It is impossible to imagine any modern travel without photography. A simple camera in the phone has almost every person – this is a great opportunity to capture beauty and please friends or subscribers with beautiful shots.
Travel photography encompasses different genres of photography: portraits, landscapes, reportage. All together they help the viewer to plunge into the atmosphere of traveling, to see everything with their own eyes.
To make a beautiful photo on a trip is not so difficult, the main thing is to adhere to a number of rules. How to shoot so that to surprise? I will share simple tips that will help you to make a beautiful shot on your phone or on your camera.
Catch the light
This is an extremely important part of photography. The most suitable light for shooting appears closer to evening and in the morning. An hour before sunset is the golden hour, the perfect time to hunt with your camera for colorful shots. The saturation of colors increases, and such photos attract more attention on social networks.
Remember: no light, no frame.
When shooting a sunset at sea, catch the very last moment when the sun is low above the horizon
Beginners often shoot the sunset sky, but forget about the landscape that the sun illuminates. Look around for brightly lit subjects. It could be the rays of the sun on top of a mountain or the beautiful buildings on the waterfront. After the sun goes down, take your time going to your hotel. When the city lights come on, it’s the perfect time to capture the cityscape. But you will need a tripod.
Shooting cityscapes at dusk
During the day, when the sun is high, the lighting is very harsh. This is far from the best conditions. What to do if you can not wait until evening? Shoot in such a way that there are no sharp variations of light and shadow in the frame. Unfortunately, phones and simple cameras can’t cope with such contrast.
A polarizing filter for camera lenses helps a lot. It removes overlighting, makes the picture brighter and colors more saturated. It also removes glare from water, leaves and glass. This gives the frame an effect that can’t be achieved with processing. Plus, photos taken with a polarizer look great without processing.
Use the rule of thirds for composition
There are rules of composition that make a shot look more harmonious. The simplest is the rule of thirds. The frame is divided into three parts horizontally and vertically, and the subjects are placed at the intersection of these lines. You’ve probably noticed such cues on camera and phone screens. Simply put, if you’re shooting a landscape, ⅓ should occupy the ground, ⅔ should occupy the sky. If shooting a portrait, the person should be placed a third of the frame to the right or left. Remember that rules in creativity are conditional. They can and should be broken, but if you stick to them, the chance of ruining the frame will be minimal.
Diagonals in the frame – a great trick. Lines going to some object always control the viewer’s eye. For example, the trail goes to the mountains, and in the distance on it can be seen a tourist with a backpack. Roads, rivers, seashores and so on can serve as diagonals.
When shooting a classic landscape, look for an interesting foreground. Imagine that you have flowers growing in front of your lens, cows grazing in an alpine meadow, and mountains visible in the distance. This technique creates volume and makes the picture three-dimensional.
Symmetrical composition is good. Everyone likes pictures where mountains are reflected in lakes, don’t they? It’s a simple technique, but you need the water to be completely calm.
Catch the reflections on the water, it’s always beautiful!
Frame your subject. It looks good when the main subject is framed by some object. For example, a landscape is shot through the branches of trees, a city street – through the wheel of a bicycle, a road – from the window of a car. This helps the viewer feel like they are in the photographer’s shoes.
Create a story
Add a person in the frame, this helps to convey the scale of the picture. For example, to understand the height of a waterfall, just put a person on its background and the photo will immediately acquire a story. Similarly, you can add cars or animals into the frame. Movement is life, catch these moments. Shoot not just the road, but a cyclist riding on it.
A beautifully dressed person in nature or in the city always looks more advantageous. Have you noticed how many travel photos with yellow and red jackets? It’s for a reason: color attracts attention. If you don’t have a brightly colored jacket, maybe you have a sweatshirt, sweatshirt, raincoat.
Stand out in the frame
The modern trend is to be photographed in dresses while traveling. The frame will become even more attractive if the color of the dress harmonizes with the surrounding landscape. Take one or two outfits with you for photo shoots, it will definitely make your shots more expressive. If you’re shooting people while traveling, look online for posing tutorials. This will make the process much easier and reduce the time it takes to shoot.
