Do you scroll through Instagram looking at everyone’s beautiful travel/vacation photos and think, A. I wish I was there and B. how on earth do they capture such beautiful images? Well it may be easier than you think, it’s not all professional and expensive equipment, sometimes the perfect shot can be captured on your iPhone! Here is our guide to upping your vacation photography!

 Composition

 Composition is at the core of every great photograph, imagine each scene is divided into thirds, two vertical and two horizontal lines. The points where the lines intersect are great places to put objects of interests.

Shoot in RAW

 If your camera allows it, shoot your photos in RAW format, as opposed to in .jpg. This used to be a format reserved for DSLR cameras, however, iPhone's and Android's alike have caught up and can now shoot RAW images with apps like Lightroom Mobile. Shooting in RAW means you can increase the dynamic range and process the RAW file in such a way that it looks better, it basically makes life easier when editing in photoshop and lightroom as you are able to keep more detail in the image, for example when shooting a sky in .jpeg you may loose some of the highlights, in RAW you can underexpose the image meaning you will not lose any of the detail of the sky and you can brighten the rest of the image when editing.

Chase the light

 Shooting in golden hour will dramatically improve your images! So, what is golden hour?

Golden hour is the short period of time just after sunrise or just before sunset when the light is softer, orange and more diffused. Photography is capturing light after all so what better time to do that than golden hour. Try and make your plans around the sun, scope out your composition and get a rough idea of what you want to capture during the midday hours when the light is too harsh to shoot. Good light can be the difference between a stunning image, and an overexposed mess. Another thing to keep in mind is that the winds tend to be calmer at sunrise, meaning large bodies of water are more likely to be still, perfect for snapping those crispy reflection shots.

Avoid filters!

 Edit your images using apps like Afterlight, Lightroom or Photoshop to improve the detail in your images, using filters on Instagram often creates harsh contrasts/highlights which takes away the real beauty of the shot. Many influencer's have created their own presets in lightroom which you can buy for a small fee or you can just create your own. 

Using all of these tips will ensure you capture some memorable images to be proud of on your next vacation!