From the Manual

Use members of your family and/or your friends to make your other photographs more effective.

Strike a Balance

• Get far enough away to keep some sense of where the person is.
• But, get close enough that the person is recognizable.

Take Candid Photos

• Capture action.
• To get yourself in the photo, set your camera’s timer and run into the frame.

Photograph Strangers

• It’s always best to ask permission before taking a close photo.
• If it feels inappropriate to take a photo, then consider journaling about the scene instead. 

From the Transcript

With your lens ready to go and a good plan under your belt, we'll now turn our focus to people. So, get out your worksheet and let’s get started. Regardless of where you are going in the world, you are most likely going there with your people—which are your family or friends. We often travel with people we know and we quite naturally want to come home with pictures of them as souvenirs of the trip. Be sure to get these, but don't forget that you can also use members of your family and/or your friends to make your other photographs more effective.

When you are capturing photos of people, try to strike a balance between a photo of them and a photo of the scene. Placing people in your images will give them life and scale. A close-up portrait of someone is okay, but when taking photos for a travel album, the photo will be much more descriptive, meaningful, and full of life if you get far enough away to keep some sense of where the person is.

On the flip side of that, you do need to make sure and get close enough that the person is recognizable. You don’t want him to just be a vertical speck in the distance. The inclusion of the person also brings scale to the image. The best photos of your people will most likely be the candid ones. These are the photos you take when people are unaware that they are being photographed.

One way to purposefully capture a candid photo is to have a person actively doing something within the scene, such as walking along a beach. Candid photos can also be captured with you in the frame. One way to do that is to prop your camera up — either on a ledge or on the ground or on a mini tripod — and then set the timer and run into the frame.

Besides bringing home photos of yourself and your people, you should also consider capturing photos that include the locals. It’s always best to ask permission if you want to photograph someone, especially if you're getting in close. Engage them before you pull out your camera. Learn at least how to say "hello" and "May I make a photograph" in the local language—just showing that you've made a little effort helps.

In places where there's a lot of tourism, you may run into people who are tired of being photographed—many tourists are not courteous enough to ask permission, and local people can come to feel abused and exploited. Be sensitive to the scene in your viewfinder. In some cases it might be best to journal about the scene instead of take a photo.

Were you able to find all the answers for the worksheet? Here are the answers before we move on to the last video of this module. See you there.