photo composition on the road: how to set up travel photos

Composition on the Road

Composition on the Road

how to set up great shots when you don't have time for setup

Your presenter is

not an expert

@ImpressionOne

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Browse my original travel blog:www.impression1.net/

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Some of my favourite photos:

my best composition examples

Cardinal Rule:EDIT EDIT

EDIT

4 days in Las Vegas

500 photos (125 photos/day)kept 150 photos= deleted 350 photos that didn’t pass my standards

*set your bar exceptionally high for the photos you keep

Three Scenarios

1) Urban settings

2) Crowds

3) People you’re traveling with

#1Urban

Settings

1) Take lots and lots and lots of the same shots. One will be perfect.

2) Keep a close eye of the edges of your frame: don’t cut out essential parts of buildings and backgrounds

3) Look for interesting lines within buildings/towers/trees/people and use those to frame the shot

4) Move yourself to position your subject

keep an eye for the edges of photos:I didn’t cut off the top of this building

look for neat angles to frame your shot

look for neat angles to frame your shot

keep an eye for the edges of photos:I didn’t cut off the name “Rectory” on the building

position yourself to align your subject:I couldn’t move the tricycle, so I moved myself to centre the tricycle in the window pane

look for neat angles to frame your shot:I walked around to the back of the Capitol building and shot it from the side

look for lines in buildings to follow: I kept the edges of the arches of the Eiffel tower

look for neat angles to frame your shot:I used this pool to create a foreground for the Louvre Pyramid

keep an eye for the edges of photos:I didn’t cut off the words in the “Moulin Rouge” sign

look for neat angles to frame your shot:I used the lawn to create a foreground for the lake at Versailles

position yourself to align your subject:I moved around until the “Tate Modern” sign fit within the bridge opening

look for neat angles to frame your shot:I used this small park to create a foreground for Buckingham Palace

position yourself to align your subject:I moved around until the statue of Saint Peter was framed in front of the Vatican

#1Urban

Settings: Continued

5) Stand in the middle of urban scenes:I love (safely) getting into the middle of roads

6) Crop out the stuff you don’t want (roads/people/etc) by cutting out the bottoms/tops of photos: results are impressive

Crop out stuff you don’t want:I moved the camera up and cut off the crowds below the pagoda in Burma

Crop out stuff you don’t want:I moved the camera up and cut off the street around Westminster Abbey

Crop out stuff you don’t want:I moved the camera up and cut off the crowds below Notre Dame

Crop out stuff you don’t want:I moved the camera up and cut off the streets in Hong Kong to focus on the living conditions

Stand safely in the middle of urban scenes: traffic islands work great! It looks amazing when you stand in the middle of a street

Stand safely in the middle of urban scenes: be very careful taking photos while crossing on a red light

#2Crowds

1) Stick your hand up and point the camera down at the crowd

Result: a shot of the top of the crowd that makes it look like a sea of people

2) Don’t cut off people’s legs. Crowds look great when you can see them walking

3) Capture a crowd doing something: like shopping in a market: get inside the crowd

Don’t cut off people’s legs:crowds look great when you can see them walking

Step back from crowds to capture their relation to the scene

Don’t cut off people’s legs:crowds look great when you can see them walking

Stick your hand up and tilt the camera down to capture the tops of crowds and make them look like a sea of people

Capture what the crowd is doing

Capture what the crowd is doing

Don’t cut off people’s legs:crowds look great when you can see them walking

#2Crowds

4) If you’re really lucky: get the crowd to interact with you

#3People you’re traveling with

1) Walk ahead of behind your friends so you can place them within a scene.

2) Either frame theme tight (portrait) or get their whole body: don’t cut off legs/feet.

Walk ahead or behind your friends to capture them within the context of a scene

Don’t cut off feet/legs: show their whole body within a scene

Walk ahead or behind your friends to capture them within the context of a scene

If you aren’t capturing their whole body, crop nice and tight to show emotion

Thank You