How shall I set up my camera tomorrow?

[whiskerytorpedo]

Well tomorrow [15th May] I am spending the day in London. A visit to the V&A plus a few ales in one, or several, of the many fine pubs to be found in this fine town, along with a general mooch around Victoria and Knightsbridge. I shall be taking my Camera, tripod and a few filters, but with the forecast for wall to wall sunshine all day, I am not sure how best to shoot. I am thinking B&W and expose for the highlights. Has anyone else got any ideas?

[Manfred M]

Quite frankly, I'm not sure what you are asking here. Are you planning to shoot architecture, people, building interiors?

Tripods are generally unwelcome in museum interiors and are generally banned (too much risk of damaging the displays or getting in the way of other visitors). Although I am very much a tripod shooter, they are not a great tool during daytime hours in busy cities if you are planning to do street photography. You need a quiet out of the way location so as to not cause issues with people. I do use tripods in large cities for night time photography in areas that are not all that busy.

Filters - which filters and what are you planning to use them for?

I don't have an issue when shooting on sunny days, with a few caveats. There are always areas of open and covered shade. If shooting in sunny areas but understand I will have to spend a lot of time in post balancing out the highlight and shadow areas. Golden hour is best, so if you can scout out the area and get back late in the afternoon, you could get some excellent shots.

I've never understood the "expose for the highlights" approach for a modern digital camera. I expose and will try to protect both highlights and shadow details where ever I can and use my histograms to guide me. The less I clip the highlights and crush shadow detail, the more material I will have to work with.

As for B&W versus colour; I generally let the subject matter guide me there. If there is a wide tonal range, B&W will work, but if the tonal range is narrow, but there are tonal differences in the colours, I will shoot for colour. The subject matter will also dictate which direction I take. A busy scene often works well in B&W because removing colours simplifies the image.

Enjoy your shoot!

[DanK]

Not much to add to Manfred's comments. I don't know the details of what you want to do, but the only filter(s) I generally take along when doing daytime photography of this sort is CPLs. (I use UV or simple protective filters, but I am not counting those). Like Manfred, I let the subject determine whether I shoot black and white or color, and sometimes, I can't tell until I am processing the image. For example, I recently changed an urban night shot that I intended to print in color to B&W when I realized that I couldn't adequately deal with the large differences in lighting sources.

[rpcrowe]

Your query leads me to assume that you are new to your camera or, are new to photography in general and don't really have a handle on exposure. You can pretty well guarantee that you will not miss any shots by setting your camera on ISO 320 and selecting exposure bracketing of one stop with Programmed exposure (P)...

Most cameras allow you to place them in burst mode and will shoot three bracketed shots every time you press the shutter button. Most cameras also allow you to select the order in which the bracket exposures are shot. Generally, the default values are for the camera to shoot the first shot at the meter reading and then the +1 stop and -1 stop exposures. However, if you are learning exposure, I suggest that you set up your camera (if possible) so that you shoot -1 stop, as the meter reads, and +1 stop exposures in that order, That way when you are reviewing your exposures, it is easy to see the what the differences in exposure achieve from less to more than the meter reads. It can be an effective learning process.

You can shoot bracketed exposures in JPEG or RAW. While, I always shoot RAW (99% of the time anyway), a beginner may feel more comfortable shooting JPEG until the beginner gets a handle on post processing RAW imagery.

BTW: shooting night images of cityscapes, if you combine the three exposure bracketed shots with a -1 stop exposure reduction, I can just about guarantee that you will get a good exposure in at least one shot from each bracketed bust. You do need to be on a solid mount (tripod or some other way) for most night shots while shooting in a busy city during the day with a tripod can be quite a bother.

Sure, with bracketing, you will take up more storage on your memory cards and you will have more shots to decide upon in Post Processing but, for a new photographer, the extra images are an insurance factor designed to ensure that you will not miss any shots. And, as I mentioned above, it can be instructive in learning when and how to override your camera's meter readings.

[Tronhard]

Cameras vary a lot in their capabilities. Right now we don't know what gear you are using - digital or film? A (D)SLR, bridge or a point and shoot? What kinds of lenses do you have: fast primes, super zoom etc. Are you inclined towards wide angle shots or zoom in on details and people? All of this information will have an impact on the quality of advice you can get.

What kinds of subjects are you considering? Street photography, architectural externally - or internally, close-up etc. In fact, why are you taking photos? Are they to show on the web, put on a digital device or print large prints? As you work your way along that list you will find the demands for quality get steeper. If your requirements are modest and your gear of good quality, you can afford to play with the ISO for the darker places and avoid a tripod.

If, as you say, it's going to be a sunny day, then I would suggest at least minimal use of a tripod - in fact, outside, in good conditions your shutter speeds likely will not justify one. They add a lot of clutter to your kit (if you are walking around it will wear you down), attract attention, and in a busy city like London you are likely to cause inconvenience to passers-by or get bumped - as Manfred wisely said the V&A is not likely to tolerate you setting up in their premises. Where you could well use a tripod is for night shots but likely that will be a separate trip after dinner! You may also find that shooting in certain places may cause resistance - some people don't like having their photo taken, especially in a pub.

In any case, by the time you might read this you will be on your way. I just hope that you have a great day and remember that one of the greatest gifts photography bestows is that it makes you LOOK and SEE.

[whiskerytorpedo]

Yes, sorry more details would have been helpful. I shall be using an Olympus E-PL9 with a 14-42 kit lens. Filters will be a polariser, a 10 stop ND and a 1-4 stop variable ND. I don't have a specific plan in mind but I enjoy shooting in B&W and it suits urban photography. I also would like to try some longer exposures to try and capture the movement of a bustling city. Anyway it should be an interesting day.

[Shadowman]

John,

There are quite a few presets on an Oympus that'll get you through the day without getting low success rates or stressing you out too much. What's probably equally important is how much editing you plan to do, how many memory cards you have, whether or not you like editing from the RAW capture, and how well you can handle swiftly moving subjects. The 14-42 kit lens is fine for setting up static shots but for some types of photography the AF is not quite fast enough, also manually focusing is quite a chore with this style camera so be prepared to lose some captures with the slow AF system.

[pnodrog]

Leave the ND filters and tripod back in the hotel/car... At dusk go back for the tripod...

[Polar01]

I think depending on the number of ales, I think that setting your camera to AUTO may be the best thing.

Cheers: Allan

[Shadowman]

John,

There are quite a few presets on an Oympus that'll get you through the day without getting low success rates or stressing you out too much. What's probably equally important is how much editing you plan to do, how many memory cards you have, whether or not you like editing from the RAW capture, and how well you can handle swiftly moving subjects. The 14-42 kit lens is fine for setting up static shots but for some types of photography the AF is not quite fast enough, also manually focusing is quite a chore with this style camera so be prepared to lose some captures with the slow AF system.

And I should add, depending on how long your excursions might be, take at least 3 fully charged batteries as the camera is an energy hog.

[whiskerytorpedo]

Sorry for taking so long to get back. I did in the end take a tripod and a couple of filters and despite it being a fairly light carbon benro affair it was feeling a little heavy after a few hours. For some reason the creative juices were not flowing and although I took a fair few photographs, I never really felt I was making the most of my day in the city. It didn't help that some yobs threw a shopping trolly under the train and I didn't get home till after midnight.

[Ken MT]

"A visit to the V&A plus a few ales in one, or several"

Perhaps you needed a few more ales to get the creative juices flowing!

[Manfred M]

John - what I would suggest is that you look at this trip as a "scouting trip".

Look at the image you have captured and note the shots / areas that you like so when you get down into London again, you have a plan of places and things you want to rephotograph. While it is not something I can always do, that's the way I try to work and use photographs of places I've been to before as the way I plan to photograph on my return to that location.

[rpcrowe]

Perhaps it was the extra gear you were toting that dried up your "creative juices"...

I suggest that returning to your original question, setting up your camera for London is no different from setting it up for Birmingham, Glasgow, Paris. or New York City...

If you walk around the city, town or village in which you live; carry your camera and start shooting images... That should get you in the groove of being able to set your camera correctly...

As far as WHAT TO SHOOT in London, Birmingham, Glasgow, Paris. or New York City... I like to research the areas in which I am going to travel and make up a mental (sometimes written) list of photo opportunities.

One way to get an idea of what opportunities are available, do a Google search for London Images.

https://www.google.com/search?q=Lond...hrome&ie=UTF-8

These images might help to get your juices flowing...

[shreds]

Or try one of Charlotte Gilliatts Photo expeditions.

Fantastic knowledge of locations and when out with Terry Gibbins in his black cab, their trips are truly memorable. http://charlottegilliatt.com/

Beats trying to search out locations unless you already have ‘The Knowledge’

[escape]

Or try one of Charlotte Gilliatts Photo expeditions.

Fantastic knowledge of locations and when out with Terry Gibbins in his black cab, their trips are truly memorable. http://charlottegilliatt.com/

Beats trying to search out locations unless you already have ‘The Knowledge’

Thank you for sharing the link.