How To Take Better Travel Photographs

• Choose your subject – Pictures with a particular subject in focus are more captivating than the vague ones. For instance, a signposting board in focus with a long view of a road looks nicer than all kinds of subjects mixed up together.

• Look for colors – Colors add a punch to your pictures. Try to add a dash of colors to your frames. For instance, if you see someone on the road carrying a colorful umbrella, you can include a portion of the umbrella in the forefront and keep the rest of the frame in the background. The color of umbrella will stand out in the picture, which will enhance your picture eventually.

• Use sky like a canvas – Sky is an unlimited canvas, paint it the way you like it. Try to embellish it with elements like tree leaves, birds, kites, and many other things, which you can discover on the spot.

Also read: Travel Photography – My Journey So Far

• Include different elements – You will obviously click when you see beautiful mountains and a river flowing. But it would be more interesting if you include other elements to your frame. For instance, try to include a boat moored on the shore along with the beach, people chilling out, food stalls, a church building along with the mountains, and horses with their masters, cattle and other such stuff.

• Capture beyond the usual – Some unusual shots in your collection can turn your friends green with envy! Look for opportunities where the locals are engaged in their daily activities – a man selling peanuts or a chai-wala pouring tea.

• Bring out the trademark of a place – Wherever you go, make sure you are able to gather its ethnicity, people and ambiance through the power of your lens. If a certain city’s women have a certain way of dressing, try to capture that, or if you see people indulging in any of the specialties, it’s a good idea to click.

• Click only what you want to click – When you are ready to take a picture, see what all do you have in your frame. Is there a dustbin, an electric wire or an iron rod, which you don’t want in your frame? Make sure your frame has exactly what you want.
• Bend before you click – The most common mistake that most of the people make is of not bending while taking a shot. Always click from a low angle, and try to capture everything in completeness. For example, if a person is sitting on a bench in a park, make sure you take that shot from a low angle, which will allow you to include everything – the person from head to toe, the bench, and a good view of the park as well. On the contrary, if you do not bend, it will capture the ground, legs of the bench with partial portion of the person and the park, which will spoil a potentially nice picture.

• Get closer – Always get close enough to capture the intricacies designed on the wall of an old building, ruined architecture, wrinkles on a face or dew-drops on a petal.

• Don’t miss out on dawn and dusk – The first and the last rays of sunshine enhance the beauty of any subject gloriously! Yes, early morning and the late afternoon or sunset are the best times for outdoor photographs. Harsh daylight is unable to bring out the beauty of a place. Landscapes are captured to their best in the morning or in the evening. So make the most of it.

• Compose neatly – A frame should be composed neatly, which means it should be balanced nicely. For example, if there are two pillars, your main subject should be in the middle, and the two pillars in each corner of the frame. If one of the pillars is somewhere in the middle of the frame, it will disturb the main subject, which will make the composition look cluttered.

Also read: 6 Reasons Travel Photography Is An Epic Experience In India

Well, that’s what I have learnt over the years – with observation and practice. Photography is an art, which can be evolved with passion. It’s up to you – how passionate you are towards the art.