How to Take Perfect Honeymoon Pictures

Choose your camera carefully.

If it's important to you to share your pictures with friends and family, make sure you bring a digital camera along, so that you can download your images onto your computer, and then e-mail them around or upload them onto a photo-sharing website such as kodakgallery.com, flickr.com, snapfish.com or smugmug. com. Digital cameras are also desirable because they don't require film, which means you can shoot to your heart's content. "The immediacy of a digital camera is its strength—you can make sure that you've got the perfect shot before you leave a site," explains Mark Konezny, a spokesman for Kodak.

Practice makes perfect.

Don't try out a new camera, such as one you received as a wedding present, for the first time on your honeymoon. "Use your camera for several weeks before your trip so that you can get used to how it works," says professional travel photographer Jonathan Atkin. "You don't want to spend your trip reading a manual."

Plan your photo ops.

Just as you wouldn't want to go to the top of Paris' Eiffel Tower, New York's Empire State Building or Hawai'i's Mount Halea-kala on a rainy day, you also wouldn't want to take pictures of the view from there in bad weather. Instead of sticking to a predetermined schedule, save these trip highlights—which also make key photo ops—for a day when you're blessed with great conditions. This way, you're more likely to get an image that you can frame.

Time your visits.

The best-kept secret of travel photographers: Take your pictures early in the morning or at dusk. At these times of day, the sunlight is diffuse, making images soft and dreamy. Midday sun is harsh, creating shadows and bright, unflattering light in photographs. If you must take important shots at midday, use your flash to lighten faces and reduce shadows.

Ask for help.

You wouldn't believe how many couples don't have any pictures of the two of them, together, on their honeymoon. (And, no, those awful "self-portraits" do not count!) Go ahead and ask people to take your picture—you can offer to snap theirs in return. If you're worried that a stranger might run off with your camera, stick to tour guides, hotel staff members and restaurant waiters.

Think before you shoot.

When taking photos of yourselves at meals, do so before the food is served to avoid images of half-eaten plates and dirty napkins, as well as diner's teeth filled with, say, spinach. For variety, take both vertical and horizontal shots. Also, don't just stand directly in front of an important site, such as Big Ben—you'll get a more visually interesting image if you shoot from different angles and keep the building off-center, says Atkin. Another tip: Kneel down or sit—it will make the subject look bigger and more impressive, according to Konezny. Also, take your glasses or sunglasses off so that glare doesn't ruin your hard-won image.

Record your whole trip.

You'll want the images to tell the entire story. Start off by taking pictures of each other packing, and then shoot your plane tickets. Next, snap yourselves heading out to the airport. While sightseeing, photograph street signs, so that you have "diary entry" images that record everything. At the end of your trip, shoot the ride back to the airport, as well as your return home. As a result, you'll remember every detail of your vacation.