On October 16th, 2020, Laurence Norah, a professional photographer, shared some advanced travel photography techniques in his blog, Finding the Universe. He discussed how travelers often face the challenge of capturing unique images of places that have already been extensively photographed. To overcome this, he suggested some creative techniques that build upon his previous posts.
He covered four main topics: Long-Exposure Photography, Night Photography, High Dynamic Range (HDR) Photography, and High-Contrast Photography.
In Long-Exposure Photography, Laurence explained how to capture images where water appears white and fluffy, or where cars are replaced by streaks of light. This technique requires a tripod and a camera set in shutter-priority or manual mode. The shutter speed should be slower than 1/15 of a second for waterfall shots and slower than one second for traffic shots.
Night Photography is another of Laurence’s favorite techniques. He loves capturing the night sky, especially when he’s far away from city lights. He explained two main types of star photography: long-exposure shots that turn stars into streaks of light, and multiple long exposures that are then stacked together using specialist software.
High Dynamic Range (HDR) Photography is a technique used when the camera fails to capture an image as our eyes see it. This happens because our eyes have a much greater dynamic range than a camera. HDR requires taking multiple photographs of the same scene at different exposures, and then blending them together.
Lastly, High-Contrast Photography is a technique that uses light to create wonderful silhouettes of subjects. This technique requires practice and often works best in manual mode.
Laurence concluded by encouraging readers to practice these techniques regularly. He believes that travel photography is a slow but rewarding process, and with regular practice, anyone can take better and more advanced travel photos.
