By When you travel, you love to collect souvenirs, when we travel, we prefer to collect gorgeous images. Images that will work like a time machine freezing our memories from that journey. Images that we could look back anytime and enjoy them for years later. Images for us are the best souvenirs from the trip we had to recollect thousands of treasures we found there in each moment.
Every place you visit will give you a new perspective to capture in your camera, Travel Photography is all about it! Experience the culture, people, stories, landscapes and feelings through your camera of each destination that you choose to visit. Travel photography is all about capturing these moments through photos and show the spirit of the place to the world, giving them a glance of how wonderful it would be for them to visit there.
Each destination we have visited has taught us new things in photography. From white sandy beaches of Maldives to the high cliffs of Grand Canyon, we have learnt a lot on the way about capturing the moments perfectly. We are still far from the perfection and we are rather still learning and growing, However, we would like to share with you our learnings of Travel Photography with these handful tips.
Here are our favorite travel photography tips to improve your photography and to get you those perfect Instagram pictures.
1.Scout out your location:
- Once you decide on a location for your trip, search online about most picturesque places to see in that location to get an idea of what you want to achieve out of your photography.
- Once you are there, speak to locals to identify some offbeat places which you might not have known but are must to click.
- Explain them your style of photography that you love to click in your trip, for e.g. Flowers, Landscapes, Local People portraits etc, they are the best ones to let you know where you will find your perfect subject.
- Talk to your family and friends who have been there and get more insights of the places they have visited at that destination.
- Learn as much as you can about the place you are visiting. Don’t leave a chance of not knowing any places that you might just miss to shoot. The more you learn, the more beautiful your travel photography will be.
2.Choose the right lenses:
- Once, you decide on the location, Next step is choosing the right lenses.
- It is difficult to carry all if your lenses together. So, once you know the place much better and the kind of photography you would like to do there, Choose the right lenses for you to carry along.
- If you choose any destination like Maldives or Himalayas etc, you would need ultra-wide-angle lenses which would give you full picture landscape frame.
- If you are planning to hit any Jungle Safari’s, then carrying telephoto lenses are must.
- You can opt to choose 18-200mm Lens which would give best results for wide angle shots as well full zoom in shots.
- It is fun playing around with different lenses, and you can get interesting effects with wide angle lenses and macro lenses.
3. Shoot in Correct mode:
- Shooting in RAW mode will offer you a great opportunity to process the image as you want it to look like. However, this will mean you’ll need to travel with a several high capacity memory cards.
- Best practice is to backup your images to a laptop or photo storage device every night, so you can free up your memory cards for the next day.
- When you go off shooting, take twice the amount of cards/capacity with you than you would expect to need.
- If you want to shoot Flying birds, running children or any subject that is moving, it is good to use burst mode, which will capture many shots at a go and then you can pick the best one from the lot for your Instagram feed.
4. Shoot in Golden hours:
- Golden hours (in Photography concept) are basically an one hour after sunrise and one hour before sunset. Of course, this purely depends on where you are in the globe.
- It is of course a best idea to get up early to get those amazing sunrise photo opportunities, while all the other tourists are still asleep.
- We love chasing sunsets, so we try to arrive to locations we want to shoot during this time, so that we can capture those perfect sun setting moment.
- Little research will help you to catch the golden hours. When you’re traveling to any location, try typing into Google “sunrise time in [location]” and “sunset time in [location]” and get the exact timings for not to miss golden opportunity to capture your pictures in golden hours or http://www.timeanddate.com can also be useful.
- Play with Composition:
- Never be happy with your first click of the subject, always try taking pictures from different angles which probably will give your picture a different perspective.
- Slight changes in angle of your camera or timing can mean the difference between the shot you intended and one that you clicked.
- Frame your subject using trees, windows, arches and other features can be very effective.
- Getting pictures from low angle is a great way to capture stunning images. It is specifically good when you are taking pictures of streets that have nice cobbled pavements.
- Do not forget one of the biggest and most famous rules for composition in photography is to use the “Rule of Thirds”. Read more about Rule of thirds here: <Rule of Thirds>
- Get Reflections:
- Getting Reflections in your images is an amazing aspect of travel photography.
- Reflections help in balance your image and is a great idea to showcase your photography for Instagram feed.
- You can catch reflections from Lakes, rivers, Mirrors, windows, puddles, etc. and makes your pictures more interesting and creative.
- You can capture reflections of Mountains, trees, birds, monuments etc. any subject you find that is of your interest.
- Consider small things
- When we travel we usually get so busy in clicking the best places in the city, that we forget to capture the small moments also count in our trip… Folks, Capture them!
- Often, small things can be more memorable than just standing and smiling in the shot.
- While, walking down the street, click some art pictures crafted on the wall.
- While you shop in local market, click the different colors, texture and patterns of the products available there.
- Saw some amazing street food hawkers, catch those yummy looking dishes in your camera.
- Don’t forget to capture some silly moment, when you crack a joke and your travel companion laughs instantly.
- Remember, not every picture has to be perfectly framed, sometimes your random shots will sum up your trip.
- Shoot Night Photography:
- Night photography will take loads of patience and planning, but it can be super fun.
- Night photography can be much more rewarding than photography during the day. Because everything looks different at night.
- Cities come alive with lights and color at night, and distracting details such as cranes, wires and unsightly buildings melt away in the background.
- Use Tripod, while not necessary, a tripod will give you the greatest flexibilityto get the angles you need while keeping your camera steady for those long exposures.
- Wide-angle lenses. This is a personal preference, but we love the way they work in night photography.
- Water is your friend in night photography. It seeps up color in reflections, softens it and adds a charming glow to your images.
- Ask Permission:
- While photographing people of the local destination you are travelling to, be careful and out of respect, ask permission if you can click their picture.
- In different countries with different cultures and languages where it is hard to communicate, if you click someone’s picture where you are not supposed to, can land you up in rough situations.
- Let them know your intention to photograph them, this probably will help them to understand why you want to picture them.
- Learn Photo Editing:
- It is a great idea to learn photo editing and give a different look to your travel images, especially when you click in RAW mode.
- Editing your digital images is an important step in any good photo workflow. Taking pictures doesn’t end when you press the shutter button; it ends when the final image is printed out on your wall or it goes on your Instagram feed.
- Editing images will give you second chance to correct your images, although we should always strive to get it right when taking the picture, no matter how good you are, there are times when you are going to stuff up a little.
- We prefer to use editing software to slightly enhance the colors and lighten up dark photos or to pop some colors of the pictures.
- If you are super serious about photography, Get Lightroom and Photoshop software. There’s nothing better than these two to edit your pictures perfectly.
Now that you know some of the amazing travel photography tips, go ahead and experiment. Have fun. Learn from your mistakes. Make up your own tips and techniques for taking fantastic photographs, We’d love to hear them.
If you are an Instagram freak, and want to show us your travel pictures, Follow us : MAP. CAMERA. TRAVEL , Tag us and use #mapcameratravel to get featured in our feed.
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Amazing tips with superb pictures.
Thank you for the ten photography tips to make great Instagram photos. Your tip ‘get reflections’ is great; I haven’t tried that yet. Thank you for writing such an amazing article.
I didn’t know about burst mode when photgraphing moving objects…thanks for the tip!! Night photography is my personal nightmare…..jaha….but thankfully I’m getting better at this!
Thank you for the tips! I have to admit that if there’s anything that I lack of when it comes to blogging and social media, it’s my ability to take a good picture (and edit it)… Thank you for this, I may as well apply it next time I take any picture for my content. 🙂
These are some great tips. We’re still learning the art of travel photography. We have a simple digital camera without lenses, and we sometimes have trouble with pictures looking washed out. I agree with you to take an extra memory card. We tend to take a couple hundred pictures and wind up using five. But, it feels great when you get the right shot (or your able to edit the picture to get the right shot).
This is such a great, comprehensive post on travel photography! I especially love the bit about capturing the small moments – these are the ones that often get away! I also love shooting at golden hour, it can turn an ordinary photo into something spectacular 🙂
Backing up photos is so important! We have lost some photos a few years back and boy was that painful! So many great tips in this post! We really gotta get better at night photography. Never thought of using water to our advantage. Thanks for the tip!
There’s so much that goes into great photography so I appreciate you providing these awesome tips! I currently just use a phone but would love to invest in a DSLR camera to bump up the quality of my pics!
Nice tips. Didn’t even know that there is a term “golden hours” in photography. 😀 My favorite time for shooting photos. And now I can put a name to it. 🙂
Totally agree when it comes to framing the photo with trees or any other object before you. Like your tips regarding the reflection.
And I have to say that I’ve always been struggling with the night photo. I sometimes even avoid taking pictures after dark because I know they’re not going to turn out well. So, thanks, this will come handy. 🙂
Quite useful. Thanks for putting up such articles..
You are not kidding, you do take epic Insta photos. We will have to lift our photo game to keep up.
At least you were good enough to share these tips with us all. Better photos for everyone!
We have been photoshop users for years, but we have not gotten into Lightroom yet. I guess we really should learn that too.
Thanks for sharing. Keep travel blogging. Adventure is better shared with friends!
Thank you for the much needed tips. Photography is the next skill that I am concentrating on right now. Bookmarking your post to refer to again and again as I learn 🙂 By the way, your pictures are just stunning!!
These are great tips! I especially love your tip about capturing the “little things”. All different places have small details like architecture and colors that make it so unique! To be able to capture this for a lifetime will remind you how special that place was when you visited it:)
I think that photography, like all other skills, improves constantly with dedication and focus. Most importantly, one does need a good eye for visuals and aesthetics. I agree that the best photographers are never fully satisfied with the shot and trying out different angles adds that extra edge.
Great tips! I’m hoping for a wide-angle lens for Christmas. I tend to forget close-ups, so that tip was a good reminder for me!
All great tips! I think doing some research online before is key. I always forget to google picturesque spots and usually just photograph what I stumble upon. Which is fine…some of the time! But I want to be more prepared, thanks for reminding me 🙂
Golden hour is key! The best photos I have ever taken have been at this time of day. Thanks for the rest of the tips!
This is such a helpful, informative, and well put together post. I am about to buy my first real camera. Do you have any tips or recommendations? How about lenses? Thanks for your feedback.
Awesome tips indeed. Reflections are always awesome. Very true about asking permissions as well.
Wonderful and informative article! I am saving it to refer to just before we go to Iceland and Scotland this coming year. Thank you!
I’m the exact same! Photographs > souvenirs. These are such awesome tips and I definitely do #1 all the time before I head out on a trip. I’ll reserach and look all over Instagram for where to take the possible best photo. PS that shot of Kashmir outer circle walk is just stunning!
Great tips! We love chasing sunsets too and sunrises especially on our last trip! There is something about being up early in a new place and watching the day unfold. Somehow much easier to do on the road than at home! Thanks for sharing all of your helpful suggestions and happy new year!
Love the post!
Please follow my blog to see my Travel Photography I will be starting to post at the end of the month of my trip I will be going on round Cuba, Jamaica, Costa Rica and Guatemala for 4 months!
I would love to know all your thoughts and opinions on my Photography.
I have seen that currently, more and more people are being attracted to digital cameras and the industry of taking pictures. However, being a photographer, you will need to first expend so much time period deciding the model of video camera to buy as well as moving store to store just so you could potentially buy the most affordable camera of the trademark you have decided to settle on. But it doesn’t end at this time there. You also have to think about whether you should purchase a digital digital camera extended warranty. Thanks for the good points I acquired from your site.
I always always scout for shooting locations! Haha. I only shoot at locations that will “fit” my feed’s theme. Hehe. And also, I’ve really been planning on investing on a good lens but that has to be months from now. For the meantime, I’m contented with my kit lens and my phone. 😀
Yes! I’m all about collecting images as well!
And nice pictures, I really liked the on at Gaylord, Nashville. I have been taking pictures mostly with my iphone, but have been planning to up my game and use my SLR camera more.So these tips were inspiring.
These photos are absolutely gorgeous! Thank you for sharing your tips. I need to invest in a good camera ASAP!
Lovely blog! Love your posts. keep it up.
I’ve been blogging for fun for the past few years. I decided to get serious about blogging about two months ago and I’m learning that I’m going to have to invest in a good camera to get great shots for my blog.
Ok, so I’m bookmarking this one too. Super practical & helpful to me especially as someone that is wanting to take better photos!
These are absolutely fabulous tips! I agree with shooting in raw… I tentatively started doing that a few years ago and now I would never shoot any other way… it gives so much more of what I’m looking for but I agree…. definitely carry a ton of extra cards 🙂
Great read. I have been contemplating now for months to get Lightroom. Bit scared as I have to admit I know nothing about it, but I know it can amp up my Instagram game
Loved the way you covered not just the technical aspect of clicking the photos but also the preparation and research that goes into it…loved the post
Good tips. I think one to add is to simply have fun with your photography 🙂
I love photograhy and take many pictures when I travel around the world. You have listed many important tips to enhance my photography skill. I am going to experience it!
This is incredible, Wow…Beautiful pictures and great post.