Travel photography is not taking landscape or snapshot shots of famous tourist attractions. It is storytelling, capturing the moment, and being able to photograph that which you can hardly put into words. Backpacking Europe, trekking Southeast Asia’s off-the-beaten-path gems, or road-tripping national parks, travel photography becomes a postcard of those moments you never thought you would need, and even make more posts if shared online.

But achieving that stunning moving shot isn’t always a point and shoot experience. It’s timing, light, composition, and now what in the world you’re gonna do with what you’ve got after you’ve pushed the button down. Even editing it is so much an art in the art of making your pictures shine. And with a bit of software and a bit of magic in your fingertips, you don’t have to be any good at all to have your holiday pictures glint.

Tell a Story With Composition

There is a story behind each of the great photos. Don’t put your subject in the center; put it somewhere else. Leading lines, symmetry, or the rule of thirds can also lead the eye and add depth. Having locals, street scenes, or nature frames such as windows and arches in your travel photos can add life and substance to your photos.

And do a disservice to the beauty of unopposed photography. The best travel photography is a documentation of things that happen at random, off-the-top-of-the-head action—children playing in the village market square or a spice grinder grinding spices on a street vendor.

Shooting great is only half the tale. Post-processing will make your photos masterpieces. And the best part about it is, you don’t need to lug a laptop and software around on tour to do it. There are different programs and web applications through which you can retouch your photos with your smartphone or tablet.

One of the tricks that come in useful is removal of items that you do not wish to feature in photos while taking pictures within crowded tourist spaces. That is where you use a background eraser online to help you out. No matter whether you must cut an object out from behind something, erase dirty backgrounds, or retouch a photo so that you can post it as a Facebook status update or travel blog, the app gives you the choice of being able to make your photo that much more beautiful at the click of a button and effortlessly. In an instant, you can retrieve your object from a grimy background and give your image a neater, more mature look.

Have the Right Kit

Your personal camera of choice is the one that accompanies you. For others, this may be a mirrorless or DSLR and two lenses and perhaps a third one. Others may possess a phone with a cracking camera kit. Even though you do have more options for flexibility with professional equipment, carrying lots of equipment isn’t always feasible if you’re traveling extensively. Power packs, phone clippers, and table tripods are a lifesaver if you’re going to be stuck somewhere for a little while.

But with whatever equipment you have, learn to familiarize yourself with your equipment. Familiarize yourself with your equipment beforehand so that you won’t practice with it during a time when there’s great lighting or the perfect shot comes into mind.

Learning About Natural Light and Golden Hours

Light is the making or breaking of a photograph. Avoid the sun at midday when it creates hard shadows, but the late afternoon and morning offer soft, lovely light. For portraits, landscapes, and cityscapes, try to shoot them at this time to capture the dramatic and best effects.

Even the day of rain will be your photographer’s friend. Gray clouds are actually a gentle giant box, softening light and eliminating jarring shadows. So if weather isn’t cooperating with the timing, maybe it will cooperate with your photo’s friend.

Creating Content That Connects

If you’re sharing your travel stories on social media, a personal blog, or even professionally, visual consistency and quality are key. People are drawn to content that looks polished but also feels authentic. Using editing tools to enhance your photos helps, but remember to maintain a balance. Over-editing can take away the natural beauty of your shots.

Use presets or filters sparingly, play with contrast and brightness to extract as much detail as possible, and make sure the photo reflects the essence of where you really did end up. Your task is to refine, not alter, what visually documented the experience.

Organize and Back Up Your Photos Daily

Worst that could be if your travel photos are lost. I back up my photos throughout the day. Use cloud backup services such as Google Photos, Dropbox, or iCloud and keep a compact portable external hard drive or SD card reader handy if you prefer offline backup.

Organizing your pictures by date or location folders. Not only will this come in handy someday when you might need to edit or share, but it’ll have your travel story all in one spot when you’re ready to share or look back at last.

Being a good sport about Candid Culture

Travel photography may also involve taking photos of people where they happen to be in their environment. Be considerate, however, of the culture and privacy right. Some cultures do not permit the photos of people—especially women or clergy—without permission. Always request permission if unsure.

Street photography is great when it’s real life, but courtesy and politeness don’t necessarily have to mean that your photo trip has to be at the expense of somebody else. Politeness can mean more substantial contact and even superior photographs.

Use Photos to Inspire Your Next Journey

Your vacation photographs aren’t memories—inmates of fantasy. They’re still there to lead them, not only the nostalgia element but so you can plan your next trip. A collection of beach photos may be keeping you daydreaming about your beach vacation, or that one scene from within a collection of rolling hills, your hike through some of it.

Scribbles in a photo notebook catch feelings somewhere, and photography much more than words forever.

Travel photography is an ongoing experiment, learning, and discovery. You don’t need to know things in order to shoot amazing photographs—you just need to have curiosity, imagination, and the insight to see the world differently. From learning an eye for light and composition to cropping your photo to scale with the help of an online background remover tool, every step allows you to tell your travel story in the best way possible.

So bring a bag along next time, and not only your camera, but your editor’s eye and creative spark as well. Because every journey is an opportunity to create something beautiful—and your world is waiting to be photographed, frame by frame.