Cell Phone Photo Tips
Ever look at other people’s photos and envy how they seem to know just how to capture a moment? I know I have! While I am not a perfect photographer, there are a few tips anyone can use to elevate your vacation photos when using a cell phone.
The Rule of Thirds: This one is my favorite! Place the main subject of your photo in either the left or right third of the frame leaving the majority of the frame open. This will help lead to a more compelling photograph, and it is so easy! Think of it like a tic tac toe board, and focus your main object in one of the 4 intersections, like crosshairs. If you are photographing a person, it’s a good idea to focus on the eyes. Spend some time practicing this at unimportant times to get the hang of it.
Fill the Frame: Unlike the rule of thirds, in this technique, you fill the frame with your subject. Often so that the entire subject doesn’t fit into the frame. This is good for impact or for enhancing simplicity. Practice getting a shot of your loved ones’ eyes filling the frame, or a bowl of fruit, or a flower. You can even use this technique by cropping an existing photo to fill the frame with just a part of it.
Try multiple shots: Take one with your subject in the center, one with them on the right, one on the left. Try upper left or right, or lower. Taking the same shot in multiple ways gives you options to choose from and edit. The trick here, though, isn’t to just take a lot of the same photo - make sure you move the subject to different areas of the frame.
Editing/Cropping: You can use cropping to achieve some of the effects discussed above. You can also use it to eliminate unwanted parts of a photo.
Timing and light: Use the natural lighting advantage you get in early morning or just before sunset to get a softer light that will make your photos more ethereal. If you use the stronger mid day light, you can have more contrast in your photos. Use light from windows to get natural light indoors, and you can adjust curtains to change the lighting effects.
Keep your Lens Clean: Carry a small lens cloth to give the lens a quick wipe before taking photos. You’d be surprised at how a quick cleaning can help.
Focus: Play around with your focus. Select different items in the frame to focus on to see if you can find a better way to “view” your photo. For example, focus on a close object, a far object, a middle object.
Play: Try different settings on your phone to see how they change the photo. Panoramic and Portrait mode are two popular selections.
Candids: Capture a lot of candid moments, and you may find that you get an unexpected gem! You don’t have to pay to get film developed, so if you take a lot of photos, you just have to be diligent about deleting them for space, but you may end up with some incredible, unexpected moments.
Filters: Using some free online photo editors may help you improve your images. I like using Pixlr, Canva, Fotor, and PicMonkey.
iPhone Bonus tip: If you take “live” photos on an iPhone, you can edit which frame you like best in the live photo to capture the best moment of the bunch! It also helps find the frame where everyone’s eyes are open.
