Photography Tips

Always take the traditional postcard photo of all the important sites, but don’t forget to take plenty of pictures with people in them too. After all, it’s the friends we make that also make the trip. And of course, you want the “I Was There!” photos too. With digital photography and plenty of memory cards, you can take as many pictures as you want!

Budget Travel magazine in their March 2011 issue offers some tips to perk up your photo album:

1. Group Portraits – do something different! Traditional stare at the camera over someone’s shoulders does say you are there, but not how much fun you are having. Ham it up!

2. Food/Meal Photos – Some of our travelers take pictures of every meal because someone is always asking what they ate while they were there. Try something new. Avoid looking straight down on the plate. Shoot at an angle to get the entire place setting. Use your camera’s macro setting (look for a flower icon) to capture the textural details of food.

3. Hotel Room Photos – Lamp light rarely provides enough light. Check out when you have the most natural light (hard to do in a cruise room with no window, right?), but you can do so with the hotel. Mornings and evenings usually provide the most sunlight, so open the curtains and turn off the flash. Better yet, also capture something local through the window as you shoot from an angle, but not directly out the window.

4. Panoramas – It’s hard to get a sweeping effect in one measly photo; everything is so tiny it loses its effect. See if your camera has a stitching function (see your user manual) and take several pictures that “stitch” together to create one large panorama. Even if you don’t have that function, try sitting your camera on a ledge or other steady surface and move it slightly to get the bigger picture. Then put the pictures together yourself.

5. Don’ t just shoot the “big picture” of the Parthenon or other iconic structure or scene. Yes, do get that photo, but then focus on the smaller details (statues in niches, carvings, trim, towers, doors, etc.) and snap those photos too. You simply can’t see all that in the big picture.

6. Reflections – Try shooting the photo with just the reflection instead of the object and its double. Add another element to the photo for something really interesting.

7. Flash – Turn it off when shooting through a window to avoid glare.

8. Flora and Fauna – It’s a family joke, but one we put into practice. We never take trip photos that we don’t cover the flora (flowers in the church garden) and the fauna (any animals we see).

Rick Steves, the travel guru, also offers some photography tips:

1. New angle for an old sight – Again you always want to get the classic postcard shot, but look for a new and unique angle for additional shots. Shoot a bell tower through a horse’s leg (statue!) or lay your camera on the floor to shoot a beautiful ceiling. Think outside the box.

2. Capture the personal side of your trip – Don’t forget to shoot the locals…and you interacting with the locals…or the picnic on the beach…or the sunset over your shoulder (get a friend to do that one!)

3. Vary your perspective – Shoot close, far, low, high, day or night. Don’t always center your shot. Use something in the foreground to add color or depth, like flowers closeup and the site in the background. Catch the reflection of a site in someone’s sunglasses.

4. Break the rules – Sometimes shooting into the sun makes a great silhouette. Experiment with existing light.

5. Best lighting – Early morning and late afternoon. Take advantage of it

For more photography tips, go to the LUV2GO archives on the left for Februrary 9, 2009.