Hate handing camera over to someone to take a picture that includes me!

I for one can not stand having to get into the picture only to have to find someone capable of taking a photo with my camera.

Does anyone else struggle with this?

I have BBF and often use an external flash on camera...I have to tell people...focus here, press the FEL, then press the BBF, then press this button for shutter...hold the camera still...HOPING they do it right...often, the picture is underexposed and not in focus! I should just bring a tripod but that often does not work in certain environments.

UGH!

I blame it on cell phone camera's....everyone seems to know how to take a picture with these cell phones....and they come out in focus, properly exposed...but damn..hand a DLSR over to someone and its as if you are asking them to launch a space shuttle!

Rant over!

Just switch it to green box mode before you give it to them. BBF is disabled and the shutter button focusses, just like they're used to.

If it makes you feel any better, I can operate a 1DIV by feel, but have no idea how to take a photo with a cell phone. I know my phone can do that, I just don't care.

1. Prefocus, and don't let the surrogate control focus (put the lens on MF)
   
2. Preset exposure, and don't let the surrogate alter exposure (put the camera on M).
   
3. Preset FL and don't let the surrogate change FL...tell them "everything is set, just aim (with us NOT dead in the center) to capture a bit of the background in addition to us, and press the shutter button."
   

Wilt, yours and the others suggestion of just putting in green box is great...I will do just that next time. At least, if I use the green box, the focus should be there...lighting might be off from what I was expecting but that could be fixed a lot easier in post than out of focus.

And composition, yes...I often will say to surrogate...i want this in the back ground..put the people in the fame at so and so location...do not zoom....what do they do...they move their feet and change everything about what they just were told...ugh! lol

Heya,

Either make it simple for them (Green box, etc). Or carry a 2nd camera.

Personally I take a super compact tripod (Ultrapod II, can be velcro strapped to things) and my EOS-M for selfies & group selfies. Set timer. Get in the picture. Done. With the Ultrapod II I can strap it to a post, fence, anything it can wrap around, or I can set it up on any surface. I even take it on a PVC pipe when I kayak! It can survive the ocean and no one holding it, then it can survive some other tourist and still bang out a decent photo.

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I don't like or use BBF for several reasons, but the fact that I cannot hand a camera set to it to anyone else and get an in-focus shot is indeed one of the lessor reasons I avoid it.

Why are you asking them to hit FEL?

This really should not be too hard. Re-set the focus actuation to the shutter button and have the exposure set correctly for the ambient light. Hand them the camera and simply remind them to make sure the AF point is on a person and take the shot. ETTL should handle the flash exposure for fill just fine with them focusing and shooting all in one go.

And if you are looking for perfection / what you would shoot on your own, then use a tripod and a remote.

MalVeuaX, those are some fantastic setups...and very cute pictures of the child.

Yeah, I am with you about bringing a 2ndary camera...I can keep that in mind too.

In my recent case, which prompted this rant post of mine, we were at Church for my daughters confirmation. Its a made rush of families getting pictures with the Bishop and priest and with sponsors and family. Its not really ideal for a secondary setup..I barely have time to hand over the camera to someone else. I contemplated not even bothering getting in the shot but I really wanted a "family" shot. The green button dial is about is simple as it gets...I dont know why I didnt think of it.

I do have another rant from my experience the yesterday..I am not sure if its a generational thing or new present day thing or if I am just getting grumpy as I get older (46) but there seems to be no respect for others anymore...or is greatly reduced by many more lately. Here are some things that had me stirring yesterday
1. Family immediately behind me had 2 children, under 5, and an adult about 40ish that acted like a child, that was constantly talking during mass, taking "Selfies", playing on phone (woman actually started playing a video of something that had volume on loud and she muted immediately). One child...over and over..kept saying "I want my mommmmmmmmmeeeee"..cut​e at first, but after the millionth time...I felt like I was being tortured....mind you, I am nearly 100% certain there was no mental issues with the children or inconsiderate adult woman but these were people who had no consideration for others around them...plus were we in MASS! Not once, did anyone try to comfort the children or move them to the quiet room at the back of the church. I should have turned and said something polite but direct...but I ignored and tried to focus on the Bishop...in the end, mass for me was ruined.

2. During photo time after mass...everyone is a photographer with their Cell phones...Each family's turn with a photo with the child and bishop turned out to be a picture with the child's cell phone, then mothers cell phone, then fathers cell phone, then a group shot...wait! What? It was clearly stated in the prep session...1 photo per family with Bishop...I complied...setup my 1 shot with my child and the Bishop..I am dead center front of my child/Bishop and go to take a shot...and had to ask some parent to move out of my shot...(he said..sorry, I wanted to get a picture of my son with bishop...really...that is clearly my daughter with the bishop...he said..he was just taking a practice shot)....well...after taking my 1 shot...I see clearly in my finished photo that the Bishop is looking at the parent "practicing" his shot...and not at my camera! Ugh!

3. People are lacking in regards to other peoples space it seems lately...we are forgetting how to be considerate and to think of others more than ourselves...I am a tech guru...been "online" since early 90's..yes, online since early 90's...have a lot of latest gadgets, etc...however, I am considerate of others space....but seems a lot are not any longer as they are glued to their cell phone for everything...even when driving...put the damn cell phone away, enjoy the moment and be considerate to those around you! I mention the tech item as I think cell phones and social media have disengaged people from physical interaction even when in public...they might as well just be on their couch surfing on their cell phone rather than at said event.

Ok, Rant #2 over...

I might need some therapy! lol

add point 4...not only are they self centered and overly fixated on their cellphones, but it even has taken over INTERACTION and CONVERSATION among those seated together for a meal!
My wife and I were recently seated at a table adjacent to a group of six, 3 men and 3 women all 20-something or 30-something, all of them with noses buried in their screens and thumbing replies to emails and texts and saying NOTHING to each other at all, even after food was presented and they put down the phones to eat. They say nothing to each other, even small talk or about work (if they were all coworkers)...until maybe about 2/3 of their time seated at the table!

I just put my camera on the green dummy setting and let them take the picture.
Of course I just don't hand over my camera to anyone.

kezug wrote in post #18202836
..I am not sure if its a generational thing or new present day thing or if I am just getting grumpy as I get older

It's the last one, seriously.

But really.....we have all this wonderful stuff today that makes our lives better and easier. But it is the nature of older people to complain about it.

Older people like to complain about the next generation too. I hear nothing but whining about how millennials are so self centered, or lazy, or sensitive or whatever. It's funny because my generation was 'The Slacker Generation' who would never amount to anything. Now we are the managers, the executives, the CEO's. And now we read stupid articles about "How to Manage Millennials" because they are so pathetic you have to hold their hands. And I can show you the exact same article written 20 years ago about my own generation, and another such article 30 years before that about how to manage this long haired hippie baby boom generation.

Technology gets better, kids are kids, and old people are grumpy.

the only times i'm ever really handing my camera off to a stranger is out on a hiking trail or something similar...like a trail in yosemite or something...for that i'll usually have exposure set fine, and then i'll have a friend stand where we are going to stand, figure out the composition i want, and set a focus point closest to where my friend is standing...i'll ask the person to just put the focus point on us

usually when i'm out and about like that, there are quite a bit of DSLR users out there anyway, so it seems to be a common practice to ask someone that is carrying their own DSLR

JeffreyG wrote in post #18202873
Older people like to **** about the next generation too. I hear nothing but whining about how milennials are so self centered, or lazy, or sensitive or whatever. It's funny because my generation was all 'The slackers' who would never amount to anything. Now we are the managers, the executives, the CEO's. And now we read stupid articles about "How to Manage Millenials" because they are so pathetic you have to hold their hands and stuff. And I can show you the exact same article written 20 years ago about my own generation, and another such article 30 years before that about how to manage this long haired hippie baby boom generation.

...all goes to prove that the world is indeed going to Hell in a handbasket and each successive generation is closer to it! But seriously...

My wife has had ups and downs in class behavior during her career as a Kindergarten teacher. She and the other K teacher in her school, AND also substitute K teachers who have come to substitute teach for a day, all agree that this year's class in K -- AND also at Kindergarten in an adjacent county in which the substitute teacher has experience with the class there this year! -- are the most unruly /uncooperative/ unaccepting of authority figures /unfocused batch.

More working mothers, fewer parents willing to be 'villian' disciplinarians in their kids' behavior due to the reduced time they have with their kids, defensive reactions against critique about their children...it is showing in the kids and their impaired ability to adjust to the controlled environment of school. Parents are doing a disfavor to their kids in not teaching them that very few of us will grow up and go thru life without being held accountable to some higher authority. Way too much asking, "What would you like...?" all the time.

Back on topic, presetting the camera should not mean 'zero adjustments...stand on the dot to shoot' because sometimes camera position needs to be adjusted in order to get every person's face visible in the frame. But by presetting, we simply are taking control over the basics (such as DOF control, motion control via shutter speed) rather than letting Green Box choose counter to what we want to achieve. If we think of handing over a camera to someone as merely a 'humanized remote shutter control' we are more likely to get what WE want, not what someone else THINKS we want!

Wilt wrote in post #18202926
Parents are doing a disfavor to their kids in not teaching them that very few of us will grow up and go thru life without being held accountable to some higher authority. [Too] much asking, "What would you like...?" all the time. . . . If we think of handing over a camera to someone as merely a 'humanized remote shutter control' we are more likely to get what WE want, not what someone else THINKS we want!

So it seems that you do, after all, value getting what one wants and what one likes. It's only that children shouldn't be prepared for this aspect of adult life.

I wish I could respond more fully without going too far off topic.

I had an experience where I handed my camera to a staff person to take a group shot. I set everything up. I composed the shot and directed him to stand it the exact spot. All he had to to was push the button. Somehow he managed to change the focal length from 18mm to 55mm. It was a great shot of the middle of the group. I probably should have chimped, but we were pressed for time.