Travel Pictures
Photos of Holiday Destinations

Picture of the Week: a Hair-Growth School in Papua New Guinea

Some images of an 'arty-farty' nature
Rome, Florence, Loire Valley, Seville, Switzerland, Easter Island

Vacation photos, a few hints

Light (Exposure)

• Shoot from early until 11am, and from 3pm till sunset. The light is richer at these times and shadows give depth to the photos even if it does make you get up early when you're on holiday!

• Look for interesting light situations as well as subjects. e.g. Evening shadows, morning mist, black clouds with rays of sunlight etc. These can work asphotos in their own right, as well as making an ordinary/frequently shot subject sensational.

Patagonia Pictures, Argentina

• Generally shoot with the sun behind you or at your side, unless you're going for special effects like a temple silhouette

• For white beach or snow shots (or any of these kind of high contrast shots) you have to trick the stupid camera which thinks everything should average at medium grey. So first frame the shot you want with your zoom. Then turn and point the camera at something that is a similar distance, but of middling lightness, such as vegetation or tarmac/asphalt. Press the shutter down half way to lock the exposure, point it back at the shot you want and press the shutter all the way.
Alternatively learn to use the exposure compensation feature, turning exposure up by around .5EV for sand or 1.0EV for snow (experiment with different settings).

Lake Mckenzie, Australia Beach Pictures

• For sunset pictures try to meter (set the camera's exposure) off the bit of sky near the sun, not on the sun.

• Subjects with an interesting texture (e.g. stone) can be shot with with light coming from the side to pick out the surface differences and make the image more real/tactile to your viewer.

Using and abusing the Flash

• Switch off the flash on compact cameras when taking distant shots like landscapes or church ceilings. The flash only illuminates up to five metres and will unbalance your exposure (lighting). For ceilings, set the camera on self-timer and put it on the floor or any flat surface.

St Peter's, Vatican Pictures, Rome

• If you're using a flash indoors and close to your subjects - especially if you can check your results easily on a digital camera - watch out for too much light/brightness. Hold or tape a piece of tissue paper over the flash to soften it.

• For a natural look in a low-light situation you need to turn off the flash and hold the camera REALLY steady - preferably a camera with image stabilisation AND a fast lens (e.g. F2.8). See below, Steady.

• Most digital cameras have an automatic ISO function, enabling you to take flash-free photos in low light but don't let the setting go too high or you'll end up with very grainy images. Find ISO in the camera menu and keep it below 400.

Ko Samui, Thailand Beach Pictures

Composition (subject arrangement)

• For people and sunset shots use your full optical zoom if you have one. People will be less distorted and the sun will be bigger.

• Get people in your shots doing something, preferably demonstrating their personality by getting them to do something typical. (See Rome Pictures) Suggest they move (the camera is fast enough to freeze them) if they are posing, or shoot people without telling them to stop and pose. Or photograph people quickly again just after you've done the 'Say cheese' shot!
But n.b. if they are vacation pictures of local people who have seen you, ASK PERMISSION!

• Get closer and simplify especially if using a phone-camera with no zoom! Try to strengthen strong subjects by eliminating clutter. If you can't walk closer, use an optical zoom if you have one (not the digital zoom that loses image quality)

Etosha wildlife safari pictures, Namibia

• If it's a much photographedsubject, like the pyramids, try to get something unusual/amusing in the foreground like an old man on a donkey or camel-mounted police. Move! Don't just stand there!

• Look for an unusual angle as well as your basic frontal shot; put the camera down on self timer; walk around the subject; look from near and far, low and high perspectives.

• Try putting the subject off centre - either one third across the picture or one third up it, or both. This position is known by classical artists as the Golden Cross Section. Landscape shots particularly benefit from having the horizon NOT in the centre of the image. Decide which bit - e.g. sky/sea/land - is more interesting and make the photo 2/3 that and 1/3 the less interesting bit.
Some digital cameras include a grid option that helps you make horizontals horizontal and putting subjects on the golden cross section. (One of the bugcrew's favourite little camera with a grid is the Panasonic Lumix, 28mm - series.)

Venice Carnival Pictures, Italy

• Look for matching sets of subjects to create some kind of image symmetry.

• Consider concentrating more on landscape formats (i.e. horizontal pictures) if you usually view digital holiday photos on a computer or even TV, as these will suit the display shape much better. e.g. Bugbog's new Rome Pictures are totally landscape format.

Generally

• set your phone/compact to highest possible quality/resolution. You can reduce the size later but will not be able to increase it if it happens to be a sensational shot. However, this means that you may run out of card storage space so get a big memory card and/or spare.

• keep checking the lens is clean. It's so easy to smudge the lens with a finger and not notice until you upload the photos a week later and find them virtually useless.

• switch off the shutter click sound to be more discreet.

• Shutter-lag: low-end digital cameras are often slow to respond when you press the shutter in action situations. This is due to the slow auto-focus mechanism. To counteract this, figure out where your subject is going for the best composition, press the shutter button down halfway (before the action starts!) till you get the green focus confirm light, then hold it there till your subject moves into the picture. At that point press the button all the way. Bingo, no lag.

• Steady your shot by putting the camera on a hard surface and using the self-timer or leaning against something - a wall or post, for example. You can also turn yourself into a tripod by planting your feet firmly, push your left elbow against your chest and support the lens/body with your left hand, while your right hand squeezes the shutter gently.
And buy a camera with image stabilisation, it really does work, especially in low-light situations such as below.

Burning Man Pictures, Nevada desert, USA

• Always carry a spare (charged!) battery and storage medium (compact flash card, memory stick etc) with you, you never know when you might stumble across a magical scene.

• If you're shooting digitally, take a lot of pictures and then edit them brutally. If you're using negative film then you'll need a hefty wallet to do this!

• Transfer your edited vacation snaps to some safe storage medium as soon as possible, be it laptop, iPod, portable hard drive, The Cloud, or even better several of them. Belt and Braces!

• If you live in the Netherlands and wish to put together an artistic photo album then check Fotoalbum maken!

Also see on bugbog a variety of good quality, informative, interesting and occasionally funny Travel Videos, World Travel Guide pages and World Maps.

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