Travel photography is not about taking nice snaps that you show to your family and friend. It's about capturing the character and charm of a location. The following are tips that will help improve your travel photography. If your travel images are good there is no reason why you won't be able to sell them.
Every year thousands of travel images are destroyed mainly due to the fact that they were not carefully planned and the skills required to take good photography were not used. Sometimes when we are on holidays we may get careless and leave our skills at home. If care and planning is put into your travel shots there is certainly a great chance that they will sell.
To sell your images you need to expose them correctly, and also have good colour and composition. Good colour is always important with travel images.
Every new city or country we travel to will produce a different test. This is mainly due to the strength of light that will differ from region to region. Light will differ from your home and exposure may in some cases be difficult to calculate. Try to get your hands on a grey card. This will help calculate tough exposures and will not cost you much. You place the grey card in front of the subject that you are taking and then take your exposure reading from it.
There are many different things that you can shoot. The following are the main subjects that you should take.
Cityscape portraits and landscape shots are the most popular topic, but this means getting up early in the morning. You need to plan carefully and arrive at your destination before most tourists do. Other important subjects are local people, food and drink, buildings and stores and road signs. Portraits of local people in national dress will also sell well.
There are many places to sell your images once you return from your trip. If you have a large amount of images it may be better to get a stock photography agency to sell them for you. This will save you a lot of time but the agency will take up to fifty percent of the sale price.
Regardless of what percentage they take, stock agencies are the best way. The will have a list of paying customers on their books. They will know which market best suits your images. They will also know the correct prices to charge.
There are thousands of agencies out there - be careful with your choice. If possible try and pick one of the bigger agencies. Your images will get a lot more exposure and make your travel photography more profitable.
There are many great photographers who make their living from travel photography. They travel from place to place capturing the character of each location they visit. There is no reason why you can't do the same. Every year image publishers are always on the lookout for unique imagery. They will pay good money to secure rights for the image - so it is worthwhile giving it a go.