Too many travel photos have been selfies of one kind or another for years now. Gratefully, the fad is on the wane, and amateur travel photographers are beginning to appreciate conventional photographic esthetics once again.
Here are tips to make your pictures pop…
Bring in some life
If you’ve noticed it, scenic pictures that feature signs of life tend to be more interesting than ones that only feature inanimate scenes, no matter how beautiful they may be. A person, even an animal or plant, can bring animation to a frame, making it personal and more beautiful.
If it’s a person or animal that you’re putting in your frame, composing your picture at eye level can make for better impact.
Think symmetry
If you want an easy way to make your compositions look creative, working with symmetry is an excellent approach. The idea is to balance an image out for proportion and presence on both ends of the picture. It may seem a simple trick, but it usually works to make images more imposing than they would otherwise be. Reflections can help, as well.
From a mirror to a body of water, reflections have a way of bringing dignity to a picture.
Be on the lookout for opportunities
Perfect photographs come about when you manage to look around you with an eye to photographic beauty. It could be something as simple as a certain shade of sky that goes well with a monument that you’re standing next to, or a breeze that’s stirring things up and animating trees around you.
If you notice that everything looks better at dawn or at sunset, you should be out there at these hours to get the best pictures. When you’re always ready, you’ll pay attention when interesting things happen.
Get the basics right
Since your phone lives in your pocket and has no lens cap, it’s easy to get the lens dirty, and lose a great deal of contrast and color fidelity as a result. You want a camera wipe in your pocket at all times.
It’s also important to never use the flash; flashes drain color out of images, and rob them of depth. Your phone’s digital zoom is another control to stay away from. It only serves to pixelate an image.
If you can manage it, you should use a quality photo app, rather than the stock one of the comes with your phone. Specialized apps simply offer better controls and better image quality. When you’re home, you should try to punch your pictures up on Photoshop. You don’t need to be an expert on this program to achieve great results. All you need to do is to install a few quality Photoshop actions, and watch as a few clicks transform your images.
Finally, try your best to take uncluttered pictures. The idea should be to have fewer distractions in your images. The more attention you can draw to the main subject of each picture, the more beautiful it will be.
Georgia Preston runs a photography studio, and even in everyday life can often be found with camera close to hand. She shares tips for taking better photos, and managing all those digital files.
