Travel Photography Tips for Beginners: How to Make the Most of Your Photos

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Traveling is an eye-opening experience that allows us to visit beautiful places, try exotic foods, meet new people, learn about foreign cultures, and make unforgettable memories. But how do we ensure those memories and experiences stay with us forever? By taking photos while we travel!

In the past, you needed a dedicated camera to take good travel photos, but not anymore. Thanks to the rise of smartphones with built-in high-resolution cameras, anyone can take great photos nowadays. That said, we still recommend investing in a DSLR or mirrorless camera for traveling if you are serious about photography and want to grow as a photographer.

In this article, we’ll share five travel photography tips for beginners designed to improve your skills and help you make the most of your photos. We’ll cover various topics, including planning and packing for a trip, the best camera settings for travel photography, how to display your travel photos once you’ve returned home, and more.

OK, what are we waiting for? It’s time to dive in and discover how to start taking better travel photos today!

Check out the video above by Andrew Lanxon Photography to learn how a professional travel photographer takes his best photos when on vacation.

Travel Photography Tips for Beginners: Make a Plan Before You Travel
Travel Photography Tips for Beginners: Don’t Overpack
Travel Photography Tips for Beginners: Have Your Camera With You at All Times
Travel Photography Tips for Beginners: Shoot RAW Photos
Travel Photography Tips for Beginners: Invest in a High-Quality Album to Showcase Your Photos
Recommended Photography Gear

Travel Photography Tips for Beginners: Make a Plan Before You Travel

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Researching and planning before traveling will not only make your vacation smoother and more enjoyable, but it will also help you take better pictures. Find the best photo destinations where you are going, and be sure to include them on your travel itinerary. If you want to go a step further, you can create a detailed shot list of all the photos you want to capture.

Other ways to plan for a photography trip are preparing the right photography gear, getting accustomed to your camera before you go, and staying up to date with local weather forecasts.

Travel Photography Tips for Beginners: Don’t Overpack

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Photographers love gear, and while having lots of photography equipment at home is convenient, it’s completely the opposite when traveling. Lugging around a heavy suitcase is a giant burden and an easy way to make yourself miserable while on the road. That’s why we recommend practicing minimalism and only packing the true essentials for your next trip.

That means your travel camera, one or two lenses (max), a lightweight travel tripod, and spare batteries/memory cards. Depending on the type of images you enjoy shooting, you might also want to throw in a small camera cleaning kit and some lens filters. The less you have, and the easier it is to carry, the more likely you are to take photos.

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Travel Photography Tips for Beginners: Have Your Camera With You at All Times

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That leads us to our next travel photography tip for beginners—always carry your camera, no matter what. You never know when something unexpected will happen, and you want to be prepared to capture it on camera when it does. Even if you are only popping out to grab a quick morning coffee, think twice before heading out without your camera.

Following this rule is easier than ever in the current age of smartphone photography. Better yet, you can instantly share photos from phones with loved ones back home or upload them to social media.

Travel Photography Tips for Beginners: Shoot RAW Photos

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Another one of our top travel photography tips for beginners is to take RAW images instead of JPEGs. RAW photos store much more information in them than JPEGs, which gives you more control when it comes to editing them. Editing is an easy way to enhance the quality of your photos, as long as you don’t overedit.

When shooting in RAW, we recommend investing in memory cards with more storage and an external hard drive since the files take up more space. Other important camera settings for travel photography to monitor include the shooting mode, autofocus mode, drive mode, and exposure settings.

Travel Photography Tips for Beginners: Invest in a High-Quality Album to Showcase Your Photos

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Once you are back home, the real work begins. You must think of a good way to showcase all those amazing travel photos you just took. For us at Photography Talk, there’s no better way to do that than by creating a lay-flat photo book. These gorgeous photo albums look great in homes and offices and make excellent gifts.

Photo Book Press is our go-to place to customize and order lay-flat photo books. This trustworthy online print shop has satisfied customers with its high-quality products for nearly forty years. Furthermore, it has a friendly and helpful customer service team and unbeatable low prices.

Want to showcase your photos differently? They also have hardcover photo books, hand-sewn photo books, softcover photo books, wall art, and more!

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