Travel and landscape photography is one of my favourite creative pursuits, but I’ll admit—when it comes to actually capturing those sweeping vistas and bold travel scenes, I tend to revert to my comfort zone of portraits. That’s why collaborating with travel-enthusiast Veraine Spiller—one of our most-well-travelled graduates—felt like the perfect way to produce a truly thorough beginner’s guide to travel & landscape photography. What follows is a set of practical, easy-to-follow steps that anyone can implement to start creating travel images with real impact.
1. Composition
Composition is absolutely foundational in travel and landscape photography. Rather than rushing into the shot, take the time to explore the scene: move around, envision how you’d like it to look, and make thoughtful choices. Key elements to consider:
- Select a clear focal point: everything else you include should support it—whether by framing, adding context, telling a story, introducing depth, or conveying scale.
- Use the rule of thirds as a guideline for placing your focal point—but remember that sometimes centring can work effectively, especially in symmetrical compositions.
- Include foreground elements: these drawing-in features help build depth and interest. For instance, a boat in the foreground can lead the eye toward an abbey in the distance and enrich the visual story.
- Remove or minimise distractions: things like parked vehicles, light poles or rubbish bins can clutter your frame and divert attention from your subject.
- Preserve context: Resist the temptation to isolate your subject so tightly that you eliminate the surrounding environment. Those surrounding elements often contribute layers of meaning and depth to your photo.
2. Compositional Tools
Beyond the basics of focal point and framing, there are compositional “tools” you can actively look for to improve your travel shots:
- Shapes: Natural or man-made shapes—such as triangles where mountain meets sky—can structure a scene powerfully.
- Leading lines: Roads, paths or shorelines which direct the eye into and through the frame add both movement and depth.
- Framing: Using elements like a window, an arch or overhanging branches to ‘frame’ your subject can create intimacy or drama.
- Perspective: Try different viewpoints—high, low, near, far—to discover a fresh take on the scene. A small shift in position can yield a more compelling photo.
- Size & scale: When you want to convey vastness, including a person, tree or structure next to a big subject can help. Contrast in size reinforces how large the environment is.
- Negative space: Letting a large expanse of sky or water dominate the frame can communicate openness, isolation or mood effectively.
3. Focal Length
What lens you use and how much of the scene you include matters. In travel photography:
- Decide whether you’ll include the whole scene or focus more closely on your subject.
- Even if you have a zoom lens, think about getting in closer (physically or visually) when background distraction is high.
- Wider lenses can introduce distortion—but that can be used to your advantage: elongating clouds, exaggerating size, placing your subject close in a wide context to make the scene more dramatic.
4. Orientation
Deciding between horizontal (landscape) and vertical (portrait) orientation is another important choice. For instance, a wide-horizontal picture may better capture a reflection or a sweeping vista than a vertical crop would. Waiting for calm water or the right light often helps make that decision easier.
5. Reflections
Reflections can introduce magical opportunities for travel photography—especially when the light is flat and you’re not getting ideal skies. A puddle, a calm lake, or a mirrored shopfront can become a creative playground: explore from low angles, include reflections of people, architecture or movement, and don’t worry about what passers-by might think.
6. People
While traditional landscape photography often excludes people, travel photography welcomes them. A person in your scene can:
- Add life and context
- Serve as a scale reference, especially when you’re photographing vast or open environments
- Enhance storytelling by being part of the scene rather than a distraction from it
Just ensure that if there are people, they support the image rather than dominate it unless that’s your intent.
7. Light
Light is a travel photographer’s constant companion—but unlike studio photography, you rarely control it. What you can control is how you respond to it:
- Watch for moments when the sun pops out from behind a cloud and highlights your focal point—pause and wait for it if you can.
- Low sun angles can yield starbursts when positioned behind a building or tree.
- Flat grey skies? Use more foreground/midground and fill the frame rather than relying on the sky to be interesting.
- Dramatic skies—dark clouds, stormy light—can bring striking mood and atmosphere, so don’t shy away from them.
- If possible revisit a location at golden hour (early morning or late evening) or even at night to capture a different quality of light.
8. Shutter Speed
Finally, shutter speed is one of your most creative tools in travel & landscape shooting. The essential first decision: do you freeze motion or embrace it?
- Want silky water flowing over rocks? Use a slow shutter speed—tripod or a stable resting place helps.
- Travel often means improvising: place your camera on your backpack, activate a 2-second timer to minimise shake, and use live view to focus manually if necessary.
- But also remember: you’re on location. It’s easy to get lost in looking through the lens—so pause sometimes, rest your gear, and intentionally experience the place itself.
If you’re just starting out in travel or landscape photography, these eight pillars give you a reliable framework to improve your images. Composition, tools of composition, focal length choices, orientation, reflections, including people, mastering the available light and using shutter speed creatively—all of these come together in making photos that don’t just document places, but evoke feeling and presence.
