Nigeria Photo Trip – Useful Tips

Photography is a great way to capture the exciting moments of your journey and relive them in the future. And though the memories tend to fade over time, the photos will help them last much, much longer. However, to take good and clear pictures, you need at least some basic knowledge and skills. This is especially true for countries like Nigeria – foreign, exotic, and full of beauty. So, some useful advice and simple tricks will help to turn your vacation photos from good to great, regardless of your level of experience and gear.

Nigeria Photo Trip – Useful Tips

• 1. Scout the Location

Do your homework even before you purchase tickets. Travel guidebooks, blog posts, photos from locations – consume as much information about the place you are going to visit as you can. Firstly, this will help you navigate, avoid improper behavior, plan your budget, and so on. Secondly, this might give ideas of what, where, and when to shoot. Even a simple “shot list” might help you avoid a great deal of hassle and let you dedicate more attention to photography.

• 2. Travel Off-Peak

Traveling during the off-peak season lets you avoid constant contact with fellow travelers and observe locals minding their own business and not catering to tourists. An off-peak trip might be somewhat less comfortable, but it allows you to experience Nigeria (or any other country for that matter) as it is – raw and natural. Plus, popular shooting sites will be much less crowded.

• 3. Mind Your Manners

Whatever is OK in your country might raise some eyebrows in another – that thought should always be on your mind while traveling to a location with a culture other than yours. The population of tourist locations might be used to travelers’ “quirks”, but that is no reason to be disrespectful. So, if you are well accustomed to local etiquette, at least always be polite, mind your outfit (which is quite important in Muslim countries, like Nigeria), and always ask locals if you want to take a shot of them. This way, you will have much less trouble while walking around with a camera.

• 4. Shoot Late and Early

A photographer can control a lot of aspects of a shot, but sunlight is not one of them. Normally, the closer the sun is to the horizon, the better it is for shooting. These hours are called “golden hours” for a reason. Midday sun gives harsh light and deep shadows, which can cause trouble to inexperienced photographers. Therefore, plan your trip in a way that lets you visit shooting locations in hours closer to sunrise or sunset.

• 5. Use Burst Mode

When you are shooting a moving object or some kind of action, at what moment should you release the shutter? Usually, there is no time to figure out the answer. That is when the burst mode comes in. It allows you to take a series of shots with a single button press and select the best frame afterward. This is especially handy since fleeting spontaneous moments are impossible to repeat and your window of opportunity will be somewhat wider.

• 6. Carry a Tripod

A tripod is a must-have tool in any photographer’s arsenal. For instance, it allows you to include yourself in epic landscape shots. It also helps to take your hand movement out of the equation when taking shots with a long exposure (at night, for example). Giving your camera to strangers when you’re feeling like taking a picture of yourself is no longer necessary as well. The bottom line is that a portable tripod is a game changer, if you can afford to carry one around – do it.

• 7. Take Your Time

When looking at an epic shot of a beautiful location, what you don’t see is dozens upon dozens of prior shots that are that good. The number of things that get in the way is nigh-infinite – crowds, weather, low battery, time in public transport, the list goes on. The only universal way to deal with such nuisances is to be patient and take shots until you get the result that pleases you.

• 8. Fix it in Post Processing

You might be a wizard with a camera, but that does not mean that you have to neglect photo editing software. With a proper image processor, you may save a nearly failed shot or turn a simply good picture into an excellent one. If you have taken a hundred pictures (and we recommend you to do so), you may save a great deal of time if you follow the link and learn how to enhance multiple photos at once with an app.

And that’s about it! Hopefully, these tips will help you go on an unforgettable journey and return with outstanding photos. And before you go, here’s one last piece of advice – take it easy. Every shot is a good shot as long as you are having the time of your life!