Hiking is one of the best ways to get in touch with nature and see beautiful sights around the world. If you've ever tried taking pictures of yourself or your friends hiking along a beach or through a forest, you know how hard it can be to capture that perfect shot.
Here are a few simple tips that’ll help you take great photos when you’re on an adventure in nature.
Pack the Right Equipment
The first step to taking great photos is preparing the right equipment. If you don’t have a professional camera, don’t worry! Your phone camera is more than powerful enough to capture that perfect shot.
To keep your phone steady and safely secured to your hand, you’ll also want to bring along your ProGrip, the phone accessory that keeps your phone securely attached to your hand.
ProGrip will:
- Reduce tension in your wrist so you can easily adjust camera settings on your phone, set a self-timer, or snap your photos
- Perfectly align for selfies
- Securely fit around each finger, so you don’t have to worry about dropping your phone while you’re adventuring—it’ll stay with you.
Choose the Right Camera Settings
Even if you’re not a professional photographer, with the right phone camera settings, you can create high-quality hiking photos by learning how to use a few basic features.
Exposure
Exposure is the amount of light that reaches your camera's sensor; adjusting it ultimately affects how light or dark your final image will appear.
Flash
The flash is your phone's built-in light, and it comes in handy when you're in a dimly lit area. If you want to take photos of people or things that are far away from the camera lens, turn on the flash so that they will appear brighter than they would without any extra illumination. The downside of this setting is that it tends to wash out colors and make everything look unnatural, which is why it's best used when there isn't much light available.
Zoom
Zooming in and out of your viewfinder is a natural instinct when you're trying to get the perfect shot, but if you zoom too much, it can ruin your photo. The same goes for zooming out too far—you'll lose all sense of scale and context in the scene. Zoom in just enough so that you fill most of the frame with something interesting, but not so far that everything else becomes unimportant background clutter.
Lighting and Shadows
With proper lighting, you can show off the beauty of nature even on overcast days; however, shadows can also be used creatively to hide things you don't want to see (or add interest) if they're not relevant to your photo's purpose.
Pay Attention to Composition
Composition refers to the arrangement of elements in a photograph. The best composition will include your subject prominently, with no distractions or clutter around them. You can use natural elements such as trees or rocks to frame your shot by getting close enough to fill the frame with them, then stepping back for a wider view that includes more of the landscape around you.
Take Advantage of Negative Space and Leading Lines
Negative space is simply the area around an object. It’s important because it gives your subject room to breathe, which helps the eye focus on what you want it to see. Leading lines are a type of negative space that guides your eyes toward another element in the frame. They can be created by using roads, paths or natural elements like waterfalls or mountains.
For example:
- If you’re hiking with a friend and want to get a photo of him without him realizing it, position yourself so there is no direct line between where he stands and where you are standing with the camera. This will eliminate any leading lines from your friend's body that would otherwise draw attention away from his face and instead help draw attention toward whatever else might be in front of him—like those awesome hiking boots he has on!
- Use mountains as leading lines when photographing landscapes; they'll serve as great compositional tools if used strategically!
Take Your Time
To get the perfect shot, you need to take your time. You want to make sure you’re in the right place at the right time, and that means being patient. If there are clouds in the sky, wait for them to pass over so they’re not blocking out your view of the sun or moon. If it’s raining or snowing outside and you have an umbrella with you, use it!
Hiking is a great way to enjoy the natural beauty of our world, and it’s also an opportunity to capture stunning photos that you can share with others. We hope these tips will help you capture the perfect hiking shot.
To make sure your phone stays with you on every adventure, check out our original ProGrip.