25
Photography News | Issue 56 | photographynews.co.uk
Technique
3 Good travel pictures often have a strong sense of place; clear and simple visual clues about where they were taken that’ll put the viewer in your shoes. This can come from many things including iconic buildings and monuments, famous landmarks, local dress... and also language, in the form of signs. Try to include one or more of these elements and you’ll instantly add local flavour to your images. The shot below of the Berlin underground is a good example; imagine it without the signs in German, and it could be anywhere; but with them it’s immediately clear where you are. Taken handheld, in shutter-priority mode (S Get some local flavour
Get creativewith crowds
or Tv on the mode dial), I used a shutter speed of 1/10sec, meaning I could rely on holding the camera still enough to keep the majority of the scene sharp while the moving train became a blur. Good travel pictures often have a strong sense of place: clear visual clues about where they were taken
Above Multiple shots from the same position were combined to achieve this ghosting effect.
4 Depending on your photographic outlook, crowds can either be a blessing or a curse. Most of the time, it has to be said, they do get in the way of a beauty spot, or pleasing architecture. But treated in the right way, crowds can also make a scene more interesting, or even be a good subject in themselves. For example, all you need to do is combine a crowded scene with multiple exposures and Photoshop. Here, at one of Berlin’s busiest stations, I noticed the passenger wearing red was engrossed in her phone. She wasn’t moving as much as the other passengers either, so I
decided to contrast her static pose with them. I didn’t have time to set up a tripod, so instead shot four images, handheld, each one a few seconds apart. Loading these into Photoshop, I used File>Scripts>Load files into Stack, taking the four pictures and placing them in a new file as layers. Next, I used Edit>Auto Align Layers to sync the four, removing slight differences in framing. Finally, in the Layers palette, I lowered the Opacity on the top three layers, letting most of the figures ghost out, while the static subject remained sharp. Any minor shifts in her movement, I removed on the individual layers with the Eraser tool.
Above In this picture of the Berlin underground, the station name and the information signs in German provide immediate orientation for the viewer.
in Start a travel project
Above Even simple scenes can take on a greater level of interest when shot in a similar style and grouped as part of a series.
5 One of the most rewarding things to do while you’re away with your camera is to follow a project. It doesn’t need to be huge undertaking, and can last as long as you like. All you need to do is set a theme or subject, and stick to it, creating a series of similar images. They
don’t even have to be great on their own; the sum being greater than the parts. Wandering around Berlin, I began to notice, as in many European cities, the number of buildings that had tunnels under them leading to courtyards or garages; each one a leading to the light. I decided to shoot them as I found them,
stopping for a moment at each gate and trying to shoot them in a consistent way. Consistency really helps with a series of images like this; for instance, each time I found an example, I switched to a square framing on the camera, shot in aperture- priority (A or Av on the mode dial) at f/5.6 focused on the end of the tunnel.
All you need to do is set a theme or subject and stick to it, creating a series of images
Powered by FlippingBook