Learning & Events

Good photos are important to modern marketing. Her are a few tips to get you started with the smartphone you have in your pocket 

If you’re planning on marketing your business on the Internet, one of the first things you’ll need is strong photos — the Internet is a visual medium and one of the best ways to attract attention is a great photo. 

Your best bet is to have professional photos taken of your tourism experience. But if you haven’t had this opportunity, don’t stress. The good news is that most of us have the potential for great photos sitting in our pockets right now: It’s your smartphone. Most modern smartphones have fantastic cameras, and with a few tips, you may be able to take some great photos yourself that will serve your marketing needs well. Here are a few:

Go outside

Lighting is a key part of any great photo, but setting up proper lighting indoors can be tricky if you’re new to photography. The easy solution is to just go outside where the light will be better. If you can’t get outside, get as close to a big window as you can and let that natural light brighten the scene.

Include people in your photos

While we are surrounded by natural beauty, people tend to be inspired to make travel decisions by seeing themselves having an amazing experience. And it’s much easier to see yourself doing something if you see others doing it. So skip the landscape photos and hit up some friends, family members or even customers to appear in your photos. 

Shoot at sunrise or sunset

Photographers call moments just after sunrise and just before sunset “golden hour.” Why? Because the yellow sunlight at these times of day makes everything look gorgeous. So avoid the harsh shadows and blinding light of mid-afternoon and aim to get the best shots early or late in the day. You may even capture some beautiful colours in the sky.

Zoom with your feet

Most smartphone cameras have zoom features. Don’t don’t use them. Instead, move in closer to your subject. Smartphone cameras tend to have wide-angle lenses, so to really fill up your frame and capture the energy and emotion of a moment, you’ll need to get in close. 

Shoot a lot

If you’re unsure of your photography skills, make sure you take a lot of photos because it will increase your chances of capturing a great moment. But this means more than just pressing the shutter button a lot. Look for variety by moving around a lot: change your angle on the subjects, move closer and farther away, shoot both horizontal and vertical photos. Don’t worry if you only get one great shot out of 1,000 — nobody will ever see the 999 photos that end up in the trash. They only care about the one great shot. 

Edit your photos

Even if you’re never opened Photoshop in your life, your photos can sometimes benefit from a bit of editing. Most smartphones these days have pretty great built-in editing features that will allow you to crop out distracting things on the edge of the frame, or brighten up a darker scene. So play with your editing features a bit, but don’t go too crazy — you want your photos to look amazing but also feel real (tip: avoid filters). 

Stage a scene

Marketing photos are different from family photos. The goal is to show travellers the amazing tourism experience you offer. So rather than having people pose stiffly in front of your business, think about staging a scene by getting a few people to volunteer to do a part of the experience you offer. While they are doing the experience, shoot photos with the intention of capturing real activities, real reactions and real fun.

Be the star

One of the great parts about operating an Indigenous tourism experience is that, in many cases, you are the attraction. You are the reason people want to have the experience. So don’t be afraid to be the star in the photos and give potential customers a chance to get to know you just a little bit.