A cellphone allows travelers to have a camera always at the
ready. The latest phones offer multiple lenses with better resolution and
enhanced macro and telephoto capabilities, enabling virtually every moment to
be captured for posterity. This can be both a blessing and a curse. When should
we be taking a photograph and when should we simply be taking the time to look
and wonder at the world around us? Here are a few tips on when and what to
shoot, and how to better frame what we see when we travel.
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Imagine your photos as an album
Try to capture a wide variety of images. While it is important
to concentrate on classic landscape shots and portraits, also search for
photographs with arresting colors and shapes, as well as the details of
objects, works of art and food — the things that flavor a place and weave its
visual tapestry. Imagine each picture as a jigsaw piece needed to complete an
album’s puzzle. It’s useful to arrange these images in a separate folder on
your phone, making one album for your favorites and another for the rest. That
way you’ll be in better shape when it comes to the important task of editing.
Find your horizonSteven Spielberg ends his autobiographical film, “The
Fabelmans,” with a meeting with the legendary director John Ford. Ford’s main
piece of advice? Place the horizon toward the top or bottom of the picture
because the middle is “boring.” This idea — also known as the rule of thirds —
divides the frame into thirds, horizontally and vertically. The concept is to
find a more dynamic angle by visualizing the scene or subject not centered, but
rather a third of the way up or down (or across) the frame. On most cellphones,
you can set up a three-by-three grid for the screen in the camera settings.
Layer your picture with details
Successful landscape shots draw the eye across the whole frame,
and for that you need to search for points of interest in the foreground,
middle ground and distance. Find a vantage point that lets you see the
different layers of a scene. Test different compositions by turning your
cellphone both vertically and horizontally, and, if you have a choice of
lenses, decide if the scene is best framed tightly or wide. Another way to
enrich the landscape is to spot a person or an object and place them carefully
in the frame as a focal point. It could be someone walking alone along a beach,
or a tree on a hillside, or a horse in a field or a bicycle leaning against a
wall. But look for something that catches the eye, giving scale and contrast to
the scene.
For portraits, find the right backdrop
Look for a clean background — a natural canvas with relatively
solid coloring or shape, like a wall, open sky or foliage. If that’s not
possible, move around the subject to find a backdrop that is less cluttered.
Also, check that there are no upright objects, such as streetlamps or thin
trees directly behind people’s heads, or other unwanted items in the background
that will distract from the subject.
Work the frameIt’s often helpful to have a portrait shopping list: headshot, half-body
and full body frames (make sure not to cut off people’s feet), as well as
horizontal and vertical ones. Having these frames in mind will help you choose
the best shot. Many of the latest Apple and Android phones offer a choice of
inbuilt lenses with different focal lengths, which help you do this quickly.
You can also use the portrait mode on your cellphone’s camera, which shortens
the depth of field, blurring the background and giving a portrait style that is
similar to what you would get when using wide-open apertures on longer camera
lenses.
Edit your photographs more than once
Choosing the best pictures is just as important as taking them.
If you have been making a separate album of your favorites, you already have a
base from which to start. Nonetheless, take your time and go through all the
photographs you have taken, scrolling through the images at least twice. If
possible, leave a day between doing so. The eye can get overwhelmed when
looking at a large number of images, and it’s easy to overlook a good picture.
Go easy on postproductionPhone cameras, just like regular cameras, are not always able to
read the light correctly. Often one needs to adjust a photograph’s exposure,
shadows or color temperature. A lot of this can be easily done with a phone’s
inbuilt software — though there are also plenty of specialist applications like
Snapseed or Adobe Photoshop Express. What you can or should do is a personal
decision. But, in general, spend as little time as possible working on a
picture, and concentrate on balancing tone and lighting across your selection
of images so they feel cohesive in style.
Have a hungry eyeEve Arnold, the wonderful Magnum photographer, used to recount a
story about walking with Henri Cartier-Bresson from the Magnum office in Paris
to have lunch at his apartment on the Rue de Rivoli. During the 15-minute
stroll home, as he kept telling her that he was no longer interested in
photography, only drawing, he took three rolls of film on his Leica. The great
photographers have an insatiable eye for images, and a cellphone allows one to
be ready for everything. But it’s also necessary to understand the moment
clearly. Everyone wants their memories of a journey to be captured so they can
reminisce later. But it is also important to see the world without feeling the
obligation to take a photograph. Sometimes the eye just needs the pleasure of
looking.
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