Better Family Vacation Photos
Do your family vacation photos look like the ones you see in museums? You know, those old tintypes with Father seated stiffly upright with bowler hat balanced on his knee, Mother standing at attention on his right with one hand on his shoulder while both stared straight at the camera. Maybe your vacation scrapbooks have the same theme running through all of them. Mom standing next to a tree and smiling. Junior standing next to a giant ball of string and smiling. Grandma standing next to a sign and smiling...
It doesn't have to be that way.
While these short tips won't magically transform you into Nigel Barker, they will help you take vacation photos your family and friends will really want to see.
1. Take lots of photos. Set your digital camera to 640x480 resolution, and you should be able to put over a thousand photos on one memory card. The more photos you take, the better chance you have of capturing that once-in-a-lifetime vacation moment. Watch a professional photographer on a shoot sometime (or catch an episode of America's Next Top Model). The photographer doesn't just pose the model next to something and take one shot. He talks to her, shooting almost constantly as she moves through a range of poses. Later, he sorts out the shots he wants to use.
2. Be aware of backgrounds. Even professionals forget this sometimes. When they do, the resulting shot is a candidate for Jay Leno's headlines. We've all seen the man with three arms, the woman with horns and so on. Very busy backgrounds can tend to overwhelm the subject, causing them to blend in.
3. Use available light when possible. The harsh flash on most cameras causes that deer-in-the-headlights look that makes your family look more like escaping prisoners than a group of people having fun together. Flash is also the cause of red-eye, as the bright flash reflects back off the back of the subject's eyeballs.
4. Shoot faces at a slight angle and aiming slightly down. Mug shots are taken facing directly into the camera. So are most driver's license photos. Have you ever seen a flattering example of either? Again, look at how professional photographers enhance a model's looks by shooting at the best angles.
5. Focus on your subject. If you're taking a picture of a beautiful mountain, shoot the whole mountain. If you're shooting Junior rock climbing a bautiful mountain, focus on Junior and take in just enough mountain to give context. When you're shooting people, try some photos with the portrait setting on your digital camera. Your subjeect should be in sharp focus while the backround is a little blurry. You can get some really dramatic shots this way.
6. Never put your subject at dead center. We're back to mug shots and license photos again. Shot after shot with the subject at dead center becomes boring. A professional tip I read said to picture a tic-tac-toe grid in your viewfinder. Mentally divide the field into thirds, both vertically and horizontally. The four intersections create sweet spots that just naturally draw the eye. Put your subject on one of these sweet apots and you'll have a more interesting photo.
7. Learn to use your camera. If you can, spend some time before your vacation playing with your new digital camera. Learn to use the automatic settings. Practice shooting at different light levels, framing your subjects, and so on. The really sweet thing about learning to use a digital camera is that there's practically no cost or delay. You can see your work immediately. If you don't like it, just erase the memory card. I once took a new camera on a fishing vacation, and couldn't figure out why I could only get a dozen or so shots on a memory chip. Back in my room, I figured out that the factory setting was on the highest resolution. If I'd followed this tip, I'd have dozens of photos rather than just a few.
8. Step in close to get more detail. Think about it. What do you do when you want to examine something more closely? You either move it closer to you or you move closer to it. It works the same way with your digital photos. There are two ways to do this. One is to physically move closer to your subject, the other is to use the camera's zoom. Go for a happy medium here. You want to see the love shine in the newlyweds' eyes, but you don't want to be able to count Grandpa's nosehairs.
9. Take candid and action shots, not just posed ones. People do a lot more on vacation than stand in front of things and look at the camera. Take a fishing trip, for example. Most people return from a fishing vacation with a pile of pictures of their party holding up fish. A lot more happened getting to that point. Show the lucky angler holding the bent rod fighting the fish. Show the fish sliding into the landing net. And when you do go for the trophy shot of the angler holding up his prize, remember tip 2 and get enough background to give context.
10. Use a tripod or other rest. While this tip applies more to folks using traditional film cameras or video cameras, digital camera owners can get value from a tripod, too. With posed shots and landscapes, a tripod or other rest lets you frame the picture precisely. Use the camera's timer function and you can even be in the picture.
Bonus tip: Good photo editing software
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John McCabe is the publisher of Florida Vacation Buzz at http://FloridaVacationBuzz.com . He's always looking for amateur photos and stories about things to see and do in Florida, especially the Sun Coast from Sarasota to Naples.
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