
Theme:
In every marketable photo there is a theme. In 95% of the photos that
editors buy for editorial use you will find people in an appropriate
environment. See if you don't continually notice that the photos that you see
in publication have an interesting background in which appropriately
dressed people are engaged in an activity, be it trade, profession, church
attendance, parenting, or travel.
If you wish to make better photos of your travel vacation, study your favorite
travel magazine.
Upgrade Your Technical Skills
Marketable photos in a magazine, newspaper, or text book are technically
sound with easily understood story-telling impact. You must evenly expose
your photos with no dark shadows or extreme contrast and you should, in
most cases, strive for sharp focus throughout, although the current style is to
have motion blur and soft focus.
Involve the foreground, mid ground, and background; waste no space but try
to keep the message simple.
Fill Flash will be one of your most important tools when photographing
friends and family; it will even out exposure especially when making photos
of people wearing wide-brimmed hats.
The two-stop graduated neutral density filter could be your most important
filter for balancing exposure when making a landscape or cityscape photo.
Tripod
A handy tool to steady the camera and give you sharp images will be
important. Although a tripod might be forbidden in many situations the
beanbag or Joby's new Gorillapod will do the job.
ISO: Use the low numbers: 100-200 unless you have a special situation or a photo with
dramatic editorial content.
You can gain depth of field (sharpness) by steadying the camera while using a slow shutter
speed and a smaller aperture(larger number like f 22) if your camera has these settings.
A tripod, bean bag, or Joby Gorillapod will steady the camera and prevent camera shake
at the low ISO numbers and slow shutter speed..
Shooting digitally in raw mode, saving the raw mode file as a digital negative and
converting a copy to a large tiff file for printing could give you an 8 "x 12" photo at 300 dpi
at 24 megs and the flexibility to make large prints. You can always downsize the file for
sending as email or preparing a digital projection presentation. Save the Raw file original;
It becomes your digital negative.
For each horizontal photo you make, you should make one vertical for variety in your
printing or presentation. For editorial use these are important and can become magazine
covers.
Vary your viewpoint: shoot high, shoot low, shoot left and right; shoot wide, shoot tight;
make it interesting.





Make Travel Photos That You Can Sell
Sell Your Digital Travel Photos
Joby Gorillapod, a great
tripod for sites,
churches tabletops.
What can a Graduated Neutral Density Filter Do For You
Without the Graduated
Neutral Density Filter
With the addition of three
or four stops of graduated
Neutral Density Filter the
sky retains detail and
saturation(4 stops here)
Take a reflected
reading of the
foreground and
one of the sky.
If there is a three
or four stop
difference, expose
for the foreground
and attach one or
two, 2- stop
graduated Neutral
Density filters to
your lens.
Making Better Travel Photos
Getting them Published
Some of this information is taken from the book pictured to the right, a new
book that will take all the mystery out of getting your digital travel photos
published.
A slot canyon is a marvelous creation of nature and although not easy to
get to, they can provide some great photo opportunities.
Mid day is the best time. At noon the sun will be overhead and will light up
the walls in interesting and contrasting ways. A tripod is a good tool to have
in this low light situation.
Slot canyons have been done by some of the best and by looking at the
photos done by the pros you can get an inkling how you might approach the
situation.
One way to improve your travel photos of slot canyons or any other subject
is to look at a lot of other people's photos. Ugh you might say, too boring.
Perhaps, but you can look at thousands of top-notch photos of slot canyons
in just a few minutes by looking at stock photos on the web.
Check samples of the stock house or portals on the web, paying particular
attention to the theme or message and the style and quality of the
photographs.
Check: www.Alamy.com, Agpix, and a dozen others. Go to their category,
enter slot canyon and look at the work of others. You don't need to copy,
just get an idea of how to begin, what you like, what you do not.
You can do this with any photo vacation; find the place where you will
vacation and look at the iconic photos: better than looking at postcards.
Before we took our slot canyon trips we looked at lots of slot canyon photos
and tried to find a unique approach to the subject.
If you are serious about a photo sideline, you might find that you can
improve your photo making in two ways: Technical and Thematic


This New Book covers all you need to know to get your digital travel photos published. How to make marketable photos that editors will buy How to find and approach the editors.
Take the mystery out of getting your travel photos published.
|
List $16.95 Order through this site for
$10.95 info@softseattraveler.com
Text excerpted
from new book
David Hilbert's
SoftSeatTravel
Make Travel Photos That You Can Sell
|
Available in June, Limited time introductory offer
www.softSeatTravel.com
david@SoftseatTravel.com