Trip throughh the Canadian Rockies

My wife and I are planning a trip by train and motor coach thru the Canadian Rockies and ending in Vancouver. Then boarding a cruise ship to go up the inside passage of Alaska. Now my question. While on the Bus and Train, while it is moving, and taking pictures out the windows, should I be in shutter priority mode? Will that freeze the scene while the train or bus is moving? In other words, what is the best way to take pictures while on a moving bus or a moving train and not have blurry pictures.

Thanks in advance

marcheseg wrote in post #17364693
While on the Bus and Train, while it is moving, and taking pictures out the windows, should I be in shutter priority mode? Will that freeze the scene while the train or bus is moving?

Any mode is right if the settings are right. The key issue is you need to fast enough shutter speed to freeze the motion of the passing scene (and camera movement due to movement of the train) but you also need sufficient depth of field. If you can set a minimum shutter speed in Av mode that might be better. Otherwise manual mode with auto iso might be better as you can fix the shutter speed and aperture and let the auto iso adjust the exposure to handle changing lighting.

Dan Marchant wrote in post #17364809
Any mode is right if the settings are right. The key issue is you need to fast enough shutter speed to freeze the motion of the passing scene (and camera movement due to movement of the train) but you also need sufficient depth of field. If you can set a minimum shutter speed in Av mode that might be better. Otherwise manual mode with auto iso might be better as you can fix the shutter speed and aperture and let the auto iso adjust the exposure to handle changing lighting.

What would be the best shutter speed to use? I assume the train will be going 30 to 50 miles per hour, but dont really know.

Well, speed is only one issue. Other factors like subject distance and movement/vibrations of the vehicle itself have to be considered. The unfortunate truth is that there is no one recipe that is going to guarantee success. This is not meant as a negative comment toward you but someone with ample experience using the advanced modes of any modern SLR would change settings on the fly fairly intuitively to achieve optimum results which would vary as conditions changed. This being said if you are not comfortable to this level I would suggest that aperture priority mode would be a good choice. Go for the fastest speed possible at the highest ISO that will give you image quality you find acceptable. The downside of this approach is that you will likely be shooting at a very wide aperture unless conditions are extremely bright. Try to assess your images as your journey progresses to see if you can lower the shutter speed to a level that freezes motion but allows the aperture to stop down a little. This will give you greater depth of field and likely sharper images. One piece of advice I would like to offer that I learned the hard way many years ago is that if you are using a lens hood, resist the temptation to press it up against the glass. It might seem like a good way to steady the camera but it will introduce blur into your image by way of vibrations that your body may have become used to and not feel as well as your sensor will. I hope that helps you out.

nqjudo wrote in post #17368257
Well, speed is only one issue. Other factors like subject distance and movement/vibrations of the vehicle itself have to be considered. The unfortunate truth is that there is no one recipe that is going to guarantee success. This is not meant as a negative comment toward you but someone with ample experience using the advanced modes of any modern SLR would change settings on the fly fairly intuitively to achieve optimum results which would vary as conditions changed. This being said if you are not comfortable to this level I would suggest that aperture priority mode would be a good choice. Go for the fastest speed possible at the highest ISO that will give you image quality you find acceptable. The downside of this approach is that you will likely be shooting at a very wide aperture unless conditions are extremely bright. Try to assess your images as your journey progresses to see if you can lower the shutter speed to a level that freezes motion but allows the aperture to stop down a little. This will give you greater depth of field and likely sharper images. One piece of advice I would like to offer that I learned the hard way many years ago is that if you are using a lens hood, resist the temptation to press it up against the glass. It might seem like a good way to steady the camera but it will introduce blur into your image by way of vibrations that your body may have become used to and not feel as well as your sensor will. I hope that helps you out.

Good advice. I do use the advance modes, I have been shooting DSLRs since 2010 in Raw mode. I was looking for an approximate staring point for shutter speed. But like you said, I will have to take some shots, and adjust on the fly which is what I will do. Once again, thank you.

Doing one of the Rocky Mountaineer packages?

http://www.rockymounta​ineer.com/en_CA_AB/

The train goes thru the mountains during the daylight
and you stay in Hotels in smaller towns and cities over
night as it makes it's way thru the mountains.

--Evan

Evan Idler wrote in post #17371836
Doing one of the Rocky Mountaineer packages?

http://www.rockymounta​ineer.com/en_CA_AB/

The train goes thru the mountains during the daylight
and you stay in Hotels in smaller towns and cities over
night as it makes it's way thru the mountains.

--Evan

We are getting on in Calgary, and going to Vancouver via motor coach and train through the Canadian Rockies. Then taking a cruise up to Alaska thru the inside passage.

Should be a great trip. But don't count on great photography from a moving vehicle.

Here are a couple of examples of shots taken from a moving taxi, in India. The pics are generally not that sharp, and the foregrounds are blurred. Shutter speed was 1/500 for both.

There was a thread going about this kind of trip on the Rock Mountaineer last winter (when I lived in Calgary) - have moved now to the balmy climate on the West Coast just south of Vancouver.

You don't mention when you are going. We are getting huge amounts of snow right now in the Rockies and the Coast Mountains and pretty much all mountain ranges west of the Rockies. It'll be a bummer if all you see from the train (or coach) is a 10 foot wall of snow.

The Rocky Mountaineer actually stops a a number of tourist locations for photo taking opportunities.
When you say "motor coach" I assume that means bus? Unless its a tour bus with pre-arranged stops photo taking will be pretty limited.

You an actually practice up for this from a car ahead of time and see how they turn out. You should be the passenger when you do this. though, not the driver.

WaltA wrote in post #17373058
There was a thread going about this kind of trip on the Rock Mountaineer last winter (when I lived in Calgary) - have moved now to the balmy climate on the West Coast just south of Vancouver.

You don't mention when you are going. We are getting huge amounts of snow right now in the Rockies and the Coast Mountains and pretty much all mountain ranges west of the Rockies. It'll be a bummer if all you see from the train (or coach) is a 10 foot wall of snow.

The Rocky Mountaineer actually stops a a number of tourist locations for photo taking opportunities.
When you say "motor coach" I assume that means bus? Unless its a tour bus with pre-arranged stops photo taking will be pretty limited.

You an actually practice up for this from a car ahead of time and see how they turn out. You should be the passenger when you do this. though, not the driver.

We will be going in June of 2016. And yes, motor coach means bus, I said it like that because that is the way the tour says it.

There is a certain amount of creativity involved in doing "photography in motion"!

For example, you cane experiment with getting shots with everything showing motion blur where you are showing ascene that is totally blurred!

Or you could see a vehicle moving along and you want to "capture that vehicle in motion" with a decent aperture and shutter speed but moving your camera, tracking that vehicle but with the surroundings blurred. It's a popular technique in motorsports.

For more landscape stuff, of course, the above advice for a fast shutter speed and keeping your camera as still as possible works, although I'd suggest that you hold off on photo taking until the motor coach stops or at least pauses!!