How to photograph landmarks in a new way.
You probably know the situation; you arrive at a landmark that has been photographed a million times over, and while you’re there trying to capture the site, there are hundreds of people walking through your frame. With millions of photos of this landmark already, you don’t want to just take the picture everyone else took, but how do you let go of what you know and tap into that creativity that’s within you? In this month’s blog, I will be sharing everything I’ve learned about photographing these popular sites in a unique (and people-free) way.
People-free photos with the use of filters
Filters are a great tool for every photographer, especially ND-filters, they can be used for magic. My preferred filters for the magic of removing people from my photo is the ND1000, which is a 10 stops filter. With this filter I am able to use long exposures to make the people fade into the photo; well as long as they move that is.
Because even with this way, you can get some ghosts of people in your shot if they stand in one place for too long. That’s why I advise that if you can, to still get to the sites earlier. As you can see in the photo left, a few people stood still to take photos for a while, which resulted in ghosts of people. Taking photos with shutter speeds like these requires a lot of patience. Not only because you are shooting with long shutter speeds (like I used 60 seconds for these shots) but also because even after having the shutter open for 60 seconds, there might still be some stubborn ghosts ‘ruining’ your photo.
People-free photos without the use of filters
My first advice for people-free photos will always be to show up early. At most iconic locations, crowds will start to form between 9:00 and 10:00. This will usually peak between 13:00 and 16:00, after which it’ll get quieter again, but never as quiet as it is before 9:00! A positive side effect of showing up early is that the light will usually be amazingly warm and good for your golden hour photography needs. Note that this differs per location; some locations have better light at sunset, which is unfortunate for crowds.
When you do visit a place during peak hours, though, whether it is because the light is better or because you simply didn’t have another choice, there is still a way to get no (or fewer) people in your photographs without the use of a filter. Use frames! Nearby bushes, walls, trees, basically anything can be a frame or a foreground with which you can make people disappear.
Getting a unique photograph
My favourite way to create new and more unique photos from the same site is to change my lens. A lot of landmarks are photographed using a wide-angle lens; so take that thing off and chuck on a telephoto to get creative! Use the telephoto to take detailed shots or photograph the site from a distance to get a different view of things.
Secondly, walk around the landmark, find different things to incorporate, new angles & maybe even the unseen sides of the landmark. Maybe the back of the landmark is just as pretty? Unfortunately, on my trip to Burg Eltz, Germany, the path that loops around the castle was closed, which is why I still don’t know what the back of this castle looks like.
