5 tips for taking better travel photos
<p>Come home with an album of stunning travel snaps with these easy tips.</p>
<p><strong>1. Pick your spot</strong></p>
<p>Let’s be honest – you’re never going to take the world’s best photo of the Taj Mahal, the Grand Canyon or any other iconic destination you visit. A million of them already exist. Instead, search out a less popular site that you find interesting. This will also take you away from the main crowds and let you snap a picture (hopefully) free of people. It could be your favourite backstreets café, a stray cat napping in the sun or a quiet clearing along a hike. These shots will be more meaningful to you can capture the essence of your trip.</p>
<p><strong>2. Find a unique angle</strong></p>
<p>Composition is key for a great photo, so try to find something more interesting than just the standard ‘straight ahead’ shot. Have a walk around in front of your subject and see if anything stands out. Try getting up really high or really low to change your angle. Or go for something a bit fancy and shoot through a doorway or window. There’s no hard and fast rule about how this works – it’s something you’ll just have to feel.</p>
<p><strong>3. Get the lines right</strong></p>
<p>This is where things get a bit technical. Professional photographers will tell you there are some geometric rules that are quite simple to implement and can have a great effect. The first is the ‘rule of thirds’ – divide your frame into three and put your main object on the interception lines. You can do this with your eye or some cameras will actually have a setting to do it for you. Also look out for ‘leading lines’, a natural line (like a road or fence) that leads into the focal point.</p>
<p><strong>4. Choose people and moments</strong></p>
<p>It’s amazing how photos of a beautiful building or landscape can actually turn out quite sterile. That’s why it’s always a good idea to include some people in a shot. You can use one person to give scale or a group of people to create a feeling of movement. It’s also a good idea to steer away from overly ‘posed’ shots of people – they almost always feel fake. Instead, you can capture some authentic moments as they happen.</p>
<p><strong>5. Make some simple edits</strong></p>
<p>Thanks heavens for photo editing software. It’s so pervasive now that you can even get apps for your phone that will edit pics easily. We’re not talking major Photoshop jobs, but you will be amazed what an improvement you can make by adjusting the brightness, tone and colour saturation, or cropping out some unwanted action on the edges.</p>
<p>Do you have any other tips to add? Share your travel photos with us in the comments below.</p>
