Click Thumbnails to Enlarge
Camera settings for travel portraits
Techniques
24 October 2007 14:36
Taking great portrait shots on holiday often means working quickly and in unfamiliar situations. So you don’t want to spend ages setting up your camera before you can take a shot. Unlike landscapes and buildings, many of the best portraits rely on you being able to get the shot quickly before your subject gets bored, or the ideal moment for the shot has passed.
While the default settings on your digital camera will be okay in many situations, here are a few simple adjustments that will allow you to make the most of your travel portraits
Shooting mode: Unlike many traditional portraits when you’d want to blur the background, travel portraits usually work best when both the subject and their environment are both in focus. So try to use an aperture of around f/8 to keep both elements sharp enough.
Settings: Some popular D-SLRs have a portrait option in the set-up menu which will allow you to get the most accurate skin tones in your pictures.
Focus: To make sure that the subjects’ eyes are sharp in your pictures, select the focus point on your camera that falls on the face of your subject.
To make use of the ambient light indoors select aperture-priority mode and set a wide aperture of around f/4. Ensure that the shutter speed doesn’t fall below 1/30sec though, otherwise camera shake or subject movement can cause blur. Increasing the ISO setting to 400 will help to record the ambient light without affecting the foreground exposure. Also, because the flash is being used as the main light source, set the white balance to flash to get the most pleasing skin tones in the portrait.