5 tips for taking fantastic holiday photos

Making a photo book may be the last thing on your mind while on holiday but it’s definitely worth doing! Try thinking about how you want to capture your holiday in a photo book while at the beach or enjoying dinner. Will your holiday book be calm and cool or more lively and energetic? Then consider what kind of photos you’d need to take to help you create it. The five tips below will make sure your photos are not just perfect, but ‘photobookable’!

1. Take photos to use as backgrounds in your photo book

While on holiday, take photos of different things that can be used as backgrounds on your photo book pages. Tiles, ancient walls and repeating patterns often work well here. Of course, you can always use backgrounds available in the creator tool, but using your photos as backgrounds will make your book more personal.
Shoot backgrounds specifically for your photo book. Spread the picture across two pages and add photos with complementing colours over them.

2. Place your subject off-centre

Capture the scenery and your subjects in the best possible way by positioning your subject a bit to the side. Do this by using the ‘Rule of Thirds’ (see embedded image below). Imagine dividing your frame horizontally and vertically into thirds, then position yourself to place your subject(s) along the intersecting lines or points before taking your picture.
Positioning the subject to the right not only makes the backdrop visible, it also draws attention to the subject. When adding these photos to your photo book, use the backdrop to add notes or more photos!

3. Change your position

Before taking a picture, we often stand still and at an upright position. That, of course, doesn’t have to be the only way. Why not move around a bit to frame your subject from different angles? If you want your subject to appear smaller, take a shot from an elevated position. Photographing from different angles will allow you to select the perfect shot later on. Plus, adding some of them in sequence is a nice idea for your book.
Here you can see how taking a shot from an elevated position allowed the photographer to capture the girl’s shadow, creating a story with one shot.

4. Have an eye for detail

Sparkling dew drops on a beautiful tropical flower, a lovely old door or the shells on the beach: such detail can create great atmospheric photos! They also make great background photos for photo albums. In your next photo album try combining a landscape photo with a few detailed shots. The best way to take close-up shots is by using the “macro” mode on your camera. This function is available on most hand held cameras (the button with the ‘tulip’ icon).
A detailed photograph sometimes says more than wider shots. Ask yourself what you want to show. In the above example, the photographer wanted to capture Morocco’s vivid and rich culture.

5. Shoot against the light

Shooting against the light is often discouraged as this decreases visibility of our subject(s). Still, this doesn’t mean you can’t take interesting shots doing just that! With careful observation and some creative thinking, you can position yourself to capture the light in a way that doesn’t compromise your subjects. You could capture the light shining through palm trees, reflected on water, or when it creates beautiful silhouettes of people at sunset.
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