Improve Your Travel Photography

It’s almost time for that winter vacation. Whether you are going snow skiing or going to just lie on a nice warm beach, travel photography is always exciting. However, many people return with disappointing photos at best. Below are some hints and tips that will improve your future vacation photos:

Researching Destinations – Before you go, spend some time at your local library or on the Internet reading all about your destination(s). See when the festivals will be. Read about its flora and fauna. Don’t over look the area’s politics, culture and history.

Shooting Themes – It is easier to see potential photos if you have a theme or self-assignment in mind. Some good topics are markets, festivals and holidays, music and dance, people at work, handicrafts, food, architecture, clothing and transportation. By focusing (no pun intended) on one or more of these topics each time you travel, you will eventually have a nice selection of those themes from all of your destinations.

Time of Day – Get up early and stay late for some great shots. From sunrise to two hours after and the same time before to sunset are optimal times to shoot. The quality of light during these times is great. The soft golden light is more pleasing to the eyes than the harsh mid-day light.

Also, because the sun is lower during the early morning and late afternoon, you have longer shadows, which add texture and depth to your photos. The texture and depth makes your two-dimensional photos look more life-like.

A Photo is Worth a Thousand Words – We have all heard this phrase. While at a destination, photograph its people, landscapes, buildings, flowers and markets. Use your telephoto, wide-angle and macro lens to tell the story of that destination. These photos say more than any writer can put into words.

Filters – Generally, you only need one - a polarizer. Use a polarizing filter to darken a blue sky, intensify colors or remove unwanted reflections. Remember, a polarizer works best with sidelighting. To remove unwanted reflections, make sure you are at an oblique angle to the reflection you are trying to remove. To keep the auto-focus feature of your camera, use a circular polarizer. 

White Balance - While many times the Auto or AWB setting works well, there will be times when you will want to manually set your white balance. If you are shooting in open shade or right before the sun comes up, you may get a bluish tint to your images.  Eliminate the blue by switching to the Shade setting. 

If you take photos lit by household lamps, use the tungsten or incandescent setting to remove the orange cast. Or depending on what you are trying to say with your photos, you may want to leave that orange cast in the photo. In that case switch to the Daylight setting. Our eyes don’t ascertain the differences in light like a digital camera sensor does, so beware of the causes of the bluish and orange cast and how to remove them.

Talk Before Shooting – When photographing people, talk to them before photographing them. Most strangers are not keen on being photographed by someone they don’t know, let alone someone they have never spoken with. Even if you have to use another individual as an interpreter, talk to your potential subject. After a conversation, they will warm up to you and you can work in some photos. Also, many of these locals are privy to a hidden location not covered in any of the guidebooks.

The Eyes Have it – When photographing people and animals, focus on the eyes. Don’t forget to use fill flash to brighten a face when in the shadows or open shade. The flash will also add highlights or small white dots to the subject’s eyes, which is a pleasing effect.

Look for the Bright Light – Your eye naturally goes to the brightest part of a photo. If you have varying light, try to place your subject in the bright light. Be cautious of staying within the seven-stop range of your sensor. This seven-stop difference is from the brightest to darkest light in your scene. You can check how many stops difference you have by spot metering on the brightest part of the scene and noting the recommended shutter speed and f-stop settings. Then, spot meter on the darkest part and note how many stops difference there were from the first spot meter reading. If it is over seven stops, your darkest part of the scene will lose it’s detail and will go black. To our eyes, it is within our 16-stop range so we can see the full range of light difference.

On The Move – When photographing people or animals work fast. They appreciate it and it will ensure you will not wear out your welcome.

Creating the Photo – Think about making the picture rather than taking the picture. Painters start with a scene and add elements as they go along. Photographers start with a scene full of elements and take out the excess to end up with a resulting photo having a single center of interest.

Break The Rules – It is important to know the rules of photography, but don’t be afraid to break them occasionally. Don’t get so locked into them that you can’t experiment.

In Closing – Travel photography is exciting. It is great to see and record images on how and where other people live, work and play. By using the above hints and tips, you will have great images of your destination to show family and friends.

If you enjoyed this article on travel photography, you'll enjoy my ebook titled How To Improve Your Travel Photography. You can purchase it from this link and instantly download it for your digital photography reading pleasure.


If you would like to read more useful articles on digital photography, please visit my photography website, Sunlight Media Digital Photography.