Travel Photography Tips | The Importance of Background
© 2013 Wazari Wazir | My Family Photographs Against Magnificent Hagia Sophia and Blue Mosque in Istanbul
When it comes to travel photography especially when you wanted to take your family pictures during a vacation far away from your hometown, one thing that you must keep in mind is the background. The background is very important because it can create a sense of place, where the picture is taken, so before you leave home, it is better to do some kind of research, know exactly what is the main tourist attractions or landmark at a certain places.
Don’t laugh at me, some people like to travel but they have very little time to do some kind of research, don’t be surprise when you heard or overheard a tourist sitting next to you asking with his or her friends about the name of the building in front of them and some of them don’t know the difference between Spice Bazaar and Grand Bazaar even-though they are walking inside one of them.
I’ve a friend of mine, an “old timer” who said to me once, while he was on an assignment in Paris in the early eighties, he doesn’t bother to take a photograph of himself against a gigantic Eiffel Tower, in those days he thought that the tower is just a giant telecommunication tower in Paris, so he don’t bother to pose for a photograph with the Eiffel Tower and only when he got back home, he knows that the “telecommunication tower” is Paris most famous landmark, an icon of Paris. We can’t blame him either because in those days, we don’t have the luxury of internet, travel books and magazine are hard to come by also, but todays in a fast moving digital ages and almost free flows of information, I think we should have some basics information about certain places most famous landmark.
Same things almost happens to me in Istanbul once, where during crossing a Bosphorus by ferry to Princes’s Island or Adalar, I came across a small “island” with a small tower standing on it, I think those tower is not important, “it’s nothing”, but I did take some photograph of that tower out of my curiosity but don’t really pay attention to it, only when I got back home that I know the tower standing on a small island, just a stone away from Uskudar is in fact one of Istanbul most famous landmark, the tower name is a “Maiden Tower” and has been featured in one of James Bond movie titled “The World is Not Enough”. So don’t make a silly mistakes like mine.
My point here is that, before you travel, make sure you take your time to get to know some of the most famous landmarks and also get to know about the history of the places that you want to visit, so that when you arrived and standing in front of one of the most famous landmark, you will be able to appreciate it fully and will give your full attention to it.
So my tips here is that, whenever I wanted to take a photograph of my friends or my family against any landmark, I will compose the background first, I will frame the background first and then only I will ask my subject to move into the frame. As usual, like any other tourist attraction in the world, there will be a lot of people walking here and there and busy taking their photograph against the prominent landmark, so in this case you need to be quick and be ready, once the particular area in your frame is clear with people, ask your subject to move into your designated frame and quickly take the shot. If you use Manual Mode, then it is better to get the exposure right first before you take the shot.
For the photographs above I use 50mm fixed prime lens attach to my full frame Canon 5D Mark II camera. No cropping done, so what you see here is the exact 50mm frame on full frame camera. The aperture that I’m using for the photographs above is set to f/6.3, normally when I shoot a picture of a person against any background, I rarely use aperture of f/11 and above, simple because I don’t want the background to be too sharp front and back and it will end up like “flat” photograph, so a little bit blur is good, it gives some depth but too much “bokeh” like using f/1.4 or f1.2 is not my choice. I still need that background to be sharp but not too sharp, but then, it is up to your personal preferences.
The other thing that is worth taking into consideration is to use any leading lines that you can find somewhere near the landmark, so you can use it to leads the viewer eyes towards the main attractions. Those leading lines will make your subject stand out against the background without the needs of using large aperture like f/1.2 or f/1.8. So, think about the background before you press the shutter.
Related Article : A Sense of Place, Finding Your Eye at Home and Abroad
*The photograph above were edited with one of the technique from my Master of Colours eBook, below is the link…
