Anyone can take beautiful photos from a smartphone, but learning what makes an image stand out can take some practice and guidance. So, we've collected the best and most important tips to level-up your mobile photography skills for professional style shooting on-the-go.
Tip 1: Clean your lens
This tip is extremely basic, but clean your smartphone lens before you even start taking photos. A clean lens yields razor-sharp focus, rich contrast, and vivid colors. Conversely, a dirty lens scatters light, resulting in blurry details, washed-out tones, and distracting, glowing halos around light sources. See the below example (image source).
Tip 2: Pay attention to the light
In the absence of a fancy lighting rig on a photography set, it's important to work with lighting in any given environment you're taking photos in. Natural light is generally the dominant source, so pay attention to the position of the sun or the location of windows if shooting indoors.
Make sure the subject of the image is facing towards the primary source of light. If there is a lot of light behind the subject but not on it, the photo will be "backlit" and poor quality (image source).
Tip 3: Don't use flash
Smartphone cameras' flash is generally not flattering for photography. Instead, use natural light! If possible, shoot in the early morning or the late evening to get beautiful golden lighting, or work on cloudy days for soft, evenly lit images. If your phone has a 'Night Mode' this can be used to help take photos in dark environments.
Tip 4: Tap the screen to set focus
When you point your smartphone at a subject, the camera will guess what you want to photograph. This method of autofocusing can work well if you’re photographing a clear scene with an obvious main subject. But when the scene is more complex your smartphone may get the focusing wrong, and the shot will turn out blurry.
Instead of letting your smartphone’s algorithms determine your point of focus, simply tap on your subject, and then you’ll get a sharp result.
Tip 5: Compose your photos creatively
Composition refers to the arrangement of elements in the frame. If you want to capture stunning photos, you must carefully position people and objects in a pleasing way.
A few quick pieces of advice:
- Avoid placing your subject smack-dab in the center of the frame
- Symmetry often looks good
- Search online for photos of the type of subject you're photographing and copy the layouts
Tip 6: Understand the rule of thirds
Turn on the 3x3 camera grid to create straight horizons and help build interesting compositions.
Imagine your photo as a blank canvas divided into parts: three horizontally, and three vertically. This 3x3 grid can help you frame it dynamically. Our natural inclination is to put the main object front and center. But when it’s so centered, your eye doesn’t move around the page. So the photo feels less dynamic, less interesting to look at.
If you shift the subject to the left or right side of the frame, your eye has to work out a little around the frame. Being off-center adds dynamism to your photo (image source).
Tip 6: Process and edit your images
To make phone photography more visually engaging, process the images through the phone's built-in editor or through a secondary app like Instagram or VSCO. Experiment with changing the contrast, saturation, temperature, black/white point and exposure to see if it can enhance the appearance of the photo.
Make sure to keep a copy of the original photo in case you need to go back and use it later.
Make sure to keep a copy of the original photo in case you need to go back and use it later.