SUCCESSFUL PHOTOGRAPHY FOR GENEALOGISTS
Foreword. This article was first written in 1987, with the emphasis on travel to the Soviet Union and the rest of Eastern Europe, thus it included not only technical advice but also tips on circumventing senseless restrictions on taking photos. It was once revised after the fall of the Soviet Empire, but still was not widely circulated. The two major events that affect picture taking today are the advent of digital photography and the Arab terrorist attack of September 11, 2001. The former requires a separate article; the latter, sadly, puts any person taking a photo anywhere in the world under a suspicion of being a scout for terrorists.
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It is a major undertaking if you decide to travel to Eastern Block countries, especially to the newly independent countries that used to be a part of the Soviet Union. It is more of a challenge if you desire to do genealogy research and bring back evidence of your ancestors' presence in one of those countries. Whether you find a grave stone with a familiar name or an old document in an archive or, perhaps discover new relatives, a photograph becomes the only proof that you may take back with you.
Availability of wonderful fully automatic cameras in today's market makes it think that it is not difficult to snap pictures. It takes, however, a certain amount of preparation to ensure that every click of the shutter, under any conditions, will bring you a quality image. You do not want to be disappointed after traveling 10,000 miles from home and spending 20 rolls of film.
There are two basic factors that will ensure quality of your photographs: reliable equipment and certain picture-taking techniques.
The following paragraphs shortly describe any and all equipment that you may want to have on you when going on a trip. What you personally take depends on how experienced a photographer you are and how much you want or able to carry on your shoulders.
Equipment. The photographic cameras most widely used today may be loosely divided into three groups. They are semi- and fully automatic SLRs (See Thru Lens), including cameras with autofocus lenses, fully automatic rangefinder point-and-shoot types and the new breed, sometimes called bridge cameras. Indeed, they look like a bridge between a traditional camera and video camcorder. I personally prefer SLRs because they provide a photographer with much wider possibilities than do the other types. They allow, for example, use of various lenses which may be absolutely necessary when shooting inside of a small apartment or copying an old passport size photo. I always travel with two identical camera bodies and several lenses that can be used with both cameras. One camera is constantly at work and the second is a back-up to be used if something happens with a first camera or if I need to shoot different (e.g. black and white) film. Experience tells that one should not rely on local supply when traveling abroad, especially in the Eastern Europe. Western cameras may not be readily available in the former Soviet block countries. Local models, if you can find them in stores, are often inferior in quality and unusually heavy. One also may have to pay customs duty when coming back home.
It is useful from time to time and before a long journey in particular, to carefully review instruction booklets for your cameras, strobes and any other equipment that you use. You may find there some obvious but forgotten tips that will prevent you from pitfalls during the trip. (When was the last time, by the way, that you checked film speed setting on your camera?). Ideally, all equipment must be inspected and tried, with a test film developed before departure. This way you will know in advance of any problems with your equipment and will hopefully have enough time to make necessary repairs.
The ideal lightweight combination for a trip is an SLR camera of any brand (two bodies) and one so called Zoom lens with the range from 28 to 85 (or more) mm. Such lens will cover more than 90% of all your photographic needs. If you are planning to buy a modern programmed camera, make sure it will accept any type film in any cartridge (plastic or metal; with or without bar code lines which "tell" automatic cameras what kind of film is inside). Lens should be with Macro capability which will permit you to shoot at a distance of 10_15 inches or even closer. Many so called "normal" lenses (usually 50 mm for 35 mm cameras) already have this feature. If you already have a Zoom and a normal lens, you may want to take the normal lens as a back-up.
Teleconverters are commonly used to increase focal length of your lens. That is a 2x teleconverter will make your 85mm lens to work as 170mm lens. The lesser known fact is that they are very helpful in a combination with a Macro/Zoom lens when you have to photograph a small object at a distance of few feet (in a museum, for example). Their disadvantage is that they reduce the amount of light that reaches film and require to increase exposure (see the instructions for your teleconverter).
Filters. Many SLR owners use ultraviolet filters that help to get better outside pictures while in the same time protecting valuable lenses. Filters can be found to fit any lens for any camera. However, if you use one of the new fully automatic point-and- shoot cameras, or a "bridge camera", it most likely does not have a thread to accept a filter. There are dozens if not hundreds of filters of different kind on the market. One filter which is particularly useful is a rotating Polarizing filter. It also protects your lens plus much more: it substantially reduce or completely eliminates undesirable reflections from shiny surfaces. While looking through the filter, rotate its front element and see how reflections from the car surfaces, store windows, etc. gradually disappear. This feature is especially handy when photographing glass covered objects in a museum. To reach the desirable effect, however, one should shoot not at a perpendicular to the glass but at an angle. This may distort an image of a glass covered painting or a photograph, but distorted image is still better than no image at all. Another important quality of a polarizing filter is that it reduces haze, deepens the sky color and in general, saturates colors of your photograph. Polarizing filters also require exposure increase.
Strobe. A strobe is a necessity. Not only it allows you to take inside photos but it can also greatly improve quality of your pictures taken outside in the bright sun, because it lightens up and softens harsh shadows on people's faces. Some automatic cameras with a built-in flash allow you to turn it on when you take outside photos and you should consult with the instruction booklet first to see how to take advantage of this option.
Flashlight. On occasions, when it is too dark to focus your camera on people's faces or any other subject you want to photograph, estimate the distance and set the lens accordingly. Better yet to carry a miniature flashlight that for a moment will produce a bright spot on the subject, big enough to focus precisely. You may not need to use this trick when shooting with an autofocus camera because the autofocus feature employs infrared rays which your eye does not see, but the camera does.
Batteries. Do not forget batteries! No matter how good or fancy your camera is, it is useless as soon as the battery dies. Experienced travel photographers advise to take as many batteries as it is practical to carry. AA, AAA and button-type batteries may be hard to buy in the Eastern Europe.
Tripod. Good sturdy tripod is a very important but not too practical piece of equipment to carry on a long trip. It also slows down the picture-taking process. A monopod is easier to work with or, you may use a 1/4"-20 screw (standard thread size for cameras, available in any hardware store) with a 5-6 feet rope attached to it. The best screw for this purpose is a so-called eye-bolt. When you have to shoot at a long exposure (1/60 sec or longer), step on the rope and pull the camera up until you can see through the viewfinder. The rope in tension will provide additional support for the camera and you will get fewer blurry pictures. Yet another option may be to carry a portable clamp/table top tripod. It can be easily clamped to a bench, a tree branch or to a chair or a table edge, when copying a document or a photo. In such case you also have to use a cable release because pressing a button with a finger may move your camera during long exposure. If your camera is equipped with a self-timer, you may use it instead of the cable. 10-12 seconds which takes to activate shutter on the camera is enough to stabilize it after you have pressed the button. If you feel the document being photographed is important enough, by all means take an extra shot or two, at a different exposure. You will not travel back to correct a mistake.
Film. What kind of film and how much should one take on a trip? For a fan of photography like myself the usual norm is a 36 exposure roll per day (and it is not a lot; some people do more) plus few extra rolls plus several rolls of different kind of film for special needs. It is not a luxury. You may find film to not be available just when you need it, especially in the former Soviet Union. In addition, film over there is sold separately from cartridges and you will not be able to load it. In addition yet, Russian or Ukrainian made film has a relatively thicker acetate base and may adversely affect the film advancing mechanism of your camera.
If you have a flash, 100 ASA film is good enough as your main "roll per day". 200 ASA film is a bit more expensive but allows to use higher shutter speeds, hence pictures will come out sharper. Both films are perfect for flash photography at night. If you don't take a flash, carry few rolls of high speed film, like 400 or even 1000 ASA. Black and white 400 ASA film will probably be the most practical for copy work because in many cases it will allow you to shoot without the tripod. Kodak T-Max brand black-and-white film is more expensive than the regular black-and-white type, but it has super-fine grain and provides superior quality negatives.
Film Protection. Special led protected film carrying bag is a must. It will protect your film from the X_ray radiation at the airports. It is better to ask security personnel there to hand inspect you cartridges but sometimes they refuse. The Russians used to refuse without a question. There were reports that they X-rayed all luggage not only before departures but also when you first arrived to the country and were going through customs. They use powerful X-ray sources which do damage photographic material. (In all fairness to the comrades, I have read that the security personnel at London's Heathrow Airport also refuses to hand check photographic materials). Keep also in mind, that X-rays have a cumulative effect on film, just like on humans, and that X-ray machines may not always be properly adjusted. (Another travel photographer writes he carries film on him and goes with it through metal detector. Metal detectors work on principles different from X-ray machines and will not damage your film but they will sound off if you have too many metal cassettes in your pockets). If it is possible, try to be at an airport as early as possible. You will have more time to be nice to security people and they may be nice to you too.
Another note of precaution: it used to be that the Soviet Union and some other communist block countries did not allow bringing in of exposed film. It may still be true. Therefore, if you are not going there directly from home, send back rolls of film exposed in other countries or declare all your film as unexposed. Mark your films carefully or you will be confused when deciding which film is which.
As I noted before, your own list of equipment to take on a trip may be longer than the one, suggested above, or shorter, depending on your needs, plans or situation. However, when planning the trip, do make a point to find out just how much equipment and film is allowed to be taken into a particular country. Check it with your travel agent. Other sources to check with are the embassies of the countries of interest in Washington, D.C., tourist information centers of those countries in New York City, and the State Department. The latter publishes little brochures such as "Tips For Travelers to the USSR". Doing your homework well in advance will help you to avoid a good number of unpleasant surprises in strange countries.
This article was first written in 1987, when the Berlin Wall was there to stay, when very few people could anticipate abrupt changes that were to sweep throughout the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. To be a western traveler in any of the Eastern Block countries was always a challenge, sometimes a bitter rather than pleasant, experience. Restrictions with regards to taking pictures in the Eastern European countries were numerous. Many of them may still be valid, especially in the former Soviet Union. It is important to know, what you may expect so you will not be too surprised when someone yells DON'T! when you are about to take a photo. It is interesting to get a sense of the "don’t's" and their history:
Baedeker's guidebook on Russia, published in 1914, notes: "The taking of photographs near fortresses is naturally forbidden; and even in less important places the guardians of the law are apt to be over vigilant".
Photographers Handbook, published in Moscow in 1937, gives five pages of government regulations regarding photography, not repealed to this day.
Tips For Travelers to the USSR, published by the State Department in 1985 dedicates a full page to do's and don’t's: "U.S. citizens have had film confiscated, have been temporarily detained or interrogated, and have even been asked to leave the U.S.S.R. because of violations, usually unwitting, of Soviet regulations on photography".
The list of "forbidden subjects" in this booklet goes from "all military objects" to "railroad bridges" to "panoramic shots of industrial cities". Perfectly non-military pictures of "slums or of the poor or other potentially embarrassing subjects has caused problems".
In fairness to often paranoid Russians, it should be noted that restrictions on picture-taking may often be the result of cultural heritage, local customs in a particular country and are not limited to the Eastern Europe. In an excellent book on travel photography, published by the Time-Life Books, there is a bit of information of particular interest to genealogists: "In Argentina and France, there are restrictions on photographs of cemeteries (in France, photographs are nor permitted to show names on tombstones) out of respect for the feelings of the families of the dead". Another well known fact is that people in Moslem countries may often object attempts to photograph them.
It would be a real pity, if, after traveling thousands of miles you could not take photos just when you needed. In such cases your best guides should be your needs, common sense and respect for local laws, as contradictory, as these three conditions may sound. When in the ex-USSR, it may be a good idea to ask an Intourist guide for assistance. They all speak good English and know local customs but different tourists had different experience in dealing with them. To help handling guides as well as any ordinary person it may be suggested to offer them a small inexpensive gift from the United States, such as pen, pack of cigarettes, small calendar, chewing gum, lipstick, nail colors, bumper stickers, thin (do not try to carry Sears or J.C.Penney) illustrated catalogues, etc. People behind the former Iron Curtain are immensely curious about America and Americans and such gifts may serve as real door, mouth and heart openers.
It must also be mentioned, since we talk about strange customs in strange countries, that film should not be left unattended in hotel rooms, even for a short time. It may be a real burden to carry everything on you at all times, but cases are known of film being stolen, pulled out of cartridges or otherwise destroyed, western published guidebooks and maps torn apart, etc. And, as a rule applied in all countries around the world: carry all your photographic equipment personally, or leave it in a safe. Do not leave it in a hotel room and do not check it in with your luggage. The recent years made us all witnesses to the demise of the USSR. One side effect of that generally happy event is unfortunately the street crime. It is rampant, absolutely out of hand and has become a factor not to be dismissed. Just like the thugs of all races and creeds, criminals in the former Soviet Union increasingly prey on foreign tourists. No suggestion can be given here, since the situation changes daily. The best sources of information are your travel agent and the Department of State.
Before describing specific picture-taking situations that a genealogist (or any tourist) may face, I would like to stress here importance of doing one's homework. When you know what cities and towns are included into itinerary, become as knowledgeable as possible about places of interest to you. Jews have lived in the Eastern Europe for hundreds of years yet there are almost no visible signs of their presence that you may find today. Locate and study old pictures, maps, city directories for sometimes you may go through what used to be a town's Jewish quarter not knowing it. Old city maps often show synagogues, Jewish schools, etc.
It is next to impossible to envision all types of photographs that may be taken during a trip abroad and to give specific tips regarding picture-taking. There are few categories of pictures however that are more common and I will attempt to describe them.
Landscapes and general views. When taking photographs of large areas, remember that not all breath-taking views will look equally beautiful on pictures. Our eyes have wider field of view than most lenses; on the other hand we absorb beauty of nature during a period of time, at least few minutes. Photographic "eye" opens for a 1/100 of a second and the impression left on film will often differs from the one left in our memory. To make the image on paper more interesting, try to include a characteristic subject on the foreground. It will give your photo a great sense of prospective. It may be a tree branch, a mail box, your own spouse. If you have to shoot in the direction of the sun, tilt the camera down until the sun will hide beyond the edge of a viewfinder. You will loose some sky on the photo, but not the main subject. If you feel, that a particular view is worth a panoramic shot, it can be done with and without a tripod. All you have to do is to notice a subject in the lower (right or left) corner of the viewfinder, snap a shot, than move the camera until the same subject appears in the opposite lower corner of the viewfinder. Two adjacent section of the landscape will appear on two photos with slight overlap. When needed, more than two photos may be taken in a similar manner.
Walking through the streets. When shooting in a city, try to include in a picture a street sign, whenever possible. If a street or a house happen to be of particular interest to you, photograph a street sign and a house number separately. Take also pictures of signs with city names when arriving at a railroad station or when crossing city limits by car. Our memory becomes overloaded with impressions and three weeks later it may be difficult to remember what was photographed, where and when. It also brings an important, at least from my point of view, point, or a rule #1, if you will: have a camera at all times, including when traveling on a bus, plane, or especially, train.
Everybody knows that at times it is very difficult to photograph a building on a city street because of space limitation and prospective distortions, especially if the building happens to be tall. Do not let such a consideration to stop you! As in a case of photographing rectangular objects mentioned above, a distorted image is better than no image at all. Besides, details of a particular architectural monument, such as windows, pillars, ornaments and others may be as interesting and story-telling as its overview. You may also use a "panoramic photo" technique to photograph large buildings, small squares, interiors, etc.
Interiors. When coming inside a building, remember that there may be enough light to take pictures even if our eyes tell otherwise. Check what your light meter says. When using a flash, keep in mind that it will lit a relatively small area on the foreground. The background of a large interior may come out too dark, if at all. To solve this problem, if a situation allows, position yourself in a darker area and take a flash photo from this dark area towards window_lit area of the interior. Do it at a lower shutter speed. Your flash will develop details in the dark foreground while window light will do the same for background details. If it is too dark and there is no tripod, leaning against a wall or a pillar or supporting your camera against a bench, a chair, a staircase rail will be a good remedy in a situation. If a subject is important enough, by all means take a double exposure.
Visiting museums and archives. Photographing museum exhibits and documents is a difficult task. Most of them are covered with glass which will reflect a flash (if flash photography is permitted at all) directly into the lens. Photographing at an angle to glass is an acceptable alternative. Do not forget to snap a separate picture of a caption or a label of the exhibit. High speed film is the ideal mean to obtain quality photos in this case. Polarizing filters mentioned above should not be forgotten and used if lighting conditions allow (they force you to increase exposure time by two stops).
If you are allowed to see archival materials and (!) to copy some of them, switch to black and white film first of all. Do not attempt to photograph more than one letter size page at a time unless you are experienced in this kind of work or critically short on film and have no chance to come back. High speed films have relatively low resolution and text may be very difficult to read (let alone high cost of enlargements). Valuable documents may often be covered by clear protective sheets of plastic. If permitted, remove them before taking a picture, for they will almost definitely create reflections of all surrounding sources of light and send them into your lens. For the same reason, do not cover a document with glass. In addition to creating light reflections it will reflect an image of the camera back into the lens. If you are not allowed to remove protective plastic cover, try to find a place away from the light sources. It may be darker there and you will need to increase exposure, but it is not a problem if you have a tripod. One sure way to be a winner in this battle against glare, non-flat originals and suspicious museum personnel is to have two small flashes. One must be connected to a camera via cord (provided your camera has a special socket), the second may be either connected by a cord or triggered by a special "slave" trigger when the first flash fires. The flashes should be positioned at equal distances from the center of the original, at 30 to 45 degrees angle. The duration of a flash is about 1/1000 of a second or shorter. No window or fluorescent light reflected from the plastic sheet will exposed itself in such a short time. This technique, however, must be tested with all types of film that you may use and at different apertures otherwise your copy negatives will come out greatly overexposed.
If a photograph is pasted on the document, use close up feature of the lens, or an extension ring and copy the photograph separately from the rest of the document. Check the camera setting (a photo is always darker than a document page) and reflections (glossy, non_flat photographic paper is worse than any glass cover).
At a cemetery. When visiting a cemetery, do not forget to take photos of an entrance and a sign, of a cemetery book of records. Grave stones in the Eastern European cemeteries are often made from black or gray polished marble which reflects flash light, so again the solution is to shoot at an angle. If a stone is quite big it makes sense to make a close up photo of an inscription. Photographing grave stones may at times be a challenge. With polished marble being one problem, letters on the old stones are often hardly legible. Little piece of white (or black or any other dark color) chalk will save the situation. Spend extra five minutes filling letters with a chalk- and you will have a perfectly readable inscription. Another way to let the letters to stand out is to smear the flat surface of the stone around the letters with white chalk. If you have a 3-4 ft pc cord that connects your camera and a flash, you can offset a flash relative to the camera and the object and create a more relief lighting.
Photographing people is without a doubt most common (and most exciting) kind of photography. There are no limits aside from a photographer's imagination as to when, where and how to photograph them. To make pictures of people more interesting and memorable, do not limit yourself to just close ups; try to make photos of people in their surroundings: in a living room, in a kitchen, etc. After focusing at a person or a group of persons, rotate the camera slightly, so that the people appear on one side of the image. The rest of the picture will clearly show where and how they live. It will become a storyteller by itself, making a record of local customs and the way of life. Pictures of people involved in their day-to-day activities, like cooking a meal are also very interesting. One must remember however to be understanding and tactful for feeling of the people one visits with. If you show your sincere interest and respect, chances are you will come back home with truly unique pictures.
Photography is much more than just pressing a button. If my advices made you think of this aspect of you future trip as kind of hard work -- it is not. It is still a pleasure. Bon vojage!
Copyright Boris Feldblyum © 1987-1993