Step into the scene: how to make travel photos feel alive

A beautiful landscape image can show viewers where you were, but a great one can make them feel as if they were standing there with you.

This is the idea behind Step into the Scene, a Canon Club challenge led by Dutch landscape, travel and commercial photographer Cuno de Bruin. At its heart, Step into the Scene is about creating a photograph that makes the viewer feel present in a place, rather than simply looking at it from the outside.

For Cuno, that feeling comes from more than a dramatic view. His images are built around atmosphere, movement, details and the human point of view. He often uses people, foreground elements, windows, weather and changing light to turn a location into a small visual story.

When Cuno arrives at a location, he doesn't look for the obvious view. Instead, he's searching for visual layers that he can build into a composition.

"I love creating depth in my images, especially in landscapes," he says. "With the dunes, the beach and the ocean, for example, you try to create layers of interest."

Those layers might be natural, such as sand dunes and sky, but they can also be created by shooting over someone's shoulder, framing the view through a window, or adding another foreground element to the frame. His aim is to give the viewer a way into the picture.

"A layer I often like to add is me standing there, not in focus, and watching the scene, or me walking by," he reveals. The result, he explains, is almost a point-of-view feeling – as if the viewer has stepped into the scene rather than observing it from a distance.

A clean composition helps the viewer understand the story quickly. It also gives atmosphere room to breathe. Cuno often works with three, four or five visual layers, but keeps the image organised through careful composition and selective focus.

"I always shoot with a low aperture,” he explains. “So f/2.8, f/1.8, even f/1.4, to create that depth."

That shallow depth of field can separate a person, object or foreground detail from the rest of the scene. It can also make viewers feel closer to the moment, as if they are looking past something in front of them towards the view beyond.

Cuno also draws on his background as a visual designer. He often composes around the golden ratio, placing subjects or key elements where the image naturally feels balanced.

A person in the frame does not need to dominate the picture. For Cuno, a figure can be there simply to give scale, direction or a sense of presence.

This is especially useful when travelling alone. If Cuno wants to include a person in the frame but has no one with him, he uses a tripod and the Canon Camera Connect app on his smartphone to place himself in the scene, check the composition and trigger the camera remotely.

He uses autofocus on his EOS R5 Mark II differently depending on the role he wants to play in the image. If he wants himself sharp, he uses person- or eye-tracking. If he wants to become a blurred foreground element, he selects a single focus point elsewhere in the scene and lets himself fall out of focus.

That choice changes the way the viewer reads the image. A sharp figure can become the subject. A blurred figure can become the viewer's stand-in.

The challenge is not only about what a place looks like. It is about what it feels like.

Cuno believes still images can suggest wind, cold, sea air, silence and movement by using visual cues. That might mean grass moving in the wind, waves rolling in, water shifting across the sand, or a person walking through the frame.

Details matter too. Cuno looks for sand, grass, water and smaller textures that help complete the sensory picture.

One photograph can suggest a feeling, but a series can make it stronger. That is why Cuno often thinks in sequences rather than single images. An establishing view, a detail, a tighter composition and a human moment can work together to create the full atmosphere of a place.

"If you have a series like that, I think you can definitely feel that wind and smell the ocean," he says.

When you travel, the weather rarely follows the plan. Rain, dark clouds or flat light can feel like a reason to stop shooting, but Cuno sees them as creative elements to work with.

"You just have to shoot with what you get," he says. "A lot of people think, 'Oh, it's going to rain. Let's go inside.' No, that's the moment you just have to keep going."

Changing weather can transform the same location. Sun can make a scene feel open and inviting; dark clouds can make it feel moody and dramatic. Flat light can reveal details in sand, grass and water that bright sunlight might overpower.

The key is to adapt while keeping the story cohesive. A sudden change in conditions does not have to break a series. It can give it contrast and narrative.

"It's an element of the journey when it's raining," he says. "That's part of the journey."

Cuno's images often have a soft, hazy, cinematic quality. Some of that comes from light, timing and lens choice, but he also uses a 1/4 mist filter on his lens during the day. "That gives that little bit of a dreamy look,” he says. “And that's not even in my post-production. That's really on my camera, on my lens."

He does not always need the filter at sunrise or sunset, when the light may already have a natural haze. But during the day, it helps him soften the atmosphere and create the look he wants in-camera.

Colour choices can also help shape the mood before you start editing. Canon Picture Styles let you adjust the look of your images in-camera, while cameras such as the EOS R8 Mark II add flexible colour tools including Picture Styles, Filmtone Colour Filters and cinematic Custom Picture settings for video. These can help you experiment with different looks while you shoot.

Cuno prefers creating that effect as he shoots, because it helps him respond to the scene in real time. "I want to see it in that way through my camera," he says.

For Cuno, lens choice is not just technical. It changes the emotional distance between the viewer and the scene.

Although he enjoys prime lenses and says a 50mm is the lens he would choose if he could only use one, he also uses zooms for flexibility when travelling. His core kit includes three Canon RF lenses.

He finds the RF 24-70mm F2.8L IS USM especially useful for the Step into the Scene approach because it can move between wide context and tighter compositions while still feeling natural. "With a 24-70mm lens," he says, "you can blur the foreground, and then you can build up the layers."

The RF 70-200mm F2.8L IS USM can compress a scene, bringing layers of dunes, sea and sky closer together. That can create scale and drama, but it can also make the image feel more distant.

The RF 50mm F1.4L VCM, meanwhile, gives him a familiar, human perspective. "A 50mm lens basically gives you what you see with your eyes," he says. "You have to step closer to come closer, and that's something I really love to do."

One of Cuno's favourite images from his recent shoot shows a person on a boat looking towards a sailing boat. Another is framed through a window, with a sailing boat beyond. Both work because they create the sense of looking with someone, or through something, rather than simply observing a view from a distance.

"There's always a certain feeling when you can look through something," he says. "Look over a shoulder, look through a window. There's a certain feeling with that."

To put it simply: don't just photograph a place, build a visual experience around it.

Written by Jeff Meyer