Tip: How To Photograph A Parade - From a Travel Photographer

Summer is coming. As spring starts to end and summer starts to begin it means it is time to enjoy the warm sun on your face as the cool breeze blows the beads of sweat that create that cooling feeling. It is time to enjoy time with your family and just sit and relax. Relax as it you enjoy the events that will occur during the coming months. Enjoy the march and parades that will bring the family together, in either boredom or just a closeness of the kid’s excitement. It would be great to capture those moments. Here are some tips to make those moments great to look at as well.

The equipment:

Pack light. In a parade you will move a lot and you do not want to carry to much stuff with you. A friend of mine just carries her cameras only. I have a small bag I use after switching to mirror-less.

Bring a decent camera, if you don’t have one do not worry. You can do the same with a point and shoot. The drawback of point and shoots and most Mirrorless cameras is they have contrast auto focusing opposed to phase shift focusing. Phase shift basically focuses based on distance vs contrast focusing which focuses on color of pixels. With phase shift it can focus on objects that are moving towards you unlock contrast focusing. This is the reason that the OMD E-M5 is not a good camera for this. That is why I had ordered a new OMD E-M1 as a second body.

Speaking of second bodies, if you do not want to switch lenses all the time, have a second body. One for your long lens for zooming in and filling the frame and one for your medium/wide lens for faster switching.

A neutral density filter helps reduce the amount of light in case of too much sun in the sky, but a cheaper circular polarizer can cut glare and heighten the color of your shots.

 

With all the sun around there are going to be a lot of shadows casted. It is best to take a flash to fill in those shadows with light. I know it seems weird to use a flash during a day shot, but trust me you will not regret it. I brought one that I can set up as a remote in case I need a flash other than in front of me.

The first tip Get There Early.

Getting there early is important for many reasons. No one likes getting there and realizing there is crowd of people standing in front of your shot. One of the main reasons is to get a good spot. If you do not have the luxury of a press pass the spots will all be taken when you arrive as the parade is starting. If you get there early you an have a pick of the places to set up and shoot.

It would be great to take some shots of people setting up. The people who set up the event behind the scenes are just as important as the people who are in the parade. It is great to show homage to those who put the handwork in. Take photos of the people who helped make the parade happen.

Getting there early also allows you to take more friendly shots of some of the parade. As people talk and pose for photos, it is a different feel than what happens during the actual parade.

Techniques

Keep your back to the sun

One of the drawbacks about parades that is against my suggestion for shooting a city in a day, is that they are usually held when the sun is high in the sky. This will cause a lot of shadows in the sky. The best thing to do is to keep your back to the sun. This will reduce the amount of shadows that will be casted on the faces of the paraders. If you can not have the sun to your back, move or have the sun 3/4s of the subject. This will allow you to sculpt their face with the shadows a bit more, it is an artistic move. Use a fill flash if need be as well.

Use Auto Focus

I am usually a fan of manual focus, but for parades, the action happens too fast. This is where auto-focus comes in play. It is important to be using the correct auto-focus setting. If you are using a mirror-less or Point and shoot they usually have an AF-Tracking feature. This allows you to track a moving object. If you are using a DSLR w/o AF-Tracking use the AF-C Servo. This allows the lens to constantly focus on a moving object. A badly focused good picture is the worst thing to have.

Notice Rhythms

One of the thing about parades is that the people in the parade will do the same actions over and over again. Notice this rhythm, this will allow of anticipation of what will happen next so that a perfectly timed photo can occur.

Take a photo of the crowd

It is great to show the reaction of the crowd as they are having fun. Nothing shows how fun the parade is like a smiling or excited audience.

Have any extra tips to give? I know there are some out there I did not mention. Have any questions about the tips given? Feel free to ask. Leave a comment below, send me a tweet on twitter, or post on my facebook. Heck even send us a message. Let me know so I can help. Happy travels