Capturing great travel photography can be tricky; you want to preserve treasured memories but still enjoy your trip.
Whether you’re documenting a weekend city break or a month-long journey across continents, taking photos make your fading memories stand the test of time.
Capturing images that are realistic, powerful, and original will enrich your adventure, but how to do you do that?
There are an endless amount of travel photography tips available, but f you are just starting out, it can be confusing.
Never fear–join us as we list 20 easy travel photography tips to help take your images to the next level.
1. Always Carry Your Camera
There are two essential steps to improving your travel photography: learn how to use your camera, and carry it with you at all times.
The good news is you don’t need the latest camera to capture majestic landscapes or cityscapes. You can achieve impressive results with a point and shoot camera or a smartphone–if you know what you are doing.
Learning the relationship between ISO, shutter speed, and aperture can take time and practice, but it will be worth the effort.
You’ll find good subjects where you least expect them, so make your photography a priority and be ready to shoot at any moment. You’ll be able to rest when you get home.
2 Do Your Research Before You Go
Location scouting before you go will save you a huge amount of time–don’t leave finding the best spots to chance.
Thanks to the internet, this can now be done from the comfort of your own home. Finding the best photography spots in a city can be as simple as scrolling through Instagram or Flickr, filtering through hashtags or geotags.
There are even Facebook groups dedicated to specific regions of the world or photographic subjects.
A common practice among freelance photographers is where they use stock photography websites such as Shutterstock or Alamy, to get an understanding of what type of images sell the most. Stock photographs usually have detailed descriptions of the location, plus, they can show you how to make an image stand out.
3 Learn the Rules of Composition (and break them)
While knowing your camera settings is important, the composition also plays a key role in improving your shots.
There are a number of rules photographers follow to create images that are balanced and powerful. The most common one is the rule of the thirds.
Simply divide your frame into 9 parts by intersecting 2 horizontal lines and 2 vertical lines. Then place the main subject of your photograph where the lines cross each other.
There is usually a helpful ‘grid feature’ on your camera or phone which you can activate to help you follow the rule. Once you’ve practiced enough, however, it will become second nature.
Other composition tips include filling the frame, being careful about what is in the background, and working with colors that complement each other.
Obviously, composition rules are meant as rough guidelines and shouldn’t always be followed strictly–don’t let rules get in the way of creativity. Consciously breaking the rules can help reinforce your style or better communicate your message. There is no such thing as a ‘bad’ picture, as long as you know what you are doing.
4 Use Leading Lines
Guide your viewer into your image by using leading lines found in your frame; such as landscapes, buildings or streets. Choose the perspective you shoot from carefully and try to leverage the natural elements to direct the viewer’s attention.
Natural lines can be also used to frame an image, pulling your viewer into your scene. Be sure to consider all the elements in your frame; the background and foreground are often more important than the subject itself.
5 Shoot in Manual Mode
Learning how to shoot in manual mode is a leap forward in your journey towards great travel photography.
Understanding the relationship between shutter speed, aperture, and ISO will require some patience. But once you get the hang of it, it will improve your photography leaps and bounds.
When we talk about ISO we refer to the image sensor’s sensitivity to light. As a rule of thumb, this setting should be kept at its lowest possible level (100) to avoid the appearance of grain in the picture.
Using the exposure triangle, above, is a great way to learn how to control your camera in manual mode.
Adjusting shutter speed and aperture can be a little tricky; selecting the correct settings will depend on what you are shooting. If you are photographing events or fast-moving wildlife, you should prioritize shutter speed, while for portraiture and still life adjusting aperture will help you see more or less depth of field.
6 Learn How to Edit Photos
Editing should be thought of as part of the process of creating a picture. Processing already occurs in-camera when light is converted into pixels, but adjusting colors, and exposure in post-production is essential to improving your travel photography.
Lightroom takes time to master, but basic post-processing adjustments will still make a huge difference and can be applied in a matter of seconds. If you are using lightroom presets, these edits can be done with a click or two
Start by cropping and straightening your image to perfect the composition
Then move on to white balance adjustments, shadows, and highlights
Always apply to sharpening and improve your color tones using the HLS panel or tone curves,
Avoid being too heavy-handed with the editing, as overdoing it can diminish the quality of your image. Try to get as close as possible to reality as you remember it, and avoid falling prey to trends by using the same color palettes seen everywhere else.
Comments