While you might not be able to travel as freely as you might like, it shouldn’t be too long before regular travel resumes. This means you can get back to taking stunning images to share with your online audience for your blog or profile. However, taking photos requires more than pointing and shooting, and even the best-taken pictures will benefit from additional editing.
Better Ways to Capture
Getting the right shot can be tricky, and there are several techniques you can adopt. HDR is effective for capturing a more comprehensive range of colours. The portability and affordability of drones mean you can get amazing aerial shots. And simply waiting for the right time to strike can mean the difference between mediocrity and professional-looking photography.
Learn HDR Photography
Photography aims to capture light to generate an image. However, camera lenses can only capture a certain amount of light and colour at any one time. This can mean the difference between a washed outshot or a shot so dark it isn’t worth the film it is captured on. There is, however, an excellent photography technique known as high dynamic range.
As it is known, HDR allows your DSLR camera to capture all light tones and all colours for processing by taking one shot at normal exposure, one underexposed shot, and an overexposure. These are then merged together into a single image with all colours and tones presented. The results are stunning as HDR images contrast colours perfectly.
Use Camera Drones
A few years ago, getting an aerial shot of a scene would require hiring a pilot, an aircraft and a professional photographer at a staggering cost. Then drones came along, which meant a full-sized aircraft and a pilot were no longer necessary. However, drones remained expensive for quite some time. But modern drones and their technology have improved so much that they are much more affordable and portable.
Some of the best drones available such as the DJI Mini 2 (Buy Now), are very user-friendly. So much so that you can learn to operate one in under an hour. Furthermore, commercial drones can easily integrate into smartphones for control and camera use, and some models are equipped with 4K UHD cameras to capture stills and video.
Wait for the Shot
Patience is a virtue, and waiting for the right shot is essential for taking excellent photographs. While travelling, you might be tempted to shoot anything and everything, but this is a waste of time, digital storage space and film using a traditional camera. Any great photographer will tell you that you need to pick your moments. For example, videographers for the BBC production Planet Earth have been known to wait up to 3 months for a perfect shot of an animal.
You probably don’t have that sort of time to wait for an opportunity, but you should stay patient when looking for a perfect shot. It’s better to wait for a great picture and capture the moment than to take numerous mediocre photos. You can employ various techniques, such as waiting for a person to be in the frame of a landscape shot, getting down low to capture the verticality of a scene, or waiting for the right weather and lighting conditions.
Editing Like a Pro
You may or may not be aware, but even the world’s most outstanding photographers edit their shots using software. The world’s leading expensive packages and free ones alike provide many editing tools such as HDR toning, autocorrection and filters. In addition, cropping images and considering their orientation is effective for appealing to your intended audience.
Add Software HDR
As mentioned above, HDR is an amazingly effective method of capturing vibrant hues for breathtaking images. However, DSLR and SLR HDR photography can be challenging to master, even with built-in HDR. Fortunately, you can use software programs such as Adobe Photoshop to apply HDR to your stunning photographs for enhancement.
The easiest method is to simply apply an HDR filter to an image and edit it using the intuitive controls. However, be careful as the most minor adjustments can have an enormous impact on your image. Photoshop also allows you to import your various exposures and allows merging them into a single HDR image. This method uses the same controls yet provides better image quality over a single image for manipulation.
Use Autocorrections
Many software apps such as Photoshop and GIMP provide autocorrect tools. Autocorrection is excellent for providing a balanced tone across your images, such as contrast, brightness and colour. These can be an excellent starting point before you begin further editing of your pictures and they don’t usually over filter your productions.
Overfiltering is a common issue with software manipulation, especially free or lower quality ones. Essentially will make your images look “Photoshopped” when they should appear as natural as possible. Over-filtered images lose integrity and will give an appearance of being faked which will encourage distrust. A good technique is to autocorrect your images, edit as you normally would and then dial it all back by 50%.
Consider the Profile
When editing an image, it is helpful to consider the dimensions of the finished product in relation to the intended audience and the subject matter. Choosing the correct orientation of landscape or portrait can make or break the effect of an image. Good advice when shooting is to always use landscape (unless portrait is necessary) because you can edit a photo into portrait later on. Landscape will allow you to capture more of a scene, whereas portrait will capture a taller profile.
However, if you must use portrait mode for whatever reason, then increase the shutter speed settings of your device. This will reduce blur relating to camera shake as your hand is not steady enough to hold a camera steady enough for low shutter speed. It is helpful to also consider the preferred orientation of your audience. For example, Instagram posts are generally taken in portrait to accommodate the dimensions of a mobile device. However, landscape is often used for Facebook posts.
Photo courtesy Pixabay
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