Help with camera settings when shooting from moving river boat

[dscfromSanDiego]

Hi folks,

First post here on this board. As the subject line states, I’m looking for some advice in choosing my camera settings while shooting landscape shots from a moving river boat. Hopefully some veteran riverboat cruisers can chime in here with their experiences.

 

In a couple of months (end of April) I will be embarking on the Viking long ship Hermod, sailing along the Rhine river from Amsterdam to Basel. During the “scenic sailing days” as we pass by all of the castles, I anticipate taking lots of shots of the passing landscapes, both wide angle to include any interesting buildings along the river’s edge and zoomed in on far castles. 

 

The two variables that I’m most curious about are shutter speed and AF type. Does anyone know how fast these ships travel on average? Most of the advice I see for taking pictures of still subjects while you’re moving assume you’re traveling in a fast car or boat, and advise a minimum shutter speed of 1/500 to 1/1000. Would it need to be that high? Higher? Also, which auto focus would work better for taking photos of the passing scenery: S-AF or C-AF? C-AF  tracking? 

 

For folks who have done this cruise, what mode did you find yourself shooting in from the boat? Shutter priority? Manual? Program mode and just bumping around until you find the speed/aperture combo that you like? (On the aperture note: I don’t know how wide the river is but I’m guessing the subjects will be far enough away that it won’t be an issue getting the entire scene in focus, even with the aperture wide open.

 

The setup I’ll have with me is an Olympus OMD E-M10 mark III, the 14-42 kit lens and the Oly 14-150mm II zoom lens (I anticipate that this will be on my camera most of the time). In addition, I may rent a 12mm f2.0 for indoor and evening shots.

 

I am just getting back into photography after many years away from it. As I enter a time in my life when I’m beginning to travel more I wanted to get something better than a basic point and shoot to record my memories, as well as a system I could grow with. I’ve been practicing with this camera for weeks now and am fairly confident by the time my trip rolls around that I’ll be able to make decent pictures on our shore excursions. But I’d like to get a basic “recipe” from any river cruise veterans on shooting passing scenery from the ship. Thanks for taking the time to read my post.

Edited February 14, 2020 by dscfromSanDiego

[TheOldBear]

I have the M10.2 with the 'R' lenses [14-42 & 40-150] and have used them on cruises and general photography.

 

For general camera setup, you may want to look at Robin Wong's OMD Cheat Sheet Look elsewhere on his blog for many photos taken with Olympus cameras [indoors, outdoors, macro], and gear reviews.

 

I would say use Single Auto Focus almost exclusively - its quick focusing and reliable. 

 

When outside in daylight I tend to use program mode with the silent [electronic] shutter. [I will use program shift sometimes to open or close the aperture]  For shots from the moving boat, depth of field will not be an issue for shooting things on shore, or other boats. At base ISO [200] and the kit lenses wide open you will see shutter speeds from 1/125 to 1/800 depending on scene brightness. I don't think a river boat move all that fast [needs to minimize wake] so the vessel's motion will be more important to judge as it impacts your composition than needing to freeze motion.

 

For night shots, I will use Aperture priority, with the lens wide open [or as wide open as a kit lens goes]. I will pay attention to shutter speeds, and not count on anything not stationary to be blur free when exposures are over 1/30 of a second or so. I do have night shots I am happy with at very low shutter speeds [a second or two] I have a few where the primary light source was a full moon.

 

 

[dscfromSanDiego]

On 2/14/2020 at 2:14 PM, TheOldBear said:

I have the M10.2 with the 'R' lenses [14-42 & 40-150] and have used them on cruises and general photography.

 

For general camera setup, you may want to look at Robin Wong's OMD Cheat Sheet Look elsewhere on his blog for many photos taken with Olympus cameras [indoors, outdoors, macro], and gear reviews.

 

I would say use Single Auto Focus almost exclusively - its quick focusing and reliable. 

 

When outside in daylight I tend to use program mode with the silent [electronic] shutter. [I will use program shift sometimes to open or close the aperture]  For shots from the moving boat, depth of field will not be an issue for shooting things on shore, or other boats. At base ISO [200] and the kit lenses wide open you will see shutter speeds from 1/125 to 1/800 depending on scene brightness. I don't think a river boat move all that fast [needs to minimize wake] so the vessel's motion will be more important to judge as it impacts your composition than needing to freeze motion.

 

For night shots, I will use Aperture priority, with the lens wide open [or as wide open as a kit lens goes]. I will pay attention to shutter speeds, and not count on anything not stationary to be blur free when exposures are over 1/30 of a second or so. I do have night shots I am happy with at very low shutter speeds [a second or two] I have a few where the primary light source was a full moon.

 

 

Thanks OldBear for taking the time to reply to my questions - I appreciate it. I'm especially pleased that your camera setup is nearly identical to mine - great directly applicable info!

 

Program mode may well be the way to go from the moving boat, using program shift as it applies to the conditions. And thanks for verifying that DoF will not be an issue. I did take a guess at the distance to shore and plugged my numbers into an online DoF calculator. Seemed like it would be fine but good to hear it from experience.

 

I have looked at Robin Wong's OMD cheat sheet briefly but I'll take a closer look at some of the images there.

 

Thank you again for taking the time to help out a newbie. Cheers.  

[bbwex]

Agree that a river boat does not move all that quickly, and 1/125 will certainly stop the motion, and you might be able to stop motion with a slower speed.  Try a couple to be sure -- after all we don't wait for the film to be processed any longer!