GreatBritishBAECOff

Hi All,
We're off on our Honeymoon soon to some West Coast cities and Hawaii, and one of the main things I still have to tick off my list before we go is to get a better understanding of my camera and check my backup process, I don't want to lose anything or ruin any shots! I thought this would be a good place to get some tips...

They're pretty important photos, so I recently bought an RX100 iii, which I thought would be a good all round balance for cost, usability, quality etc. I didn't really want to be lugging around an SLR every day.

I have a pretty rudimentary understanding of photography, I would understand that aperture affects depth of field, how to tweak exposure etc, but I'm pretty inexperienced aside from watching some YouTube videos on the subject and trying it at home. Does anyone have any advice on what to aim for while we're away? I don't want to spend the whole holiday fiddling with the camera! Shall I just set it to Program Mode and then leave it? I can always edit things slightly when I get back. I don't think I'm confident enough to start messing with exposure on every shot etc. I'm also badly colourblind which probably doesn't help...

I also want to make sure I minimize the chance of losing anything. I've got 4 memory cards, and am going to split the trip up into chunks with these. I also think I've figured out the wireless transfer function on the RX100 so I was planning to transfer each day's photos to my iPhone at the end of the day. Does this sound sensible/sufficient?

Thanks in advance for any guidance.

Troopers

I suggest you set the camera on P or Auto, and not risk unusable photos due to learning the camera/photography.

When/if you have time, read books by Bryan Peterson.

AussieExPat

Congrats on the upcoming wedding! Exciting times indeed. You've purchased a very capable camera, and it sounds like you have a good plan for making sure you don't lose too many photos to data corruption or a lost card. I would say you have a more than sufficient plan.

For me, I think you'll see the best return on investment would be spending your limited time working on framing and composition of your photos, rather than mastering the manual settings on your camera. The auto/program mode on your camera does a very good job under most conditions, and you're a lot more likely to have more keepers. Then when you get back home you can explore the manual settings and learn more about your camera!

makeUturn

Congratulations! While I won't offer any advice about other aspects of the honeymoon, I will offer one about the camera. As mentioned in the above posts, your camera will usually take very acceptable photos in the Auto mode. What I generally do if I see a scene that I want to capture in the best possible way is to first take a photo in the Auto mode. Then, I play around with the settings and try different things to find what works best. With some experience gained by doing this, you will, overtime, develop an instinct on what settings will probably work best for any given scene. However, some rapidly changing scenes do not allow time for experimentation. I always return to the auto mode after having it set to another mode just in case something comes up that I need to capture quickly.

abmj-jr

Some good advice above. One mistake many beginners make is to assume you only need one shot at each point. Of course, you have other things to do on a honeymoon but whenever you are going to take a photo anyway, it only takes a moment to take two or three. Try using Auto for a shot, then switch the camera to "P" or even "A" and make another image or two. Take the photo in horizontal (landscape mode) and then rotate the camera to vertical (portrait) and take another. Try changing your composition a bit for a different look.

You can always go through your images after the trip and delete the extras that didn't quite work but you can't always go back and take a replacement shot.

TOMFORD

But before that, read through the countless free material online that offer what is essentially the same information.

ebuck

You don't say how much time you have before your honeymoon (congratulations, by the way!), but I would add to the advice above: practice, practice, practice! (er, I mean: practise, practise, practise!)

Take some time and take some sunrise/sunset shots at home; panorama shots; landscapes; portraits; whatever you think you might be shooting. It will give you an opportunity to get used to the camera and have a little more confidence in what you're doing when it counts.

Also, if your camera has the ability to shoot raw (not familiar with the RX100), save photos in both raw and jpg. With raw files you can do more post-production manipulation when you're back home and when you have more time.

Madone59

Honeymoon Tips For A Novice huh? Well when a man loves a woman....OH photography tips

I agree with the above, use Auto mode most of the time. My camera makes me look like I really know what I am doing so I rarely take it off of auto mode.

The _Banking_Scot

Hi,

Coming from the UK I would also make sure you have at least 1 spare battery plus a charger unit and an adaptor for the US sockets ( nothing worse than having a dead battery)

Regards

TBS

michalis

I take most of my unplanned shots in aperture priority mode (A) about 80-85% of the time. When taking moving subjects i might switch to shutter priority (S) - maybe 5% of my shots.

I shoot manual (M) if I am planning a shot, i.e long exposures, places where I have more time to sit and try to take the "perfect" shot, camera on tripod etc (maybe 10% of the time).

I see no benefit in using auto mode even when you take a quick snap. I would much rather shoot everything in Aperture Priority. At least I am in control of depth of field can reduce ISO.

For example...if you shoot a landscape and light is not ideal the auto mode will decide the aperture let's say it chooses F 8.0 and has to use ISO of say 1600 to properly expose the image. You could shoot that same scene in Aperture priority, open up the aperture to F5.6, F4.0 or even lower and reduce your ISO and hence your noise. Yeah technically not all the image will be as sharp as at F8.0 (depending on the lens sweet-spot) it will be a much more usable file that shooting at higher ISO for no reason.

I would suggest that you use Aperture priority mode even for a beginner. Try and shoot RAW as you can recover much more detail in post production.