How many times have you returned from a vacation, looked at your photos and been underwhelmed? Have you ever wondered how to make great travel photos? 

 

Well, read on because I’m about to give you a few tips that will take your travel photography from good to great.

 

Great travel photography starts at home. Before you head off on vacation there are a few things you can do to ensure your photographs are the envy of your friends. Firstly, make sure you are familiar with your camera. It’s not uncommon for someone to buy a new camera right before leaving on a trip. If you plan to do this, try and give yourself a few days to get comfortable using it and to learn what all the controls are for. At the very least, spend an hour or two around your house or in a local park taking a few shots with different settings.

Some pre-travel research is also recommended. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a family vacation or a highly paid photo assignment – the more you know about a place, the better your pictures will be. Spend some time on the net looking at pictures from your destination. This will give you an idea of the type of things you can expect to see. Take note of the direction features are facing. Is that cool looking building on the beach facing east or west? Look up the sunrise and sunset times – prime times for photography, known as “Golden Hour”, when the light is soft and warm. Find out if there’s a tourist office in the area and write down its address. Tourist offices are handy for maps and other local knowledge. 

There are countless other small details that could be an article in themselves. Make sure you have freshly charged batteries and plenty of memory cards or film. Check that the various plugs for your battery charger and so forth are compatible with the power source at your destination – you may need to buy adaptors if you travel to a different country. Find out whether permits are required for any locations, or whether photography is banned in certain places such as museums. Plan a backup strategy – do you have a second camera, even if it’s just a cell phone? Things can go wrong, and if you drop your camera into the ocean on the first day of your holiday you won’t be taking many pictures if you don’t have a backup. The more you travel, the better you will be able to anticipate these things and they’ll become second nature.

So now you’ve done all the pre-departure planning and preparation and are at your destination. How do you go about making great photos? As mentioned above, the time around sunrise and sunset is ideal for photography, particularly landscapes, scenic and wildlife. The light is soft and golden, the animals are active and, at sunrise at least, there aren’t too many people getting in the way. Try and plan to get out at these times if possible – you’ll be glad you did when you see the results. Also remember that for 30 minutes or so after the sun goes down there is often an “afterglow”, when there is still color in the sky. Many people pack up and head to the bar as soon as the sun sets. Give yourself an extra half hour and you’ll get some of the best light of the day – ideal for skylines, lighted monuments and cityscapes. If you’re near a body of water, the reflections will last as long as the light in the sky.

Following a couple of simple rules can take your photography to a higher level. The most basic rule of thumb is the “rule of thirds”. It states that an image should be imagined as being nine equal parts, formed by two equally spaced vertical lines and two equally spaced horizontal lines. This forms a grid three parts wide and three parts high. If you can place the main subject of your photo on the intersection of these lines, it’ll naturally create a more interesting composition than merely placing the subject dead center. It’s important to remember that it doesn’t have to be exact – near enough is good enough.

One of the most common shortcomings in travel photography is a lack of people pictures. Landscapes and monuments are fine but can become a little boring to friends and family back home, whereas photos of people are a lot more engaging and interesting when viewed at a later date. The biggest obstacle to photographing people is shyness – we often don’t want to approach someone to take their photo. A good place to start is with pictures of the people you interact with – waiters, taxi drivers, vendors and so forth. If there’s a local festival taking place, you’ll find that people are relaxed and happy which makes it much easier to get some good photos of people.

There are two main ways to photograph people and end up with strong photos. One is the environmental portrait, which includes the person and the immediate surroundings in the frame. If you take a photo of a waiter for example, an environmental portrait might show him serving plates of food or drinks to a table; a taxi driver may include all or part of the taxi.

The other method is to “fill the frame”. Here, you make the subject the only thing in the photo, completely filling the frame which means that all of the viewer attention is on the person in the photo. The most important thing to remember here is that the eyes need to be in sharp focus – if the eyes are sharp, everything else can be soft and it’ll still look good.

Travel photography doesn’t need to be difficult. By following the above tips, you can transform the photos from your next vacation into something your friends and family will want to look at time and time again.