How to Take Better Photographs with your Point and Shoot

I originally wrote this for the ISP school newspaper at Corvinus University in Budapest, Hungary, hence all the references to Budapest! It’s written for the non-photographer and tourist. I added a few things to make the article clearer for people not fortunate enough to have visited Hungary. Let me know if this was helpful or something was unclear! Thanks!

Tourist Photography How To

Cameras are wonderful light capturing devices that aren’t always used properly. Often times, when I’m out on one of my many photo shoots in Budapest, I see other photographers out as well trying to capture a few priceless memories from their visits to this great capital. However, I see over and over again the same mistakes being made by these hapless tourists. I feel compelled to offer my assistance to them in hopes of helping them take home a picture of beautiful Budapest that they can be proud of and show their family and friends upon their return. Hopefully, as a result, others will see how wonderful Budapest is and want to come themselves. Here are some tricks to getting your own postcard-like photos and some pitfalls to avoid while shooting with your camera:

Equipment
We’ve all seen the professional photographers with their expensive cameras, huge lenses, and other who-knows-what-it-does gadgets. Believe it or not, your simple point-and-click camera can do mostly everything those 500,000 Forint ($2,500) cameras can, you just have to know how to use it. A little knowledge of photography basics goes a long way to get crisp, clean photos of your favorite tourist destinations. I often see even expensive equipment being used improperly. Trust me, it’s not the camera, it’s you!

Read the Owners Manual
Know your camera. The better you know it, the better you can understand its capabilities and limitations. Some cameras are just not capable of everything you want them to do. Reading the owner’s manual, as boring as it may be, will uncover neat and otherwise hidden features of your camera. Did you know your camera had a nighttime setting, a scenery setting, or a fully manual setting? You may have seen them on that dial with all those other icons, but maybe you didn’t fully understand them, or just didn’t care to use them.

Camera Settings
Most newer digital cameras and mid-range film cameras have a dial on it. That dial can mean the difference between a gorgeous shot you can show your family and friends, to a shot that you will end up trashing. There are three main settings that you will most likely need during an adventure to a picturesque  city like Budapest: Scenery, Portrait and Nighttime. There are a few more, but you should read your owners manual to find out more about what they do.

Scenery
Scenery is meant for just that; pictures of scenery! This may include a range of things such as a skyline of the city, Parliament from across the Danube River, or beautiful Corvinus University as seen from that other university across the way. Anything that is distant from the camera will work. Why is this important? This setting gives you the largest area that is in focus, meaning that both the building you’re taking a photo of, and the area in front of it will all be in focus. This setting requires a little more light and so the shutter will stay open slightly longer. Make sure you hold the camera as steady as possible or place the camera on something sturdy to avoid trembling hands.

Portrait
This is for taking a photo of your traveling companions. It has a small area of focus so the background will be out of focus leaving your friend in perfect focus. This allows the background to fade and make your friend the main subject of your photo, which greatly improves the composition of the photo. Often times, a busy, distracting background can make a good picture into a not so good one. This setting is not meant for taking a picture of your friend in front of the Buda Palace. For that, you will want to use the Scenery setting.

Nighttime
Night shots are probably the most breathtaking photos, but also the most difficult to get right. There is a setting on most cameras for pictures taken in low lighting. It sets the shutter speed at the fastest possible speed and does some other settings to adjust for the lack of light. It will also fire the flash in order to provide more light. This setting is only meant to take photos in dark settings, such as a dance club, nighttime garden party or of friends on the streets of Budapest. For a nighttime shot of Parliament or the Chain Bridge, put the setting on Scenery.

It’s imperative that a tripod be used for nighttime scenery shots. You can improvise a tripod by placing the camera on something flat and sturdy, but simply holding the camera, no matter how steady your hands are, just will not do! The most common mistake I see with this shot is people using flash to shoot across the Danube River. The flash tricks the camera into thinking there is more light than there really is, and under exposes the image. I often wonder how many poor tourist go home with blurry and under exposed pictures. Use the Scenery setting and a tripod and you will be getting beautiful, breathtaking shots in no time!

Manual
If you have a basic understanding of the basics of photography and want more creative control over your images, then a manual setting is right for you. Not all cameras have these features so look for this if you’re buying a new camera and you want more control. Manual settings allow you to set the aperture (the opening in the lens) and the shutter speed. Ever wonder how photographers get those wonderful shots of a waterfall that is smooth like ice? A long shutter speed. Ever wonder how they get pictures of a bumblebee on a flower and only the bumblebee is in focus? A low aperture setting. Go look at some community photography websites to see what’s possible and pick up some techniques of your own. Most of what you see from the professionals can be done on most point-and-click cameras so don’t think you need to spend a lot of money to get great photos.

Photography can be a fun and rewarding hobby and lets you keep priceless memories forever. Take a little time and search for photography tutorials online to find out more and you will almost certainly see an instant improvement in your photos. The automatic setting that’s on most cameras can’t know what type of photos you’re trying to take, so learn a little bit about your camera and photography and you will be grateful you took the time to perfect images you can enjoy for years to come.