We are always in search of beautiful, eye catching things to take photos of. But what if I told you that photography isn’t always about taking photos of something that was already made beautiful, but instead was about taking photos of anything and making it beautiful. You’d probably say i’m crazy, but I think you would surprise yourself if you followed some the top photography travel tips below.
Take photos of the locals
If you are an aspiring street photographer, start by asking locals if you can take their photo. Sometimes they will say “no” or they might ask for money (you decide on this one), but if they say “yes,” it will be one of the best ways to remember the country you are visiting and the local people that you met.
Rule of Thirds
The rule of thirds is the most crucial skill to learn if you are dabbling in any area of photography. This rule is a basic guideline for composing images that mentally divide the photo into 9 squares. The four intersecting lines on the image are where you should compose the major elements of the shot. This rule helps you refrain from centering the subject.
Both cell phones and cameras have this feature, so make sure to take advantage of it!
Get Close
A good rule of thumb is to take a few steps forward in order to really enhance the features of the subject your are capturing. Getting up close and personal will make your subject stand out more.
For example, look at the difference in what simply walking across the street will do to a photo.
Watch the Horizons
Horizons can be a tricky thing to grasp in photos. They can make or break the quality of an image, simply based on the way they are displayed.
One of the most important things to watch out for with horizons, is to make sure that they are straight. Although you can fix this in post processing, it is important to make sure that you are holding your camera in line with the horizon so the image looks balanced and isn’t at a weird angle.
If you are taking photos of person, it is extremely important to avoid positioning them where a horizon may run through their body. Try to raise your camera just a tad to move the horizon above their head.
Focus on 3 key elements
After binge watching Sorelle Amore’s advanced travel selfie videos on Youtube, I have picked up on one major attribute of taking a professional travel photos: try to focus on 3 key elements. For example, a person, the ocean, and a large rock. Or a person, a lake, and trees. This simplifies the image and doesn’t give it the perspective of being overcrowded.
It is a great technique to draw the viewers to the main elements you want them to focus in on.
Get a new perspective
It is easy to pull out your phone or camera and take a quick snapshot. But when you try a new perspective — be it laying on the ground and taking a photo up (dog’s eye view) or going up high and taking a photo looking over a bustling city (birds eye view), it can take our travel photography to a whole new level. Instead of just taking a photo in sight of our typical standing up position, get down and dirty and create something more eye-catching and unique.
You probably never would have known this was the same building if I didn’t tell you. Take this as a drastic example of how turning your camera towards the sky can completely change the feel of the image.
Remember to put the camera down
Although taking travel photos is a great way to make memories of our adventures, it is also important to remember to set the camera down every once and awhile. Sometimes looking through a viewfinder doesn’t do the world justice and won’t let us experience and dive into every new place we visit fully. It’s okay to just relax and take a break from your camera sometimes. Take a mental picture instead.
