The * button (it’s on the back of the camera, behind the shutter release) is something I’ve mentioned to others before, but it’s still a really useful tip to impart. When faced with an image with a high dynamic range, but only wanting to take one properly exposed photo I would use the * button while moving the camera around the image to see where the bright and dark parts of the image would be.

For instance, I moved the camera to a dark part and pressed the button while moving around a few times and then repeated but while looking at a bright part of the image.

Knowing what the extents of the exposure were, I would then continue pressing the button part way between the dark and bright parts (usually closer to the bright parts) until my guesstimate of the exposure felt right.

It didn’t always work, but many times it was very close and only needed a small tweak.

There were a number of times on our trip where the lighting was dynamic enough that I wanted to try an HDR when I got home. HDRs are difficult without a tripod but the tip I mentioned previously where you use the * button is also how I managed to try and take a hand held HDR.

I’d use the * button to find a very bright and very dark section of the future image. I would then ensure the camera was set to spot metering, and position the centre focus point on one of the bright or dark sections; this is where the middle of the image would be — I’ll use a bright window as an example of the middle part.

Next, I’d find a dark part of the image and lock the exposure there, and move back to the middle where the bright section was. I turned off the Auto Focus, and I’d take the photo with the centre part totally overexposed, then immediately press the * button and take the photo again, but with the bright part properly exposed.

This way, the two images should be almost identical in location and focus with just the two different images for the HDR creation. Not as good as taking five shots with a tripod, but you make do with what you’ve got.

When taking photos of buildings or statues or things in bright light, I often wanted to get a shot where curves or bricks or other features were highlighted more than the camera judged when in full automated mode.

To fix this, I’d just dial down the exposure compensation two clicks (2/3 of a stop) and in most instances, sure enough, the shadows appeared to “pop” more. It doesn’t always work, especially if you have other things in the shot that are already in shadow, but it was useful often enough that it’s worth writing here.

In contrast, I almost never dialed the exposure compensation up.

I have to give credit to Justine for this tip, since she’s the one that noticed it. It began raining one afternoon while we were out and as I was busy photographing something, Justine noticed someone else with what may or may not have been a shower cap over their expensive-looking SLR.

Whether it was or wasn’t a shower cap, I don’t know, but it was a good enough idea that I nicked a shower cap from our hotel that night and have kept it stuffed in my card case ever since. I used it three or four times to cover the body and much of the lens, and felt absolutely safe to continue shooting in some incredibly bad weather. The flash cover was where I’d “anchor” most of it as you can close it on top of the shower cap.

Another great tip I figured out, a little bit too late into our trip, was using objects to take people out of photos. I hate having people crowding around tourist attractions in my photos so I found this a good one. I also have a theoretical tip I didn’t get to try that I’ll write here.

Things such as low flowerbeds or bushes are fantastic for taking people out of the picture. Just get close to the ground and not only can you have a great foreground (such as an out of focus flowerbed) but those pesky tourists aren’t in the shot at all!

If you can’t get low to the ground, you can try to use trees to cut a few people out and create an interesting effect.

The last thing I did a lot, which I didn’t like doing (though it was better than the alternative!) was just moving the camera up a bit and zooming in a little. This way you might have a photo of a palace from above the door, or steps, instead of having people milling about.

Half way into our trip I realised that if I’d had a tripod and a very dark neutral density filter I would be able to have long enough exposures that there would be very few people left in my shots (especially in places where they move about a lot).

I didn’t have a tripod with me and I still don’t have any neutral density filters, but I did have a few occasions to try longish exposures and if you could manage two or three minute exposures in the middle of the day, I’d say it would work quite well.

Following on from my last post about camera tips, I also found the depth of field preview button useful in conjunction with using Av mode.

“It’s the button you never use,” I commented to someone once. Using Av in the way mentioned previously was good, but some things were too fuzzy (i.e. having something in the foreground focused, and wanting something out of focus in the background). I would hold down the depth of field preview button and turn the setting wheel with the button held down.

This way, you can see what’s in focus and as you turn the wheel to decrease the aperture, the background (or foreground) objects become more focused. I used it to give shape to blurry background objects or to make sure lots of things were in focus. Very useful and I don’t know why I didn’t use this earlier.

While away, I figured out a few new photography tricks. I also made use of some older ones I’d been using but started to appreciate them. Some you may have told me, or me told you, but I’m going to list the ones I used regularly and appreciated and hope that you get something out of this too. These tips will use the Canon 350D as an example but are valid for most SLR cameras anyway.

I often used the Creative Modes (specifically Tv and Av) as a preset when I wanted to take a specific type of photo.

I’d set Tv (Time Value, or setting the shutter speed) to a slow value, say 10 or 20, and switch to it whenever I wanted a panning shot.

I used Av (Aperture Value, or setting the f/number) on the smallest possible value (widest aperture). Even though my main lens goes to f/6.3 at 200mm, when you go back to the 18mm zoom range, the camera remembers you’d set it lower and so goes lower (in the instance of this lens, f/3.5). This has the effect of forcing the camera to remain wide open at any focal length.

Using Av in this way was especially useful when I wanted to have a foreground or background blur; I’d just zoom in a lot and at the wide aperture it would create the lovely blur.

Just remember to put them back when you’re done!