One of the many things we love about cycling is the opportunity it offers to take fabulous photos of ever-changing scenery and impressive action shots of our cycling buddies with incredible backdrops. If you’re embarking on a journey with Ride25 halfway round the world there will be countless chances for taking fantastic photos, so it’s probably about time that you learnt a trick or two for capturing the very best shots you can.
The great thing is that nowadays, you don’t need to have to be the best photographer or own the best camera in the world to take a great picture – and let’s face it, who wants to be lugging around a massive camera on their bike anyway? Most mobile phones have great inbuilt cameras, so next time you’re on a ride, get click-happy and why not tweet us some of your pics (twitter.com/Ride25Tweet)?
Interesting photos often involve unusual angles, so experiment with different perspectives. Perhaps lie on the ground and shoot upwards or stand on a wall for a different viewpoint. If you want to take photos of your cycling buddies, race ahead for a minute (this is also great interval training!) and get off your bike to snap them coming towards you. Of course you will then have to hop back on your bike quickly and pedal fast to catch up with your friends again, but just think what it’ll do for your fitness!
If you’re cycling through hills or mountains and happen to be out very early or just as the sun is setting, make sure you get snap happy. The optimum time of day to capture a photo in this kind of landscape is in the first or last hour of sunlight, when the shadows accentuate the shapes and create stunning outlines of the mountains. If you are taking photos of a fellow cyclist early in the morning or at sunset, make sure you have the sun either to your left, right or behind you so that the sun illuminates your cycling buddy rather than casting them in a shadow.
One of the most referenced rules of photography is a technique called the ‘Rule of Thirds’. In a nutshell, this means avoiding putting the subject of your photo slap bang in the middle of your shot, but instead placing it (or them) slightly off-centre so that you end up with a dynamic, interesting and well-composed photo. For example, if you were to take a shot of the horizon, you would make sure that your horizon line is either at 1 third or 2 thirds across your image and not (like many amateurs do) right in the middle of your shot.
To give your photo an added bit of pazazz, use one of the many phone apps out there which have a whole range of special filters you can apply to your photos. We like Instagram for applying vintage effects, but there are also a whole load of other great apps that do different things. For example, Snappycam Pro is great for action photos and for people who always seem to just miss the perfect shot as it allows your phone camera to work like a DLSR and can take up to 60 shots per second. If you like adding text or captions to your photos, Path On is a great app for this. We look forward to seeing what you can do!
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