Today, professional photographer Laurence Norah of Finding the Universe finishes his five-part series on taking better travel photos. Here, Laurence gives some simple post-processing techniques that you can use to make your travel photos wow your friends and family! Editing your photos is just as important as how you compose them, so I hope you’re ready to take some notes!

One of the most misunderstood parts of digital photography is what happens after you take the shot: editing your photos, aka post-processing. This is where you edit the images you have taken, to create the final product.

Post-processing is the equivalent of the darkroom from the days we shot in film.

In today’s post, we’re going to be covering some ideas for editing your photos, from the basics (cropping and leveling) to more complicated actions, like recovering shadow and highlight information.
 

Editing Photos: 7 Editing Tips for Your Travel Photos

1. How to Crop Your Photos
The crop tool allows you to change the size of your image, and also to change the aspect ratio. For example, you can crop an image from a rectangular shape to a square shape. There are many reasons you would want to crop, including for publishing in different formats and aspect ratios.

Let’s take a look at the first photo from this post, a lightning shot I took on a recent trip to the Florida Keys. Here’s the original version without cropping:

And the edited version, post-crop:

Compared to the original, I have cropped the image to remove the dark part of the pier on the right-hand side of the image and recomposed using the rule of thirds, so I have one-third land and two-thirds sky. This makes the lightning bolt more the focus of the shot.

You might wonder why I didn’t just compose properly when taking the shot. Well, in this case, I was doing a long-exposure shot without a tripod, so had the camera balanced on the edge of the pier for stability. That very much limited my ability to perfectly frame the moment, so I just shot wider, knowing I’d be able to crop the shot appropriately after the fact.

Let’s look at what cropping looks inside a couple of the tools available.

Here’s an example of cropping in Snapseed:

And the same thing in Lightroom:

In both cases, cropping is very simple: it just involves you selecting the crop tool and then selecting the area you want to keep with your mouse or finger. Then you apply the changes, and voilà, your new cropped image is ready to go.

As you see from this and later examples, the tools look similar across different platforms, so it’s easy to apply what you know from one tool to another.

2. How to Level Your Travel Photos
One of my personal petty annoyances in photography is when the horizon line in a photo isn’t level. Sometimes when we’re caught up in the moment, this basic compositional rule is forgotten — but the good news is that editing your photos to make them level is also very easy.

I’ll use the lightning shot as my example again. Balancing the camera on the edge of the pier meant that the shot wasn’t level — this is particularly noticeable to the eye when the image has a clearly defined horizon line, such as the sea.

If we look at a zoomed-in version of the image in its original form, with a line overlaid near the horizon, we can see that it’s not level — the line is closer to the horizon on the right-hand side than the left.

In Lightroom, the level tool is part of the crop tool, and you can just rotate the image to suit. When you use the level tool, a grid will appear to help you get the alignment correct. Here’s a screenshot of that in action in Lightroom.

And here’s the same procedure in Snapseed, where the level tool is called “Rotate”:

Leveling an image is a really simple task that will take just a few seconds of your time, resulting in a much more visually pleasing image.

3. Vignetting Your Photos
Vignetting is about making parts of the image darker or lighter than other parts, in order to make it clearer what the subject of the shot is.

Some tools restrict your vignette to the corners, but in applications like Snapseed and Lightroom, you can selectively darken and lighten areas of the image — you don’t need to restrict yourself to the corners.

Taking the lightning shot above, let’s load up the vignette tool in Snapseed:

Here we have options for how big to make the “center size,” i.e., the area to be edited. Inside this area, everything can be made brighter (inner brightness) and everything outside the area can be made darker (outer brightness). We can also do it in reverse, making the inner darker and the outer brighter.

Let’s apply the vignette tool to the lightning bolt, to give you an idea of the effect:

Above are the settings I chose for outer brightness and inner brightness, while below is the size of the vignette itself, which is based on the center size setting.

Vignetting is particularly good for portraits, and anywhere where you really want to make the subject of the image more clearly obvious to the viewer.

4. How to Change Shadows and Highlights in Your Photos
Sometimes when we take a photograph, parts of the shot might end up being darker or brighter than we want. We refer to the dark areas of the shot as shadows, and the bright areas of the shot as highlights.

We can fix this by changing the brightness of the shadow and highlight areas specifically, using either the “Shadow” or “Highlight” tool. This is a tool that works particularly well on RAW files, as they retain more information on the shadow and highlight areas of an image compared to a compressed JPG, which discards most of this information in order to reduce the file size.

Let’s take a quick look at adjusting shadows and highlights using Lightroom. (In Snapseed, shadow and highlight adjustment can be found under the “Tune Image” setting.)

Here’s a shot of a couple enjoying a bonfire and fireworks display in Edinburgh during Hogmanay:

As you can see, the fireworks and bonfire are clearly visible, as are the torches the couple is holding, but the rest of the shot is dark. Let’s adjust the settings and see what we can get.

In this version of the image, the couple is much more visible, as are the hill the fireworks are on and the surrounding crowd.

To achieve this, I increased the overall exposure of the image, making the whole image brighter, including the shadows and the highlights.

Then, as the shadow areas were still a little dark, I increased those a little more.

Finally, as the global exposure adjustment made the fireworks and bonfire too bright, I reduced the highlights a little bit to give the final result.

Shadow and highlight adjustment is useful in a wide range of scenarios to help balance the image out — bringing overexposed areas down in brightness, and helping to boost the shadows. Just be aware that a light touch is recommended — increasing the brightness of the shadows too much can result in a lot of noise being revealed, which might look unnaturally green or purple.

5. How to Adjust the Contrast
Contrast is about accentuating the difference between the light and dark parts of the image. Increasing the contrast of an image can dramatically improve the visual impact that has, by making the boundaries between those light and dark parts clearer.

Let’s take a look at a shot of people jumping against the sunset in the Sahara, for example, which I’ll be editing in Snapseed.

There is nothing too wrong with this shot, but it lacks the visual impact that I wanted. Ideally, I would want the shapes of the people to be in full silhouette against the sun, but as it was shot the camera picked up some skin tones and clothing color.

Using the contrast tool, we can make the dark areas stand out against the bright areas.

And here’s the result:

As you can see, this made the jumping figures and the dune more silhouetted against the sky. In most shots, you only want to tweak the contrast a little bit to get the desired effect, normally no more than +20 or so, but in this case, the higher number gave the best result.

6. How to Adjust Colors
Color adjustment is another important piece of the editing toolkit. We can adjust image color in all sorts of ways, from changing the overall “warmth” of the image (how blue or yellow it appears), to individually changing the hue and saturation of specific colors inside of an image.

For this post, though, I just want to cover some very simple color changes you can use to make your images just a little more visually impactful.

The fastest way to adjust an image’s color is with the “Saturation” tool. This changes the appearance of every color in an image to make it more or less saturated. We can use the saturation tool to desaturate an image, eventually resulting in a black-and-white image with no color:

Or we can go all the way to the other end of the spectrum, and make the color incredibly saturated:

As with many edits, the key is to find a good balance — oversaturated images tend to look rather unnatural. Desaturated images can be very effective, and of course black-and-white is an excellent choice for all sorts of situations, in particular portraits, architecture, and certain landscape scenes. But generally, you would want to find a happy midpoint: not too oversaturated and not too undersaturated.

Saturation is adjusted on a sliding scale and is found on the basic adjustments panel in Lightroom or the “Tune Image” option in Snapseed.

7. Blemish Correction
The last area I’m going to touch on today is blemish correction, or “image healing.” Sometimes there will be something in an image that you really don’t want to be there, like an inconvenient pimple on someone’s face. This is easy to remove in all the major editing tools.

You can, in theory, remove any object from a scene, but the healing tool works best on distinct, small objects that are surrounded by uniform colors. This is because the heal tool has to replace the area you wish to remove with something else, and this works best when it has an area nearby that looks similar. So for example, a pimple on a face is surrounded by a lot of similarly colored skin, so the heal tool can easily calculate what to replace the pimple based on the surrounding area.

For this example, I’m going to show how Snapseed can be used to replace an object in a scene. Here’s a group of people sitting on a sand dune in the Sahara:

Let’s say for some reason I only wanted to have people sitting in my shot, and I need to remove the standing person. She is a good candidate for removal as she is separate from the rest, and the surrounding scenery is not too complicated.

In Snapseed, we load up the healing tool, then we zoom in on the object to be removed with the standard “pinch to zoom” gesture.

Next, we use our finger to draw the area to be removed. It’s important to be as precise as possible because the tool is most accurate with small objects.

Once we have drawn the area, Snapseed will edit it out, replacing it with the best guess of what is behind the object.

As you can see, the result is impressive, with no real evidence that there was anyone standing there at all.

The healing tool is perfect for all manner of fixes, from editing out unwanted background strangers in your shot, to removing skin blemishes in portraits or power lines in landscape shots.
 

Best Photography Editing Software

Here is a list of the best editing tools out there:

• Adobe Lightroom (PC or Mac) – Lightroom is the industry standard tool for photography professionals. But this post doesn’t focus on Lightroom, or cover everything you can do in Lightroom, as it’s a massively complex tool, covering both photo management and photo editing.
• Photos (Mac) – I list iPhoto here mainly because it’s a commonly used tool among Apple users. However, I personally never recommend using it. While it will let you do everything that I cover in this post and is better than nothing, the way it manages your photos makes it hard to migrate to a more sophisticated system further down the line if you choose to do so.
• Snapseed (iOS or Android) – Another free Google tool, Snapseed is the best mobile image-editing app for both iOS and Android. It’s an incredibly powerful tool that, while simple to start using, has a great many features that take time to fully master. I use it for 95% of my mobile editing needs.

Editing your photos is a crucial step that far too many people skip. As you can see from this lesson, there is much more to editing your photos than just picking a filter and posting your picture on Instagram. By incorporating some of these tips and techniques into your post-processing routine, you’ll be able to improve your travel photography by leaps and bounds.

So get out there and start taking pictures!

Laurence started his journey in June 2009 after quitting the corporate life and looking for a change of scenery. His blog, Finding the Universe, catalogs his experiences and is a wonderful resource for photography advice! You can also find him on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
 

Travel Photography: Learn More Tips

For more helpful travel photography tips, be sure to check out the rest of Laurence’s series:

• Part 1 – How to Take Professional Travel Photos
• Part 2 – How to Shoot the Perfect Travel Photograph
• Part 3 – The Best Cameras & Travel Photography Gear
• Part 4 – How to Take the Perfect Photo: Advanced Techniques
• Part 5 – 7 Editing Tips to Improve Your Travel Photographs

The post 7 Editing Tips to Improve Your Travel Photographs appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

Today, professional photographer Laurence Norah of Finding the Universe continues his five-part series on taking better travel photos. In this post, he takes it up a notch to give some advanced travel photography techniques, such as long-exposure shots, HDR, star shooting, and more!

One of the challenges we face as travelers is that so many of the places we visit have already been photographed extensively.

In today’s post, I want to share with you some advanced techniques that will help you get more creative with your travel photography. These build upon the ideas in the first three posts in this series.

I’m going to cover four topics that will open up new creative possibilities for when you’re out and about:
 

Just click on the links above to jump directly to that section.
 

Part 1: Long-Exposure Photography

Have you ever seen a photo of a waterfall where the water looks white and fluffy? Or a shot of a street at night where the cars have been replaced by streaks of light? Here’s an example of a waterfall to give you an idea of what I’m talking about:

This was shot in Glencoe, a stunning part of the Scottish highlands. As you can see, the water’s surface has a silky, flat look, and the waterfall itself looks more like cotton than water. Additionally, the clouds in the sky have a sense of motion.

Here’s another shot, of the Dubai Marina at night, where you can see the cars have been replaced by streaks of light:

Both of these shots were achieved using the same technique: long-exposure photography.

I talked a little about using shutter speed in the second post in this series, and how too low a shutter speed can result in blurry images due your hand movement. Long-exposure photography is all about taking advantage of that blurry effect, but as a result of the objects in the scene instead.

You are going to need a tripod to make this work, as otherwise your images will be blurry everywhere rather than just where you want them to be.

The secret to long-exposure photography is to put your camera in either shutter-priority or manual mode, which will allow you to set how long the camera’s shutter is open for. This will be marked as “S,” “Tv,” or “T” mode on the mode dial if your camera has one. If you’re shooting using a smartphone, many recent models, such as the LG G4, also let you manually set the shutter speed via the camera app.

For waterfall shots, you’re looking at any shutter speed slower than 1/15 of a second. For traffic, it will depend on the speed of the traffic, but you’ll need to shoot at speeds slower than one second. Both of the long-exposure shots I’ve shared above were shot with a 30-second exposure.

If you are shooting in the daytime, you might need a neutral density filter in order to compensate for the amount of light available (see the travel photography gear post, the third in the series, for more information). If you’re shooting in manual mode, you’ll have to set the aperture to get the correct exposure. Try to avoid apertures higher than f/16 though, as they often result in lower-quality images.

Long-exposure photography will have you looking at the world and motion in new ways, and it opens up all sorts of creative possibilities. Have fun with it!
 

Part 2: Night Photography

When I travel, one of my favorite things is getting far away, to the middle of nowhere, and just looking up at the night sky. Away from the city lights, it’s is one of the most spectacular views available to us, and gazing up at it always helps me gain a sense of perspective.

Of course, once I’m done looking at it, I want to try and capture it as a photo. This isn’t as hard as you might think and, apart from a tripod, doesn’t need a great deal of expensive equipment to achieve. But shooting star trails does require more thinking than just pointing your camera at the sky and hitting the “expose” button.

There are two main types of star photography. First, you can do a long-exposure shot and turn the stars into streaks of light, like this:

This was a two-hour exposure I shot while camping in the Western Australian outback. Yes, two hours! (You need a lot of patience and a decent battery for long-exposure star photography.)

You can also do multiple long exposures lasting from 30 seconds to a minute and then stack the resulting photos together using specialist software like this. This reduces the “noise” that super-long exposures are known for, as well as the risk of your battery going flat mid-shoot, but it does require more work afterward.

However, most cameras won’t let you shoot for longer than 30 seconds in manual mode. You have to switch to “BULB” mode, whereby the shutter button will stay open for as long as you hold the shutter down. Some cameras have this in manual mode rather than a dedicated BULB setting — check your manual to find out how your model of camera works.

You are unlikely to want to stand with your finger on the shutter button for two hours, but don’t worry, you have some options. The easiest is to invest in a remote release cable, which will let you “lock” the shutter button down for as long as you want. Alternatively, if you have a more modern camera with Wi-Fi built in, you might find that there is an app that lets you control the length of the exposure beyond 30 seconds.

Finally, consider the movement of the stars. The earth rotates from west to east, so if you want circular star trails, you’ll need to point your camera north or south. If you’re in the northern hemisphere, composing around the North Star (which remains stationary) is a good place to start.

The other type of star photo is where you capture the night sky without motion. This will likely still require a long exposure, but one that is not so long as to result in the stars blurring from motion. Around a 30-second exposure is the maximum before the motion of the stars from the earth’s rotation becomes apparent. Here’s a 30-second exposure of Venus setting in the Galápagos as an example:

The setup is very similar to star trail photography, in that you will need a tripod and will have to consider your composition. However, with only a 30-second exposure, you are going to need to increase the ISO on your camera to get as much light in as possible.

Modern cameras are capable of shooting at ISOs of 3200 and 6400 without introducing too much noise into the image. In addition, you’ll want to open your aperture as wide as possible — depth of field isn’t really a consideration when shooting the infinite! Open it as wide as it’ll go, preferably in manual mode.

In some ways, these shots are easier, because you’ll be able to see the results a lot more quickly. Here’s a shot of the stars over France:

The Milky Way is an excellent subject for static star photography — it’s a natural leading line, as you can see in the shot above. This was a 30-second exposure at ISO 6400 and f/4, shot on a Canon 6D in manual mode.

Once you’ve gotten the hang of basic star photography, you can start to be a little creative. At these exposures, even a little light can make a big difference, so you can try “painting” objects with light, by using a flashlight and shining it on objects near you.
 

Part 3: High Dynamic Range (HDR) Photography

Have you ever noticed that sometimes your camera fails spectacularly to capture an image as your eyes see it? For example, the sky is too bright, or the shadows areas are too dark?

This is because our eyes have a much greater “dynamic range” than a camera has. Dynamic range is the difference between the darkest and lightest part of a scene that can be observed, and our eyes are able to resolve a much wider range in darkness and brightness than a camera can.

This is why you might end up with a shot that looks like this:

Or like this:

…when in reality — to your eyes — the scene looked more like this:

The problem is that cameras struggle to capture the full range of the exposure, from the dark shadows through to the bright highlights. Either the sky will be a white washout, or the landscape will be dark and unrecognizable.

The solution is a technique known as high dynamic range photography or HDR. This simply requires you to take multiple photographs of the same scene at different exposures, and then put them together. This is also known as exposure blending.

If you have a relatively modern smartphone or camera, then it will probably have an HDR mode built in. The iPhone, in particular, has an excellent HDR mode. You can access this from the settings menu in your camera or smartphone menu. On a Canon camera for example, the menu is as follows:

Using your device in HDR mode is very simple, and it will do everything for you. Your device will take the necessary number of photos, align them if necessary, and then blend them together to give you a photo that looks more representative of the scene you saw.

The disadvantage of this is that you are leaving the camera to make all the decisions, and you won’t usually have the source images — you’ll just be presented with the final HDR image, and your camera will discard the interim files.

If you want more control over the final image, then you’ll need to set your camera to “bracket” the exposures for you. This will allow you to take a sequence of photos of different exposures just by holding the shutter down. To find this mode in your camera, look in the menu for auto exposure bracketing, or AEB.

Then you’ll have to use computer software to merge the images together into a single photo. There are a variety of software tools available to merge your images. I use Lightroom, Photoshop, and Photomatix Pro, but there are many others out there.

Shooting multiple photos at once does mean you need either a very steady hand or — you guessed it — a tripod. If your hand moves between the shots, then the images will likely need to be aligned, which doesn’t always work perfectly. In addition, be aware of moving objects, as these can create odd ghost effects as the software tries to combine images.

HDR works best in largely static, high-contrast scenes, particularly landscapes where there isn’t much movement and the difference in brightness between the darkest and lightest parts of the scene is pronounced.
 

Part 4: High-Contrast Photography

Speaking of high-contrast scenes, don’t forget that you can use these to your advantage. You don’t have to use HDR; instead, you can use all that light to create wonderful silhouettes of your subjects.

This is a great way to get a different take on a subject; used creatively, it can give you some standout images.

The shot above is the silhouette of a boat against two islands in the Seychelles. Shooting directly into the sun like this means that you are going to have to decide which area of the shot you want to correctly expose. If I had set up the shot so the boat was correctly exposed, the sky would have been a giant white mess as a result of the light from the sun.

I could, of course, have shot an HDR image, but in this case, a silhouette of the boat and two islands was a more attractive composition.

Other great subjects for silhouetting are people, trees… really, any object with a distinctive outline.

This sort of shooting will require a little practice, as the camera won’t know what sort of exposure you want. The joy of digital is that you can review a shot and try it again — particularly in a scene like this, where you have a bit of time to get the shot right before the sun sets. Be aware that your exposure meter might be indicating that you are over- or underexposing the scene.

The easiest way to get good results is to shoot in manual mode and set everything yourself. Keep the ISO rating as low as possible, and adjust your shutter speed and aperture according to the composition you want to achieve, considering the depth of field and any long-exposure effects you might be trying to achieve.

I use all the above travel photography techniques on a regular basis when I’m out and about in the world, looking to put a fresh perspective on a familiar scene. Admittedly, these are individually complex subjects to tackle, and it will take time to master each of them, but the rewards are very much worth it. Just start by picking one technique and working on it as often as you can. With regular practice, it will become second nature and you can move on to another.

Travel photography is a slow process, but it’s a rewarding one if you’re willing to put in the work. If you aim for progress and not perfection, you’ll be taking better (and more advanced) travel photos in no time!

Laurence started his journey in June 2009 after quitting the corporate life and looking for a change of scenery. His blog, Finding the Universe, catalogs his experiences and is a wonderful resource for photography advice! You can also find him on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
 

More Travel Photography Tips!

For more helpful travel photography tips, be sure to check out the rest of Laurence’s series:

• Part 1 – How to Take Professional Travel Photos
• Part 2 – How to Shoot the Perfect Travel Photograph
• Part 3 – Camera Gear: How to Not End Up With the Wrong Equipment
• Part 4 – How to Take the Perfect Photo: Advanced Techniques
• Part 5 – 7 Post-Processing Tips to Improve Your Travel Photographs

The post How to Take the Perfect Photo: Advanced Techniques appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

Today, professional photographer Laurence Norah of Finding the Universe continues his five-part series on taking better travel photos. Many of you are looking to improve your travel photography so Laurence is here to help us do just that.

In this post, he goes in-depth on how to pick the perfect travel camera and gear for your trip.

There is a belief that better photography gear will equate to better photographs. While this is certainly the case in specific situations, the reality is that it is the skill of the photographer that makes all the difference. A pro-level camera in inexperienced hands will likely result in worse photographs than those taken by someone using an iPhone by someone with some skill.

Knowing how to compose a great photo and how to use your camera properly are the two most important parts of taking a great photo, with the camera gear itself coming next in importance.

Sometimes, gear does make a difference, particularly for situations such as fast-moving subjects or when there is less light available, in which case you might need a camera with a bigger sensor or a lens with a wider aperture. This is why you often see sports or wedding photographers carrying such expensive-looking equipment.

But for your average travel photograph, the gear isn’t going to be the definitive factor. Rather, it’s important to get the right gear for you, your budget, and your skill level.
 

How Much Money Do You Want to Spend?

There’s no point spending time looking at gear that isn’t in your budget. Set yourself a budget before you begin, and don’t forget to factor in lenses, memory cards, spare batteries, filters, and other accessories.

There is a law of diminishing returns, with a sweet spot currently of around $500–1,000 USD for a solid setup that will do everything you need.

Consider these price guidelines for all the equipment you’ll need:

• Budget: $150–300 USD
• Value: $300–500 USD
• Mid-range: $500–1,000 USD
• High-end: $1,000+ USD

How Much Gear are You Willing to Carry?

Weight is a serious consideration, and you have to be brutally honest with yourself about what you are willing to carry with you. I’ve often met people taking pictures with their smartphone who say they have a nice expensive DSLR camera sitting back in their hotel room that was “too heavy to bring out today.”

If you’re not the kind of person who wants to carry a heavy device, then don’t buy one in the first place. The best camera is always the one you have on you, so if you think you’re going to mostly just be keeping it light, then just invest in a decent smartphone or simple point-and-shoot.

For reference, your smartphone probably weighs around 6 oz., a point-and-shoot 8 oz., a mirrorless system with a lens around 16 oz., and a full DSLR system around 30 oz. or more.

The heavier the equipment, the higher the quality of construction, particularly of the optical elements, leading to higher-quality images. However, unless you are planning on selling your work for high-resolution printing, the difference probably won’t be noticeable.

This is another moment to be honest with yourself. Learning how to use a camera properly takes time, and if you don’t want to do that, then don’t invest in an overly expensive or complicated camera.

I’ve seen people with rigs costing in excess of $5,000 USD, shooting away in auto mode and wondering why the folks with the iPhones are getting better results. More expensive gear does not automatically equate to better photos!

There’s no exact science to figuring out how difficult a camera is to use, but factors include costing more, having more buttons, and having a massive manual. The more complicated the camera, the more control that you have, but the harder it will be to achieve good results without investing time and effort into learning.
 

11 Best Cameras for Travel

The main difference between camera types is the size of the sensor inside the camera — the larger the sensor, the better the camera will perform in lower light, and the bulkier and more expensive it will be.

The following list is roughly ordered by sensor size, from small (smartphones) to larger (SLRs).

1. Google Pixel 5: I’ve used a lot of Android phones over the years, and Google’s Pixel series is a best when it comes to mobile photography. It offers full manual control, dual cameras (including a 27mm wide lens), the ability to shoot in RAW file format, 4K video, LED flash, and improved low-light performance.(Smartphone, $699 USD
2. iPhone 12: I’m not an iPhone user, but they are often lauded by friends as being superb for photography, with each iteration improving on the last. If you’re an Apple fan, you’ve probably already got one though. (Smartphone, $999 USD)
3. Sony RX 100 VII: While this is by no means a cheap point-and-shoot, it is generally reviewed as the best in its class. This is due to having a much larger sensor than other models, meaning that the image quality is a lot better. If the price is an issue, check out previous versions, which come in a bit cheaper. (Point-and-shoot, $1,298 USD)
4. Canon Powershot Elph 190 IS: At the other end of the scale is this $100 USD point-and-shoot from Panasonic. It’ll get the job done, offers a 12x optical zoom, and will slip nicely into your pocket. Don’t expect National Geographic–quality shots though. (Point-and-shoot, $159 USD)
5. Canon Powershot G9X Mark II: Though it sits between the above two options in price, the G9 X Mark II comes a lot closer to the Sony in terms of image quality. Excellent battery life, rugged construction, and Wi-Fi round out the feature set. (Point-and-shoot, $429 USD)
6. GoPro HERO 9 Black: Despite other manufacturers’ attempts, there is only one option when it comes to action cameras, and that’s the GoPro. If the HERO 9 is too pricey, check out the Hero 8, which is very similar. (Action cam, $349 USD)
7. Nikon Coolpix B700: Nikon has an excellent reputation for superzooms, and this model has a crazy 60x optical zoom. It’s a good value option too, with solid reviews, so I have no hesitation suggesting this as an option if you want an all-in-one with scope for more control over your photography. (Superzoom, $799 USD) (Here are some more options to consider at different price points.)
8. Lumix GX9 or GX8: With a 20.3MP Four Thirds sensor, 4K video, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and in-body image stabilization, the GX9 has everything you need for successful shooting with a mirrorless camera. (Mirrorless, $797 USD)
9. Alpha 6300 or A7R III: If you’re on a budget but want to get your foot in the door, the a6400 is the camera for you. For someone with a higher skill level (and significantly higher budget), the A7R III is a top-notch choice, offering a full-frame sensor, super fast processing, a secondary SD slot, and improved battery life. (Mirrorless, $998-$2,300 USD)
10. X-T4: With an electronic viewfinder, 26MP sensor, 4K vide, USB-C type connector, and improved autofocus, this is a great mirrorless choice for anyone wanting a smaller camera but who still wants full manual control. (Mirrorless, $1,699 USD)
11. Canon EOS 6D Mark II: I shoot with two of these cameras and am always impressed by their performance, particularly in low light. They are the lightest SLRs with a full-frame sensor, and also have Wi-Fi and GPS, the latter being particularly handy for travel. (DSLR, $1,399 USD)

Getting the Best Travel Lens

If you are buying a mirrorless camera or SLR system, then you’re going to have to buy a lens. Consider spending at least as much on the lens as the camera body, if not more.

I suggest buying the camera body by itself and then buying a lens to meet your needs rather than the “kit-lens” that might come with it.

A lens has two specifications: focal length and maximum aperture.

The smaller the number of the aperture, the more light the camera will let in, allowing you to achieve various effects (as I described in the second post in this series).

The focal length is the zoom factor of the lens — the bigger the number in mm, the more magnification the lens offers; the smaller the number, the less magnification.

What to Look for in a Lens

For travel purposes, I’d advise buying two travel lenses:

• A cheaper “prime” lens with a fixed focal length of around 50mm and an aperture of 1.8, perfect for portraits or food.
• A good-quality “walk-around” zoom lens with a wide focal range to let you get everything from wide landscapes to close-up shots of people. Something in the range of 24-105mm would likely do.

The Best Travel Photography Accessories

You must factor in some money for purchasing accessories when buying a camera. I’d suggest the following:

• Spare battery: Most camera batteries last for 300-500 shots, so if you think you’ll be taking a lot of photos and might be away from power for a few days, a second battery could ensure that you don’t miss a moment. I’d advise buying the battery from your manufacturer to guarantee compatibility. Price: usually around $30 USD.
• External hard drive: Depending on the capacity of your laptop, you might find you need an external hard drive to store your photos. I travel with three Transcend ruggedized hard drives and store backups of my photos across two of them, as well as synchronize them to a cloud-based backup when I have fast enough internet. Price: currently around $79 USD for a 2TB model.
• Filters: Lenses aren’t cheap. Pick up a relatively inexpensive UV filter for the front of your lens, and if you scratch it, you’ll just need to replace the filter rather than the whole lens. I would also suggest investing in a polarizing filter (as I mentioned in the second post in the series). Price: the larger the filter, the more expensive it is. $10–100 USD, with Hoya, B+W, and Tiffen being respectable brands.
• Memory cards: Memory cards are cheap, so pick up one or two Class 10 32GB or 64GB cards that’ll let you keep shooting for ages. I’ve not found much difference between brands, and have never had a card fail in all my years shooting. Price: $15-30 USD for 64GB.
• Tripod: A tripod can really expand your creative possibilities, letting you take longer exposures and play with time. Even a small travel tripod can reap dividends for your travel photography. Again though, if you don’t think you’ll use it, don’t buy one. Price: $100 USD will get you a perfectly respectable model. I use the VEO range of Vanguard tripods, which fit nicely into a bag and weigh around 5 pounds, with prices ranging from $150 to $350 USD.

Never forget that the most powerful photography tool is you — not your camera! I traveled the world with an old 10-megapixel Canon Rebel SLR for years, producing both award-winning and income-generating photography from — by today’s standards — a very basic bit of kit.

It is far more important to invest time in learning how to take better photos than throwing money at gear. Do your research, figure out your personal travel style, and pick the gear that is right for you, based on weight, price, and your personal learning goals.

If that camera turns out to be a smartphone, awesome. The best camera for traveling is the one you are going to be taking with you whenever you walk out your door and head into the world, and the one that fits your budget.

Laurence started his journey in June 2009 after quitting the corporate life. His blog, Finding the Universe, catalogs his experiences and is a wonderful resource for photography advice! You can also find him on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. He also teaches a comprehensive online photography course.
 

More Travel Photography Tips!

For more helpful travel photography tips, be sure to check out the rest of Laurence’s series:

• Part 1 – How to Take Professional Travel Photos
• Part 2 – How to Shoot the Perfect Travel Photograph
• Part 3 – Best Cameras and Gear to Get
• Part 4 – How to Take the Perfect Photo: Advanced Techniques
• Part 5 – 7 Editing Tips to Improve Your Travel Photographs

The post Camera Gear: The Travel Cameras and Accessories to Buy appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

­Today, professional photographer Laurence Norah of Finding the Universe continues his five-part series on taking better travel photos. Photographs are important for the memories they represent, so Laurence is here to help us take better pictures! Part two of the series is on how to get the perfect shot.

In the first post in this series, I talked about the key compositional rules that you can use to create better travel photos. If you’re new to this series, I recommend you start there.

Today I’ll be covering how to deal with challenging light and some introducing some advanced ideas for controlling your composition, including being selective with your focus and making objects seem closer together than they are.

Then I’m going to get into specific tips for common travel scenes to get you taking better photos faster.

I’ll begin, though, by talking about the most crucial element of photography — the light. The middle of a sunny day might seem perfect for photography. In truth, it’s the worst time to take pictures — the light is harsh, shadows are challenging, and your photos will not do your subjects justice.

The best times to shoot are closer to sunrise and sunset, when the light is soft and warm. These times are known as “the golden hour.”

You can’t be everywhere at the right time for the perfect light, though, especially when traveling. Here’s how to get the best shot from a bad lighting situation.
 

12 Ways to Take Better Photos

1. Be Aware of the Sun

This is the most important tip of the lot. Ideally, you want the sun behind you so that your subject is fully lit. If the sun is behind your subject, you’ll end up with a much darker, poorly lit image. While this can be done intentionally for effect, for most shots you’ll want the sun to properly light your subject. To do that, position yourself so you are between the sun and your subject, as I did in this shot from my journey around New Zealand:

2. Get Creative

Don’t just take the same shot every time. Mix it up and get creative. Instead of having the sun behind you, take advantage of the harsh light for a more interesting image. Try shooting into the sun to create silhouettes, or use a high aperture to create a starburst effect, like in this Napa Valley balloon photo:

3. Use the Weather

Think about how you can use the weather to your advantage. How can you embrace a gray sky or a rainy landscape to capture a unique photo? How can you snap a picture of a blue sky without it being boring? Be aware of the weather so you can adjust your style and subject accordingly.

For example, when the sun is behind clouds, the light is diffused. Clouds also add interest and scale to otherwise plain, boring skies, as in this shot of the Painted Desert in Australia:

4. Seek Shade

If you’re taking pictures of people, find somewhere shady. Here the light will be more even, with fewer harsh shadows on faces. You’ll get a much smoother and more balanced photo. Just make sure you are mindful of where your light is and how dark your subject will be.

Here’s an example from the middle of the day in Sri Lanka:

5. Master Depth of Field

Depth of field is all about controlling which parts of the shot are in focus. It’s one of the most important photography concepts you’ll need to know if you want to improve your travel photography and capture that perfect shot. Mastering depth of field will allow you to compose a variety of shots just by changing where your focus is. For example, check out this shot of a monkey:

As you can see, only the monkey is in focus. This is known as a “shallow” depth of field and is used to isolate subjects and make the shot about them.

A wide depth of field is for shooting landscapes and scenery. Here’s a shot from New Zealand, where I used a wide depth of field to get much more of the scene in focus:

To manipulate depth of field on your camera you need to change the aperture — check your manual for how to do that. Typically it will be marked as “Av” or “A” on your mode dial.

Some smartphones allow you to manually set your aperture, either through the built-in camera app or by downloading an advanced app from your device’s app store.

A wide-open aperture (f/4 and lower) produces a shallower depth of field (less of the shot will be in focus), and a smaller aperture (f/8 and higher) puts more of the scene in focus.

There are plenty of tutorials on the internet about depth of field; take a look here for a more detailed explanation, and here for a depth of field simulator to get more of a handle on what it is.
 

6. Utilize Street Scenes

Street photography is about capturing moments — immersing yourself in environments and finding interesting stories.

Patience and politeness are key to successful street shots involving people — not everyone wants to have their photograph taken, and it may be illegal to do so without explicit permission. If no one wants their photo taken, try wider crowd shots, or focus in on market goods — colorful spice piles or unusual-looking goods are always interesting subjects.

Alternatively, shoot the streets themselves. Doorways or intriguing architecture are a nice starting point — take this street in Bologna, Italy, for example:

As for the settings, use a wider depth of field (smaller aperture) for general street scenes.
 

7. Learn to Photograph People

If you’re looking for portraits, your best bet is to make friends with people. Learn about them and their stories, then ask for that permission.

I prefer taking pictures of people I know, as I generally don’t have to worry about permission problems.

My favorite style of people photos is “candid,” unposed shots. This is the best way, in my opinion, of capturing the personality of people.

The key to the art of unobtrusive photography is persistence, patience, and keeping your eyes open to the photographic possibilities around you. Anticipating the moments that might be about to happen is key.

I’d advise a shallow depth of field (wide aperture) and fast shutter speeds for portraits and action shots of people.
 

8. Use Beaches

Beaches are one of my favorite spots to shoot sunsets — nothing quite beats the sun setting over the sea! The water and the wet sand make for great reflection opportunities.

Think carefully about your composition, and in particular the foreground and mid-ground of your shot, as I talked about in the composition post. Try different angles, and maybe get above your subject to present the beach in the context of its environment, like this shot of Hellfire Beach in Western Australia:

Outside of sunset, beaches can be very bright environments, so you may need to adjust your exposure to compensate. Most cameras and phones let you shift exposure left or right manually with a button that looks like +/-, or from inside the app.

If you are shooting friends and can’t find shade, consider setting your camera’s flash to “fill” setting to compensate. This uses the flash to light up the shadows caused by the sun, and can make portraits shot into the sun look more pleasing.

Finally, take care of your gear. Fine sand and salt water don’t agree with most camera equipment!

Here are some more beach photography tips to get you started.
 

9. Master Taking Pictures of Landscapes

There are two things that helped my landscape photography improve: a tripod and a polarizing filter (if you’re interested in my photography equipment, here’s a full list of my travel photography gear).

Controlling depth of field is a key part of landscape photography. Unfortunately, as you increase the aperture, the shutter speed becomes slower — to the point where your hand movement can result in a blurry image. This is why you need a tripod.

Read more about how shutter speed, ISO (light sensitivity setting), and aperture are linked in this article on the exposure triangle.

A polarizing filter is fantastic for making blue skies and clouds pop, and for controlling reflections. It also reduces the amount of light entering the camera, so that tripod is even more helpful.

If the above two sound like too much effort, don’t worry. You can improve your landscape photography no end by thinking seriously about your composition. Leading lines, the rule of thirds, and finding a sense of scale by putting subjects in your foreground or mid-ground are key.

10. Learn How to Use Low Light

So often we’re out with friends at night and want to capture those moments together, but we can’t seem to get anything other than a blurry mess.

This is because most cameras aren’t great when working with the amount of light that’s available at night — they use slow shutter speeds that turn movement into blurs.

More expensive equipment can make a real difference for low-light photography. All is not lost if your pockets aren’t deep enough, though. First, you can increase the ISO setting on your camera. While this will reduce the quality of your shots, they will look better than blurry photos.

Another idea is to find something to rest your camera on. If you don’t have a tripod, try and find an alternative — anything that is stationary and not prone to shake like your hand does. Then, use your camera’s timer function to take the shot. If you’re taking pictures of people, get them to stand as still as possible!

11. Get Action Shots

For better action photos, you have two options. One is to use a fast shutter speed to “freeze” the action — such as a shot of a hummingbird in flight, or a surfer on a wave.

The other option is to show the motion by using a longer shutter speed — the resulting blur will convey a sense of action to your viewer.

In this shot of a train, I manually set the shutter speed to 1/30th of a second, slow enough that the trees at the edge of the shot would seem to be rushing past as I leaned out of the window, yet fast enough that the train itself would remain sharp, even when shot handheld. I think this worked pretty well!

12. Take Pictures of Waterfalls

Waterfalls are a fantastic photography subject. My favorite way to shoot them is with a slow shutter speed, creating a soft and fluffy effect. Shutter speeds of 1/15th of a second and slower give the best results — you’ll need to use a tripod or rest your camera on something to avoid blur from your hand movement.

Another good way to shoot waterfalls is from far away using a long lens, using compression to create a sense of drama around your subject. Or go the other way, and shoot super wide, taking in the full glory of the scene.

Finally, don’t forget to use the light. All that flowing water can cause beautiful rainbows, as seen in this shot of Vernal Falls in Yosemite:

I believe that taking better photos is a combination of three factors — being in the right place at the right time, knowing how your gear works, and knowing how to compose a great shot. Shutter speed and aperture are two key settings in the photographer’s toolbox, and you need to learn how to access and control those modes on your camera.

When you do, you will have much greater creative control over your photography.

Laurence started his journey in 2009 after quitting his corporate job. His blog, Finding the Universe, catalogs his experiences and is a wonderful resource for photography advice! You can also find him on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
 

Travel Photography: Learn More Tips

For more helpful travel photography tips, be sure to check out the rest of Laurence’s series:

• Part 1 – How to Take Professional Travel Photos
• Part 2 – How to Shoot the Perfect Travel Photograph
• Part 3 – How to Buy the Best Camera Gear
• Part 4 – How to Take the Perfect Photo: Advanced Techniques
• Part 5 – 7 Editing Tips to Improve Your Travel Photographs

The post 12 Ways to Shoot the Perfect Travel Photograph appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

Travel photography is not something I’ve very good at. I take all my pictures on an iPhone, and if they aren’t used on the blog, they mostly just sit on my hard drive. I’ve never taken the time to really improve my skills. Like learning a language, improving your photography takes time.

Luckily, just like learning a language, anyone can do it!

Travel photographs are memories. You look at a picture, and it conjures up thoughts, feelings, and smells that take you back to a long-forgotten place. I think it’s important we all spend a little time improving our photography.

Today, professional photographer Laurence Norah of Finding the Universe begins a five-part series on how to take better travel photos and become a better photographer in general. He’s going to share his top tips to help you improve your skills and take awesome photos.

Enter Laurence…

In 2009, I gave up my job in IT and set off to travel the world. My first destination was Australia, a stunning country where I desperately wanted to capture my adventures. I’d been taking photos since I was 13, but it was only on this trip that I started to focus on learning the art of photography and realized that this was something I could be truly passionate about.

I quickly learned the reality that photography is a skill that takes time, effort, and practice to master.

It’s also not a question of gear — great travel photography is very much about the photographer.

In this post, I’ll give you the eight simple travel photography tips you need to take better pictures right away. If you follow these rules, you won’t go wrong!

1. Composition: Taking Pictures People REALLY Want

Patterns — the human brain is a sucker for them. We’re always looking for patterns, be they shapes in the clouds, symmetry in buildings, or colors that compliment each other. There’s just something about a pattern that our brains love.

Understanding these patterns and what pleases the human brain is a nifty shortcut to taking better photos. And that’s what composition in photography is all about. Learn and apply the rules below, and you’ll start taking more photos that people will enjoy.

Before launching into them, though, some important basics. First, ensure that your camera is level. You don’t want wonky horizons. Your brain generally doesn’t like them; they’re the visual equivalent of nails on a chalkboard.

Next — stop moving. You want to be as still as possible when shooting to avoid blurry images. Hold your camera with both hands and be steady, or use a tripod.
 

2. The Rule of Thirds

One of the most important rules of composition is known as the rule of thirds.

I learned recently that this is based on how babies learn to identify their mothers’ faces, which can be split up into three parts: the eyes, nose, and mouth.

The rule of thirds requires you to break an image into three equal parts either vertically, horizontally, or both. The goal is to place key compositional elements into those thirds.

On your device, find the setting to enable a grid over the preview screen. Four lines will appear, two vertical and two horizontal.

Take a look at my shot above of a surreal sculpture park deep in the Australian outback, over which I have overlaid a grid to demonstrate the horizontal and vertical thirds.

With the grid, you can see how I have composed the image: one-third land and two-thirds sky, while the plane on the left is on the left-hand grid line, close to the intersection of two lines.

Placing subjects on the intersecting points will naturally draw the viewer’s eye to them, as these points are usually where we focus first in an image, and doing so is a great starting point for a good composition.

Another of my favorite subjects to shoot is a sunset. I love how they are always different and how wonderful the light is at that time of day.

To get a great sunset shot, you can easily apply the rule of thirds — composing the shot with two-thirds sky, and one-third land or sea. You want to avoid splitting the image half and half, as it won’t look as good. The shot below of a sunset in Santa Cruz illustrates this and also has an interesting subject in the left third of the image.

3. Leading Lines

When composing a photograph, you want to make it as easy as possible for the person looking at it to figure out the subject and focus of the image.

One way to do this is with leading lines — the use of natural geography or other features that the viewer will naturally look at first and that will lead their eyes to the main subject.

Roads are excellent as leading lines, particularly in big landscape shots. When I was traveling in New Zealand, I wanted to create a photographic story of the hike up Mount Taranaki, one of my favorite New Zealand hikes. Near the start, the walking trail itself gave me a perfect leading line to illustrate the journey ahead, drawing the viewer’s eye into the frame and up to the mountain.

Another good illustration of a leading line is this shot of me walking on railway tracks in Italy. (Obviously, it’s only advisable on either disused or somewhat infrequently used tracks!)

The goal for this image was a self-portrait that evoked my life of travel. The parallel tracks, which appear to converge, were perfect for leading the viewer’s eye to the subject — me. I felt I captured the image of wanderlust that I was looking for by using them.
 

4. Foreground, Midground, and Background

Have you ever taken a picture of a mountain or city skyline and then looked at it later and wondered why it doesn’t manage to convey the majesty of what you were looking at?

This is likely because your photograph is a two-dimensional image, and you have lost the sense of scale that is apparent when you are present and in the moment.

When composing a shot — and this is particularly true for landscape photography — think about the different elements in the foreground, midground, and background of the shot.

For example, here’s an example of a sunset in Glencoe, Scotland, easily the most stunning place I’ve photographed in 2015.

I used the rock in this frozen lake to provide something interesting in the foreground, helping to provide scale and balance to the overall image. The viewer’s eye is drawn to the rock, and then likely to the mountain and sunset, before heading into the distance of the valley.

When you are out and about in the world, think about everything around you. If you see a far-off mountain you want to shoot, look around and see if you can find something interesting in the foreground or midground to incorporate into the shot. If you’re near a river, maybe that could be a canoe. Elsewhere it could be a house. Or a group of sheep. Or a car starting to scale a winding road.

If you’re shooting a city scene, look at what is happening all around you. Street vendors, different modes of transport, and signs and storefronts can all be incorporated as foreground to provide context and scale for your city skyline or that interestingly shaped building.

If you can’t find something, be creative. Find someone to stand in your shot to provide that scale. If you’re traveling with a tripod, do what I did in that railway shot and use yourself as the subject.

Thinking beyond the big background parts of the image and focusing on the smaller elements will help you create more balanced, pleasing images.

Just remember not to confuse your viewer too much with too many compositional elements, and keep it clear what the photo is of.

Here’s another shot from Glencoe. Here the house provides that midground scale, while the river works both as an interesting foreground subject and as a leading line to draw you into the photograph.
 

5. Framing

This compositional technique isn’t about hanging a picture in a frame; it’s about using what’s around you to “frame” the subject you are trying to capture, illustrating to the viewer what the shot is of and drawing their eyes into the scene.

In this shot of the bridge into the medieval town of Besalú in Spain, I used the old bridge and its reflection as a natural frame for the newer bridge.

When you have found your subject, look around to see if there’s a way you can frame it creatively. Some good options for framing include vegetation, like tree branches and trees, as well as doors and windows.

Take a look at this shot of a temple in Ayutthaya, Thailand, to see what I mean. I wanted to capture the beauty of this temple scene while drawing the viewer into the wat in the center.

The frame in this case is much larger than the subject, but it is never unclear what the shot is of. This is a really easy photography technique, but it might require you to scout around, or step back from your subject, to find a good way to frame it. Don’t be afraid to stand further away and use the zoom on your lens to get the frame you want.

As another example, using trees to frame a waterfall, here’s a shot of Lower Yosemite Falls in Yosemite National Park.

I felt that the trees added much more to the shot with the waterfall between them. There was a pleasing symmetry to the shot, given the two parallel trees.

There are many more options for framing. Experiment and see what works!
 

6. Focal Points

One way to be sure that people look at the part of the image you want them to look at is to have only that part sharp and in focus and the rest blurry.

This is particularly effective for isolating people or animals in shots — take a look at wedding or sports photos of people, and you’ll see how often the subject of the shot is the only thing in focus.

I love shooting events with friends and family, and I find that this technique works really well at isolating the subject from a crowd and making it obvious who the photo is of.

To start with, you can achieve this effect with the “portrait” or “people” mode on your camera.
 

7. Use of Color

Color is really important in photography, particularly how different colors work well together. For example, blue works well with yellow (sunflowers in a field), and red works well with green (Christmas!).

To figure out which colors work well together, take a look at this color wheel.

Generally, colors opposite each other on the wheel will complement each other. These colors don’t need to be evenly balanced in a shot — often images work best with a small percentage of one and a greater percentage of another.

Take a look at the shot above, from the gorgeous Nyhavn Harbor in Copenhagen. You can see all sorts of colors, but in particular, the blue of the sky and water is the predominant color, with the houses’ reds and yellows (yellow is opposite blue on the color wheel) offering a counterpoint.

When you are on your travels, keep an eye out for contrasting and complementary colors that you can incorporate into your shots. Spice markets, old European cities, rural meadows, and old colorful barns in green fields are a great place to start.
 

8. Storytelling

Remember that when you are taking a picture, you have all the background and surrounding knowledge of your trip in your mind. When you look at the image later, all of that will come back to you.

No one else has that advantage. To them, that shot of a waterfall is just that — a shot of a waterfall. The story of the five-hour hike there through a leech-infested jungle? Lost. The feeling of how refreshing it was on your skin when you took the plunge to cool off? Also gone. It’s just a two-dimensional image on a screen, likely quickly flicked by to be replaced by the next image in the stream.

It’s your job to bring all that lost context to life.

We’re often told that a photograph is worth a thousand words. As a photographer, it’s your job to convey those words. Figure out how to tell that story with your image. Get the shots that pull your viewers into your stories. Use emotion, find and freeze moments, and incorporate the human element so your shots resonate with your viewers.

Take this monkey in Rio de Janeiro. These guys were being really cheeky with tourists, trying to get food from them and generally playing around as much as possible. I wanted to try and capture some of that, and I managed to get this monkey sticking its tongue out at me.

I’d advise spending time thinking about the shot you are trying to create, the moment you are trying to capture, and the story you are trying to tell your viewer. Put yourself into their shoes, imagine you are going to be looking at the shot with no other context, and try to build the shot from there.

This is probably one of the harder parts of photography, and — like the shot of the monkeys above — will likely require some time, patience, and luck. You will make errors. But with research and practice, you will be able to master it!

Practice makes perfect – and travel photography is no different in this regard! The more photos you take, the more you will learn how to compose and capture great shots. While reading some travel photography tips will definitely help, the key is to actually go out in the world and practice them. The more you practice, the faster this will all become second nature. It won’t happen overnight, but over time your skills will improve — I promise!

So what are you waiting for? Get out there and start taking some photos!

Laurence started his journey in June 2009 after quitting the corporate life and looking for a change of scenery. His blog, Finding the Universe, catalogs his experiences and is a wonderful resource for photography advice! You can also find him on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
 

Travel Photography: Continue the Series

For more helpful travel photography tips, be sure to check out the rest of Laurence’s series:

• Part 1 – How to Take Professional Travel Photos
• Part 2 – How to Shoot the Perfect Travel Photograph
• Part 3 – The Best Camera Gear to Get
• Part 4 – How to Take the Perfect Photo: Advanced Techniques
• Part 5 – 7 Editing Tips to Improve Your Travel Photographs

The post How to Take Professional Travel Photos appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

Amateur and professional photographers alike agree: Getting locals to relax for a good photograph is one of the hardest aspects of travel photography — but not entirely impossible.

Lola Akinmade Åkerström is an award-winning photographer whose work has appeared in publications all over the world. She loves capturing the people in her travels and connecting with them in the process. Here’s how she does it.

While traveling through a region where you see locals you’ve only viewed in magazines (for example, monks in Southeast Asia or Zulu tribesmen in East Africa), there is a tendency to get excited while subconsciously putting up a “no-interaction” wall.

You tiptoe around them in a fragile fashion. Whether it is through eye contact or some other form of personal acknowledgment, you have to engage them. This transforms them into living, breathing beings.

While shopping in Cusco, I felt a little tug on my pants. Initially frightened, I peered down only to find an old lady sitting on the floor, arranging flowers, and asking for money. It could have been easy to paint her into the Peruvian market scene, but I instantly squatted down and spent quite some time down on the floor with her.

When we make these local connections — no matter how subtle or fleeting — they transform the people we usually gloss over into see three-dimensional human beings. When we actively seek out these connections, you’ll not only learn more about the destination you’re visiting but you’ll be able to snap deeper, more meaningful photos.

Here are a few key tips to keep in mind when you’re looking to photograph people while you travel.
 

1. Make an Effort to Communicate

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She was fiery and infectious. I could never forget this old lady I met in the tiny remote village of Krang Yaw in Cambodia. I didn’t speak a single word of Khmer, yet we were able to converse through gestures. Oral communication can sometimes be overrated.

By breaking the ice and communicating with the people you want to photograph you’ll find your photos become much more valuable souvenirs, reminders of the shared experiences we all have — no matter where we’re from.

Moreover, you can use this opportunity to learn things about the culture and destination. Don’t be afraid to ask questions, even if there is a language barrier. These answers will open doors in both your photography as well as your travels in general. The more you learn, the more empowered you become as a traveler.
 

2. Observe Their Daily Lives

Let them know their work isn’t insignificant and, if possible, momentarily partake in their work with them. Whether helping a porter take down the tent, or lending a hand to a baker, it communicates that you find their duties equally important.

Breaking down barriers through action works hand-in-hand with communication; it’s a simple gesture you can use to build a relationship that will help you learn more, have a deeper travel experience, and get a better shot.

Once in Lima, I wandered into a gift shop. After chatting with the shopkeeper, she seemed perplexed as to why I would want to take her picture. Letting her know that I found her more interesting than the wares she was hawking instantly warmed her.
 

3. Cheesy Grins Work

Smiling usually disarms people and breaks down their defensive walls. A smile and gentle nod always goes a long way and lets your subject know that you are very approachable.

Moreover, smiles are universal. They are something everyone does no matter where in the world they live. It’s a cross-cultural connector. Embrace it.

When photographing children (something you need to be particularly careful with, especially if you are sharing those photos online), remember they love to be entertained. This always starts with a smile.
 

4. Show Respect

Connecting with people ultimately boils down to respect. Give them their space. Know when to quit stalking them for the perfect shot. They will naturally open up to you of their own accord.

If they don’t, take that as your cue to say goodbye and move on. Not everyone wants to be photographed. That’s ok. As long as you keep an open mind and work to communicate with locals whenever you can, you’ll encounter plenty of other opportunities down the road.

These experiences have happened organically during my travels. When it comes to personalities, people are inherently different, so only by trial and error (and, frankly, embarrassment in some cases!) would you be able to hone the body language necessary to communicate through your lens.

Lola A. Åkerström is an award-winning writer, speaker, and photographer with National Geographic Creative. She regularly contributes to high profile publications such as AFAR, the BBC, The Guardian, Lonely Planet, Travel + Leisure, and National Geographic Traveler. Lola is also the editor of Slow Travel Stockholm, an online magazine dedicated to exploring Sweden’s capital city in depth. She lives in Stockholm and blogs at Geotraveler’s Niche.

The post Travel Photography: How to Photograph People appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

Photographs are an important part of the travel experience. Since I’m not a photographer, I’ve invited professional photographer Laurence Norah of Finding the Universe to share his tips and advice. In this post, Laurence will help you make the most out of any new camera.

In my experience, people are often disappointed with their first efforts with a new camera. Somehow, the shots don’t look quite as good as they were hoping. That’s because while your new camera might be capable of taking better photos, it is going to require a bit of time and effort to learn how to make the most of it.

I’ve spent time teaching folks how to get the best out of their equipment, both online and offline, and know that it takes some trial and error to get where your photos look how you want them. Practice makes perfect (I promise)!

In today’s post, I want to share with you some of my tips for getting the most out of your new camera, based on my years of experience as a professional travel photographer, working with a variety of different camera manufacturers and shooting around the world. I’m going to teach you my top ten tips that you can start to apply today to take your photography to the level you want to get it to.
 

1. Read the Manual

Modern cameras are complex pieces of equipment with myriad functions and capabilities. The way you access and manage these functions varies between camera models. Don’t worry, I don’t want you to sit down with your camera manual and learn the whole thing by rote. But it is the best place to find out at least the basics of how your new camera works.

Despite my years of experience, when I’m confronted with a new camera, it still will take me time to get used to finding all the features I want to access — even simple things like changing the focus mode or ISO setting can be buried deep in a hidden menu. To this day I still struggle if someone hands me a camera from an unfamiliar manufacturer. I’m just not going to get the best out of it because I haven’t learned how to use it properly.

Grab ahold of the manual to at least get an idea as to what all those buttons do. That way you don’t miss a shot because you couldn’t remember how to flick between focus modes!
 

2. Learn the Basics of Composition

The key part of photography is you the photographer — not the camera.

Thankfully, taking better photos with your new camera isn’t rocket science and anyone can learn the basics (heck, even Matt did it). (Matt says: It’s true. My photos were terrible but even my unphotogenic mind picked up a few tricks!)

If you teach yourself some basic rules for how to compose photos, you can shortcut your way to taking awesome shots.

These rules aren’t hard to grasp. They just require you to apply some simple principles to all your shots. For example, a road leading into a shot will naturally lead the viewer’s eye along with it, while a splash of color can be used to accentuate a subject.

Over time, as you use these rules more, you’ll start to apply them naturally and you’ll develop your photographer’s “eye” (i.e. the ability to compose a shot without having to think about it too much).

Take a look here for an in-depth post covering some of those key rules: the rule of thirds, leading lines, use of color, and more.
 

3. Learn About the Exposure Triangle

The basic concepts of how a camera works to capture light are important to master but unfortunately can be confusing to wrap one’s head around. Many people just give up and leave their camera in auto mode, never fully realizing the potential of their device.

This isn’t helped by camera manufacturers adding ever more bells and whistles to their products in an effort to stand out in a crowded marketplace, meaning you might not be sure which controls are important and which are superfluous.

Here’s a tip: the most important controls are those that affect what we photographers call “the exposure triangle,” namely the shutter speed, ISO rating, and aperture — the three key elements of a camera that we have control over and allow us to vary the amount of light that we capture.

Understand those things and the photography world will be your oyster. Changing each one has a different impact on the way a shot looks, but overall they control the same thing: how dark or bright the image is. Start to experiment with your aperture, shutter speed, and ISO, and don’t be afraid to get it wrong — digital “film” is free!
 

4. Learn About Light

At its most basic, a camera is just a device for capturing the light. That hasn’t changed since they were first invented in the 1800s.

Light is, therefore, a key component of photography. Different times of day offer different qualities of light, with the light around sunset and sunrise offering a warmer, softer quality to our images, while midday light is less flattering, with harsh contrast and flatter colors. Ideally, you want to shoot closer to sunrise and sunset and less around midday if you can.

Where the light is coming from is also important. If you shoot directly into the sun, you’ll find your subject will likely be a black silhouette. Instead, you should position the sun behind you when shooting, to properly illuminate your subject and give you the best results.
 

5. Challenge Yourself

As a travel photographer, I’m lucky because I’m often out traveling the world and finding fun things to take pictures of. However, I’m happy to admit that I can struggle to find inspiration during the downtime between trips. And if you’re not traveling regularly, you too might struggle to find reasons to get out and take photos.

But photography is a skill and the best way to improve a skill is to practice it. You can read articles like this all day, but the truth is, you need to get out into the world, apply that knowledge, and start training your brain to become a photographer.

One way to do this is to start setting yourself challenges, giving yourself a focus and reason to get out there. Maybe it’s something simple, like a photo of a new subject every day. Maybe you set a weekly theme and stick to it. Whatever it is (there are plenty of places online to find photo challenges too!), just make sure that you give yourself as many opportunities as possible to learn.

That way, when you go on a trip or adventure that you really want to capture, you’ll be ready!
 

6. Get Used to Taking It With You

This is related to the previous tip, in that practice makes perfect. The best camera is always the one we have on us. So if you’ve just gotten a new camera, get into the habit of taking it with you wherever you’re headed and get some practice using it. If it is always with you, you’ll never have an excuse not to take it out and use it (remember practice makes perfect).

Leave your camera by your keys, near your jacket, or next to your shoes. Make sure it’s always with whatever it is you leave your house with so you remember to take it with you. Just having it with you will increase the frequency in which you use it! Even going from zero to one photo a day is better than nothing!
 

7. Get a Cheap Prime Lens

If you have a camera that lets you change lenses, like most mirrorless or DSLR cameras, then I highly recommend spending a little bit of money on a prime lens. A prime lens is one with a fixed focal length, which means you can’t zoom in or out.

This will force you to move around and really think more carefully about your composition before you take a photo. Prime lenses also have very wide apertures, which has two advantages: they let a lot of light in, so you can use them when it’s darker; and they let you achieve a shallow depth of field, allowing you blur the background and really let your subject shine.

The best thing about a prime lens is that the basic models can be picked up very cheaply — often for less than $100 USD in fact. For Canon, my recommendation is the 50mm f/1.8, also referred to as “the nifty fifty,” a lens that every Canon photographer should own. Other manufacturers offer similarly priced equivalent lenses.
 

8. Start Shooting in RAW Format

When I teach photography workshops, one of my goals is to try and get my students to switch to shooting in RAW rather than JPG.

If these letters don’t mean anything to you, don’t panic. All they are is formats for the way your camera saves the image data it captures.

The difference is that a RAW file contains everything your camera has captured, while a JPG is more of a finished product, which has been edited by the camera and reduced in size for your convenience.

While a JPG is indeed more convenient (you can directly share it to social media), it also allows you less control in the editing process.

You can think of a RAW file as a roll of film and a JPG as the finished print. With the RAW file, you have full control over the development process, and as a result, you have full control over the final look of your image. It is a bit more work at your end, but it’s ultimately worth it.
 

9. Start Editing and Curating Your Photos

Something I learned early on in my photography career was the importance of editing my photos. Even minor corrections, like straightening a horizon or adjusting sharpness and contrast, can make the difference between an OK photo and a great one.

Don’t be put off by the thought of having to spend a lot of time editing your photos. Even an application as fully featured as Adobe Lightroom can be picked up relatively easily and you can use an even-simpler editor like Snapseed on your mobile phone to make your shots pop.

I love the creative possibilities that photo editing opens up for me. I also want to share another photography tip that I’ve learned, which is the art of curation. You need to become one of your biggest critics. I’m often asked why I don’t take bad pictures. The reality is that of course I take bad pictures! I just do my best not to share them anywhere.

Curating our own photos is really important: always try to only share your very best work, so the world will think that you too only take great photos!
 

10. Keep Going

The reason that people succeed at tasks is not because they are necessarily better at it than other people. It’s because they keep persevering, despite the setbacks, frustrations, and mental barriers to success that they find along the way.

Photography is the same. The best photographers in the world all started out with no idea at all what they were doing. What got them to where they are today was a drive to succeed and a willingness to put the effort in.

I was 13 when I got my first camera and I’ve been shooting ever since. So don’t give up! Make photography your passion and it will reward you!

Remember that photography is a long-term game, and just having a new camera won’t automatically mean your photos are going to improve. You need to invest a bit of time and effort into it — but the rewards will be worth it.

Laurence started his journey in 2009 after quitting the corporate life and looking for a change of scenery. His blog, Finding the Universe, catalogs his experiences and is a wonderful resource for photography advice! You can also find him on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. He also teaches an online photography course.

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