How to take the perfect travel photo
The world’s first photo was taken in 1826 from a window in France and shows a nondescript rooftop. Sort of. I mean, you have to be told it’s a rooftop. Without knowing what you’re looking at, you could forgivably squint your eyes and tilt your head and come up with an inkblot-test style answer of your own. It’s such a poor image that you wonder how photography ever caught on. But catch on, it did.
Fast forward to 1998 and the good people at Game Boy introduced a camera accessory for use with their popular gaming platform. Again, results were pretty impossible to appreciate by today’s standards, but it was a step in the right direction. Mobile phone manufacturers paid attention, and the first camera phones rolled off the production line in November 2000.
Given that we all love to travel and take photos, perhaps it’s time we learned a few travel photography tips (get it right and you could soon be the proud owner of a wall collage - click the link for inspiration!).
Steps to take the perfect travel photo:
- Turn the flash off
The flash is generally your enemy. Why? Because nothing says amateur photography like red-eye and flash-shine dominating the foreground. But it’s not just the unsightly glare that will stand out. It’s also the fact that the flash detracts from the natural light. The ambience will only look that way in that place at that exact moment. Why write over the natural light with a false bright flash?
- The rule of thirds is basic, but it works
If you’re unfamiliar with the rule of thirds, think of the noughts and crosses grid (i.e. three stacked rows of three squares). Try to overlay one of the four corners of the central square on top of your subject. This will create even space around the edges - try not to centre your subject, as you will inadvertently reduce movement and slow the image down.
- Forget the pose, focus on emotions
There are two types of wedding photography. There are boring posed photos outside the venue, and there are much more interesting photos taken as things happen. From the marriage vows and the cutting of the cake to the terrible dancing during the evening party, emotion is there if you can find it (and it’s one thousand times more worthwhile, especially in travel photography).
Lastly, don’t be shy - get in your photos wherever you can. There’s no denying that we’re all guilty of taking travel snaps that we’ll never look at again. From pointing and clicking random buildings that caught our eye for some forgotten reason, to pointless images taken purely because the opportune vantage point seemed to demand it, without any other rhyme or reason.
However, there is one surefire way to make these images infinitely more interesting. You. Set the timer on your phone and get in the photo yourself. The results won’t be groundbreaking every single time, but you will be glad to look back on how you looked during your travels. In decades to come, you’ll enjoy commenting on your fashion sense, how young you looked, and how much more in shape you were than you may have thought.
