5 simple tips for spectacular summer snapshots
We all know what it’s like to come home from a dream holiday. You’re all tanned and relaxed and you can’t wait to impress your friends with photos of the wonderful buildings, beaches and beautiful girls that you’ve seen. It can be quite a disappointment to discover that most of your photos are either out of focus, overexposed, quickly shot or badly posed. You’ll be glad to hear that these problems can easily be avoided and with just a bit more forethought and effort, your acceptable snapshot can be raised to the level of art. Check out our top 5 photography tips for travellers who have booked flights to Dalaman or one of our other sun-blessed holiday destinations!
1. Choose a fascinating subject
Take a few seconds to decide what you want to capture before you point and shoot. Is it the way the sunset reflects in someone’s eyes, a sea turtle on Iztuzu Beach, the Byzantine architecture of the ruin of Kyra or the combination of sea and mountains in the background? Don’t just start taking pictures because everyone else is doing it. Try to identify the subject of your picture and you’ll see that your snaps will become more interesting. If you can’t choose one subject, you can simply take several photos.
2. Capture the moment
Taking pictures is all about capturing a moment. Unfortunately, most digital cameras suffer from shutter lag, a delay between the moment that you push the button and the moment the camera actually captures the image. Because the delay can be up to 2 seconds, digital cameras often miss the spontaneous moment. To reduce shutter lag, you can try switching off all automatic features such as red-eye reduction and face detection. A great way of capturing spontaneous moments is by experimenting with the burst or continuous shooting mode on your camera. This will turn your camera into a machine gun and is superb when you’re trying to shoot playing children, animals and people doing sports.
3. Create a compelling composition
The easiest way to create a compelling composition is by imagining there is a noughts and crosses grid on the LCD screen of your camera. Try to make the horizon level with one of the horizontal lines. It’s always good to have one clear focal point where the eye can rest, such as a single tree, a boat or a bird. Your snapshot becomes more enticing when this focal point is not in the centre of the image but at one of the intersections of the grid lines.
4. Focus on faces
The least interesting holiday snaps are usually the ones of a famous landmark with a group of tourists in front of it. Why? Because the people have been reduced to an anonymous group of people with unrecognizable, overexposed faces. This happens because the photographer had walk away from the subject in order to get the full building in the picture. All you need to do to improve these pictures is taking your companions with you while you walk backwards. It’s fine if you can only see them from their hips in the viewer of your camera! Make sure the focus is on the people, not on the background!
5. Find the right light
The great thing about digital cameras is that you can check the colour and brightness of faces after the first shot. If the sun is too bright, maybe you can move to the shadow side of the street or adjust the settings of your camera. If there are harsh dark shadows under their noses and chins, use your built-in flash. It will put detail back into the shadow areas and will add a sparkle to their eyes.
