How To Shoot in Museums
Museums, aquariums and natural habitat parks provide opportunities for unusual shots. They also present some difficult challenges for the digital photographer, but nothing that can’t be overcome with a little ingenuity.
Before you get too excited at the prospect of shooting beautiful works of art in a museum, be sure to ask if it’s OK. Often you’ll discover that photography is allowed in some areas, but not in others. To avoid embarrassing confrontations, ask when you first enter the facility.
Even when you’re granted permission, you’ll probably be told that you can’t use a flash or set up a tripod. So here are a few tips to help you work around those constraints
Check your white balance. Chances are your images are displaying a noticeable reddish hue on your LCD monitor. Try using the Tungsten setting to improve the color balance. Some cameras allow you to set a custom color balance. You might want to give that a try if the presets don’t provide the results you want.
Find a way to combat the low ambient light often found inside museums. Chances are the camera shake symbol is flashing on your LCD monitor, telling you that your pictures are going to be “soft” due to a slow shutter speed.
If your camera has a neck strap, you can use it to help you steady the shots. Pull the camera out from your body until the strap is taut. Use this resistance to steady your hands as you make the exposure. If one is available, you can also lean against a wall or pillar to help you combat camera shake.
As a last resort, you can increase your camera’s light sensitivity by adjusting the ISO speed setting. Changing the setting to 200 or 400 might get rid of the camera shake warning, but your picture quality won’t be as good.
Regardless of the type of museum you’re visiting, you’re probably going to encounter exhibits behind glass. The trick to eliminating unwanted reflections is to put the outer edge of the camera’s lens barrel right up against the glass, hold the camera steady, then shoot (make sure the flash is turned off!). By putting the lens barrel close to the glass, you eliminate those nasty room reflections that often ruin otherwise beautiful shots.
Museum shooting often means shooting through glass. You can either put the camera lens right up against the glass, or stand back and compose the shot so you don’t get any unwanted reflections. Either way, turn off the flash.
When you upload the pictures from your visit to the museum, you’ll probably notice that many of the images suffer from softness and other flaws that you didn’t detect on the LCD monitor. Don’t despair, though—even if only a fraction of your images survive, they’ll be treasured for years to come and are well worth the effort of capturing.
