So you saw a great photo of a cool building or maybe from a national park.  The location wasn’t too far away so you decided to go get your own shot with your phone.  Your photo was nice but it wasn’t nearly as good as the professionally done photo you saw.  Why is that?  What separates your photo from that of a professional photographer?  That’s what we’re discussing today: the difference between a professional photo and a tourist snapshot.

Professional Photographer Side

First off, professional fine art photographers take more time per photo than the average tourist does.  Professional photographers go to a site and scout around.  They don’t just choose the first spot they see and run with it.  They take their time and find the best possible location they can to stand and shoot from.  Sometimes they ask for or even pay for permission to visit places regular tourists can’t go.

The best times for getting photographs is usually golden hour.  However, depending on the vista, usually either sunrise or sunset works but only when the clouds are right.  That’s a narrow slice of time everyday to try for a photo.  Also, lighting conditions change rapidly during this window.  What was perfect light can become terrible lighting conditions a mere 2 minutes later.  This is why it can sometimes take several days and several attempts to capture the photograph you want as a professional photographer.

If you’re making several attempts at a particular shot, you probably need accommodations (food and the like) somewhere near the site you are trying to shoot.  You must check the weather report for a week ahead of time to learn if conditions might cooperate with you.  If so, you still might not capture the photo you want for other reasons.  Perfect conditions for a perfect landscape photo are the exception rather than the rule.

Next, professional photographers spend lots of time processing up their photos using professional-level photo-processing software.  This is more than a simple Snapseed or Instagram filter.  We’re talking software like Lightroom and Photoshop.  Some photographers can take hours making their photos look just right.

To sum it up, professional photographers make lots of effort for a single perfect photograph.  Professional photographers shoot many different takes and angles on the same subject in different conditions just to get that perfect composition.  They focus on that single outcome until they achieve it or give up.

Tourist Side

As a tourist, you definitely have different equipment and different priorities regarding your photography.  You’re not a professional photographer.  So, you probably brought your smart phone with you to take pictures.  Also, you probably plan on seeing the view and snapping a few shots.  Then you’ll move on to something else.  Perhaps you move to the next view, or a hike, or inside a building.  You’re out to see and discover new things.

You want to take photos documenting your trip and your presence.  Also, you want to save some memories to share with others.  You don’t care about capturing a gallery-hanger of a photo yourself.  After all, you can buy prints off the internet or from a local gallery.  By taking the route of buying a print, you free yourself from the efforts described above.  You also make more time for your adventure.

Now, is there anything wrong with a shot from a smartphone when you’re there?  Absolutely not.  After all, the lousy camera you have with you is always infinitely better than the $5000 camera body and $1200 lens which you left home.  I have personally experienced leaving my fancy camera home and resorting to a smartphone myself.  It took adequate photos to show the view without reaching gallery-hanger status.  Such photos are great for showing off at the office or on social media.  However, they are not the kind of photos you would put up for sale.

Most tourists don’t process up their photos at all.  However, if tourists even consider post-processing their photos, it’s probably using a simple filter app like Snapseed or Instagram.  There’s nothing wrong with those options either.  They do very well for their intended purpose.  They make a few adjustments to improve a photo’s look beyond a raw photo straight out of the camera.  I’ve even seen some well-applied filters which make the right photo almost look professionally done.

To sum it up, tourist photos are much more of a sensory overload.  There’s so much to do and see.  Oh wait!  Squirrel!  There’s a wide variety of subjects, taken with a couple shots each, with little effort or focus.  Tourists place little thought into what they shoot overall.  There’s also little to no post-processing either.

What Makes a Photo a Professional Photo or a Tourist Snapshot?

The simple answer is training, experience, focus, luck, and timing.  The difference between a professional photo and a tourist snapshot of the same scene often comes down to many aspects which laymen can’t easily name.  However, such laymen can often recognize the various points when someone else identifies it first.  These aspects include composition, color, sharpness, focal point, lighting, spot removal, foreground interest, and more.  Perhaps composition is the most critical element.

Professional photographers have training and experience in all aspects of photography from start to finish.  They take all that and focus it in a particular direction: the photo they want to take.  With luck and timing, they create the beautiful and stunning professional photos we all drool over.

Tourists don’t necessarily (and most never do) have that same training and experience level.  They don’t want to, which is perfectly fine.  After all, a professional photographer wouldn’t be a professional photographer without someone to sell to.  But, when contrasting the quality of photos taken, the differences due to that lack of training are dramatic.  Tourists can luck into something amazing.  It happens.  I lucked into a few beauties when I was still a beginner photographer.  Still, when lacking all 5 of the above points, a photo becomes a tourist snapshot rather than a professional photo.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the difference between a professional photo and a tourist snapshot is the amount of effort the photographer puts into the shot.  Professional photographers put years of effort into a single shot in the form of training and experience.  Tourists put mere seconds of effort into a similar shot.

Still, there’s room for both in the world.  I’ve received inspiration from several different tourist snapshots I’ve found on the internet.  Because of them, I’ve taken my own versions of some spots.  People always want to show off where they’ve traveled.  Others want to create that masterpiece of a gallery-hanger.  Personally, I love it when people pick up a camera.  I don’t care so much about whether they’ll create a professional-level photo.  I’m just happy someone sees something great in the world and wants to document it.  How about you?  Please leave your thoughts in the comments section below.