Transport is one of the most basic needs of human life, and without transportation, we can not even imagine our modern-day life. Going to and coming back from work and office, going on holidays to abroad, going to different places, eating food from other continents, driving children to school, everything needs transportation. In short, transportation is the key to daily life. Because of that, transport photography is one of the essential photography parts to do.
Transport photography means capturing the moving object inside the frame. Because of that, not everyone can do transport photography perfectly. Transport photography can give many features to work with, but it requires patience, storytelling and skills. It is important to know how and when to transport photography, especially for a beginner. Are you a beginner photographer and looking for tips for doing transport photography? Well, not to worry, in today’s article, we have mentioned some of the best tips to follow while doing transport photography. Indeed, these tips can be helpful for you while doing transport photography.
Table of Contents
Study and absorb others
Several best photographers have been doing transport photography perfectly. While studying other photographers, do you think how the hell are they taking those perfect shots? Well, it’s all about patience, creativity, and skills.
One of the basic things you can do is study their photography and editing and figure out how they took the photo and edited it. We don’t recommend copying everything from others but try initially to make everything similar to others. Doing that can give you a basic idea of how things work during photography. You can do it with fundamental changes like changing the aperture and shutter speed.
Likewise, if you are feeling difficulty finding the perfect transport photography shots, you can check out photoAC for ideas. In photoAC, you will find several beautiful images of transport photography and take inspiration from there.
Photograph moving objects
Transport photography is all about capturing moving objects in a frame. In the beginning, learn to take photos of moving objects and practice as much as you can. Use high shutter speed for avoiding image blur. But as always said, rules are meant to be broken. You can try different settings for the perfect shot. Using different settings will give you when and how to use the camera settings during the photo shoot. You can even have a blur in the image according to the need; you can make it look like the object is moving. It is the way of showing the speed.
Another way of taking the transport photo is capturing the still object with the blurred background. Doing it requires planning. Follow the subject with the camera while capturing the image. It isn’t easy to do so with bare hands so that you will need a tripod for stabilization.
Different styles of photographing transport
Transport photograph also has several categories like commercial photography, street photography, fashion photography, documentary photography and travel photography. These categories can vary according to your transportation, photographic approach, interests, and style. While doing transport photography for expensive yachts and cars, you will get thousands of vehicles to choose from.
For a photograph, you can choose from different vehicles like cars, yachts, public transport, bicycles, a super train, etc. You can also select others like airplanes, cargo, shipping companies, or even rikshaws in Asian society. No matter what you choose, the message you want to convey through the image should be conveyed.
Making image storytelling
No matter what kind of transport photography you are doing, image storytelling is essential. Making the photography storytelling is mainly necessary for documentary and street photography. Transport means the flow of merchandise and people; it defines the way of people’s life. In some Asian countries, there are several floating markets where people do products selling and buy from the boat. For them, transportation is the way of daily life. For some other people, transportation means getting to the hospital in time.
The main point is behind every image; there is a story. You can look for other photographers’ photos for an idea of how they reflect the story through their image. Sometimes even a small change can change the whole meaning of life. That is why looking for a story while capturing photos is essential.
Wide angles versus details
While capturing transportation photos, it is necessary to decide if the composition needs a narrow or wide-angle by looking at the situation. You need to find what to do in which situation. Sometimes focusing on the vehicle’s logo can be more necessary than showing the whole parking area. The best thing to do is take the subject’s image from different lenses and perspectives.
Take the usual pictures but also focus on details. Your subject should always be in context and look for the small features of the issue that can make a huge difference. For example, you are taking a picture of the car. It becomes necessary for commercial shoots. In that situation, showing the vehicle’s details is essential than offering the surrounding of the vehicle. Likewise, if you are capturing a picture of the car as street photography, it is not that necessary to focus on small details of the car; you need to focus on which environment the car is in.
Continuous Auto Focus
Auto Focus also plays a role while capturing the image of transportation. There are several cameras with a quick and accurate Auto Focus system. The fast and precise Auto Focus can help capture the best shots of moving subjects. There are several things like the speed of moving object, light in the surrounding and the focus of the speed of the lens that affects the quality of the image. But apart from all of them, fast and accurate Auto Focus can increase the chance of getting sharp and beautiful shots.
Look for a support
Transport photography usually requires long lenses. As we all know, long lenses are heavy, and carrying heavy lenses for too long can cause pain in the arms and shoulders and make destabilization. In that condition, using a tripod can be one of the best options to go with. Likewise, if you are at the track where there is not much space or in a busy show with the crowd, using a monopod will be helpful.
As said earlier, planning plays a important role while doing transport photography. You can do a photo shoot by using support or even without it. It is dependent on the personal choice to use a tripod or monopod or not to use it.
Try shooting different vehicles, not just cars.
Cars are the very first thing that comes to everyone’s mind when we think about transporting photography. But let’s be clear that photoshoots can be done with other vehicles too, not just with cars. There are several different subjects to choose from, like trains, bikes, boats, planes, etc. Additional transportation is slightly more complex than the car to capture, but you must give it a try for a good result.
Capturing the image of the train will not be that difficult as they follow the same track every day and have their fixed arrival and leaving time from the station. Likewise, finding the spot for taking the image of the train will also not be challenging; you will need to enhance your shooting technique.
If you want to do plane photography, visiting airshows will be the perfect place to enhance your technique. Usually, planes are on the ground in airshows, which you can photoshoot easily if you feel difficult to take a photo of an airplane up in the sky.
If you are trying to do sports photography, motocross can be the best place to visit. You can visit there and capture the image of vehicles moving on the track. Likewise, several events are held around the country. Because of that, you don’t have to travel much for taking some action shots.
Be Patient
As a beginner, eager to click beautiful photos quickly is more, we all know that. But let’s be clear that doing transport photography is not easy as it seems to be. Doing transport photography requires patience as much as skill. First, choose the best background for the shoot and wait for the vehicle to pass by. Sometimes it may take longer for vehicles to pass by, so you must have the patience to wait by.
Location and background
Apart from good vehicles and gears, choosing the right location for the shoot is also essential. No matter how beautiful the subject is, the messy background can fade the subject’s beauty. Before starting the photoshoot, make sure to choose a suitable location. Big vehicles can look beautiful at the top of the mountain, but small vehicles can look lost there. But it will be tough to reach the mountain top for the photoshoot; that’s why you can look for the street with a good background.
Look for the background with no messy things that can distract the subject. If you are settled in the busy street, try finding a quiet place with no crowd and other distracting objects. It will make the viewer’s focus on the subject than the background.
Here we have mentioned a few best ways to get rid of distracting things from the background:
- Take out the distracting objects from the background, if possible.
- Change your angle. Sometimes a slight change in your angle can hide the object from the background and make it out of sight.
- Blur out the distracting background. If there are several messes in the background that can not be removed, blurring them out can be helpful. You can lower your aperture, which will help make the background blur. People’s eyes catch what’s in focus than the things that are blurred, so make sure that your subjects do not become blurred while trying to make a background blur.
- While choosing a background, time is also essential. Taking pictures at sunrise or sunset can give a beautiful background view.
Transport photo according to the vehicle and gears
Photographing Cars
While doing car photography, using a standard lens will be fine because you can quickly move the camera around the car and change the position and angle according to your needs. For reducing reflection, you can also use the polarizing filter. While making shutter speed slow, consider using a tripod to avoid blurriness in the image.
Photographing Boats
If you are doing boat photography, using a standard 35-80mm lens can be fine, but if you take a picture of a boat from far, you can consider using 80-200mm. For enhancing the reflection and deepening the blue sky, you can use a polarizing filter. Likewise, using a tripod will be best if you plan to do a photoshoot at the coast for an extended period. Tripods can easily make the focus stable which can not be done with bare hands.
Photographing Trains
Using the focal length of 50-100mm will be best if you do train photography. If you don’t like changing lenses for different conditions, using a 28-105mm lens will be best. For better shots, consider using a tripod. Tripods will make the image stable and make it easy to follow the train. Likewise, you can use a monopod on the platform. A monopod is lightweight and can be carried easily.
Photographing large vehicles
You can photograph several large vehicles like RVs, fire trucks, busses, tractors, etc. These vehicles should be captured differently from others. Instead of showing them sporty and sleep, it is necessary to show the power, tough and adventure because they are made for that. The best way to take shots of large vehicles is from a low angle. Low angle view can show the vehicle as more robust and tough.
Instead of photographing these vehicles from the up-close with the wide-angle view, consider standing further back and using the long focal length lens. Telephoto lens’ magnification compresses the background and gives a beautiful shot.
Conclusion
Transport photography is mainly the way of studying people’s lives and reflecting people’s daily lives. This type of photography has a significant social component, so it is essential to use image storytelling. Transport photography can be challenging because it is all about capturing the moving object in the frame. That’s why it requires patience and practice to master transporting photography. Studying and observing others is one of the best ways to practice, and if you are confused about where to look for a reference photoAC can be one of the best sites to visit. In photoAC, you will find several beautiful images from which you can take inspiration.