HOW TO TAKE THE perfect PHOTO: advanced methods

Posted: 12/09/2018 | December 9th, 2018

Today, expert professional photographer Laurence Norah of discovering the Universe, continues his five-part series on taking much better travel photos. In this post, Laurence is taking it up a notch to provide some advanced travel photography methods such as long exposure shots, HDR, star shooting, as well as more!

One of the difficulties we deal with as travelers is that so many of the locations we go to have already been photographed extensively.

In today’s post, I want to show you some advanced travel photography methods that will assist you get more innovative with your travel photography. These more advanced ideas develop upon the concepts in the very first three posts in this series.

I’m going to cover four topics in this publish on advanced travel photography methods that will open up new innovative possibilities for when you’re out as well as about:
 

Table of Contents

Long-exposure Photography

Night Photography

High dynamic variety (HDR) Photography

High contrast Photography

Just click on the links above to jump direcly to that section.
 

Part 1: Long-Exposure Photography

Have you ever seen a picture of a waterfall where the water looks white as well as fluffy? Or a shot of a street at night where the vehicles have been replaced by streaks of light? Here’s an example of a waterfall to provide you an concept of what I’m speaking about:

This was shot in Glencoe, a stunning part of the Scottish highlands. As you can see, the water’s surface has a silky, flat look, as well as the waterfall itself looks more like cotton than water. Additionally, the clouds in the sky have a sense of motion.

Here’s one more shot, of the Dubai Marina at night, where you can see the vehicles have been replaced by streaks of light:

Both of these shots were accomplished utilizing the exact same technique, long-exposure photography.

I talked a bit about utilizing shutter speed in publish two of this series, as well as exactly how as well low a shutter speed can result in blurry pictures due your hand movement. Long-exposure photography is all about taking advantage of that blurry effect, however as a result of the objects in the scene instead.

You are going to requirement a tripod to make this work, as otherwise, your pictures will be blurry everywhere rather than just where you want them to be.

The trick to long-exposure photography is to put your camera in either shutter-priority or handbook mode, which will enable you to set exactly how long the camera’s shutter is open for. This will be marked as “S,” “Tv,” or “T” mode on the mode dial if your camera has one. If you’re shooting utilizing a smartphone, many recent models, such as the LG G4, likewise let you manually set the shutter speed via the camera app.

For waterfall shots, you’re looking at any type of shutter speed slower than 1/15 of a second. For traffic, it will depend upon the speed of the traffic, however you’ll requirement to shoot at speeds slower than one second. Both of the long exposure shots I’ve shared above were shot with a 30-second exposure.

If you are shooting in the daytime, you may requirement a neutral density filter in order to compensate for the amount of light offered (see the travel photography gear post, the third in the series, for more information). If you’re shooting in handbook mode, you’ll have to set the aperture to get the correct exposure. try to prevent apertures higher than f/16 though, as they frequently result in lower-quality images.

Long-exposure photography will have you looking at the world as well as movement in new ways, as well as it opens up all kind of innovative possibilities. have fun with it!
 

Part 2: night Photography

When I travel, one of my preferred things is getting far away, to the middle of nowhere, as well as just looking up at the night sky. away from the city lights, it’s is one of the most spectacular views offered to us, as well as gazing up at it always assists me gain a sense of perspective.

Of course, when I’m done looking at it, I want to try as well as catch it as a photo. This isn’t as difficult as you may believe and, apart from a tripod, doesn’t requirement a fantastic offer of costly devices to achieve. however shooting star tracks does need more believing than just pointing your camera at the sky as well as hitting the “expose” button.

There are two primary kinds of star photography. First, you can do a long-exposure shot as well as turn the stars into streaks of light, like this:

This was a two-hour exposure I shot while camping in the Western Australian outback. Yes, two hours! (You requirement a great deal of patience as well as a decent battery for long-exposure star photography.)

You can likewise do several long exposures lasting from 30 seconds to a minute as well as then stack the resulting pictures together utilizing expert software application like this. This reduces the “noise” that super-long exposures are understood for, in addition to the danger of your battery going flat mid-shoot, however it does need more work afterward.

However, most cameras won’t let you shoot for longer than 30 seconds in handbook mode. You have to switch to “BULB” mode, whereby the shutter button will stay open for as long as you hold the shutter down. Some cameras have this in handbook mode rather than a devoted BULB setting — inspect your camera handbook to discover out exactly how your design of camera works.

You are unlikely to want to stand with your finger on the shutter button for two hours, however don’t worry, you have some options. The simplest is to invest in a remote release cable, which will let you “lock” the shutter button down for as long as you want. Alternatively, if you have a more contemporary camera with Wi-Fi developed in, you may discover that there is an app that lets you manage the length of the exposure beyond 30 seconds.

Finally, think about the motion of the stars. The earth rotates from west to east, so if you want circular star trails, you’ll requirement to point your camera north or south. If you’re in the northern hemisphere, composing around the North star (which stays stationary) is a great location to start.

The other type of star picture is where you catch the night sky without motion. This will likely still need a long exposure, however one that is not so long as to result in the stars blurring from motion. around a 30-second exposure is the maximum before the movement of the stars from the earth’s rotation becomes apparent. Here’s a 30-second exposure of Venus setting in the Galápagos as an example:

The configuration is extremely similar to star path photography, in that you will requirement a tripod as well as will have to think about your composition. However, with only a 30-second exposure, you are going to requirement to boost the ISO on your camera to get as much light in as possible.

Modern cameras are capable of shooting at ISOs of 3200 as well as 6400 without introducing as well much noise into the image. In addition, you’ll want to open your aperture as wide as possible — depth of field isn’t truly a consideration when shooting the infinite! open it as wide as it’ll go, preferably in handbook mode.

In some ways, these shots are easier since you’ll be able to see the results a great deal more quickly. Here’s a shot of the stars over France:

The Milky method is an excellent subject for static star photography — it’s a natural leading line, as you can see in the shot above. This was a 30-second exposure at ISO 6400 as well as f/4, shot on a Canon 6D in handbook mode.

Once you’ve gotten the hang of fundamental star photography, you can begin to be a bit creative. At these exposures, even a bit light can make a huge difference, so you can try “painting” objects with light, by utilizing a flashlight as well as shining it on objects near you.
 

Part 3: High dynamic variety (HDR) Photography

Have you ever noticed that sometimes your camera stops working spectacularly to catch an picture as your eyes see it? For example, the sky is as well bright, or the shadows areas are as well dark?

This is since our eyes have a much higher “dynamic range” than a camera has. dynamic variety is the difference between the darkest as well as lightest part of a scene that can be observed, as well as our eyes are able to resolve a much wider variety in darkness as well as brightness than a camera can.

This is why you may end up with a shot that appears like this:

Or like this:

…when in truth — to your eyes — the scene looked more like this:

The issue is that cameras struggle to catch the full variety of the exposure, from the dark shadows with to the bright highlights. Either the sky will be a white washout, or the landscape will be dark as well as unrecognizable.

The solution is a method understood as high dynamic variety photography or HDR. This just needs you to take several photos of the exact same scene at different exposures, as well as then put them together. This is likewise understood as exposure blending.

If you have a fairly contemporary smartphone or camera, then it will most likely have an HDR mode developed in. The iPhone, in particular, has an excellent HDR mode. You can gain access to this from the settings menu in your camera or smartphone menu. On a Canon camera for example, the menu is as follows:

Using your gadget in HDR mode is extremely simple, as well as it will do whatever for you. Your gadget will take the necessary number of photos, line up them if necessary, as well as then blend them together to provide you a picture that looks more representative of the scene you saw.

The disadvantage of this is that you are leaving the camera to make all the decisions, as well as you won’t usually have the source pictures — you’ll just be provided with the final HDR image, as well as your camera will discard the interim files.

If you want more manage over the final image, then you’ll requirement to set your camera to “bracket” the exposures for you. This will enable you to take a sequence of pictures of different exposures just by holding the shutter down. To discover this mode in your camera, look in the menu for auto exposure bracketing, or AEB.

Then you’ll have to utilize computer software application to merge the pictures together into a single photo. There are a range of software application tools offered to merge your images. I utilize Lightroom, Photoshop, as well as Photomatix Pro, however there are many others out there.

Shooting several pictures at when does mean you requirement either a extremely steady hand or — you guessed it— a tripod. If your hand moves between the shots, then the pictures will likely requirement to be aligned, which doesn’t always work perfectly. In addition, be conscious of moving objects, as these can produce strange ghost impacts as the software application tries to integrate images.

HDR works finest in largely static, high-contrast scenes, especially landscapes where there isn’t much motion as well as the difference in brightness between the darkest as well as lightest parts of the scene is pronounced.
 

Part 4: High contrast Photography

Speaking of high-contrast scenes, don’t fail to remember that you can utilize these to your advantage. You don’t have to utilize HDR; instead, you can utilize all that light to produce wonderful silhouettes of your subjects.

This is a fantastic method to get a different handle a subject, as well as utilized creatively can provide you some standout images.

The shot above is the silhouette of a boat against two islands in Seychelles. shooting directly into the sun such as this means that you are going to have to choose which area of the shot you want to properly expose. If I had set up the shot so the boat was properly exposed, the sky would have been a giant white mess as a result of the light from the sun.

I could, of course, have shot an HDR image, however in this case, a silhouette of the boat as well as two islands was a more appealing composition.

Other fantastic subjects for silhouetting are people, trees…really, any type of item with a unique outline.

This kind of shooting will need a bit practice, as the camera won’t understand what kind of exposure you want. The joy of digital is that you can evaluation a shot as well as try it once again — especially in a scene like this, where you have a bit of time to get the shot right before the sun sets. Be conscious that your exposure meter may be indicating that you are over- or underexposing the scene.

The simplest method to get great results is to shoot in handbook mode as well as set whatever yourself. keep the ISO score as low as possible, as well as change your shutter speed as well as aperture according to the structure you want to achieve, thinking about the depth of field as well as any type of long-exposure impacts you may be trying to achieve.

***
I utilize all the above travel photography methods on a routine basis when I’m out as well as about in the world, looking to put a fresh point of view on a familiar scene. Admittedly, these are individually complex subjects to tackle, as well as it will take time to master each of them, however the benefits are extremely much worth it. just begin by choosing one method as well as work on it as frequently as you can. With routine practice, it will ended up being second nature as well as you can move on to another.

Travel photography is a sluggish process, however it’s a rewarding one if you’re willing to put in the work. If you aim for development as well as not perfection, you’ll be taking much better (and more advanced) travel pictures in no time!

Laurence started his journey in June 2009 after quitting the business life as well as looking for a modification of scenery. His blog, Finding the Universe, catalogs his experiences as well as is a wonderful resource for photography advice! You can likewise discover him on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
 

More travel photography Tips!

For more useful travel photography tips, be sure to inspect out the rest of Laurence’s travel photography series:

Part 1 – exactly how to Take expert travel Photos

Part 2 – exactly how to Shoot the perfect travel Photograph

Part 3 – camera Gear: exactly how to Not end Up With the wrong Equipment

Part 4 – exactly how to Take the perfect Photo: advanced Techniques

Part 5 – 7 Post-Processing tips to enhance Your travel Photographs

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