Photography Tips For a Traveling Family | Taking Photos in a Crowded Place
© 2013 Wazari Wazir | My Family at The Entrance of Hagia Sophia | Istanbul | 24mm | ISO 3200 | f/2.8 | 1/40
I believe that those of you who travel face this some kind of a dilemma, everyone wanted to get their photos taken against a beautiful landmark of a certain cities or to get their photos taken against a beautiful spot of a certain building or monument but the problem is that, there are too many people also wanted to get their photos taken there.
I think it is not polite to ask people to clear the place or the spot for awhile, so that you can take a photos there, it is a public place and like the photos above, at the entrance of Hagia Sophia, so many people coming and going from that entrance and a lot of people also wanted to get thier pictures taken at the doorway. We cannot simply ask or tell people to clear the areas, even for a while because it is a public place, everyone paid a ticket to get there.
What I usually do is that, I will wait patiently until few people coming into the areas, I shoot mostly using Manual mode, so I need to get the exposure right first, so before I position my family at the doorway of Hagia Sophia, I took a few shots there, just to make sure that I get the right exposure, I will adjusting ISO, Aperture and Shutter speeds accordingly to get a desired exposure, it is a little bit dark over there and the exposure is a little bit tricky, you can see that, it is much more brighter inside, the reason is that, the light that falls on my family is darker that the situation inside, so when I increased the exposure, automatically the inside are will become much more brighter, but I’m happy with the result, but for those of you who have flash, I suggest, use your flash, so that you will get a nice balance exposure between your subject and the background, I din’t have a flash with me so, I’ve to rely on available light.
Once I get the right exposure, and I will ask my family to get ready and once the area is less crowded, few people walks in, I asks them to move there quickly and took as many shots as possible and as quickly as possible because I don’t want blocking anyone from entering the doorway. Yes, it is not a perfect happy looking family photograph but most importantly is that I get the shot that I want, the background is recognisable internationally, once you saw the background, you will notice it immediately that this photos were taken at Istanbul famous Hagia Sophia.
You may have a different approach to deal with this kind of a condition but this is what I normally do when I want to photograph someone in a crowded areas against a magnificent backdrop. You need to be patient, lots of patient and be quick.
