As a traveler, I am always looking for new things to do and place to visit. When I travel, my camera is one of the essential items in my bag. With so many countries having different cultures, climates, and languages, it’s impossible not to have some fantastic photo opportunities with beautiful backdrops. One thing that has made these experiences even better is learning how to take photos worth framing or printing out.
Traveling is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Capturing these moments with your camera, however, can be challenging. In this blog post, I share some travel photography tips for beginners to help you capture those memories forever! This blog post will cover how to take the perfect photos and what gear to use for different types of pictures on your trip! So grab a coffee and enjoy reading about some travel photography tips for beginners!
Table of Contents
Travel Photography Tips For Beginners
Basic Camera Settings
Do you like taking pictures? Do you want to take the best photographs possible? It’s essential to know how your camera operates and what settings work for certain types of conditions. For example, Aperture Priority mode settings allow you to control depth of field with a slider. This can be helpful if there are many objects in the foreground and background, enabling you to choose what remains in focus.
Another useful setting is Shutter Priority mode, which controls shutter speed and lets you freeze or blur motion depending on your preference.
You can also use external lights to provide more light than natural light sources such as sunlight or a flash from a camera.
Moreover, you need to know ISO, Exposure settings. It is vital for capturing great photos. So, whatever camera you picked for taking pictures, gather proper knowledge on each feature. After that, take some experimental shoot using different filters. It will give you more confidence to capture the best photographs. In below, I shared some settings that you should focus on.
- Viewfinder (and grid mode)
- Zoom
- Focus
- Color Balance
- Aperture
- Shutter Speed
- Flash
- Manual Mode
- Exposure
- ISO
- RAW vs. JPEG
Wake up early and stay out late:
The best time to shoot is sunrise and sunset, so if you want to take advantage of those hours, make sure you’re up before dawn!
After sunrise and before sunsets, time is counted as the golden hours of photography. You will be able to capture amazing photos using natural lighting.
If you don’t have the luxury of shooting during the golden hour, stay out after dark. You’ll get amazing shots of city lights, or other subjects lit only by artificial light sources.
So, always try to wake up very early. However, it will give you refreshes whenever you walk in the morning or get in touch with nature very early in the day. Additionally, you will find enough time to plan your activities. Finally, it will help you to be organized all time.
Pre-Trip Location Scouting
One of the most critical steps in planning a successful photo shoot is to do your research. “As a professional travel photographer, I find that location scouting is crucial for the success of my shoots. It’s important to scout out locations before arriving at your destination because you’ll want to know what areas to avoid due to safety and security concerns. Scouting also helps prepare for any challenges you may face such as bad weather or remote locations.”
Location scouting becomes an integral part of the process if you need specific details (i.e., light, mood). The idea behind location scouting for photography is to find a place that will work well with all aspects of your plan – from visualizing potential shots to make sure you have enough space for equipment and subjects.
However, you can do it in many ways. For example, you can use a tool like Instagram, Pinterest, and Google Image Search. You will find lots of information about the location.
Ask Permission from Locals
As a travel photographer, you might be wondering if it’s necessary to ask permission from the locals before taking their photos. It is crucial to not only respect your subjects but also adhere to local customs and laws.
If you are photographing in an area where photography is prohibited, for example, at a military site or government building, it would be advisable not to take pictures of these places without permission first.
However, when traveling abroad, it can be challenging to know what is appropriate. So, it is always better to get permission from locals and stay away from sensitive photography cases.
If possible, spend some time learning some local languages that may help you complete your projects. For example, “May I take your photos,” you may get the answer “yes” or “no,” but when local people see a foreigner ask their permissions to take photos in the local language, they will appreciate it. In maximum cases, they will allow you if they think your intention is honest.
Rule of Thirds in Photography
The rule of thirds is a technique for composing photos that divide the frame into nine equal parts, with four points on each side. It creates more exciting compositions by placing the most important elements in one or two of these points. It doesn’t matter if you are traveling or taking photos around your hometown; this technique will help you take better pictures and make them stand out from ordinary ones.
You can quickly compose the rule of thirds by turning on-grid features in your camera. First, it will allow you to display the rule of thirds grid on your camera screen. Then, place your key component in the grid and help frame it to make it more attractive.
Before using it properly, you need to find out a key component of your photos that you want to highlight in your photography.
Protect Against Theft
In today’s world, where camera equipment has grown in value, it is only natural that the risk of theft increases. But, if you are a travel photographer who takes your gear on location to capture those once-in-a-lifetime shots, then you know how hard it can be to safeguard your investment from would-be thieves.
Always bring a bag with a lock to protect your expensive equipment. Not only do locks provide an extra layer of security against theft, but they also come in handy when checking bags at airports or train stations and other busy public places like museums or tourist attractions.
If possible, buy camera insurance to minimize losses in case of theft. Keep your gear safe while you’re not shooting like a hotel room, plane, and train. Try not to use the camera in slum areas or poverty-stricken areas.
Shoot In Manual Mode
“Manual mode is a crucial component of any photographer’s toolkit, but it can be challenging to master. It gives you the ability to control shutter speed, aperture, and ISO settings to capture images that are otherwise not possible without editing software. For example, landscape photography often requires a very narrow depth of field, which can only be achieved with manual mode shooting via an aperture setting of f/16 or higher. This allows the photographer to limit the sharp focus on one subject while blurring out elements in front and behind it. Additionally, they may need to adjust their shutter speed so as not to overexpose bright scenes such as snow-capped mountains or sunsets due to a high ISO setting being used at dusk or dawn when there isn’t much light available.
Patience and Practice
Photography is all about capturing the right photos at the right time. Once you find the key component in perfect places, then press your camera flash. But, you need to be patient in finding this. A photograph can say thousands of words. So, wait, wait and wait for better shots. Remember, Patience is the key to success.
At the same time, you need to practice capturing more and more attractive photos. No one can become a pro photographer in a single day. Experience, Patience, and Practicing make them pro photographers. If you want to be a pro photographer, you must have the quality of becoming this.
Learn Photo post-processing
“Picture editing is an essential aspect of the photography process. It can take your work from amateur to professional and make you stand out among other photographers.”
“Whether it be for travel or any other type of photography, editing is essential. Editing allows you to achieve what you envisioned in your head as well as take the viewer on an emotional journey through your pictures.”
So, try to learn photo background removal, photo enhancement, color correction, shadow boosting, reducing noises and adjusting brightness, contrast, etc.
However, you may hire professional photo editing companies or freelancers to do it in favor of you. If you wish, you can learn it also.
Final Verdicts
It is impossible to learn photography in a single day. Lots of experiments, practicing are needed for becoming a pro photographer. However, these travel photography tips for beginners may help you to start your journey.
Never stop learning. It will help you to expertise in your areas. Hopefully, you will be a pro travel photographer very soon.
Cheers!
Related Articles
Best camera for professional photography
