Asking for shooting technics.

[giangvu]

Hello everybody,

I am a beginner in DSLR. I owned a Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 and I am going to visit some countries with my siblings. I do not have much time to practice with this DSLR, so I don't have much experiences. I want to ask you how can I take good pictures? For example: when I take pictures outside, I focus at my brother's body and also want to have background clearly. At ISO 200, if I shoot at f2.8, the background will be blurred (I think so). At the same ISO, when I shoot at f5.6 or f8, the result(background) might be better but I am afraid of hand shake. So how can I have a good picture in this case?
The second question is: at this time, the weather is not good (cloudy), the color of taken pictures will not have good qualities. How can I improve to get a better picture (warmer, colorful)? For example: K temperature balance or color-tone adjustment or other methods?
Thank you for your help.

Best regards,
Truong Giang.

[xtranch]

For landscapes I always set the white balance to the cloudy setting, or 6000k. this will give you a warmer picture. To get the subject and background in focus try to use f5.6 or higher and dont be too close to the subject. if it is overcast step up your iso setting to 400. check your shutter speed, if it is below 1/100 sec you risk blur from movement of camera or subject.