them. But before I end this article, I want to explain how I got the "Star Burst" shot. 

How to get Star Burst Shot

The secret is pretty simple and it's very basic. Here's what you will need

1. Any camera that allows Manual mode.
2. Tripod
3. Street lights (which usually are available free of cost)

Now do the following exercise

1. Mount your camera on the tripod and compose your shot the way you want. 
2. Start out with a bigger aperture like F/4 (most of the lens support F/4) and dial your shutter speed so that the picture is very slightly 'under exposed'. 
3. Now review your picture. Notice that you may have a very slight or no star burst. 
4. Now gradually increase the Aperture to F/5.6, F/7, F/11 and eventually F/16. If you are in Manual mode, you will have to adjust the shutter speed every time. If you are in Aperture Priority mode, your camera will take care of the shutter speed for you. 
5. Review your picture every time and notice how your star burst becomes clearer as you increase the F-stop and select longer shutter speeds. 

Was this tip helpful? Did you try and take a picture of star burst? I would love to see those. Please paste a link to your star burst picture in the comments below.