How to Shoot Fantastic Images in Crowded Destinations

If you love taking pictures when you travel, you always want to include some images with people in them. People, especially locals, will provide context and flavor and also gives your pictures life. But sometimes, you want a photo of a location or landmark without all the people. There are many places where you may think this is impossible, but with a little planning and knowledge, you can create pictures of crowded locations without people.

The trick takes some time and practice, so first, let’s look at some techniques to avoid the people altogether.

Go When the People Aren’t There

Depending on your travel plans, this may not be possible, but if you can get to a location very early, you may be able to catch the spot without the crowds. Not only is this an excellent time to beat the crowds, but it will also give you the best light. I have seen images of St. Mark’s Square in Venice completely empty, taken just after sunrise.

Go For the Details

If you can’t avoid the people, focus on smaller details. Often, these are the shots that can make your portfolio anyway. Everyone has seen the Tower of Pisa, but few people focus on the repeating arches and the details of the tower itself. Shoot in tight and leave the people out. Grab architectural features above the crowds.

Go Over Everyone

If you are at a large open area trying to shoot a place full of people, just tilt your camera up a bit. You’d be surprised how much of a building or landmark you can capture while missing all the people below. Where possible, you could also try to find something to stand on that gets you above most of the people. If you are using a small point and shoot, a selfie stick and self-timer will work also. If you are carrying a tripod and in a location where using it is allowed, pre-focus and then set it atop a column or other structure.

Go Home and Fix it

If none of the above tips will work and you want to capture the scene without people, then you will need to learn this trick. Practice on some old photos before you leave home, so you will know what to expect on location. You need to learn and practice layers and cloning in whatever photo editing software you use.

This process will take some time on location, so plan accordingly. A tripod will make the post-processing much more manageable. A cable release or remote trigger will help as well. This way, you can watch the scene and fire off the shots as needed.

If you don’t have a tripod, you need to stand very still and keep the same composition for each shot. Also, this won’t work if there are masses of people, but you’d be surprised how many you can eliminate with this process.

Take your first shot framed how you want the final image to look. Make sure your composition and exposure are perfect before moving on. You won’t be able to move the camera or change settings until you are finished.

Wait for the people to move around a bit. Now take a second shot. You will need to do this several times, depending on how many people. Try to pay attention to where people are and where they were. What you are trying to do is, get a shot every spot in the scene without a person. People don’t have to move much or far.

Then back home, merge all your photos together using layers. If you didn’t use a tripod, you would need to use the software’s alignment process. Once the layers are loaded and aligned, it is very easy to clone out the people, leaving the underlying empty areas from another shot. When all the people are gone, flatten the layers, and you are don.

Travel photography is a lot of fun and allows you to chronicle your journeys. Be sure and include some local people to give your images more flavor. But also try to get some without people. Follow these techniques and don’t worry about having to take pictures of crowded locations.

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