Most disappointing travel photos are a settings and timing problem, so you can fix them with the camera you already own. These ten changes work on a phone or a mirrorless, and they're the first things I'd teach a friend.
Light and exposure
- Shoot in the hour after sunrise or before sunset. Soft, directional light is the biggest upgrade available, and it costs an alarm clock.
- Expose for the highlights. On a phone, tap the bright area and drag the exposure down. You can lift shadows later, but you can't recover a blown white sky.
- Keep ISO as low as the light allows. Noise shows up fast on small sensors, so find a wall to brace against before you push it.
Focus and movement
- Use a single focus point and place it on the subject's eye or the key detail.
- Use 1/500 or faster to freeze a market or traffic.
- Drop to around 1/15 with a steady hand to blur motion on purpose, which is great for crowds and tuk tuks.
Framing
- Turn the grid on, and keep horizons level.
- Lower your camera to your subject's eye level. Crouching costs nothing and beats standing and pointing down.
- Get closer, then closer again. Most weak travel photos are simply too far away.
File format
- Shoot RAW, or RAW plus JPEG, if you plan to edit. You get much more room to fix colour and exposure. Keep an eye on storage, since RAW files fill a phone quickly.
What to try first
Pick just one of these for a week. Light is the best place to start: set an alarm for one sunrise and shoot the same street you've already walked. You'll see the difference straight away. Next, learn the six composition rules, and finish your photos with a 15 minute edit. Everything else is in the photography guide.