PEOPLE & ACTION
People sailing make great pictures. Not just posed shots looking into the camera but while they are actively sailing. In fact many great portraits have the subject looking away from camera. You’ll need to make sure they have the sailing in control so you can focus on getting some shots. Try to get faces rather than backs of heads and also try to avoid having a backstay or rigging emerging from their head.
COMPOSITION
If you’ve got time, think about lens choice. A long lens will help isolate your subject from the background, such as the convenient little 50mm lens on a DSLR. Just choose an aperture with the smallest number like f2.8 or f4 and the background will blow out of focus, especially distant background. Conversely a wide-angled lens of 18mm or below, is also useful, as long as you get close in on the action.
Stay ahead of your subject in order to capture great facial expressions, and if they are doing something active, keep their hands in shot so that the viewer can see exactly what is happening.
When it comes to lenses, having some kind of zoom lens available lets you change focal length much more easily. If you want one lens, a good range of wide angle to long lens gives you lots of flexibility, but you may end up sacrificing a little in aperture settings or image quality.
LIGHTING
Your light source on board will either be the sun and/or a flash. Most likely just the sun. So taking photos of people on board in the middle of the day will give harsh shadows from the overhead light which are not very flattering. This problem gets worse in mid summer or close to the equator. If you have a choice wait until the ‘golden hour’, a couple of hours before sunset or soon after sunrise. You’ll be treated to a warm soft light that will make your subjects look amazing! Ideally they will be ‘frontlit’ facing the light but if the sun’s behind their backs (backlit) just let them
be silhouetted for a different effect. If they are backlit and you are using a DSLR, expose the picture for the sky behind not their faces or rotate the exposure compensation down one stop for the same result. This will create a nice silhouette.
Your phone camera will also let you adjust the exposure. There is also a setting called ‘high dynamic range’ (HDR) on most phones, which takes three identical images but with different exposures, then merges them together so that the highlights, the shadows and the mid range are all properly exposed. This can give a really dramatic effect rather than losing areas of the image in shadow.
In low light, it is possible to get images by using a wide aperture (small f-stop number) and a slow shutter speed, but as the exposure will take longer, try propping your camera up on something to hold it steady and avoid blur. If you can change the ISO (the sensor’s sensitivity), put it onto a higher number so it records the light faster. Your camera may well have automatic settings for low light and it’s worth trying these rather than just relying on flash.
FLASH
If you’ve got a flash, think about using it in the middle of the day to fill in those harsh shadows. A smartphone or compact will only give limited adjustment, but if you have a DSLR you can get great results. Set both on automatic and nine times out of 10 you’ll get a great result, albeit with a face that will be pretty flattened by light. For best results, prior to switching the flash on, switch the camera to Manual (M) and set the shutter speed as fast as possible when using flash (usually 1/160-1/250) and the aperture to a setting that will give a slightly underexposed shot (take a quick frame to test). Then switch on the flash and set on manual, set the flash power to suit your distance from your subject. Start at, say…. 1/4 power and try a shot. Too much flash? Reduce power to 1/8, and so on. Try to avoid putting too much flash into your subject unless you want something really punchy. Then once the camera and flash are set you can pretty much shoot anything happening aboard, as long as the light or distance from the subject stay more or less the same.
If you want to get closer, just reduce the flash power to suit.
If your camera doesn’t have a flash, you could try shining a torch for a similar effect to fill in shadows. Below decks, it’s worth turning the lights on for a better image. On a DSLR, you can soften the flash by bouncing it off a bulkhead, or you could shine a torch from another part of the cabin, or use a diffuser to soften the flash.