In this blog let’s talk about some editorial aspects to take really good photos and videos of your travel journey. Traveling is great! It makes me feel alive and well. And honestly, I have never felt more at home than when I am on the road. Traveling from anywhere to anywhere. Destination unknown, and usually so is the journey.
So, it is also fun to capture the moments of my journey as and when they unfold. Because I never know as to what part of my journey turns out to be a moment to remember. You know what I mean, right? So I am going to list down some points that can drastically change the quality of your photographs.
Set the frame right
Know all the elements that are a part of your frame. Every man, woman, child, tree, grass, flower, and even the dust particles, you should be aware of it all. Every part that is coming together to form your photograph, you should be aware of.
But awareness is not enough. Try and play with the depth of field. Take note of how much space does every element occupies in your frame. Also, if it is even worth being part of your frame at all.
These small decisions and in-depth analysis of your frame can help you take really good photos and videos of your travel journey.
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Know your subject
Imagine a scenario where you want to photograph a tea seller by the road but 2/3rd of your frame is covered by the commotion that surrounds him.
This is when you need to know what your subject is and make sure to highlight that. If there are too many distractions in terms of color, subjects, or contrasting elements, your photograph won’t really come across as a good one.
Understand your subject and make sure to eliminate all the distractions and highlight only the subject with a few supporting elements that help you convey the story better. Everything else that is not helping you tell your story, must be eliminated.
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Contrast matters if you want to take really good photos and videos of your Travel Journey
No matter what kind of photos and videos you take of your travel journey, you can always make them better by just adjusting the contrast (provided you have mastered the art of composition).
The best way to go about this is to take your pictures in .raw format, which will eventually give you a higher level of flexibility for editing. This will give you more flexibility to play around with the colors a lot more than that of .jpeg format. You will be able to separate the lights from the darks and enhance the blacks, giving your photos a really nice depth.
Foreground and background
Sometimes because of technical difficulty or a random person refusing to get aside, you might not be able to frame your shot the way you want to.
So how do you take really good photos and videos of your travel journey?
Many times these external factors make it very difficult to do so. Post-production will help (but only to a limit). In certain scenarios, you might end up having too much foreground or empty top part of your frame. Don’t be afraid to zoom in and readjust your frame so your subject is in the limelight rather than being lost in the surroundings.
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Limits to color correction
So many times I have come across certain photographs where people end up taking color correction way too far.
To me, it seems like they have newly discovered contrast and saturation sliders and forgot to slide back to an optimum point. Just left it at the extreme right corner with their subject having an almost zombie-like jawline and a red skin stone.
Please find an optimum point while color correcting your pictures, and focus on keeping your travel pictures real.
Traveling is all about the raw experience. And so, travel pictures might as well reflect the real experience instead of making it look like something it’s not.
Over editing is a real thing
There is a lot you can do in photoshop. Adding, subtracting and manipulating elements to bring out a story or to create emphasis is one thing. But there is such a thing as going overboard with it.
Keep your focus intact and keep in mind the purpose, subject, and mood of the photo that you have taken. And, make that the center point of all your edits for that particular photograph. It doesn’t mean that you should not experiment. Yes, you should experiment but your final product should be able to tell a story. Your audience should be able to connect with it.
Note: Sometimes the unedited, non-color-corrected version of certain photos look the best. You can choose to not edit them at all.
Understanding Art photography
Art photography is a very different genre of photography that involves a considerable amount of post-production.
It basically involves a lot of photoshop, cut copy paste, color correction, color matching, and re-touching among other things. We shall discuss this in another post in detail.
For now, just keep in mind that there is something called Art Photography that may or may not be counted as travel photography. It is very much subjective.
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Keeping it real is the essence of really good photos and videos of your Travel Journey
Different people, different perceptions.
Like Art Photography is open to perception so is keeping it real when it comes to travel photography. As for me, I prefer keeping my travel photos as close to reality as possible. I don’t like deceiving myself or someone else by making the sky pop out a little bit more than it truly is, or by adding clouds unnecessarily where they do not belong.
So even if you check out my Instagram, my pictures are very much close to reality. Expect for the B&W phase where I was experimenting a lot with that color tone.
Feel free to share your best travel pictures in the comments below. And, tell us how you like to edit your travel photos
Bon Voyage!