Travel portraits: how to photograph people when you travel
The portraits people remember from a trip are rarely snatched from across the street. They come from asking, listening and a few simple choices about light, lens and story.
The fruit seller has been watching the camera for ten minutes. Tourists have walked past her stall all morning, lenses raised, and not one has stopped to buy anything or say hello. Then someone does. They buy two mandarins, ask a question about the tea she is drinking, and only then lift the camera with a raised eyebrow. She laughs, straightens her scarf and looks straight down the lens. The photograph that follows is nothing like the ones taken from across the street. It has a person in it, not just a face.
Photographing people is the part of travel photography most photographers find hardest, and the part their friends remember. Landscapes wait. People have opinions about being photographed, and every one of them is entitled to say no. The technique matters, but it comes second to how you approach.
How to ask a stranger for a photo when you travel
Ask. It sounds obvious, and it is the step most people skip because they are nervous. A candid frame snatched from ten metres away with a long lens usually looks exactly like what it is. A portrait made with permission has eye contact, trust and often a flicker of personality that no telephoto can steal.
Before you arrive, learn how to ask permission for a photograph in the local language, along with please and thank you. Even a clumsy attempt signals respect. Where language fails, a smile, a gesture towards the camera and a questioning look work almost everywhere.
Spend time before you ask. Buy something, sit down, talk about the weather or the food. The best travel portraits tend to come at the end of a conversation, not in place of one. And accept a no gracefully. A shake of the head, a hand raised, a turn away: all of these mean no, and a no is the end of it. Thank the person anyway and move on.
Once you have taken a few frames, show the person the screen. It turns the exchange into something shared, and often relaxes them into a better second attempt. If you can, offer to send the photograph by email or message, and then actually send it.
Respect, culture and photographing people abroad
Attitudes to photography vary enormously between countries, regions and communities, and so do the laws. Before you travel, read the photography guidance for your destination and be conservative until you understand local norms.
Some general principles hold almost everywhere:
- Ask a parent or guardian before photographing children, and respect their answer.
- Places of worship often restrict photography entirely, or during services. Look for signs and follow what locals do.
- Many cultures have specific sensitivities about photographing women, elders, ceremonies or sacred sites. Find out before you go.
- Avoid photographing people in distress, poverty or vulnerable situations purely for their visual interest.
- Police, military and government buildings are restricted in many countries. Do not test this.
The same thinking applies at home. Around Australia, some sites are culturally significant to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and photography may be restricted. At Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, for example, certain sensitive sites are signed as no-photography areas. Read the signs and the park guidance, and follow them.
Payment is a genuine grey area. In some tourist centres, people in traditional dress pose for photographs as a way of earning a living, and paying a small amount is expected and fair. Elsewhere, offering money can change the relationship in ways that sit uncomfortably. There is no universal rule. Buying from someone's stall, or simply taking the time to talk, is often the better exchange.
The best travel portraits tend to come at the end of a conversation, not in place of one.
The best light for travel portraits
Travel rarely lets you choose the hour. Midday sun is the time you are most often out walking, and it is hard on faces: dark eye sockets, a bright nose, squinting. The fix is to find shade rather than wait for sunset.
Open shade, the area under an awning, a tree or a building with open sky in front of it, gives soft, even light on a face. Doorways are even better. Stand your subject just inside a shaded doorway, facing out towards the bright street, and the light falls across them from the front while the room behind drops into darkness. It is one of the most reliable portrait setups in the world, and it is found in every town.
Window light in cafés and workshops works the same way. Position the person so the window is to one side and slightly in front of them. The side of the face away from the window will fall into gentle shadow, which gives shape.
When there is no shade, turn the person so the sun is behind them. Their face will be evenly lit by the light bouncing around the scene, and the sun will rim their hair. Expose for the face, and accept that the background will be bright.
Best lens and settings for travel portraits
Focal length is not just about how close you can get. It sets how close you have to stand, and that changes the relationship.
A 35 mm lens, or the equivalent on a phone's main camera, puts you about a metre or two away and includes the surroundings: the stall, the boat, the workshop. This is the environmental portrait, and for travel it is often the most useful. A 50 mm frames a little tighter and flatters faces more. An 85 mm lens is the classic head-and-shoulders portrait length and lets you work from two or three metres, which some people find more comfortable, though it can feel distant.
Avoid wide-angle lenses close to a face; at 24 mm and less than a metre, noses grow and ears shrink. Avoid, too, the long telephoto from across the square. Without permission, it tells a story about the photographer, not the subject.
Telling a story with travel portraits
A face alone is a portrait. A face with the right context is a story. Before you raise the camera, ask what this person does and what tells a viewer about their life. A fisher's hands on a net. A baker dusted in flour at the oven door. A barber mid-cut, the customer's reflection in the mirror.
Work in a short sequence rather than a single frame. Start wide, to show the place. Move to a medium shot of the person at work. Finish with a detail: hands, tools, the texture of what they make. Three frames like this tell more than any single portrait, and they sit together well in an album or a slideshow.
Keep backgrounds simple, even in busy markets. Step to one side so a plain wall or a dark doorway sits behind the head, rather than a crowd or a bright sign. Watch for things growing out of heads, the travel portrait's most common flaw.
These skills can be practised before you leave. Melbourne's Queen Victoria Market, the laneways of the CBD and the stalls at weekend farmers' markets are full of people who are used to conversation. Our street photography workshop covers approaching strangers and working quickly in public, and the CapturEDU photography tours bring the same practice to travel, with time to slow down and meet people. For focused feedback on your own portrait work, a private lesson is a good start.
Practise this
- At a local market, buy something from three different stallholders and ask each one for a portrait. Note which approach felt natural.
- Find a shaded doorway and photograph a friend just inside it, facing the street, then two steps further in. Compare the light on the face.
- Photograph one person at work in a three-frame sequence: wide, medium and a detail of their hands.
Questions, answered.
Should you ask before taking someone's photo when travelling?
What is the best lens for travel portraits?
How do you ask a stranger for a photo in another language?
Should you pay people for photos when travelling?
Published by CapturEDU, Melbourne photography education. Our educators are award-winning photographers with a Master of Arts in Photography (RMIT), AIPP and RPS membership.
