SHOOT LIKE A PRO

DYNAMIC BLUR

1 If you’re a passenger in a moving car, train or bus, you will travel past some interesting landscapes but won’t always be able to stop to take pictures. However, you can still take pleasing landscape images looking out of the window. If you use a slightly slow shutter speed the foreground will become dramatically blurred, while the background – such as the mountains in this photo – will remain perfectly sharp. It’s a technique worth trying out if you’re going to be a passenger with a window seat for an extended period of time.

TRY A PANORAMA

2 We’ve all seen and probably tried to take a long and thin panoramic photo before which is ideal for wide aspect ratios. But panoramas don’t have to be long and thin. This image of Taal Volcano in the Philippines is actually a four-shot panorama taken with a 20mm lens – even this wide angle still wasn’t wide enough to squeeze the whole scene into frame. The key is to make sure there’s at least a 30% overlap between shots and also lock your focus and exposure settings so they’re consistent and blend together naturally.

USE NATURE’S FRAMES

3 Look for ‘natural’ frames on your travels, such as these tree branches that beautifully frame the mountains in the distance and draw the viewer’s eye into the middle of the photograph. It doesn’t have to be restricted to trees and branches, though – frame your cityscapes with railings or lampposts, or your coastal shots with a cave mouth. If you are camping, you can get back inside your tent and use the tent entrance to frame the scene. Of course, it helps if you’re camping in a particularly photogenic location.