[Photography] 5 Simple Tips to Improve Your Travel Photos

There is no doubt that travel photography is an incredibly rewarding profession because you have an opportunity to tell stories through your own pictures. But it is also one of the most challenging genres to master. Besides having to be able to photograph everything from people and architecture, to food and landscapes, you are also often at the mercy of the elements. Getting a great travel photo isn’t easy and it often doesn’t come about by luck. You have to be willing to work hard to capture the shot that you want. Here are 5 simple tips to help you improve your travel photos:

1. Do your research

Fortunately, we live in a time when researching locations is easier than ever, so don’t just rely on turning up somewhere and hope to capture a great shot – do your research before you leave. Put together a shot list (things you want to photograph) and work out what the best time of day is to photograph it. Go onto Google maps and work out the best location to photograph from, work out sunrise and sunset times, and have a look at photos in image libraries that already exist to get a sense of what is already out there. If you have time, go and scout the location first hand. The more you know about the place the more chance you have of capturing a great photo.

2. Don’t settle for your first photo

I rarely find that the first photo I take of a place is the one that turns out to be the best. So instead of snapping a few quick photos and moving on, take your time and have a good look around. Sit down and just observe the view and try to take it in. Think about what story you are hoping to tell with the photo. And don’t forget to move around and look at things from different angles.

The photo on the left was my first shot. On the right was after around 20 mins and several shots later.

The shot on the left is nice but too generic. The shot on the right taken after waiting for a while tells a much better story.

3. Think about light

Light is one of the most important elements of a photo and can really help set the mood and tell a story. If you do your research you’ll have a good idea of the best time to photograph at that location. But when you are there, think about what the light is doing. Is it harsh or a soft light? Which direction is it coming from? How does it help light up or affect your subject? All of these can influence what your final photo will look like. And if you find that the light isn’t right, be prepared to come back (if possible).

The light coming from the side helps to light the landscape beautifuly.

4. Try the unusual

You’ve probably heard the saying “thinking outside the box”. Well; it’s never been truer than in this day and age. Just searching for the “Eiffel Tower” on Getty Images returned over 17,500 photos! The challenge for us photographers is to try and find new and creative ways of showing the same locations. So when you are at that famous landmark or beautiful landscape, think about what would make it unique? Would it be including people in the image? Or just an unusual angle? Maybe a different time of the day? Of course this is again where your research can help as you would know what already exists.

Slightly different shot than the traditional shot of the interior of the church

The photo still says car but isn’t the normal exterior shot.

5. Find your style

One of the things I did when I was starting out was to cut out photos which I thought were great from magazines and newspapers. After a while, when I had a big pile, I placed them all out on a table, along with some of my own favourite photos I had taken and immediately saw a similar style and feel to them all. The great thing about photography is that there isn’t a right or wrong style, but just what feels right with you. So try to find your own style as this will help your photos stand out from others.

Even the most seasoned professionals are continuously developing and improving their skills, but using these 5 simple tips will help you on your way.

Don’t forget to share your tips below.

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[Photography] Interview: Oded Wagenstein – Author of Snapn Travel Guide and dPS Writer

Oded Wagenstein is a travel photographer and writer. He’s built a reputation taking intimate portraits from around the world and is a regular contributor to National Geographic Traveler magazine (Hebrew edition).

Regular readers will be familiar with Oded’s wonderful photography and articles. We’re interviewing him here at dPS because we have just published his new ebook about travel photography.

It’s called Snapn Travel – A lifetime of travel memories in a snap, and it’s available from our sister site Snapn Guides. It’s a fantastic ebook that will help any photographer who is planning a trip to another country to take better photos while they are there.

In Snapn Travel Oded writes about the importance of creating images that tell stories. He explores the process that he undertakes on any travel assignment, from initial research to working in the field, to come away with powerful and evocative images. We’ll delve a little deeper into some of those topics in this interview.

The Interview

In your ebook you start by saying that travel photography is all about portraying the stories and emotions we find during our journeys. Can you elaborate on those ideas? How does one go from taking snapshots of places you see on your travels to taking photos that make full use of emotion and story?

Oded: Travel photography is almost as old as photography itself. Magazines and commercial photo publishers used to send travel photographers like Francis Bedford and James Ricalton to “exotic” places in the east to bring back some of that “oriental flavor” that everyone in the west was so badly after in the nineteenth century. Even until recently, if you visited a remote tribe in Africa and got an image of someone with a bone through his nose, you got yourself a “worthy” image.

But those days are over! We live in an era of digital photography, where cameras are so common, that even this tribe might have its own smartphone camera. Today, it is really hard to create fresh images that the world hasn’t yet seen. So, from my point of view, today, an image alone is not enough, as you must be able to tell a visual story. Don’t show me India, I know how India looks, tell me how traveling in India felt for you. If you want to sum up my philosophy: shoot what you feel and make your viewer feel the same.

A lot of your photos are portraits. How do you find willing subjects for your portraits when travelling?

Oded: Portrait photography is a “give and take” relationship, not “take and take”. I try to make it as fun as possible for the person I photograph. If he wants to tell me a story, I listen, and always do my best to send the photo to him. I make the process a conversation, and not a photo shoot. This lets my subject forget about the camera.

One of the most important skills I learned is to ask a person a question, shoot while he’s answering, and while I’m thinking about the next question. This makes everything natural and “flow”. Portrait photography is so much more than controlling aperture and shutter speed.

How do you overcome obstacles such as language differences or suspicion of foreigners?

Oded: I always travel with a fixer, who is a local that can serve as a guide and translator.

How do you become involved with the people that you meet? How do you come across as a traveller who is genuinely interested in people rather than a tourist who perhaps sees the local people as little more than subject for photos?

Oded: First, as obvious as it may sound, I am really interested in them. The image for me is just a byproduct: a nice byproduct, but not the goal. I am an image maker because the camera helps me “see” the world in a better way. It lets me start a conversation with a stranger, and maybe have a cup of tea with them. The camera is my bridge to the world and besides being interested in the person’s story, I always try to get inside the story and not watch it from outside. For example, once I was invited to a local Tajik wedding. I took a few pictures but then put the camera down and got on the dance floor. The next time I took out my camera, the pictures were much better.

Can you talk us through the differences between working on an official magazine shoot and going to a location purely under your own initiative?

Oded: I treat both scenarios exactly the same way. In both, the responsibility to come back with the best results is all on the photographer’s shoulders and no one can tell you exactly what to shoot and where to go. The magazine can help you with ideas or hiring a fixer (local guide), but you are your own boss, for better and for worst.

I do my visual research and learn about the culture (history, food, music, religion, etc.). On the ground, I hire a fixer and do my best to come back with the best images, even if it takes me long days, hard walks, and enduring extreme weather.

In my travel photography workshops, I always refer my students to the “client”. From my point of view, we all, professional and amateurs alike, have clients. Our clients are our viewers and friends, and I treat my Facebook viewers and my magazine editor with the same amount of effort and professionalism.

I like this piece of advice: “Discover things not commonly photographed and your stories will always be two steps ahead of the crowd.” Can you explain this in a little more depth? How do you find the things that are not commonly photographed?

Oded: You don’t have to travel far, or trek for miles, to find those places. You just need to think outside the box. For example, I did a story not long ago on Bollywood. India is so complex and rich, but I think that we always see the same things about the country: poor people in really colorful clothes. So I wanted to show a different side of India: rich and glamorous.

My students struggle to find interesting things to photograph in their own towns. And I tell them that one’s ordinary breakfast or road to work is another’s “exotic” country.

Last year I spent a week in the north of New Zealand’s South Island. I took some landscape photos but I wasn’t really happy with the results. It made me realixe just how hard landscape photography can be – you’re relying on the weather and light to do its part, and in many ways as a photographer, your hands are tied. You have to work with the landscape as it is, and (digital manipulation aside) there is nothing you can do to change it. Bearing in mind there isn’t much happening in a cultural sense in this part of the world, what advice would you give me if I was to go back to the same place and try again? How can I move from taking uninspiring landscape photos to finding and telling an interesting story?

Oded: This is a good question. Here you have two approaches:

The passive approach, or coming at the right time. Just come in the right season, the right day, at the right time. Say a cloudy winter day with golden rays of sunrise.

The active approach, or creating the right time. Good lighting is always needed, but bring a tripod, a good looking hat, a backpack, and capture yourself enjoying the view. You will see how the image becomes better because you added a “main hero” to the image and because people love watching other people. Don’t avoid people in your landscape photography, that’s my advice.

Traveling to a distant and exotic location is one thing, but given that most people can only spend a short time of the year doing this, what about the idea of travel photography in your own back yard?

Oded: Buy the Lonely Planet guide (or any other guide book) on your own country and travel by it. Take a silly tourist’s hat and view some postcards. See your own back yard as a tourist. Think of places you have special access to – maybe there is an interesting story or a person in your family (I have a few), maybe your job is not ordinary, and maybe your mother just cooked a local dish that I, as a foreigner, would love to see.

Do you have any questions for Oded about travel photography? Please let us know in the comments. And don’t forget to check out Snapn Travel – A lifetime of travel memories in a snap.

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[Photography] Understanding Masking in Photoshop

Masking is one of those techniques that will change the way you use Photoshop. Understanding this technique can help you to jump from being a beginner level Photoshop user, to a more advanced one. In this article, I will explain how masking really works in Photoshop, its few key concepts, and how Masking helps you to perform non-destructive editing.

The skills you need to get started masking in Photoshop are being able to use the brush tool to paint color, understand two colors black and white, and knowledge of how layers work in Photoshop, which I assume you have very sound knowledge on.

What is masking what does it do in Photoshop?

If you can relate the word masking with the mask, it may make some sense. Why do we use a mask, to cover the face, right? So why would we use masking on a layer, to cover or uncover the content of any layer. With a mask you can control the transparency of a layer. But that is what opacity and fill is for, right? Yes, opacity and fill do control the transparency, but it works for whole layer. What if you would like to have only the right part to be transparent and the left part to be completely visible? That’s when masking comes into play.

Masking works in two ways. First, you simply add a mask on any layer by clicking the third option on the bottom of layer palette. The other way is by using adjustment layers, which always comes with a mask.

This image shows a layer with no mask applied. I have highlighted the third option on the layer palette. That is where you add a mask.

Clicking on the mask option will create a white layer mask on the layer selected.

This image shows an adjustment layer. They help you to perform non-destructive editing, and every adjustment layer created this way, comes with a white mask.

This shows that a new curve adjustment layer has been applied with the white mask.

While working with masking please remember that white shows the content where as black hides. If your mask is white, the mask is transparent and the layer is fully revealed, whereas if the mask is black it is opaque and the layer below will show through. Below are a few examples that will help you to understand masking better.

A handy saying to help you remember: white reveals, black conceals

The image above shows, that the white mask reveals the content of the layer it is affecting. I duplicated the background layer and desaturated it with Shift+Command+U on a Mac (Shift+Control+U on PC).

With Ctrl/Cmd+I, you can invert the white mask into a black one. Since black hides the effects, the image has now been changed from back and white to color, from its original state (the layer below is now visible)

When you first add a mask it will initially be white, but you can change it into black either by inverting the mask, Cmd/Ctrl+I, or you can fill with black or white. Alternately, by simply pressing Alt while clicking to create the mask would also result in a black mask.

Additional tip

• Step 1. First click D on your keyboard (default), which will fill your background color with white, and foreground color with black.


• Step 2 Select the mask


• Step 3 Press ALT+Backspace to fill with the foreground color (black) and Ctrl+Backspace for to fill with the background colour (white). You can use X to swap the foreground and background colors.

You can now paint on the mask with the brush key selected. Make sure your foreground color is opposite to the color of the mask. If you are painting with black on a white mask, the content of that part of layer is becoming transparent while the white parts remain as is. If you are painting white over a black mask, then that part would be back to its original form. You can play around with the percentage of fill and opacity to get more control over your workflow.

Here I painted the guitar with a black brush over the white mask, resulting in the visibility of color from the layer below.

Additional tip

Simply press your number on the number pad and your opacity will change as per. If you press shift plus the number, then its fill will change.

• 4=40%


• 4+9= 49%


• 0+4 = 4 %

Do you have any other masking tips and tricks? Please share in the comments below if you do, or if you have any questions.

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[Photography] Fuji X-T1 Versus X-E2 – Which Comes Out on Top?

This video by Munetake Kayo over at BigHeadTaco compares some of the features of both of these popular Fuji mirrorless cameras.

If you’re considering getting a more compact camera and downsizing from a DSLR, or maybe upgrading from a point and shoot camera – you might end up looking at one of these Fuji cameras.

I know for me, as a previous film shooter, the X-T1 has a lot of appeal and it currently sitting on my list to get. So I was interested to see this comparison and it actually solidified my choice.

Check out the Fuji X-T1 versus X-E2 in the video review and see what you think

Not convinced? Here’s a review of the X-T1 by dPS writer Paul Burwell.

So are you ready to get either of them? What are you shooting with?

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[Photography] What’s Really Missing from Your Photographs?

Ever felt that your images are missing a certain je-ne-sais-quoi? I remember when I was a proud young shooter, I showed my images to my photography 101 teacher, ready for him to crown me the next best photographer he’s ever seen (Hey I was young). He looked at them, and politely said “They are coming along”.

What. The. Heck dude!? I looked at him in disbelief. I tried some Jedi mind tricks on him; trying to juice some positive note out of him. After a while, it was evident he didn’t want to offend me, I tried pressing him a last time and he gave me the same answer…that my photos were coming along. After thanking him I went my own way, still fooling myself that my stuff I was amazing.

Truth is, he was right, I felt there was something missing from my photographs, I couldn’t put my finger on it, but I knew it. I could see it in other’s images but not mine. I knew my technical photography, I knew the subtleties of composition, I was a graphic designer after all, but there was something that eluded me in photography and I couldn’t figure out what…until something terrible happened.

RRrrrring! A few years ago, I got a call from my aunt, she asked me to call my brother. Apparently my mom had some health issues. I was cool about it, my mom was a cancer survivor, and she sometimes failed here and there, having seizure but never anything major. I dialled my brother promptly.

Yo man! Heard there’s something wrong with mom, what’s up? I asked, ready for the news that she had a seizure episode or something.

He quickly blurted out three words in a rage. I heard the three words I was always afraid of hearing. She. Is. Dead…………. I dreaded hearing those words for years, ever since I knew she had cancer when I was 10.

I remember going to her room hundreds of times, just making sure that her belly was going up and down, meaning she was breathing, still alive. Mental preparedness didn’t mean jack in that moment. She survived cancer, but the Haitian earthquake claimed her.

Typical image before my mom passed away

Way to go brother to break the news, right, right? But I’m digressing. So, why am I telling you this? Well, after the storm calmed a bit, eventually, it dawned on me: I never made any photographs of her.

Before my mother went back to Haiti, she was in the US, but instead of spending time making photos of her, I chose instead to take pictures of buildings and flowers. I then understood something a little too late: My photographs didn’t mean anything to me. I shot because I saw other people shooting (thanks internet!), not because I cared for what I was doing. That “thing” I was missing? It was simple: connection. Connection to my work. I could have made a photograph of my mother that showed how much I loved her, how much I cared. A photograph that only I could have made, but I kept shooting things I didn’t care about.

Please don’t misunderstand, I’m not putting down making photos of flowers and buildings, I’m only saying to be emotionally connected with what you are doing. If you find yourself into photos of flowers and whatnot, by all means do it! Many photographers did, especially later in their life. You have to find your connection to your work. If you think that many landscape photographers fall short of Ansel Adam’s work, it’s really not because he had somehow special gear, it’s because he had a strong, borderline religious connection with Yosemite National Park, he came alive when he was there. Most modern landscape photographers are only interested in the physical landscape, Ansel was interested on making images that recreated the sense of awe and majesty that he felt.

It’s not the technical, the gear, the sharpness that will make you a better photographer. It’s your connection to your work. That’s the magic that no one can replicate. So what’s really missing from your photography? You. Nothing more and nothing less. So far we can’t just plug our brains into another’s to transfer the feelings and emotions we are feeling inside, but can hardly express with words. The closest thing we have to transferring our emotions directly is photography (or art in general), so why spend our time shooting things we don’t care about in the first place?

You can’t fake connection, shooting something that doesn’t mean anything to you will show in the work. What we feel while looking at a photograph is proportional to what the photographer felt when making it…..the big idea is that connection transcends the photograph.

When someone looks at your images, do they see something distinctively you or do they see yet another photographer? It might be easy to get likes by shooting what is expected of a photographer, but it’s much more rewarding to be yourself and connected to your work as a photographer. Trust me, been there, done that!

Be yourself, stay focused and keep on shooting.

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