Travel Photography Tip #1
 

FROM DUSK 'TIL DAWN: Don’t put away the camera come sundown, because the deep azure glow of twilight and colorful city lights at night are a photographer’s dream canvas. You will need a tripod because the exposure times (ranging from approximately a half-second to 90 seconds) will be too long for handheld shots. Set the aperture to a high number, say f/16, and the entire picture (from left to right and top to bottom) will be tack sharp. Look for those cityscapes that skirt a body of water for some brilliant reflections. If reflections are dull or largely non-existent, exclude most of the water from the composed scene. With pretty city lights revealing almost every hue in the color spectrum, photographing at dusk and night will produce some gorgeous imagery.

pleaae keep these tips coming, as a new convert to photography in general and to travel photography, great tips.

would be interested in in what scene apeture would be necessary ie: cloudy wind blown day to make a feature of the clouds or sea spray etc with the time lapse etc... as you tell new at this so keep your tips coming!!

surprisealot: Did you notice the thread is a year old? The OP was an advertiser who's account was nuked by the forum monitors.

thanks janisj, I should pay attention to details.

shouldn't the post be taken down as well, if that was the case?

janisj do you perhaps have tips on travel photography in step format?

i will be checking other posts in the photography forum as well

Tip 1A: Rain and puddles enhance night shots, reflecting lights.

surprisealot - what do you mean by "time lapse" effect?

Do you want a series of photos that show the movement of the wave/cloud? In that case, you just need to take the photos from the same exact position (setting up on a tripod for the duration will be very helpful) staggered by a set time. For clouds, you may take one photo every 5 minutes for an hour to show the movement. For waves, the staggering would be a much shorter time frame.

If you want a single photo to show an effect that emphasizes the movement of the sea spray, then you want to use a slow shutter speed. The slower the shutter speed, the more misty/frothy the spray will look. To get the slow shutter speed, you'll need a high f-stop (aperture). Depending on the time of day, you may need an ND filter to block out more light. You'll also want to use a tripod to eliminate camera shake.

Surprisealot, did you notice that Fodors has an entire section on this topic?

http://www.fodors.com/travel-photography/

kidding me!?!

I think I need to search the forums better!

-please don't say it is obvious to find!! hahaha

lol

Great tips here, but mostly for professionals I guess . Any tips for an amateur like me, I do not have a tri pod and a professional camera but I do have a sony digital semi professional type

Please see the section of Fodors I referenced above. These are tips for anyone.

You could start with Classic Vacation Shots and then Photo Composition Rules. I think some of the best tips to make photos more interesting have to do with putting something in the foreground and trying to "tell a story" with the photo. And the nicest light for landscapes is around sunrise and an hour or so before sunset.

Digital cameras set on auto or programmed scene modes can remove many of the technical issues you may not be ready to deal with right now. Reading the manual that came with the camera and playing around a bit before you leave is always a good idea. After you own the camera a while you may want to dip back into the manual and experiment with fixed aperture or shutter speed settings so you can get some different effects with blurred backgrounds or running water that can make your shots more "artsy".

shootingstar - if your camera has a manual setting option (or "aperture priority" or "shutter priority" setting), then you can do these tips also. I used to do them with my Canon Powershot G6.

Is there anything in particular that you want tips for? As mlgb says, reading your camera manual and checking out what setting options are available to you can do a lot for your photography.

Some basic tips I was told when I started:

When you are ready to take the photo, get closer, then get closer, then get closer again, then take the photo. The meaning is that often we try to capture "everything" and the photo ends up so-so. But if you get in real close, you can often capture yourself a really amazing shot.

Try to take the best photo you can out of the camera first, then consider photo editing to enhance it. The meaning on this is that a crappy photo will be a crappy photo no matter what "artistic filter" you apply. Make the effort to get a good photo at the outset and use photoshop to enhance it, not "fix" it.

Find yourself a group of photographers you admire and ask them to critique your work. Listen to what they say objectively and ask them "what could I have done to make this photo better?" When they tell you, go try it.