By Tan Chong Yaw

Get your shots right while on holiday. Here is what to do in four scenarios.

At a market

An open-air market is ideal for people photography because buyers would linger at the stalls - long enough for you to take a shot.

Food vendors are a sure bet for portrait subjects.

An ultra-zoom compact with a maximum telephoto of 500mm or more is recommended.

These are much smaller than DSLRs but pack killer zooms.

Choose the aperture mode.

Open the aperture wide - use the arrow keys to get the lowest number.

Do not forget to snap some wide-angle shots of the food being sold.

Be prepared to saunter off if you sense annoyance.

Through a bus or plane window

Kill the flash.

It will bounce off the window pane and the photo will be just a white splash of light.

Take your camera right up to the window to reduce the reflection of any light behind the camera - such as that from a lamp.

Pick the cleanest part of the window to shoot through.

One more thing you can do: Wrap a scarf or sweater around the front of the lens.

Again, this is to cut off any stray light from entering the lens.

If the camera's autofocus gets confused and is not able to focus, do so manually or pre-focus when the camera is away from the window.

On ski slopes

This will sound strange but make your camera over-expose your photos.

Snow tricks cameras into thinking that there is so much white around that it will underexpose your shots, resulting in photos that turn out too dark.

Look for the exposure compensation button - the one with a plus and a minus sign.

Press it and then press the toggle button - usually the one where the arrow points to the right - to raise the compensation to +2/3.

This time, turn on your flash.

This will light up your subject, say, your son, against the bright snow.

Position your camera until it is at the height of your son's head.

Move closer to him so that he fills the frame.

Keep your camera (and the battery in it) warm by hugging it to your body.

You do not want the cold to send the battery into a coma just before you shoot.

At a restaurant

Steam obscures the view of delicious food from the camera's view.

If the dishes are steaming hot, wait for them to cool down.

Clear the table.

Chopstick wrappers and menus distract.

Set your camera to the macro mode by twisting the dial or pressing the mode button to the flower icon.

Go close.

Prop your elbows firmly on the table.

Take shots with and without the flash.

Apologise profusely to your hungry family for making them wait.

This story was first published in The Straits Times Digital Life.

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