When most people think of photography, they usually picture someone walking around with a heavy bag and lots of lenses. And while that might often be true, it’s also not always necessary! And in fact, I’ve captured a lot of incredible stories over the years using a much lighter tool that I’m forever carrying in my purse or pocket—my phone!
And while there are a lot of built-in settings for your phone to help you take great images, it takes more than technology to capture the perfect story. So I wanted to share a few helpful tips designed to take your snaps next level!
Clean Your Lens
There are so many things that fill the lens of our phone cameras! Fingerprints, dust, pollen—you name it, it all sticks when we least want it to as your phone sits in your purse or pocket. And what you may not know is that this can cause undesirable outcomes for your final photo. So use a simple cloth, like your t-shirt, to clean your lens before you begin.
Get a Steady Shot
A steady camera helps with a sharp image, and keeping that in mind can help your phone photos, too. And because you don’t always want to lug around a phone tripod, try a few time-tested tricks for keeping yourself steady like leaning against a wall or tree as you snap or pressing the shutter as you exhale.
Avoid Zooming In
With point-and-shoot cameras and their optical zooms, the lens physically moved. But on a phone, the lenses don’t move, meaning the digital zoom is essentially the same as cropping. It’s almost always better to capture the image from a fully zoomed-out position and edit it later if needed and capture the highest resolution possible!
Follow the Rule of Thirds
The Rule of Thirds is an art and photographic composition principle which breaks your image into a total of nine parts—three vertical and three horizontal lines. Place your point of interest in these intersections or along the lines. Your photo will likely be more balanced and (bonus!) the viewer’s eye is easily guided to what YOU decided to put into focus!
Use Natural Light
It’s pretty rare that you’ll see great phone photography that used the phone’s flash instead of natural light. Flashes with other forms of photography can be adjusted, but with the phone, it’s really just an LED light that can’t be adjusted, resulting in glares on surfaces and washed-out faces. The good news is that phone photography these days can do really amazing things with natural light. Play with different times of day to see what works best for you.
Select One Subject
Because carrying around your phone is so convenient, it’s easy to get distracted and try to capture everything that’s happening around you… but this is where the “art” part of visual storytelling really comes into play. Ask yourself, “What am I trying to focus on here?” and focus on that. It’s really that simple. Remove the clutter and background noise from your images and let your subjects shine.
Take LOTS of Images
One of the best perks of digital photography is that you don’t have to worry about wasting film, money, and time in the darkroom on bad images. Allow yourself to take risks and make mistakes. It’s really the only way to learn!
Did you love these seven tips? Then don’t miss my popular course, Master the Art of Visual Storytelling! It’s packed with professional advice that lays out exactly how anyone—from novice photographer to semi-experienced—can take better photos with their phones.