Snappy tips for travel photos

By ANDREW MARSHALL and LEANNE WALKER

Whether you are going to Madrid, Melbourne, Marrakesh or Mali, travel offers never-ending photo opportunities. Here are some ways to help you to achieve those stunning images to take back home.

Planning & preparation

Put yourself in the picture: Research your intended destinations thoroughly. The reference section of your local library is a good place to start. Check out guidebooks such as Lonely Planet, Let's Go and the Handbook series which are full of useful information, such as locations, dates of events and festivals to help to liven up your travel pictures.

Bridge those barriers: Learn some simple phrases in the language of the country you are visiting as this will help, particularly with people shots. Berlitz and Lonely Planet publish good phrasebooks on most destinations.

Dressing down: Before leaving home, disguise expensive-looking camera bags and equipment - it doesn't pay to advertise. Try putting an outer shell of a simple travel bag over your camera bag.

Don't be caught out: Test all cameras and lenses, especially new purchases, weeks before departure to make absolutely sure everything is working.

Ease the pain: Give some thought to how you will carry your gear. You'll spend a lot of time on your feet and, by afternoon, a shoulder bag can be a real pain in the neck. Consider a small backpack if you have lots of gear. A small bumbag is convenient for a body and lens or a compact camera.

Stock up: Decide on negative or slide film. Buy your favourite film at home as it may be unavailable, badly stored or more expensive in the places you are going. A medium range film such as ISO 100 will cover most situations. Faster films such as ISO 200 and 400 are useful for low light.

Equipment

Compact or SLR, film or digital? The choice boils down to what suits you best. If you are the aim-and-shoot, minimum-fuss and carry-little type, then you can't beat an auto-focus compact with zoom lens for travelling. The quality is very good these days.

Digital cameras are improving all the time, and there are some good models on the market. If you require more control, creative effects, a wider range of lenses, filters and accessories, then an SLR (single lens reflex) camera system may be more to your liking. Canon and Nikon have digital SLRs if you can afford them.

Lenses: In terms of lenses, having wide angle to telephoto coverage will meet most of your needs and allow a variety of compositions. This range could be achieved by a 28-70mm zoom and a 70-210 zoom.

Enrich those colours: Pack a polarising filter to deepen blue skies and give your travel pictures impact. An 81A warming filter is useful for enhancing natural light and warming up overcast days. Try holding filters over the lenses of compact cameras.

Get some support: A tripod is the key to pin-sharp shots. A cheap, handy alternative is a hand-size bean bag for the camera to rest on.

Flash in the pan: Take a small flash unit for those indoor and evening pictures. Buy a bracket to mount to one side of your camera and this will reduce the dreaded red-eye effect in portraits. Some compacts have a red-eye reduction mode.

Travel light: Try not to be too extravagant with your equipment; you need to be able to carry your kit comfortably all day.

Covering a destination

The whole picture: To create well-rounded coverage of a destination, take the approach of making a motion picture. First, shoot establishing images: pictures of the cities and countryside that identify a place. Next, take shots of people, local activities and architecture.

Close-up and detail photographs round out the coverage. Remember to move around your subjects and experiment with different viewpoints and lenses.

Quality of light: The magic times of early morning and late afternoon provide the most appealing and dramatic light for photography.

However, the middle of the day is still okay; you just have to work harder in the way you compose a shot or where you take it from. Try concentrating on details and close-ups.

Develop a theme: Ongoing photographic themes can add fun and a sense of purpose and novelty to your travels. Doors in Portugal, pub signs in Britain or people at work - the possibilities are endless.

Technique

Check out the scene: Get into the habit of double-checking for cluttered and distracting backgrounds.

Unwanted growths: Not only hair grows out of people's heads. Only a small change in viewpoint can eliminate "unwanted growths" like lamp posts, signs and trees.

Move in close: When photographing markets, for example, fill the frame with those colourful fruits, vegetables and rows of fish for added impact.

The eyes have it: Remember with portraits and wildlife to focus on the eyes. If they are sharp then the photo will look right.

The Guillotine effect: The viewfinder of a compact camera is slightly higher and off-centre compared to the lens. This can cause the heads and arms of your subjects to be chopped off when you move in too close. To avoid this, hold the camera a little higher and over to the same side as the viewfinder.

The rule of two-thirds: Instead of placing your horizon through the centre of the frame, give the land two-thirds or the sky two-thirds of the frame.

Frame it: Looking through an empty 35mm slide mount is excellent for previewing a scene's potential.

Still those shakes: When hand-holding an SLR camera, for a sharp result a good yardstick is to use the shutter speed closest to the focal length of the lens or greater. If using a 50mm lens for example, use a minimum of 1/60th shutter speed. For a 105mm lens use a 1/125th and so on.

Capture local character: For head and shoulders portraits use a telephoto from 85-135mm and set a wide aperture such as f4 to throw the background out of focus. Alternatively, use a wide angle lens like a 28mm or 35mm to take environmental portraits that tell a story about your subject.

Photo etiquette

Tact and sensitivity: Instead of sneaking around taking candids with a telephoto lens, which can cause offence, approach your subject with a smile and simply ask. Most people will gladly oblige. In some countries you may be asked for money in exchange for a photo. If this happens, either politely decline or agree on a price to avoid problems later. When you pay, it helps to have low denomination coins and notes.