Tips for taking the perfect holiday photo

The most important functions of your smartphone for taking photos

The resolution is crucial for good photos. Make sure that you always shoot at the highest resolution and image quality. The photos will then take up more storage space, but you will avoid pixelated images and have more options for post-processing or editing. If possible, equip the phone with an additional micro-SD card.

Another helpful tool is to display the grid on your phone screen. Two horizontal and vertical lines will appear, to help you apply the rule of thirds. With this rule, the motif is placed at the intersections of the gridlines and not directly in the middle. This makes the picture look more interesting.

Perhaps it sounds banal, but professional-level cleaning of the lens is an important criterion. Your smartphone is carried in your pockets or handbag, and, unlike the lens of an SLR, doesn’t have a protective lens cap. The solution? Clean the lens with a soft cloth before each photo.

Keep a steady hand when taking photos, as the picture can become blurry quicker than you think. Always hold the smartphone close to your body and hold it with both hands. As an alternative, there are small tripods for mobile phones that only cost a few Euros or pounds.

The right perspective makes the difference

Everyone knows the classic holiday photo of the famous sights. How about changing your perspective and maybe moving towards the floor? Lie on your back or stomach and take pictures from this angle. You could stand on a stool, or take photos of the sky. Completely different records and memories will be created! You’ll take completely different snaps!

The scale is also important. Particularly small objects don’t look the same in photos as they do in reality. In order to show your loved ones at home how gigantic the waterfall is, you should not only look at it, but also an object as a size comparison.

Consider playing with reflections. These are not only found on water. Reflections on smooth surfaces such as metal or sunglasses’ lenses often make interesting motifs.

break at Mattsee with the castle in the background

Nice play of light for taking photos

Even if you want to sleep in while on holiday – hard-working cyclists sometimes have to hit the pedals earlier to get the perfect photo. Or postpone taking photos to a later hour. Photos taken at the golden or blue hours look particularly magical.

Golden hour

Golden hour is directly after sunrise and just before sunset. The light appears particularly warm and soft, because most of the blue components are filtered out by the atmosphere.

Blue hour

Blue hour is just before sunrise and just after sunset, when shades of blue dominate. This is particularly noticeable in the evening, as the sky turns an intense blue.

Couple photographed by the lake in the evening

Take a few steps forward, rather than using the zoom

For motifs or subjects that are further away, you should not zoom in with your smartphone, as this will often make them blurry and pixelated. It is better to take a few more steps closer to the desired object. If this is not possible, take the photo without zoom, and crop it to the desired size in post-processing.

Using manual focus

Your smartphone automatically focusses on the object in the foreground. But if you want to set the focus to a different place, tap the desired location on the display screen. Take several photos of the desired subject with different focus points. You will be amazed at the results!

The top camera apps for holidays

Countless free photo editing apps for Android and iOS can be downloaded from the Play or App Store. We have selected the best for you. This should make your holiday photos look professional.

The classic: Photographers use Adobe Lightroom as a daily digital editing tool. The app for both phone operating systems lets you edit, organise and share your photos.

Adobe Lightroom for Android
Adobe Lightroom for iOS
Fast photo editing: For cropping, brightening or putting a filter over the photo, the app snapseed works well for quick and easy photo editing. But the functions of this app do go further. You can also set a vignette or depth effects here.

snapseed for Android
snapseed for iOS
Collections, collages and frames: Do you like to pack several photos in one picture? Or embellish holiday memories with a colourful frame? With the PicCollage app, everyone can create collages with a few simple steps and decorate them with summery frames. However, to remove the watermark you need a subscription.

PicCollage for Android
PicCollage for iOS