Hiking in a Tour Group with your Camera - Part 2
This is Part 2 of an article about taking pictures on a
guided hike. This Part focuses more on
the use of your camera and some of its settings. If you haven’t already read Part 1, I suggest
you do that first.
Before the Trip
Begins When you
are reviewing the camera’s manual make notes about anything interesting or
confusing and try to resolve them before the trip. Even if you have taken pictures with your
camera before, do some practicing before the trip, especially if you discover
some new features that you want to try.
Download and review your practice shots to your computer. It is very hard to tell what they will look
like by reviewing them on the camera’s small screen.
While you are thinking about equipment, make sure you have
at least one spare battery and enough memory cards (they are cheap at home but
expensive and hard to find a most great hiking locations). The batteries should be charged and the
memory cards should be blank and formatted in your camera. Be sure to pack your camera, extra lens,
batteries, battery charger, memory cards, and owners manual in your carry-on
luggage. I also pack two tri-pods, one
full sized and one very compact. I do
not usually carry the full-sized one on long hikes. They are very handy for night sky pictures,
sunrises, sunsets, and waterfalls. If
your camera came with cables, bring them.
You can use these to review your pictures each evening on a PC or TV.
Before my trips I like to search the web for pictures taken
in the area that I am about to hike.
This lets me know what other found interesting. Now let’s hit the road. The road to the airport that is.
On the Plane
While you are on the airplane, most of you will have to change the time
on your watch to match that of your destination. This is a good time to change the clock in
your camera. I am sure you remember how
to do this from reading the manual. This
is important since the time and date are embedded in your pictures. I file my pictures by date within a
trip. It can get very confusing if the
time in the camera is wrong. Hawaii is
six hours different than the east coast during daylight-savings time. This can put pictures taken in the evening in
the next days’s folder. Since you have
the camera out, lets also set the file type and size for your pictures. Most people will want to shoot large sized JPEG files. This creates big files that can be enlarged
or cropped to make your pictures even better.
Since you have those extra memory cards, the size should not
matter. If you are really into
photography and you are going to individually process each of your pictures,
you might consider Camera RAW. If that
is the case, you are not likely to be reading this article. While you are setting up your camera, see if
you can turn off automatic flash. Flash
is only effective for about 8-10'. Most
of the time it causes more problems than it solves. If you are indoors or in a dark space, you
can turn on the flash if needed, but remember its limited range. Review the results and turn the flash back
off. Under Camera Settings below I discuss more adjustments you should
consider, but first let’s talk about taking pictures.
On the Trail
Some cameras take a long time to power-up and you can miss shots waiting
for the camera to wake-up. Most cameras
do not use a lot of power when on. If
this is the case with yours, you can leave it turned on. Watch your battery life. If it goes down quickly, you will have to
turn the camera on and off. This may
cause you to miss some shots, but a dead battery would be worse.
When hiking, be sure to take pictures of signs. These will help you remember names. However, you do not normally want signs in
your regular pictures. Zoom in or move
to keep the sign out of your final shot. In Part 1of this Article, I talked
about having a Plan. Plans are great, but keep your eyes open. In addition to the great scenery, look for
small details like leaves, flowers, birds, and patterns in the rocks. If it fits your plan, capture details of the
trail. Is it steep, muddy,
snow-covered? Including people in these
shots helps capture the nature of the trail.
Composing your pictures properly before you take them is
very important. You can do some cropping
after the fact on your PC but you can’t add anything or change the
perspective. Avoid the tendency to walk
up to a scene and take the shot from the same place everyone else uses. Okay, take that shot, but then move
around. Look for better vantage
points. Get higher, get lower, or move
closer. The first view point is seldom
the best. Once you get to your vantage
point, look at the scene. What do you
see? What is good and what is a
distraction? What will be your focus of
attention? What do you want in the
foreground, the background? Now compose
the shot in the camera. Getting the
right foreground is very important and often overlooked, especially with zoom
lenses. Foreground objects help
establish the picture and give it scale.
(Picture 3, Kapaa, Hawaii, including the beach in the foreground
improves this shot)
While on the trail, if you see any thing interesting take
the time to photograph it. Don’t be in a
hurry to get to the end of the trail and don’t tell yourself that you can get
the picture on the return. Hopefully,
the hike will be a loop and not an out-and-back. Even if you return the same way, the view
will have changed. The rain will have
started or stopped, the sun or clouds will have moved. If the shot improves on your return, take another
picture. Be sure to look back as you
hike. Often the best views are behind
you. Actually, stop hiking before you
look back. Since I mentioned rain, lets
talk about rainbows. Is this the silver
lining or what? As you know rainbows
often appear after rain or when it is raining in the distance. There were a lot of rainbows in Hawaii. Okay there was also a lot of rain. What you may not know is that polarized
sunglasses can obscure rainbows depending on the angle of the light. When rainbows are possible, take your
polarized sunglasses off to check. If
you see a rainbow think about the foreground.
A picture of a rainbow by itself is okay, a rainbow picture with the proverbial
pot of gold (or interesting formation, lake or mountain) under it can be
great.
(Picture 4, Waimea Plantation
Cottages, Waimea, Hawaii, works better
because of the old cottage.)
Review your pictures often.
Don’t wait till the end of the week to find out you forgot to set
something correctly. Try to look at the
camera’s screen after each picture. If
you find a mistake at that point, you can retake the shot. If it is to bright to see the screen, you
might have to look for some shade. Also,
review them all at the end of each day.
Use a PC or TV if possible. Those
cables you packed will help. This will
let you see if something is not right with your camera settings or
technique. See if your pictures match
your plan.
Keep an eye on your battery charge status and the number of
shots left on your memory card. Change
them before they are completely exhausted and be sure to recharge the
battery. You don’t want either to fail
when something interesting is happening.
I love wild animals shots and hate to miss any because the memory card
is full or the battery died as the moose walks passed. Always carry the camera ready for shoot.
Cameras Settings
Okay, I could have covered camera settings earlier, but I knew you
wanted to think about hiking. Lets
discuss settings a little now. I can’t
go into all of the setting on your camera, there are just too many. Most cameras have some form of a mode
adjustment. One setting is usually Program. This is a good place to leave your camera
while hiking. If you have only a second
to take a picture of the bear before both of you start running, the Program mode will get the
picture. You can also use the Auto mode. That gives you less control of the camera
settings but works for most shots.
(Okay, you should not run from the bear, but that is outside the scope
of this article.) When you have time,
experiment with Aperture and Shutter (sometimes T) priority modes depending on
the shot . Aperture gives you control of depth of field (what is in
focus). The higher the aperture number
the greater the depth of field. If you
want to blur the background use a lower numbered aperture.
(Picture 5, Volcano Village, Hawaii, demonstrates a shallow depth of field.)
If you want the foreground and background in
focus, use a higher number. Shutter (or T) priority mode lets you freeze or blur action. If you are going to blur action, say a
waterfall, a tripod would come in handy.
If one is not available, carefully sit your camera on a rock, post, or
your backpack.
(Picture 6, Zion National Park, Utah, blurred the water with a long
shutter speed.)
Use the self timer to avoid shaking the camera. Be sure to switch back to Program or Auto mode or you may mess up your next shot.
Most point-and-shoot cameras have digital zoom
capabilities. If you plan on cropping
your pictures on a PC after the trip, I suggest you turn off the digital
zoom. The computer will do a better job
of enlarging the picture than the digital zoom on most cameras. However, if you do not plan on cropping, turn
on the digital zoom feature. Be aware of
the fact that picture quality goes down as the digital zoom power is
increased. When possible, zoom with your
feet (get closer). As a general rule,
most people do not get close enough or zoom in tight enough. Fill the frame with your subject unless the
surroundings are important.
Let’s talk about ISO for a second. The lower the ISO speed set on your camera
the better the quality of the pictures.
But in low light, especially without a tripod, or in fast-action
situations, you will need a higher ISO (say 1200-1600) to get a sharp
picture. If you are hand-holding the
camera the shutter speed should equal or exceed the power of the lens. If you are taking a normal close range
picture then a shutter speed of 1/60 of a second should be okay. But if you are using a telephoto or zoom lens
that really pulls the scene in close a speed of 1/200 of a second or faster may
be needed to avoid blurring the picture from camera movement. Many cameras have built-in lens
stabilization, but that only helps a little.
In general, you should keep the ISO low (i.e. 100 or 200) unless you
need more speed in weak light or fast action situations. If you change the ISO, be sure to reset it to
the lower number for your normal outdoor shots.
If your camera allows you to adjust White Balance, it can usually
be left at Auto. Cloudy
is another good option for most outdoor shots.
Try both and see which you prefer.
If you are shooting indoors with flash, you should stitch to Flash white balance. If you are indoors without flash, Tungsten or Fluorescent white balance are available as needed. Again, be sure to switch back to Auto or Cloudy.
Some cameras will reset some of your settings to the default
when the camera is powered off. If this
is happening, see if you can disable that feature. If not, you may need to make the important
adjustment each time you power on. In Program mode, hopefully, most of
your settings should remain.
On the flight home, when you reset your watch, reset the
clock in the camera.
Okay, I could go on for another dozen pages, but we would
have all lost interest by then. Let’s
sum it up. Prepare in advance. Know your equipment and practice. Have a plan, but be flexible. Take lots of shots. Keep the camera ready to shoot. Review your work often.
I want to thank Nola for the chance to write this article
and you for reading it to the end. Have
fun on the trail.
Bernie
Many thanks to Bernie M. for his great tips on taking better photos on the trail. Thanks for visiting Guide 2 Hiking!
No comments:
Post a Comment