Who wouldn’t want to capture all those fun, beautiful and special moments while traveling on camera? You will have a lasting memory of your trip and you can hang the photos on the wall at home, stick them in a personal photo album or share them on social media with your family, friends or other followers. And the great thing is, you don’t have to be super technical to take your travel photos to the next level! We share our 6 best tips in this blog to do so!
Although not everyone simply becomes a professional photographer (creativity, being able to see the shot, telling stories through images and photo editing is also something you have to have a feeling for or something you have to learn), this does not mean that you cannot do it without training, a course or experience. You can take beautiful pictures. In fact, with just a few good tips you can quickly transform those holiday snapshots into beautiful travel photos!
#1 Buy a system/mirrorles camera with an interchangeable lens
The camera is certainly not going to do all the work for you, but a good camera and lens can really make a difference to the quality of the image. Preferably choose a system/mirrorless camera instead of an SLR camera. These are a lot lighter and more compact without sacrificing quality, and that is of course extra desirable when traveling. For a budget-friendly option, you can, for example, look at a Sony 6400, which is the successor to the camera that we previously enjoyed photographing with for a long time. We now photograph with the Sony A7R3 (fullframe) to our complete satisfaction. This is absolutely a beast of a camera, but if you do not photograph professionally it may also be a (too) big investment.
Tip: Sony A6400
Tip: Sony A7Riii
The camera is a good basis when it comes to resolution, setting options, ease of use and more but a good lens makes just as much a difference. Therefore, do not make the mistake of buying a camera set with a kit lens. You may think you’re getting a good deal with that, but almost every photographer exchanges these kit lenses for something better shortly after buying the camera. Therefore it is better to immediately invest in a good bright lens. This is indicated by the F-number, also called aperture. Bright lenses perform extra well in low-light situations, but they are also perfect for creating depth of field in a photo. Preferably look at a lens with an aperture of f/2.8 or lower (the lower the number, the larger the aperture). You can choose multiple lenses so that you have a suitable lens for every situation. Would you rather start with one lens instead of investing in a whole set? Then invest in a good all-rounder zoom lens, such as an 24-70mm.
Tip: Sony 16-35mm f/2.8 GM (full-frame wide-angle lens, suitable for landscape photography)
Tip: Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 GM (full-frame zoom lens, suitable as an all-rounder)
Tip: Sony 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 GM (full-frame telephoto lens, suitable for wildlife, among other things)
#2 Practice makes perfect
The nice thing about photography is that you can learn it by doing. As I shared earlier in the intro, this does not mean that everyone can become a professional photographer, but practice makes perfect and by simply taking a lot of photos you can quickly take your photos to the next level. No matter how good your camera and lens are, it is ultimately the photographer who takes the photo. And in addition to the quality of the camera and lens, it is mainly a matter of composition, light, subject and editing whether a photo is successful or not. Therefore, go out a lot before your trip to practice taking photographs. Get to know your camera and all its settings, learn how to look for a shot, how natural light and the time of day affects your photos, etc. In short: practice makes perfect and makes you a much better photographer.
#3 Plan your trips and photography
When traveling it is nice to not plan everything so there is room for spontaneous moments that are sometimes worth much more than the things you have planned. But good preparation is also half the battle and that certainly applies to photography. Would you like to capture something in a specific place or at a specific time? Then prepare your trip and photography well. A lot of photos, including many of those beautiful pictures on social media, are well prepared when it comes to location, time and even the clothes you are wearing. All this to capture the perfect light, take a photo without other people in it or to get more contrast in the photo by, for example, wearing a brightly colored jacket in a snowy landscape. In that respect, photography is so much more than just pressing a button. Search the internet in advance to find all those beautiful places, research the location and things such as sunrise and sunset times, colors during this time of year and (opening) times when the location is busy or less busy. This way you too will come home with those beautiful pictures.
#4 Light, composition and depth of field
Without going too much into camera technology, there are a number of techniques you can apply that will really improve your photos. The first is light. Light is an essential part of photography and can really make or break your photo. Use natural light and photograph early in the morning or later in the day when the light is softer. Try to avoid taking photographs in the middle of the day, when the sun is shining bright and the light is very harsh, as much as possible. This does not make your photos any nicer and they are often more difficult to edit. When it comes to composition, you can at least apply the rule of thirds. This means that you place the subject of your photo at 1/3 (or 2/3) in the image. So not in the middle. If you prefer to look for more creative points of view, pay attention to lines and symmetry in the environment, for example, which can help make your photo more visually interesting. Also try photographing from a different angle or zoom in to bring out certain details. The last technique that can give your photos a big boost is depth of field. You can do this by opening the aperture more (lower f-number) and focusing on a specific subject. This gives you a blurred background (or foreground), giving you more depth in the photo. Do you find this difficult to set everything manually? Then set the camera in the A position. This way you can determine the aperture yourself and the camera determines the shutter speed and ISO itself.
#5 Capture the local culture and people in the photo
Traveling is not just about capturing beautiful landscapes and popular sights. So take your travel photography a step further by capturing locals to tell their story visually. In any case, people in photos often do better than just an empty landscape, because they tell more about where you are, about the culture and/or what exactly is happening at that destination. However, always photograph people with respect. Only take photos in public spaces, do not take photos in places where this is not allowed or not appreciated and ask people politely if it is okay if you want to photograph someone alone and/or more recognizable. Also have a chat with that person, involve them in what exactly you want to capture and why, show the photos and possibly offer to email them to that person if you really want to portray someone. Also make sure you have written permission (quit claim or model release contract) if you want to do something commercial with that photo.
#6 Edit your photos
Photo editing is a sensitive subject because some people think that you make the photo more beautiful than it actually is and thus distort reality. But of course there is a difference between completely distorting reality (more photoshopping) and editing your photos so that they look better. By editing your photos, you can correct unintentional errors such as incorrect camera settings or a dust spot on the lens. Just like you can optimize the exposure because you took that one photo in the middle of the day, so the light is very harsh. But also consider the colors that are adjusted differently on each camera and therefore you prefer to adjust them to your own wishes. It is not always possible to photograph that one landscape as beautifully as it does in real life. This is because you often see more details or colors than your camera can capture with certain settings. By editing the photo afterwards you can correct this so you can create the same wow effect as when you saw that place with your own eyes.
It is best to work with Adobe Lightroom to edit your photos. Many buttons and sliders are fairly self-explanatory, but there are also many settings that are a bit more complicated to apply. As a beginner, I would therefore limit myself to the basic settings under standard. Play around with the sliders to see what this does to your photo, but don’t overdo any of the settings. Preferably shoot in RAW instead of JPG. With RAW, all data is stored, which gives your photo many more options in post-processing. Over- and underexposed photos can often be rescued when stored as a RAW file. It is good to know that you always have to edit a RAW file and the file is much larger than a JPG file. This not only costs you more space on the memory card, but your computer also needs more resources to be able to work with these types of large files.
#6 BONUS TIP
Don’t forget to put your camera away every now and then to enjoy your trip, the surroundings and the encounters along the way. It would be a shame if the memory of your trip only consists of the photos you took without consciously experiencing these places and experiences yourself. So enjoy not only the photography, but also the journey itself!
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