How to get someone to take a picture for you

This is a part rant and part scratching my head post. Sometimes I need to ask a stranger to take a picture of me or my family. My husband is not into photography, so I always take the pictures. But sometimes I'd like to have both of us (hubby and I) or all of us (us and 2 kids) in a photo. Does not have to be anything artistic or fancy. Just a snap shot of hey we are out on date night at Olive Garden or something like that. Best case scenario is either I have my tripod or we are at some place that has huge trash cans (like at amusement parks or something), I set my camera up and remote trigger it. BUT there's always those times, it just has to be "hi, can you take a photo of me and my husband in front of XXX?"

It always surprises me, but about 50% of the time, they re not able to take a picture at all using my humble T3i. I tell them, "you look in here (point to viewfinder) and you press here (point to the shutter button) and press until you hear the click". Well, they hand me back my camera, I thank them, and there is no photo! About 25% of the time, they take such a bad picture you can't tell who's in it or where it was taken. Only about 25% of the time they take a passable photo. My family starts to get impatient when I have to scope out and ask the 2nd and 3rd person.

I guess what I'm wondering is, do you have any suggestions how I can up my rate here? Are there any tricks to this? Any gizmos that can help me DYI so never have to ask a stranger? I now try and only ask people with a dslr around their neck, but they are hard to come by sometimes depending on where we are. I would hate to lecture them about cameras or photography as I understand I'm way more into it than most people and I really appreciate their offering to do it. Yet I do love having these snap shots of our lives as much as I love beautiful "professional" portraits.

Thanks for reading!
-Sue

Are you setting it to green box mode first? I know if I handed my camera to someone, they'd never get a decent shot they way I have it set up. Or maybe turn on live view since they're probably more used to looking at a 3" LCD than a viewfinder. It might be easier to just hand them your phone or a P&S instead of your more intimidating "pro" camera.

Ah green box, good point. My camera focuses pretty slow in live view but worth a try. And yes, I have resorted to handing my iPhone.

Buy a point and shoot and carry it.

I always look for someone carrying a DSLR. Ups your chances greatly when you can find that person.

I've had many people take a shot of me since I travel by myself. Normally I am handing them a 1 series body (and no I am not about to hand over my camera to someone who looks sketchy) set to AV. I tell them to simply hold down the shutter button until they hear and see it focus and then press the rest of the way. Are they great pictures, heck no but it is better than setting up a tripod and using the self timer. I would never hand over a DSLR and expect them to use it in live view.

Last time I went to Devils Lake near Baraboo, WI, I think I took pics using other peoples cameras about 15 times. Walking around with a DSLR with grip and 80-200 2.8 on it makes people think you know what you are doing. Should had charged.

Why the green box mode? I'd be manual, maybe with all AF points activated?

But yeah, I usually try to ask someone with an older beat up dslr

DocFrankenstein wrote in post #15781547
Why the green box mode? I'd be manual, maybe with all AF points activated?

But yeah, I usually try to ask someone with an older beat up dslr

Because you're pretty much guaranteed to get either under or overexposed shots just handing a camera, in M to the general public. So, you'd have a well focused and completely unrecognizable pic? No, definitely green box for this type of shot request.

Snydremark wrote in post #15781556
Because you're pretty much guaranteed to get either under or overexposed shots just handing a camera, in M to the general public. So, you'd have a well focused and completely unrecognizable pic? No, definitely green box for this type of shot request.

Well, you'd set the exposure settings to the ones you want of course.

Sometimes if I care about the shot, I ask them not to move, focus on them, set focus to manual, walk back to where I was standing and they just frame the shot.

Also if you zoom out a bit and close down the lens a stop or two more than you'd usually shoot at, it makes it pretty much impossible to screw up. If they don't get it - ask someone else.

But a gorillapod or similar solves the problem if humans fail.

There's no reason not to control metering and focus... IMO

I usually set camera to Av, set focus on the missus then switch to manual focus, set the zoom to quite generous and leave the camera in machine-gun shutter mode. Usually have to delete 30 or so shots of the sky, someone's foot etc, but there's frequently at least a couple of shots framed okay.

On the other hand, I find carrying a 1D often results in getting asked to take peoples photo's - and often can't figure out how to work the varied user interface cameras I get handed...

syclarac wrote in post #15781285
This is a part rant and part scratching my head post. Sometimes I need to ask a stranger to take a picture of me or my family. My husband is not into photography, so I always take the pictures. But sometimes I'd like to have both of us (hubby and I) or all of us (us and 2 kids) in a photo. Does not have to be anything artistic or fancy. Just a snap shot of hey we are out on date night at Olive Garden or something like that. Best case scenario is either I have my tripod or we are at some place that has huge trash cans (like at amusement parks or something), I set my camera up and remote trigger it. BUT there's always those times, it just has to be "hi, can you take a photo of me and my husband in front of XXX?"

It always surprises me, but about 50% of the time, they re not able to take a picture at all using my humble T3i. I tell them, "you look in here (point to viewfinder) and you press here (point to the shutter button) and press until you hear the click". Well, they hand me back my camera, I thank them, and there is no photo! About 25% of the time, they take such a bad picture you can't tell who's in it or where it was taken. Only about 25% of the time they take a passable photo. My family starts to get impatient when I have to scope out and ask the 2nd and 3rd person.

I guess what I'm wondering is, do you have any suggestions how I can up my rate here? Are there any tricks to this? Any gizmos that can help me DYI so never have to ask a stranger? I now try and only ask people with a dslr around their neck, but they are hard to come by sometimes depending on where we are. I would hate to lecture them about cameras or photography as I understand I'm way more into it than most people and I really appreciate their offering to do it. Yet I do love having these snap shots of our lives as much as I love beautiful "professional" portraits.

Thanks for reading!
-Sue

You're going to have to decide whether you want a professional portrait, or a snapshot. You won't get the latter from a random passerby unless they happen to be a professional photographer, the lighting is ideal and they're familiar with Canon.

I recall shooting a parade for a newspaper years ago. I was heavily entrenched in Canon (still am) but the parade leader handed me his Nikon and asked me to take a shot of him in his Vette. All I can say is I hope he had it on auto and it turned out okay because I never touched a Nikon in my life and didn't even know how to review the photo. There's no way I could learn it in the literally half a second I had to get both his shots and mine. I proceeded to take what I was told were the best photos the university band had ever seen of themselves, so I'm not an incompetent photographer. I just didn't and still don't have a clue about Nikon.

I've handed my camera over on just two occasions; the first try was useless, but I smiled nicely and said 'Thanks'.

I was better prepared on the second occasion. Centre point AF, WB and ISO ok, then selected P. After getting agreement, a smiling, tentative sequence:
• You'll find easier to hold it . . . so (demonstrated left hand cradle grip).
• That's the shutter button.
• Look through there - don't worry if it's kinda blurred - my eye sight is screwed up.
• Gently half-press the button - see the wee red square in the middle?
• Is it over a face? If so, finish pressing the button.

Show them the shot in Review

• Hey, thanks; really appreciate that.

And it worked.

I was out shooting in London last time I was there and a couple of tourists asked me to take their photo with their camera (poor girls). I took a shot, wasn't happy - really harsh light and shadows. Ended up moving them half way across parliament square to get some leafy shade and a decent shot where they weren't both squinting into the sun.

DocFrankenstein wrote in post #15781576
Well, you'd set the exposure settings to the ones you want of course.
(...)

They can alter the settings by accident.