Travel photography has seen a huge rise in popularity in the last ten years or so. This is because there has been a surge of affordable professional standard cameras, and so it is not just the professionals who can get amazing looking photographs of their travels. There are many reasons for taking photos of your journeys, maybe just to prove you've been there or to solidify a memory, but some have sought to do it as an art and a profession. To do this, a nice SLR will only take you part of the way, but this article will point you in the direction of the rest.
Before anything else it is vital that you come into possession of a decent camera and the knowledge of how to use it. Digital SLRs are the way to go for this because film can get very expensive in the long term, and the ability to look at your pictures straight away makes it easier to learn. Rather than sticking with the extremely specific fixed focal length lens your camera probably came with, you should also invest in a more versatile lens.
On a par with owning the equipment is having a good knowledge of it. Spend some quality time with the manual and play around with the settings, getting a feel for the effect aperture, shutter speed and ISO (film speed) has on the end result, as well as their relationship with each other.
Once you've got a feel for the equipment it's just about going out to some amazing places and taking a lot of photographs. The skills you pick up just doing the photographs are far more valuable than any you read about, but there are some things you can be told. For example, you should stick to mornings and late afternoons for shooting, because the long shadows will make any scene much more dramatic, and pictures at noon tend to look flat. Another thing to remember is to use your environment. Tree stumps or walls can be used as make shift tri pods, and no matter how silly you look you should try taking a photo from all angles.
Practice makes perfect with this, like with many things. The more you photograph in different conditions the faster you will learn and the better you will become at improvising. At some point along the line you will start seeing everything through a lens.
Before anything else it is vital that you come into possession of a decent camera and the knowledge of how to use it. Digital SLRs are the way to go for this because film can get very expensive in the long term, and the ability to look at your pictures straight away makes it easier to learn. Rather than sticking with the extremely specific fixed focal length lens your camera probably came with, you should also invest in a more versatile lens.
On a par with owning the equipment is having a good knowledge of it. Spend some quality time with the manual and play around with the settings, getting a feel for the effect aperture, shutter speed and ISO (film speed) has on the end result, as well as their relationship with each other.
Once you've got a feel for the equipment it's just about going out to some amazing places and taking a lot of photographs. The skills you pick up just doing the photographs are far more valuable than any you read about, but there are some things you can be told. For example, you should stick to mornings and late afternoons for shooting, because the long shadows will make any scene much more dramatic, and pictures at noon tend to look flat. Another thing to remember is to use your environment. Tree stumps or walls can be used as make shift tri pods, and no matter how silly you look you should try taking a photo from all angles.
Practice makes perfect with this, like with many things. The more you photograph in different conditions the faster you will learn and the better you will become at improvising. At some point along the line you will start seeing everything through a lens.
No comments:
Post a Comment