My second summer as a photographer: an Italian vacation – Part II

Recap

This is the story of my latest Italian (and French) vacations. This is part 2 of 6:

• Settings and Techniques Part I
• Settings and Techniques Part II
• Lenses
• Composition Part I
• Composition Part II
• Travel Applications and Workflow On The Go

Settings and Techniques Part II

This was my first experience of street photography “journalist style”; trying to catch action as it happens. To do so, I decided that would use a middle of the road “catch al”l exposure setting: 400 ISO, f/7.1 1/500, or so. This way, I could quickly catch any street action. Sometimes it worked, sometimes so-so, as in this case, although the moment was captured when that Rome bus barely had the space required to pass between the building and the restaurant customer.
Speaking of bus, on the bus tour in Paris, although in broad day light, I used 800 ISO for faster speed to prevent movement blur. Not my favorite pics, nevertheless “de rigueur” as they say in France. Speaking of “required” pictures, this one capture from the bus of Maxim’s, the famous restaurant obviously named after me 🙂 Note that this pic is not retouched.

It used to be that I would move my focus point within the viewfinder with the thumb dial. I got pretty good at it too. However I realized that I could use a different, more efficient technique. By keeping the focus point in its central position, I now aim my lens where I want the focus point to be, say a third off the camera center, and there I hold the shutter button half way down to lock focus. Once I hear that my D90 has acquired its focus, I reframe and when I am satisfied of my composition, I completely depress the shutter to grab my picture.

Then in Sienna, I learned a new trick from another fellow tourist photographer. Inside a church, find the center of the dome, lay your camera on the floor on its back pointing upwards, set it to a 2 seconds timer, low ISO, small aperture, widest possible angle and you will get great pics of the inside of domes that are just superb piece of art.

I know that I have not invented anything here. I am just sharing my learnings as I evolve.

Next Post: Lenses