As always happens, every novice or experienced photographer makes a mistake here and another one over there. For this reason, we show you some mistakes they make when taking travel photos.
Traveling to a new place is one of the most exciting ways to push yourself and your photography. You can take dedicated photographic trips or simply take your camera during your vacation. However, traveling is expensive and therefore, if you plan to take photos, you should think about it a bit.
You don't want to spend a lot of money on a trip and not have images that you can proudly show. Let's look at some of the most common mistakes in travel photography and, more importantly, how you can avoid them.
Do not do an investigation before your trip
The secret of natural and improvised travel photos is a lot of planning. Almost all the great travel shots start at home. You cannot expect to stumble upon the most incredible things that roam a new city for the first time.
Since time and money are often the biggest limitations in travel photography, it is worth taking a few hours of research before going. Determine what type of vaccines you want to get, where you can get them, at what time it will work best and when you will have the opportunity. If you can, develop a list of vaccines. That way, you'll be ready to start shooting with your camera as soon as you arrive.
And, if you find yourself in an incredible situation while wandering, much better. But you will also have some safe shots on your camera.
Taking the same photos as everyone else
When you investigate a trip, you will see the type of photos that most people are taking of that location. You will discover what the famous landmarks are and how they are being filmed. And then you can do something different.
There is nothing wrong with taking pictures of the same as everyone else, but it doesn't make much sense to take a picture that is available from 100 photographers on archive sites. Instead, see what has been done and try to do something different. You can work from a different angle, use a different composition or shoot something completely different. Force yourself to be more creative.
Start too late or stop too early
Great photographs are taken at times that are not sociable. The best moments for travel photography are the hours around sunrise and sunset. The night brings interesting changes to a place that many people do not capture because they are in bed or in a bar.
If you want to take better photos, get up earlier and take photos before dawn. Also, rearrange your dinner plans so you can shoot your camera for an hour or two at sunset. Then, after dinner, come back and see how things look at midnight. Excellent lighting during sunrise and sunset will dramatically improve your work.
Mistakes with travel photos: move too fast
Travel photography is an exercise in patience. Often, it's about finding a good scene or background, and then waiting for something to happen. Maybe an interesting place will walk through the frame, or the light will change, or something unexpected will happen. The best travel photographers tend to rethink a place and work in many different ways.
Don't just take a single picture and think you're done with a particular scene. You have to be patient. Be slow Take a picture and wait; See if something else catches your attention or how things change in the next few minutes. The slower you move, the better your picture will be.
If you can, avoid taking photos while meeting with people who are not photographers. You will never slow down enough because you will be worried about boring your friends or family. If you're on vacation, take a full afternoon to go alone and take some serious photography time instead of taking a few minutes here and there.
Bringing too much equipment
You don't need much equipment to get excellent travel photos; Your camera and a single multipurpose lens are enough. Travel with a decent lens, such as a 24mm or 35mm lens, or a useful zoom lens, such as an 18-55mm, 24-70mm, or 16-35mm lens.
Of course, you may miss some photo opportunities because you don't have a long telephoto lens, but you won't miss any because you are busy changing lenses.
In addition, it is much easier to transport and care for a lightweight photo setup instead of every piece of the kit you own.
Errors with travel photos: only shoot with a DSLR
Just because you have your DSLR or mirrorless camera with you, don't ignore your smartphone. Modern mobile cameras are great and can even take RAW images.
Smart phones have a couple of advantages that are worth considering. They are small, light, and you always have it with you. They are also more discreet, so you can often capture photos with your phone that you could not do with your DSLR, such as in a cathedral. And they are super fast to use; If something interesting happens, you can take out your mobile quickly.
Shooting in automatic mode
Like any other type of photography, you cannot keep your camera in automatic mode and expect to obtain excellent travel photos. You need to control what is happening. If you still shoot automatically, take a few hours to learn how to control your camera before your next trip.
The true photographer never travels anywhere without his camera. It is always a big part of the trip. Do not make the same mistakes everyone makes at the beginning: all the above tips were learned through the bad ones.