Hooray! You’ve created an amazing experience and you’re ready to share it with the world!
Add the last, but maybe most important touch: the pictures.
Most probably you’re not a photographer, you probably don’t own a camera, and you don’t know where to start. We want to help you out! Let’s be resourceful together!
What makes your tour unique? Why should a guest choose to spend their time with you?
Your pictures should:
- Give a taste of what the guests they’re going to get or do
- Inspire and put in the mood for their new adventure
- Build trust towards the product and concept
- Show your passion for your city
- Keep it real, keep it local & authentic
- Showcase the traveler-local connection
- Make it clear we are offering private, personalized experiences
The Feeling
Passionate: capture the essence of your experience, what are the key elements of your tour/experience that make the tour unique and that reflect what are you passionate about.
Authentic: show the real side of your city, the most beautiful views but from the local angle, the cosy streets, what the locals are doing.
Connecting: always show good emotions and interaction between you and your guest(s).
Golden Rules
Candid photography - hosts and guests shouldn’t look into the camera, but naturally enjoying their time together on your experience. Always happy - smiles and good mood! 
Clean shots - your tour is private and personalized, that’s why the photos should also reflect that - avoid showing big groups (invite just 1-2 friends to be in the pictures), crowded places, lots of tourists around the landmarks of the city.
Always summer - make sure to take off big backpacks, puffy jackets, dark clothes, and unnecessary things that you are carrying (e.g. water bottles). If it’s a bit cold outside, you can just take the jackets off just for some minutes while taking each picture. Or even better, wear a nice colorful one and keep it on!
Showing the city in a local, authentic way, look for the details that show the unique side of the city, the hidden gems and the local life happening on the streets or inside the places you visit
AVOID taking these type of pictures
- Looking into the camera
- Very crowded places
- Dark places
- Photos taken from very far away
- Exaggerated emotions
- Unappealing styling
- Dark color winter jackets
Tell your story like a pro!
WHO: focus on showing the connection and interaction between you and your guest on the tour
WHAT: make sure you keep things dynamic - show what the host and guest are doing in the key points of the tour or experience;
WHERE: give context to where the action is happening
- Show beautiful views of the city and its important landmarks
- Show colorful details of the city and its architecture
- Show the local life and atmosphere of the city
Walking Tour - Make sure that your photos tell a compelling story of the diverse things that are included in your tour.
Food Tour - Make sure that your photos create a hunger effect on the viewers and show the atmosphere of the place visited!
You need at least 8-10 pictures in your experience in order to tell a good and complete story of what is happening in the tour; the more the better!
Take a combination of pictures that:
- Show your city: how it looks and how it feels
- Show interaction between the host and the guest(s)
- Show the yummy food and people enjoying it - if included in the tour
- For practical experiences: show the action happening
Examples of well told stories:
Get organized - plan your photoshoot
You need:
2 friends - one of them should be the instagram addict that we all have in our group of friends and that takes 100 pictures in one day! he/she’ll be the photographer on a mission :)
1 camera or smartphone (clean the lens of your camera!)
Good mood!
How does it work?
- Walk the tour you together with your friends; one of them will be your “guest”, the other one will take photos of you 2 walking around the city, and you guiding around.
- For workshops, cooking classes, home dinners, we suggest the same formula, just the location will be static; for home dinners we recommend more friends join so the pictures look nicer!
Technical tips and tricks
- Take only horizontally oriented photos
- Use any camera you own, don’t worry if it’s not a very professional one!
- If you have a smart phone with a great camera, go for it!
- Choose bright places with a lot of natural light as your locations, the photos will look much better!
- Choose both the iconic but also the more colorful locations from the tour itinerary to take the key pictures of host & guest interaction
- Ask your friends and also yourself to dress-up colorful! Avoid wearing black, or dark colors
- When photographing in dark conditions, try to include light sources in your photos
- Don’t use flash! We want the natural feeling of the moment to be revealed
- Don’t take black and white photos
- Don’t take selfies and also don’t pose to the camera
Mobile photography basics
Here are some very basic rules to ensure your phone photos will reach the minimal quality standards:
- Use natural light and don’t use flash
- Hold steady your camera
- Be careful that your photo is not too dark or too bright (adjust exposure from the phone function)
- Clean your camera lens before shooting
- Don’t zoom in, you will lose quality
- If you decide to edit the photos after, make sure you keep the colors natural and don’t distort them
- Make sure your photos are straight