# How do you take better travel photos? > Travel photography tips from 526 days and 20 countries: when to shoot, how to beat crowds, night shots without a tripod, photographing people and temples, and backups. - Source: https://clevertourists.com/resources/travel-photography-tips - Authors: Evan & Clara, Clever Tourists (first-hand, from years of travel across 20 countries) - Published: 2026-11-03 **The quickest way to take better travel photos is to change when and where you stand, not what you carry: shoot in the first and last hour of sunlight, reach famous places before the tour groups, and put a person in the frame so the picture has scale and a story.** Most of the rest is habit: holding the camera steady at night, asking before you photograph someone, knowing the rules at temples, and backing up every day so a lost card costs you nothing. We spent 526 days on the road across 20 countries and shot every photo on this site ourselves. These are the 12 things that made the biggest difference, each shown with one of our own frames. ## 1. Shoot in the first and last hour of sunlight Low sun is warmer, softer and comes from the side, so it shows texture in sand, stone and faces that flat midday light hides. This is the "golden hour": roughly the hour after sunrise and the hour before sunset. How long it lasts depends on where you are. Near the equator the sun drops fast and the good light can be gone in half an hour; in northern Europe in summer it lingers for much longer. Plan the day around it. Put the landmark you care most about at the start or end of the day, and use the middle hours for museums, markets, lunch and travel. Our [golden hour calculator](https://clevertourists.com/tools/golden-hour) gives the times for any place and date. Midday is not a write-off. Shade, covered streets, interiors and overcast days all give even light; what to avoid at noon is a wide view with deep black shadows and a white sky. ## 2. Stay out for blue hour Most people put the camera away when the sun sets, which is when city photos get good. For a short spell of twilight the sky turns deep blue while the street and building lights come on, and the two balance: you see detail in the sky and in the lit buildings at the same time. An hour later the sky is black and the lights burn out to white blobs. Pick your spot before sunset (a rooftop, a viewpoint, a bridge or a riverbank) and stay 20 to 40 minutes after the sun goes down. Water helps, because it doubles the lights. Like golden hour, blue hour is brief near the equator and long at high latitudes. ## 3. Get to famous places before the crowds The famous shot of an empty lane, temple courtyard or viewpoint is almost always taken early. Tour buses and day-trippers arrive mid-morning, so the hour after opening (or after sunrise, for places that are always open) is the quietest of the day. You get the good light from tip 1 at the same time. Where early is not possible: shoot details instead of the whole scene, stand still and wait for gaps (crowds move in waves), or go high and shoot down so heads fill less of the frame. Late evening, after the day-trippers leave and before night falls, is the second-best window, especially in small towns that empty out when the last bus goes. Small, photogenic towns such as Chefchaouen in Morocco are the clearest case, because day-trip groups fill the same few lanes; see our [two days in Chefchaouen](https://clevertourists.com/guides/2-days-in-chefchaouen) guide. ## 4. Put a person in the frame A wide view of a river, a dune or a mountain often looks smaller in the photo than it felt. One person in the frame fixes that: the eye measures the scene against them. People also tell you what a place is for, so a boat being rowed across a river says more than the river alone. Keep the person small and off-centre, roughly on a third of the frame, and leave space in the direction they are facing or moving. Your travel partner works too: a figure walking away from the camera along a path or a dune ridge is the easiest version, and it doesn't need anyone's permission. ## 5. Look for lines, frames and repetition Composition does more than any lens upgrade. Three things to look for once you are in a place: • **Leading lines:** a corridor, a road, railings or a river that pulls the eye from the front of the photo to the back. Stand in the middle of the line, not beside it. • **Frames:** a doorway, window or arch around your subject. It adds depth and hides clutter at the edges. • **Repetition:** columns, lanterns, doors, boats. A row of the same thing reads well even in dull light. Then change your height. Most travel photos are taken from standing eye level; crouching or finding a step to stand on is often enough to make yours look different from everyone else's. ## 6. Take sharp night photos without a tripod You can shoot most night scenes handheld. Lit buildings, night markets and neon streets are brighter than they look, and modern cameras and phones handle high ISO well. A grainy sharp photo is better than a clean blurry one. • **Shutter speed:** a common rule of thumb is no slower than 1 divided by the focal length (1/50 second at 50mm). Image stabilisation lets you go a few stops slower, but moving people will still blur. • **Brace yourself:** lean on a wall, rest the camera on a railing or a bin, tuck your elbows in and breathe out as you press the shutter. • **Shoot a burst:** take three to five frames in a row and keep the sharpest. Phones do this automatically in night mode; hold still until it finishes. • **Open the aperture before you raise ISO:** a lens at f/1.8 to f/4 lets in far more light than the same lens stopped down. For long exposures, light trails or silky water you do need support, but not a full tripod. A Manfrotto PIXI or any small tabletop tripod set on a wall or bench does the job and fits in a jacket pocket. Use the self-timer so pressing the button doesn't shake the camera. ## 7. Food photos that don't look flat Sit by a window if you can. Daylight from the side makes food look like food; overhead restaurant light and phone flash make it look grey and shiny. Then pick one of two angles: straight down for flat dishes (curries, pizza, a table full of plates) or low and level for anything with height (burgers, drinks, stacked dishes). Move the clutter out of the frame first, crop in closer than feels natural, and be quick: shoot before you eat, not instead of eating, and skip it at places where other diners would mind. Our [Thai food guide](https://clevertourists.com/guides/food-thailand) is full of dishes shot this way. ## 8. Photographing people: ask, and accept no For a portrait, ask. A smile and a gesture at the camera works in any language, and learning the word for "photo" in the local language helps. If the answer is no, or a shake of the head, put the camera down. Some people will want to see the photo afterwards; show them. Wider street scenes, where people are part of the place rather than the subject, are a different matter, but some situations call for no camera at all: children without a parent's okay, people praying, funerals, and anyone who covers their face or turns away. Paying for photos is a local question. In some tourist spots, people in costume pose for a tip; that is a fair trade if you agree it first. In others, paying turns a village into a set; when in doubt, buy something from the stall instead. Some places now have rules. In Kyoto's Gion district, the residents' council banned photography on its private lanes in 2019, with signs warning of fines of up to ¥10,000 (≈ $63), after years of visitors chasing geiko and maiko for photos. In 2024 it went further and put up signs asking tourists to keep out of some private lanes entirely. Hanamikoji, the main street, is public and stays open. ## 9. Temples, mosques and churches: check the photo rules Many religious sites allow photos in the grounds but not inside the main prayer hall, and the signs are often small. Look for a crossed-out camera at the door, and if you can't see one, watch what others do or ask. A few habits apply almost everywhere: • Dress for the visit before you think about the photo: shoulders and knees covered, and a scarf for mosques. Our [Thailand temple dress code](https://clevertourists.com/resources/temple-dress-code-thailand) guide has the details for Buddhist temples. • No flash inside, and no photos during a service or of people praying. • In Buddhist temples, don't pose with your back or feet pointing at a Buddha image, and don't climb on statues or walls for a better angle. Wat Rong Khun, the White Temple in Chiang Rai, is a good example: photography is allowed across the grounds and on the bridge, but not inside the main hall (ubosot), where you also take off your shoes. ## 10. Protect your camera on the road The biggest risks on a long trip are not breakage but theft, sand, water and flat batteries. • **Theft:** a camera on a strap across your body is much harder to snatch than one in your hand or on a café table. We used a Peak Design Slide every day; its quick-release anchors come off in seconds when you need the tripod. A plain bag that doesn't look like a camera bag draws less attention than a branded one. • **Sand and dust:** in the desert and on beaches, change lenses inside a bag or a car, or not at all, and keep the camera in a zip bag between shots on windy days. • **Rain and humidity:** a dry bag or even a plastic bag covers a downpour. Moving from an air-conditioned room into tropical heat fogs the lens; leave the camera in its zipped bag until it has warmed up before you take it out. • **Batteries on planes:** spare lithium-ion camera batteries and power banks must go in your carry-on, never in checked luggage. Under US [FAA](https://www.faa.gov/hazmat/packsafe/lithium-batteries) and [TSA](https://www.tsa.gov/travel/security-screening/whatcanibring/items/lithium-batteries-more-100-watt-hours) rules, batteries up to 100 Wh need no approval, those from 101 to 160 Wh need the airline's approval and are limited to two spares, and anything above 160 Wh can't fly with a passenger; Australia's aviation regulator uses the same limits. Most camera batteries fall in the first group; the Wh rating is printed on the battery. Tape the contacts or keep each spare in its own case so they can't short. • **Insurance:** check whether your travel insurance covers cameras, and the single-item limit, which is often lower than the camera's value. Our guide to [travel insurance for international trips](https://clevertourists.com/resources/travel-insurance-for-international-trips) covers what to look for. Drones are a separate decision: rules differ by country and many need a permit in advance, which is why we didn't bring one ([what camera gear to pack for a long trip](https://clevertourists.com/resources/what-camera-gear-to-pack-for-a-long-trip)). Check each country's aviation authority before you pack one. ## 11. Back up every day Cameras can be replaced. The photos on the card can't. The standard approach is the 3-2-1 rule: three copies, on two different kinds of storage, with one copy somewhere else. On the road that meant copying the cards to a portable SSD at the end of most shooting days, and uploading to cloud storage whenever we had a fast enough connection, usually every few days. We didn't format a card until its photos were in two places. Over 526 days no camera or lens failure cost us a photo, and with two copies of everything a bad card wouldn't have either. Two more habits: carry more cards than you need so you are never forced to wipe one early, and keep the SSD in a different bag from the camera, so one theft doesn't take both copies. ## 12. Edit lightly and on a schedule Editing is where most people fall behind: after a month you have 5,000 photos and no will to look at them. A routine that worked for us: • **Cull the same week.** Go through each day's photos with a quick yes/no pass and delete the obvious misses. You will not do it later. • **Fix the basics first:** straighten the horizon, crop, then exposure and white balance. Those four changes do most of the work. • **Keep colour believable.** Push saturation until it looks wrong, then pull it back halfway. Skies that are too blue and skin that is too orange date a photo fast. • **Edit in batches.** Photos from the same place and light can share settings; copy them across and adjust. If you shoot RAW, you have more room to recover skies and shadows, at the cost of larger files and more backup space. A phone with a good editing app covers most of this for the casual traveller. ## What we shot with Our main camera for the trip was a Sony full-frame mirrorless body with a 24-105mm zoom as the everyday lens; the full kit, including lenses we sent home, is on [our gear page](https://clevertourists.com/gear) and in [what camera gear to pack for a long trip](https://clevertourists.com/resources/what-camera-gear-to-pack-for-a-long-trip). None of the tips above depend on it. Every one works with a phone. The picks below are the small accessories that earned their space in the bag, and the photos from the whole trip are in [our photo galleries](https://clevertourists.com/photos). ## Frequently asked questions ### What is the best time of day for travel photography? The first and last hour of sunlight, when the light is low, warm and from the side. For cities, the blue hour after sunset is just as good, when the sky is still deep blue and the lights are on. ### How do you take photos of famous places without crowds? Arrive at opening time or soon after sunrise, before the tour groups. If that isn't possible, wait for gaps between groups, shoot details, or shoot from higher up so fewer heads are in the frame. ### How do you take sharp night photos without a tripod? Brace the camera on a wall or railing, keep the shutter speed around 1 divided by the focal length or faster, open the aperture before raising ISO, and shoot a short burst so at least one frame is sharp. ### Is it okay to take photos of people when travelling? Ask first for portraits, and put the camera down if the answer is no. Avoid photographing children without a parent's okay and people praying, and follow local rules such as the photography ban on private lanes in Kyoto's Gion district. ### Can you take camera batteries on a plane? Yes, but spare lithium-ion batteries must be in your carry-on, not checked luggage. Under US rules, batteries up to 100 Wh need no approval; 101 to 160 Wh need airline approval and are limited to two spares. ### How should you back up photos while travelling? Follow the 3-2-1 rule: three copies, on two kinds of storage, with one somewhere else. In practice, copy cards to a portable SSD every day, upload to the cloud when you can, and don't wipe a card until its photos are in two places.