Taking Great Holiday Photos
So here it is. The million-dollar question – how do you take a good holiday snap? The First Choice Photography team share their top tips on how to take great getaway shots…
Lighting
If the sun’s out – and let’s hope it is – take note of the shadows it’s creating. Unless you’re aiming for a pic with silhouettes, keep it behind you. For less bright light, try shooting in the morning or early evening when the sun is lower. This will give your photos a warmer colour. Planning to catch the sunrise or sunset? Remember dawn and dusk will give your pics a blue hue. As for indoor or darker shots, steady your camera on a solid surface to combat blurry photos. Using a tripod is even better. And don’t forget a camera flash only travels a couple of meters, so don’t rely on it to light anything further than that.
Composition
Our eyes are naturally tuned to scan images in different directions, so a good tip is to put the main subject of the photo off-centre and use other objects to draw people’s eyes to it. After more interesting snaps? Use the ‘the rule of thirds’. Just think of your frame as a noughts and crosses grid and place your subject where the lines would cross. And when it comes to shooting landscapes, try to include something in the foreground – it gives the image a great sense of scale.
Timing
Know the saying ‘timing is everything’? It’s a photographer’s greatest virtue. Be patient and think about what you want to show rather than snapping at will and hoping for the best. And always have your camera handy. You never know when the unexpected will strike. If it does, be daring and do something different. You can always hit delete if it doesn’t come out how you’d hoped.
Cameras
Have a play around with all your camera settings and the manual mode. It’s also a good idea to independently control the aperture, shutter speed and ISO – it can make a big difference to your photos. You’ll quickly learn any no-no’s and once you know what’s what, you’ll have more control over the final images.
Picture Editing
Back in the day, when cameras used film, the lab would print photographs with colour corrections and adjustments. And nothing’s changed – the same goes for digital cameras. Photos nearly always need some tweaking. Luckily, you don’t have to leave it to the professionals. There’s no-end of photo editing programs out there and they can make a difference between deleting and keeping an image. To get the best out of editing your pics, learn some of the basics in Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. Or give Picassa, by Google, a go. A storage, editing and basic corrections programme, it’s free to download and is a cinch to use.