You have likely seen those amazing travel photos that grace magazines, newspapers, and guidebooks. They are often the reason that people are inspired to go somewhere. They can be beautiful, informative, inspiring or even humorous, but are without doubt an integral part of the travel industry. But how are they captured by the pros?

1. 7 Travel Photography Hacks You Need to Follow For
Better Photos
You have likely seen those amazing travel photos that grace magazines,
newspapers, and guidebooks. They are often the reason that people are inspired
to go somewhere. They can be beautiful, informative, inspiring or even humorous,
but are without doubt an integral part of the travel industry. But how are they
captured by the pros?
Here are 7 travel photography hacks that you should try
1. Shoot with the sun behind you

2. The majority of the time travel photographers prefer to work with the sun behind
them or to the side of the subject they are photographing to light up the subject in
front.
This eliminates harsh shadows and also the need to use graduated filters to
compensate for the difference in highlight and shadow areas. On a sunny day, this
gives the image a wonderful glow and vibrant blue skies which are the usual shots
that travel brochures and magazines like to use.
2. Star burst effect
If you do find yourself in a situation where you will be photographing with the sun
in front of you, one of the best tricks to use is the star burst effect.

3. This basically means you find something to block the sun in your shot such as a tall
building or a tree, then move slightly left or right until a small part of the sun
becomes slightly visible from behind the tree or building.
You should immediately see a starburst effect where the sun is appearing behind
the object and this gives a pleasing result in photos. Move over too much and your
sky will be blown completely white.
Not only does this trick give you a nice starburst effect on the sun but it will also
help control the light in the image as you are blocking the brightest point. For
areas which are too light, you can usually recover them in post production.

4. 3. Get up early
Ever wondered how photographers manage to capture photos of touristy areas
with few tourists in? Well, it’s usually because they arrive well before most people
have even got out of bed.

5. Photographing around sunrise not only gives the scene a wonderful soft light but
it also usually means that you have the place to yourself especially if you are
photographing in the summer months when sunrise is in the early hours of the
morning.
So next time you are away set your alarm early and you will benefit from fewer
people in your shots.

6. 4. Photograph someone you know
It’s very rare to get to a location and have everything in place perfectly to capture
a good travel photo.

7. Often travel photographers wait or even come back again and again to the same
location until they can capture the shot they want. But sometimes the only way to
capture the photo you want is to set it up as if it was being taken in a studio.
For example, you might be photographing a beach and feel that it could do with
someone walking along the water. You can either wait for someone to arrive or
put your travel companion in the photo.
The benefit of this is that by using a model you can carefully construct the image
to your exact requirements.
Is the person walking too fast? You can ask them to slow down. Are they too far to
the left? Move them to the right. Even if you don’t have a travel companion with
you, you can always put yourself in the photo by setting your camera on a tripod
and using a timer.

8. 5. Use a bag
Usually, any travel photography will at some point involve photographing places
where tripods will not be allowed which means anywhere that will be low light will
become a big challenge.

9. Sure you can bump up the ISO but that comes at a price – the sharpness in your
photos. The higher the ISO is, the more noise there will be in the photo and as a
result less sharpness.
A great trick is to use a camera bag to rest your camera on.
Buy a good sturdy backpack and you will be able to stand it up and put your
camera on top giving you a great option to take photos where tripods are not
allowed.

10. 6. Boost it
Once you have taken the photo and are in post-production, one of the best ways
to make your photo really jump out is to boost the saturation and vibrancy.

11. The trick here is to boost just enough to make the image more colorful without
making it look fake.
Boosting the saturation can turn an ordinary looking photo into a beautiful one
that would work well in magazines and newspapers.
7. Take multiple exposures
Another great technique to help you capture great travel photos is by taking
multiple shots and then blending them all together in post-production to create
one image.

12. There are various ways that you could do this.
The most common is HDR photography where you would take a few photos at
different exposure levels (i.e. one exposure for highlights, one for mid-tones and
another for shadows) and when combined together you get an image that is
correctly exposed for every part of the photo.
Another common technique is taking multiple photos of the same spot at short
intervals to create an image without the crowds.
This is sometimes the only way to capture clean shots of famous landmarks. The
number of photos you need will vary based on how busy the scene is, but the
more you have the better.

13. There are also stitched panoramas where you take multiple photos of the same
scene capturing the left, center and right of the image and blending it all into one
to create a wide-angle photo. All of these techniques are useful to have in your
toolkit as you never know when you might need one.
Travel photography as a profession is very different from taking photos for
personal enjoyment or use.
As a travel photographer, you are often faced with very different challenges day to
day that you have to overcome. Over time you will find your own “cheats” and
“tricks” that will help you when taking travel photos.
In the meantime, follow these tips and you’ll be on your way to capturing great
travel images.