Photographing from boats and ships

I don't know about you, but I like cruising. I've been on large ships and small. I also enjoy canoeing and rafting. Taking photographs from any of these craft can be a real challenge.

Viewpoints can be highly limited. On a ship you may be far above the water's surface. In a zodiac or raft, you're right at the water. Water can change light conditions, and its movement can affect the photographer's ability to capture the image desired.

The photographer's ability to transmit the scale of the image is often impared in water shots as the frame of reference relevant to the photograph's viewer is missing or unfamiliar. In addition, the environment of being in a boat or on a ship can be hostile to your photographic equipment, and taking photographs.

Photographing Stained Glass Windows

With the tremendous technological improvements in DSLRs and even digital point and shoot cameras, coupled with the improvements in software used to remove lens and positional distortion as well as edit photographs in general, it’s now possible for travelers to make wonderful photographs of stained glass windows in the churches, synagogues and mosques they visit.

In most instances you’ll be able to get very good exposures of incredible stained glass windows while you travel, but there will be pitfalls, and most of the time there will be distortion to deal with in post processing once home.

If you’re going to at an out of the way church or museum you may be fortunate enough to be permitted to use a tripod and remote shutter release, but if you go to busy places like I’ve visited recently in Paris, such as Notre Dame de Paris, Musée de Cluny, or Sainte-Chapelle, that won't be possible.

Traveling with a tripod: It's love — Hate

You know, it really is a love — hate relationship between travel photographers and their tripods. Some weigh so much you get tired just looking at them in your room. When traveling with a group, you may get some “evil eyes” staring at you while you take time to set them up and take them down.






 Unfortunately, without a tripod, you can’t get really good night photographs, multi-image panoramas, sharp wildlife photos at distance, or sharp macro photographs of beautiful blooms, even with lens vibration reduction or camera image stabilization.

If you don’t have a tripod, or are considering one, but haven’t yet purchased one, it’s time to look at what benefits to travel photography you can derive from taking a tripod with you.

• Enhance sharpness — The “Photography Hand Holding” rule of thumb, for 35mm camera “equivalent” focal lengths, is the slowest hand-holdable shutter speed is 1 divided by the focal length of the lens. A 200mm lens can be hand held no lower than 1/200 sec. For print sizes of 8x10 inches and larger, even 1/200 is too slow. While some people can hand hold better than others, and lens vibration reduction / camera image stability can help, when you get to it, the rule is accurate. A sturdy, stable, properly sized tripod will get you sharper pictures every time.
• Create photographic opportunities — There are many photographic opportunities for which a tripod is essential; night photography, time-lapse photography, macro photography, wildlife photography, timed delay exposures, panoramas, etc. You might use a tripod to be creative such as in action photography where you pan with the subject and blur the background to show movement.
• Use lenses with longer focal lengths — The longer your lens’ focal length, the higher the magnification of your image, the more difficult hand holding the lens will be, and the more likely the image will be blurred by even a minute amount of camera shake. The longer the lens, the more the shake will be amplified. Vibration reduction and image stabilization cannot eliminate camera/lens movement as effectively as a properly sized tripod.
• Enhance photographic image quality — When you hand hold your camera in low light conditions, you often must either use faster film, or set your sensor ISO setting higher on your digital camera, since there is a lower limit in reducing your f/setting, when you try to keep your shutter speed high enough to hand hold your camera. By placing your camera on a tripod, you can keep your film speed or ISO setting low, improving your photograph’s quality.
• Enhance depth of field — When you hand hold in low light, you must use a low f/setting, opening up your lens’ aperture to let more light in, and/or a high film speed or ISO setting. Using a low f/setting reduces your photograph’s depth of field. Using a tripod enables you to use higher f/settings, closing the lens’ aperture to create a longer depth of field.
• Reduce distortion — Some better tripods allow you to get close to the ground for extreme low-angle shooting. This in turn can help you better compose the photograph and minimize keystoning and other types of distortion.
• Enhance image framing — There’s nothing better than a tripod in assisting a photographer to control the camera/lens position to permit you to perfectly compose your photo by using its panning and tilting movement.
• Enhance videos — You’ve seen TV cameras at sporting events, news events, and other locations. Many, especially the ones far from the action, are on tripods. There is no doubt that their use for video reduces camera shake and ehances smooth panning to follow movement. With more and more digital still cameras able to take short videos, tripods for those shots are becoming more important daily.
• Enhance flexibility — You can use a tripod like many photographers to hold more than just a camera. I’ve often used a tripod as a light stand, or to hold a reflector.
• Enhance photographer’s discipline — In my article, “Get great photos from your camera, instead of whining about needing a new one,” I said, “All too often digital camera ‘users’ just point their camera in the direction of their subject and shoot. No thought goes into photographic composition or exposure.” It takes a bit of time to set up a tripod with a camera and lens. This is a great time to think about your image, set an appropriate exposure, and carefully compose the photograph with thought.”

 Perhaps you think a tripod is only for expensive SLR or DSL cameras. Think again. If you have a Point and Shoot camera, look on the bottom of the camera. I’ll be you’ll find a threaded hole for attaching a tripod. Tripods work effectively for all kinds of cameras. You just need the right one.

Next week I’ll discuss choosing the right tripod.

Museum Photography: Ten Tips

If you’re like me, you enjoy traveling to new and interesting cities. One of the wonderful things great cities have to offer is the chance to view and experience outstanding and occasionally extraordinary art, and sometimes you have the chance to photograph it.

Often cities also have natural history, science and other museums dedicated to some industry or sport, or other specialized subject, such as the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum’s aircraft and space vehicles. All can have great photographic opportunities.

Here are some tips for you, for museum photography.

• To start, you’ve got to know the museum’s ground rules. You need to determine if photography, in the museum and on its grounds, is permitted. While most museums do permit some photography, often with limitations, such as no flash photography, there are still many museums in the world which ban photography all together.


• Even if there are “No Photography” signs as you enter the museum, it won’t do any harm to ask at the information desk whether the signs mean no photography whatsoever, or just no flash photography. I’ve been pleasantly surprised many times, especially in Europe, to find they just want to prevent all flash photography, as the light from many close-up electronic flashes can damage some art work, and flashes can be very disconcerting to museum visitors.


• If photography is forbidden, put your camera in its bag. Don’t try to sneak in any photographs. Don’t be the “ugly” tourist.


• If it’s only flash photography that’s forbidden, don’t try slipping in a few flash photographs. If enough people do that, it might eventually move the museum to ban photography all together, taking away the privilege for everyone because of your thoughtlessness. If you have a separate flash, put it away. If you have a built-in flash, turn it off. (If you’re not sure how to turn it off, either ask a teenager how to do it, or put your camera away.)


• The light level at many museums often means you need to open your lens, slow down your shutter speed, and/or use a high iso setting in your digital camera, or use high speed film. If you could use a monopod or tripod, that would certainly help combat those conditions and permit a sharp clear photograph, however, tripods and monopods are rarely permitted to be used in a museum, as they interfere with visitors’ movement. If you have a tripod or monopod, ask if you’re permitted to use them, before entering the museum. At a tour of Winterthur last month, I brought my tripod for outdoor garden photos. When I toured the museum itself, even though it was in a case, I was required to check my tripod. Lenses and cameras with “image stabilization” or “vibration reduction” are extremely helpful in museums.


• Even at some travel sites to which everyone goes solely to take photos, tripods and monopods may be prohibited. Due to the crowded conditions no tripods and monopods are permitted on the observation deck of the Empire State Building in New York City.


• Respect the art and respect fellow museum visitors. Many museums have ropes or some kind of barricade preventing you from getting to close to an especially popular exhibit or piece of art, such as the Mona Lisa in the Louvre in Paris, but usually there’s nothing to prevent you from getting close. Even if you can get close, respect the art and the others viewing it by not monopolizing the space near the art. Let everyone have a chance.


• The museum’s collection might not be the only thing worthwhile viewing there. Sometimes the museum itself is spectacular. Parts of the Louvre in Paris, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia have amazing exterior and interior architecture. The photograph on the right was taken at the Louvre. It’s not a painting or even a mosaic. It’s a ceiling of one of the galleries at the Louvre and a magnificent work of art itself.


• If you’re using an SLR or DSLR, don’t forget to bring a wide angle or wide angle zoom lens. It’s often needed in a museum for photographs of the museum itself or some larger sculptures or other exhibits.


• Most lighting in museums consists of artificial light or a combination of artificial and natural light. As a result, the automatic white balance setting on your digital camera may not produce accurate results. You may be better off manually setting your white balance. To help you achieve the correct white balance, if you can create a custom setting for it in your digital camera, consider using a WhiBal card, or if you have a DSLR, and Expo Disc to assist getting the correct white balance setting. I have used both and consider them excellent products.

It's spring! Getting those close-up shots while traveling

Spring has just come to the Northern Hemisphere. Flowers are blooming and the colors are spectacular. Each spring more and more travelers tour famous gardens to photograph and drink in their magnificent blooms.

Around Philadelphia, traffic to Winterthur and Longwood Gardens dramatically increases in the spring. In the Netherlands it’s time to visit Keukenhof Gardens, just outside of Los Angeles, the amazing Huntington Botanical Gardens, and also in Scotland, Castle Kennedy and Gardens. They are all exquisite.

This spring, travel photographers will pull out their macro lenses to get close-ups of garden blooms. If you don't have an expensive SLR (single lens reflex), or DSLR (digital single lens reflex), with extra care, a good P&S (point and shoot) camera can grab the shots too.

In general photography, we record sharp images with ease, as most photos such as landscapes, are taken at a distance. In macro photography, we take photographs of small and sometimes tiny objects, which require the lens to be positioned close to the subject, often less than a foot away. That makes it much more difficult to record a sharp image.

If you have a quality SLR or DSLR with a macro lens attached, you will have a great advantage over other cameras to get that sharp close-up image. If you have a tripod you'll have an even greater advantage.

That being said, here are some tips to get great close-up photographs:

• Compose your photo carefully, as the subject’s background can make or break a close-up picture. Use the background to complement the main subject, not detract from it.


• Consider opening up the lens’ aperture to reduce depth of field. In the photo above, on the right, taken at the Morris Arboretum, note the background is not in focus, while the plant is in sharp focus, making the plant stand out, almost in 3D. This was accomplished by opening the lens to f/5.6.


• Focus your camera carefully. As in telephoto photography, focus is critical. Focus on the most important element in a scene. Shoot at a small aperture (f/11, up) for good depth of field, unless you want the area in front of and behind your subject out of focus. In the lotus flower photo to the right, I focused on the bee, and used an aperture which kept the entire lotus in focus.


• Steady your camera. Close-up shots exaggerate camera shake. To reduce camera movement, which is most noticeable in natural light pictures, use a tripod. For the photo of the bee in the lotus, I used a tripod when I took it at the Garden of Eden Arboretum and Botanical Garden in Maui.


• Another way to reduce or eliminate the effect of camera shake is to use your camera or lens’ image stabilization or vibration reduction ability. Please remember, however, while they can really help, they are no substitute for using a quality tripod.


• Set your digital camera’s image quality to RAW, if your camera has it. The RAW setting gives you more exposure latitude than JPEG (JPG). In close-up photography you try to record tiny details, so save the image at the highest quality available in your camera. If you can’t save images in RAW, use the highest quality JPEG setting, such as "superfine, large."


• Set your digital camera's ISO (sensor sensitivity) to the lowest possible setting according to conditions, to reduce noise and artifacts which are troublesome in macro photography. For film cameras, use film with a low ISO rating. An ISO of 100 is ideal.
  


• Consider adding light (flash), even when outside. A ring light, or a system like the Nikon R1 is a good choice. The light they produce can add contrast to a photograph, making it look sharper. The built-in flashes in DSLRs and P&S generally will not work well for macro photos, and are better turned off.


• Look for different viewpoints. Different angles and shooting distances can greatly affect your macro shot. Sometimes moving just a faction of an inch can provide a completely different view of the same subject. Experiment with color, and black & white.


• Many point and shoot cameras have a macro mode. Use it. Macro mode allows your camera to focus on a subject closer to your lens than normal. Most macro modes will set your camera to choose a larger aperture, so that your subject is in focus but the background is not.

I love visiting gardens myself, and taking hikes through parks and forests while taking close-ups of flowers. I hope you enjoy bringing home great plant, flower, and insect photos from your spring travels.