Help on taking photos in florida

[shelly]

Hiya

Can some one give me some advice please?

I'm going on holiday in may for my 21st birthday to florida, I'm sort of new to slr photography and still getting to grips with how to use my slr properly, i have a canon 400d. I have the 18mm-55mm lens which came with the camera and also a 55mm-250mm lens.

I would like to know what settings, iso, aperture, shutter speed etc would you need to use to photograph theme park rides and family photos in the daytime in the florida sunshine?

Also firework displays in the night, would bulb be the best option to use with a gorillapod? and how long should the shutter be open to capture a nice clear image?

Sorry for the ramble on, hope some one can help

Michelle x

[ianpinion]

Hi Michelle,

Welcome to the forums. Sounds like you're going to have a fantastic holiday with lots of wonderful opportunities for some candid shots.

Now you will be taking a variety of shots and each sort will require the camera setting up a little differently to help you get the best of out of it. I'll start with taking shots of people on the theme park rides, where you have two main options. The first is to try and freeze the action. For this you'll need to put the camera onto the Tv setting which allows you to set the shutter speed and the camera will control other things like the aperture for you. To freeze a rollercoaster travelling at 60 - 70mph you are going to need a fairly fast shutter speed, you'll need good light to attain those faster shutter speeds, plus you'll probably be using your 55 - 250mm lens too, to get you close enough to the action. I'd be tempted to set the ISO to 400 unless it's particularly bright, where ISO200 will be okay and if its cloudy you may need to go to ISO 800. I would experiment using a shutter speed of minimum 1/500th up to say 1/1200th to see what successfully froze the action for you. Before the rollercoaster comes round, find a spot where you can get a good shot of the cars as they come round, focus on the area and take a test shot and look to see if the exposures okay. If it's a bit dark either up the ISO or dial in some exposure compensation and take another test shot. Make sure you have the camera set to continuous shooting and not just single shot mode. Once you're happy focus on the area where you want to capture the rollercoaster coming through, lock the focus if you can and wait for the moment to arrive. Sometimes this can be easier by having the camera mounted on a tripod with a remote release cable so you can watch for it coming, as looking through the viewfinder sometimes doesn't give you much notice and you miss capturing the moment you wanted.

The other technique is panning. Here you can use a slower shutter speed, probably about 1/30th - 1/60th and as your subject approaches you pan the camera to follow the subject, keeping them in the same part of the shot and as you press the shutter release you keep panning round and following the subject. This produces a fabulous effect of freezing the rollercoaster car, but everything around it is blurred by the movement giving the impression of speed.

Okay, for family portraits you'll need to still use your 50 - 250mm lens. You can set the ISO to 100 if it's bright, put the camera into Apeture Priority Mode and open the aperture up as wide as it will go, so it should say something like f/3.5 or f/5.6. Try to get your subject not to stand looking straight on at you, but at say a 30 - 45 degree angle for a more flattering shot. Keep your subject a good distance from what's in the background. Zoom the lens in tight on your subject so you have their head and chest in shot (anything below the diaphram isn't needed) and take the shot. Always take the shot so you're level with your subject, so if you're taking shots of small children get down nice and low so you're on their level.

If you want to take a picture of the family at a landmark, line up the shot of the landmark first and then get the family to assemble in the foreground, close to the camera, stood to oneside of the landmark. Again you can use Aperture Priority Mode, but this time use an aperture of say f/8 - f/11 so everything remains in focus.

Now to take photographs of fireworks, I find it is best to set the camera up on a tripod, set the ISO to 400 put it into Manual Mode and set the shutter speed to 30 seconds and the Aperture to f/8. If you're lucky you should get about three or four firework bursts within your shot and they'll look amazing.

Best of luck with your photography and I hope you have a lovely holiday in the Florida sun. Before you go, you might want to practice your panning technique as it can take a bit of getting used to before your get any good at it, as I found out myself!

[shelly]

Thank you so much Ian

You've really helped me alot with the advise you gave me

I sure will have a fab holiday i can't wait haha im like a bottle of pop already and i still got 4 months to wait haha

Thank you once again

x