14.02.09
What makes a good travel picture?
Many of the great travel icons like the Taj Mahal or Macchu Pichu are so instantly familiar that they have virtually passed into our collective conscious: even people who have never left home can instantly recognise them. The traveller might be blown away the first time that they set eyes on the Taj Mahal, but the most likely response in the person who sees their travel pictures is mild boredom!
If you want to convey some of the wonder that you experienced when on your travels, you will have to use the most powerful tool in the photographers arsenal: your creativity! It doesn’t matter what camera you use, you can always look for angles or viewpoints that will provide a less common outlook on the world.
Good travel pictures should also catch some emotion, or empathy with the subject. They should be more than just about what something or someone looks like. Your images should convey picture a bit of your subjects personality, or give an impression of how it feels to walk through the Valley of the Kings in Egypt, or watching sunrise at the ruins of Angkor Wat.
With so many things to think about when taking a picture, it is no wonder that so many people give up and just ‘click’, with little or creativity or imagination. To try to de-mystify this process, I have conceived my six point plan for better travel photography. You might not consider each of these steps every time you take a picture, or you might approach this list in a different order. Certainly there will be fast moving times where you will need to just snap away, lest you miss the moment, but if you get into the habit of at least considering my six point plan some of the time then your photography will improve.
Look for angles
Don’t just take a picture as soon as you see your subject; think whether there is a better angle a few feet away, or even from a completely different side. There are a number of things that can influence which angle you choose: you might want to find a new way of looking at a subject, to combine certain objects or to make the most of light coming from a particular direction.
Look for viewpoints
Once you have worked out the angle, then look for different viewpoints. Rather than just shooting everything from the same height, look for higher and lower points of view. Not only will this change the nature of the shot but it can set up distortions and different power relations in your picture. High viewpoints are perfect for getting a view over a city or a crowd of people. Low angles can cut out a confusing background and also work better for pictures of children.
Consider the combination of objects in the frame
‘Mise en scène’ describes the objects that you put into the frame, either for purely visual reasons or to create an extra level of meaning. Combining your subject with a more attractive foreground can make a picture look more visually pleasing; choosing a recognisable background can give a sense of place. Combining two objects in the frame may set up meaning and dialogue within your picture through contrast, humour, explanation or subversion.
Select which lens to use
The choice of lens can affect a number of elements in the picture. On the most simple level the power of the lens will dictate the level of magnification and the crop of the picture. Creatively, each lens will give a different effective perspective and impart their own characteristic feel to your picture. A wide-angle lens will tend to give more distortion and a greater depth of field and as they tend to be used closer to your subject they have the effect of exaggerating perspective and making objects seem further apart. A telephoto lens on the other hand tend to be used on objects further away, so will appear to compress perspective, making objects appear closer together, and reduce the depth of field.
Calculate the exposure, prioritising aperture or shutter speed
Exposure is about more than just letting the right amount of light into the camera. The choice of shutter speed and aperture will have a significant creative effect on your picture. Rather than allowing your camera to set them, take control yourself and work in the extremes. This will make your pictures stand out.
If there is movement in the subject, then you should give precedence to the shutter speed. This will control how the movement is reproduced: either frozen or blurred. If there is no movement, then give primacy to the depth of field, which is controlled by the aperture. A narrow aperture will give a greater depth of field, meaning a large amount of the scene in front of you will be in focus. A wide aperture will give a shallower depth of field, so that only the thing that you focus on will be sharp. This will allow you to blur a background so it doesn’t clash with your subject.
Work out your composition
The rules of composition are a series of conventions intended to make your image look balanced. However, rather than slavishly following these rules, break them and exaggerate them, if that is what will give you a better picture.
Steve is one of the judges that will decide on the winning image in our gallery travel competition.
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