How to help other people take good pictures with my camera?

Question

Assume that we are at an event where full auto will create an ugly picture. I am the only one who brought a camera along. I set the camera at something not too demanding - a workable ISO, a semi-automatic exposure mode - and shoot. Then I want to be in one or two frames too, so I hand the camera to somebody who claims some level of knowledge, and go pose. If the flash is on, it is usually in TTL mode without modifiers. I don't have much time for explanations when somebody else is posing with me, so what I usually say is "Zoom with this ring. Press this button halfway to get focus, then press all the way."

Even when the person who takes it says they own a DSLR, the chance of the results being usable is far below 50%. I guess that I can't educate them much about composition and light, so if the salt shaker on the table before me is twice as large as my face, or half my face is in deepest shadow, I just grit my teeth and go on. But often, it is a wrong camera setting. Somebody who said they know what they are doing managed to take a picture at 1/20 at 90 mm, right after I had taken a picture at 1/80 from the same spot. Somebody who generally shoots with a micro four third but has owned a SLR used the right settings, but the pictures are extremely blurry (probably shaking hands?) When I was backstage and posing with a rockstar, a friend who has exactly the same camera as I do - a D90 - focussed on the fence in the background instead of us.

Is there a way for me to set up the camera (aside from Auto mode), so that I raise the chance of somebody else making a usable picture with my camera? Or something short and easy to tell them?

Answer

Try setting the camera to P mode. This is similar to auto mode in that the camera controls aperture and shutter speed for correct exposure, but it also lets you choose metering mode, auto-focus and ISO yourself. This means you can adjust these to suit the situation at hand prior to handing the camera over to someone else.

The other option is to set the camera to Manual, dial in the correct exposure yourself and hand the camera over. As for focusing, many DSLRs have facial recognition focusing in Live View mode: most users of compact and bridge cameras will probably be more comfortable framing a shot on the screen rather than through the viewfinder, so this may be a better option all round.

You can obviously give some quick tips when handing the camera over, such as filling the frame as much as possible. If you use the Live View mode, you can also turn on the rule of thirds grid and have the 'photographer' line up the subjects' eyes appropriately.

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