How To: Take #CoupleGoals Photos While Traveling Solo

Although I love traveling with friends, I don’t always get the opportunity to because our schedules often conflict. That’s not to say that I don’t like traveling solo with P, but being a blogger, traveling with a group always makes it easier to capture those special moments on camera. And while selfies can suffice, sometimes it’s nice to have a frame-able photo to remember your experiences by! But just because you don’t have friends around to help you take your beautiful pictures doesn’t mean that those quintessential #CoupleGoals photos aren’t possible. Where there’s a will, there’s a way!

P and I have frequently traveled by ourselves—so far we’ve been to Portugal, Morocco, Vancouver, and Spain. For every trip, I aim to get at least one photo of the two of us together so that I can look back and remember the experience by. On our recent trip to Spain, I pushed the boundary a little bit and set a goal for myself to snag at least one photo of the two of us together each day. Excessive? Some may think so, but I am absolutely in love with our photos so I have no regrets. Since posting them, I’ve received so many questions on Instagram as to how P and I are able to get so many couple photos while traveling by ourselves, and in this post I’ll reveal exactly how we do it, along with a step-by-step guide to get the best photos out of every situation!

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There are a couple of things that I want to clarify before diving right into this. We DO NOT use a tripod. I’m not saying that you can’t use a tripod to achieve these photos. Carrying a tripod around all day just isn’t quite conducive to us. P and I love to hike and spend an entire day out, and carrying excess equipment just isn’t my preference. I’ve seen tons of other bloggers achieve beautiful photos with a tripod so you can absolutely do that too!

Please BE CAREFUL when asking others to take your photos for you. I am not liable for any equipment that may be damaged/stolen should you decide to proceed with my tips.

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So how exactly do we get our #CoupleGoals photos?

We use a human tripod – ask a stranger to help you take your photo.

Think about it. There’s bound to be at least one instance in your life when you were a tourist somewhere and someone asked for your help to take a photo of them. And you took it. There’s also bound to be at least once instance where you’ve asked someone else in the past to also do you that very same favour. So why not take it to the next level to capture the perfect photo?

Set up the framing and lighting.

Before asking anyone to take a photo for you, make sure that you have entire image set up. That means that I ask P to stand in for me in the hypothetical position from where we would be together and make sure that everything I want in the picture is positioned perfectly.

It’s then important to play around with the lighting to ensure that the picture looks as close to the outcome that you had envisioned. You can’t expect a stranger to know exactly how to use your camera, so it’s crucial that you set everything up so that all the have to do is press a button. This is where the human tripod component comes in. The stranger that is helping you will only be holding the camera and pressing the shutter release. Don’t leave them the opportunity to guess anything else (ie. framing, lighting, etc.)

Take a sample photo to use as reference.

It’s always a good idea to show the stranger an example of what you’re envisioning. It also helps them to be on the same page as you in regards to exactly how you want your photo to look. It’s better to take the guessing out of the game.

Show them how to focus.

Unless your camera has the capability of locking the focus, one of the most important things that you can do while setting up the camera is to show the stranger how to focus. The last thing that you want is perfectly framed and lit photos that are completely out of focus. Cropping and white balancing is easy, but you can’t save a blurry photo.

When shooting with strangers, I make a point to use my Canon 5D Mark IV because it has a touch-to-shoot function—where I guide strangers to tap my face on the screen, and the camera auto-focuses and instant snaps the photo. It’s the most fool-proof way of ensuring that each and every single on of my photos are fully focused and sharp!

Get over the fear of feeling awkward when posing.

When it comes to creating those super cute #CoupleGoals photos that you see on Instagram, the posing expands beyond your typical ‘standing side-by-side of each other and smiling‘. You have to really get comfortable and creative with your posing—it may definitely feel strange or awkward to pose like that in front of a stranger, but if you’re already going all the way of setting up the camera for the photo, you might as well pose properly for it!

It’ll take a lot of practice and getting used to, but these photos get shot within mere minutes, so the awkwardness isn’t as long as you may think!

Maintain your expectations and patience.

When asking a stranger to help you take your photo, remember that they are taking time out of their day to do you a favour. You can’t expect them to stick around for 30 minutes to nail the perfect photo. Be considerate and open to accepting that photos won’t turn out exactly 100% the way that you want them to. If you don’t get the perfect photo the first time around, you can always ask another person.

Return the favour.

Often times tourists who are helping you take your photo would love a photo for their memories as well. I always make a point to offer to take a photo for them in return.

I also use the mutual understanding that tourists love to help each other out by asking for a favour when others approach me first to help them take a photo. There’s a little bit of give and take to this photo game!

Take a handful of images of the place as people move around.

If you’re skilled with Photoshop, you can create varying layers like a mosaic to patch over places in your photo where people are obtrusively in the background. This takes a little bit more time to do in post-editing, but it saves you the headache of learning how to use the Content Aware tool.

The key to doing this correctly is to make sure that you’re taking the photo in the exact same composition as all of your other ones so that none of the subjects/objects in your photos are warped differently from each other.

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And there you go! Those are my top tips to getting the perfect #CoupleGoals photos when traveling solo with your significant other. It definitely takes a lot of courage to pose differently besides just standing there smiling, but as soon as you cave into the fear, you’re going to nail those shots!