Sometimes, a beautiful, once-in-a-lifetime shot comes from a carefully-arranged portrait shoot, with professional lighting, a tripod, and a model.
Other times it comes from a quick grab for your phone.
But undoubtedly one of the best perks of digital and phone photography is you no longer need to be concerned with how many photos you snap. Because you're not wasting film (or money) trying to snap the perfect shot.
Instead, you can focus on capturing what lies before you...and edit it later.
Granted, this trick doesn’t work perfectly every time—but it’s always worth a try. So the next time you see the perfect shot unfolding before you, remember this tip: Shoot first and edit later!
Be Prepared to Get the Shot with These Three Tips
One of my favorite phone photography tips is to research shortcuts for opening the camera app, including ensuring you have a camera button on your shortcuts menu. Practice using them so that you’re ready when the moment strikes!
Keep a cleaning cloth handy for your camera phone lens, and get in the habit of keeping it clean and free of fingerprints and debris. This way, you won’t miss out on a great shot because of a dirty lens!
Many photographers also tend to carry a smaller camera on shoots for candids, so they can keep their settings on their main camera and stay ready with a different auto-focus option that’s at-the-ready for a quick snap. While this is extra-handy for outdoor environments (waves crashing, wildlife appearing, etc.), it’s also great to capture candid moments of your subjects.
Once you have an image you might be able to work with, open it up in your editing app, whether that’s Lightroom or just the photos app on your phone. Take a look at the image, and figure out what story you want to tell with it. See if cropping it helps to tell that story with the rule of thirds. How is the brightness/contrast looking?
There are so many levers and tools to use to tell your visual story. But first, you’ve got to get the shot.
So you can edit it later!