10 Tips For Taking Great Travel Photos To Frame At Home

1. Research your destination's best views to create a gallery. Before you set off on your adventure, spend some time researching the area and local attractions you will be visiting as well as places in your home you may want to create a wall gallery. When you later review photos to frame, you can create a neat collage out of all of your research.

2. Look for an interesting or unusual angle. Considering moving a bit left or right of your subject and turn the camera on an angle. Or shoot high or low by crouching down and shooting up towards the subject or standing on something taller and shooting down towards it.

3. Don't shoot all of your subjects in the center. Consider framing your subject off-center by following what is called the "rule of thirds". This is when you place your main subject roughly one third of the way from the top, the bottom or the sides of the photograph.

4. Go vertical. Turn that camera and shoot vertical shots to capture high and low. Shoot a series of verticals to later frame at home.

5. Get in close. Get in close to reveal interesting details and composition.

6. Enjoy the "magic hour". Some amazing photographs can be taken during what's known as "magic hour" - the hours immediately before or after sunrise and sunset. The light is golden at this time and the colors are more intense. I took this photo driving by the beaches in San Diego minutes after the sun had set.

7. Frame your subject. Whether you are shooting a person or a large landscape valley, look for leading lines that will give depth to your picture.

8. Showing scale. If you are shooting something large, try placing something smaller in the foreground to show the scale.

9. Turn around. Don't forget to look behind you and see what's going on. You may be surprised at what's in the other direction.

10. Consider your background. While you are focusing on your subject, don't forget to consider the background action and what you want. If you want a clear shot of a landscape, wait for the action (cars, people, etc) to get out of the way and then go for it.

Check out more photo ideas for travel from Apartment Therapy:

5.1. Take pictures at different distances. Take closeups, mid-range shots and landscapes. Invest in macro and telephoto lenses if you can.

11. When taking pictures of friends (or having them taken of yourself), get some candid or action shots. Avoid a never-ending slideshow of pictures of yourself next to landmarks, i.e., this is me at the airport, this is me by the waterfall, this is me by the sign at the famous restaurant.

12. Display them in your home with pride, but don't force a guided tour on anyone else, especially people who haven't had any fabulous vacations lately.

posted by whytephoenix on July 14th 2009 at 5:44pm
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Take your pictures "naked", without people in them. A picture of your family standing in front of the grand canyon is a snapshot. Just the grand canyon is a work of art.

posted by Zytkiewicz on July 15th 2009 at 12:54am
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If you are using a digital camera, use only the optical zoom. The digital zoom is nothing but your camera's software trying to "resize" a part of the picture--it's not actually able to see any closer than the regular zoom. You might as well just disable digital zoom, take a picture zoomed as well as you can with the optical zoom, and then use a much better piece of software to enlarge that section of your photo.

Also, if possible, take as good a quality of photo as you can--the bigger the picture is the easier it will be to resize for printing and framing. Something big sizes down much better than something small sizes up.

posted by kuroneko on July 15th 2009 at 11:36am
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I second the "naked" suggestion! I always do this when I travel.

posted by groupie on July 15th 2009 at 9:34pm
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Another fun option that a friend and I do, especially when traveling alone, is to take "feet" pictures. It all started when she was at Omaha Beach for D-Day anniversary and didn't want a picture standing smiling... it just didn't seem right. So she wrote "Omaha Beach" in the sand and took a picture with her feet in the bottom of the frame. Since then her feet have been in many famous and/or beautiful places. As long as you keep your toenails neat or like your shoes you can have a catalog of interesting pics.

Sometimes she corrals other feet into the pics... fun and memorable

posted by Domestic Intellectual on July 16th 2009 at 3:14pm
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