Tips for Taking Spring Break Photos

This year instead of coming back from you sunny vacation in paradise and finding out you only took pictures of the wing of the plane try using these tips to spice up those normal boring photos.

1. Bring extra batteries.

Your brand new 8 Mega pixel wonder is pretty much useless when the juice runs low. There must be a chronic shortage of batteries in spring break locales because every time I've seen the LOW BATT flash on the viewfinder there's never any available. Save yourself the hassle by packing a couple of extra.

2. Use flash outdoors

Pictures taken by the pool or beach will sometimes turn out bad because bright sunlight that is behind or right overhead your subject will darken faces. Use the flash when taking outdoor shots (or an "auto-fill" setting if your camera has it to restore balance to your subject. Make sure you're only about four steps away as anything farther out won't have an affect and might show up too dark.

3. Play with perspective

Shake up the normal "stand in front landmark" photos by finding an interesting angle where your subject can lean against or even hold it in the palm of their hands. Try taking multiple shots at different distances to find the best shot for your subjects.

4. Get up close

Stunning flowers poolside? Instead of taking a shot of the whole bush, use the macro (or flower) setting on your camera and zoom in until the subject fills the shot. This allows all the details to show up and eliminates background distractions.

5. Rule of thirds

This tip really applies to all pictures but will help your spring break photos turn out more visually pleasing. Imagine a tic tac toe board in front of the shot and place your subject at the intersection of the lines. Read more about this rule here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_thirds

6. Play with your food

Part of your spring break vacation is the delicious new food you discover along the way. While you might not capture the tastes and smells, looking back at shots of the great meals you had will get your mouth watering as the memories start coming back.

7. Take a lot

Memory is cheaper than ever, so take a lot of pictures. Just make sure to only keep the best and later delete the ones where all your subjects decided to blink at the same time.

8. Panorama shots

Many photo applications bundled with cameras now support the panorama "stitch" option. Use this to your advantage to take stunning shot of vistas that can't be captured in on shot. One thing often forgot is that they work in vertical mode too. A scenic waterfall is a perfect opportunity to put this mode to use.

9. Taking pictures in nightclubs

Some great times are had out on the town, but are forgotten the morning after. Use your camera's nighttime setting to better capture the memories. Some have a "slow sync" option otherwise known as "dragging the shutter". This mode combines the flash going off (which illuminates the subject) and a slower shutter speed that creates some blur around the image while also exposing more background areas the flash can't reach.

10. Tell a story

One of the best things about spring break is the stories you can tell about your experience. Try capturing this in your photos by first establishing your characters in their location, then building up the situation with a couple of shots that finally end with a surprise twist. This is always more fun than disjointed photos of place to place.

Wherever your spring break takes you, I hope these tips will help you out. And don't forget the sun block, unless you want your vacation immortalized in pictures of you in a lobster-red hue.