Trying to take better photos with your phone? Here are 5 easy tips for taking better photos with your phone!
I don’t know about any of you, but sometimes the thought of toting around my DSLR makes me cringe. The reality is that I don’t always remember it, don’t have a big enough bag to store it in or am simply going somewhere I don’t feel comfortable having it. With this in mind, I made it my mission in 2016 to learn to take better photos with my iPhone.
Let’s be honest – the cameras they are putting in phones these days puts my hot pink Razr flip phone’s camera to shame. While I still prefer my Nikon for crisp shots, I know that I can count on my iPhone to take a quality photo when I need it. But how? Today I’m sharing 5 easy tips for taking better photos with your phone, plus all my favorite editing apps if you’re interested 🙂
5 Easy Tips For Taking Better Photos With Your Phone
First things first – make sure that lens is clean! I use an iPhone and I know that they make the camera lens in a spot that’s easy to swipe with your hand when picking it up to make a call, or smudge while holding it in your hand to check social media, text, etc. I always just wipe it clean with my shirt before I use it!
DO NOT ZOOM. I repeat – don’t zoom. I know it’s really tempting to capitalize on the mega zoom option they give you, but it will only result in a blurry, poor-quality photo. You can always use the crop option later on! Try getting closer to the object if you wish to have a photo that is “zoomed in”. Move your body, not the zoom bar!
iPhone Photography Tips
Natural light is the best way to go whether you’re using your phone or your fancy camera. I know that if I have to utilize my flash, the quality of the photo is not going to be up-to-par with how I prefer my photos to look. If I’m outside, I will make sure that I don’t have my back to the sun, which will often create a weird shadow.
To make photos more interesting, consider shooting from different angles. My go-to’s for avoiding a (boring) head-on shot include: from above and from below. I also like to use the cropping feature to make certain details pop.
Another way of making photos more interesting is detail shots. You might want to remember that really cool candy store you popped into on vacation, so consider taking a photo of the barrel of candy instead of a from-the-front shot of the full store. Make sense? The same goes for a bouquet of flowers, plants, drinks, desserts and more.
Best iPhone Photography Apps
So now that you have the photos you want to use – how the heck do you get them to match the look you’re going for? You use editing apps!
My favorite photo editing apps include:
Snapseed (so many great options with this app, including how to add a blue sky into grey sky photos!)
Darkroom (allows you to adjust the curves and coloring, similar to Lightroom)
Fontcandy (gives you the capability to easily add words to photos! think: memes)
VSCO (I use this app to plan out what my Instagram feed will look like and how certain photos and colors look together)
What are your favorite photo editing apps? Do you have any tips for taking photos with your phone that I might have missed?
If you liked this post, you might enjoy:
3 Lightroom Hacks For Amateur Photographers