Four Tips for Better Cell Phone Photos
Do you want to know how to take better photos with the camera you'll likely have with you all the time? Here is some unsolicited advice for making your cell phone photos stand out. Some of these you may already know. Some, you may not. In either case, my goals are to give you some fun and different things to do with your phone to make your snapshots really pop.
TIP #1 - KIDS - GET ON THEIR LEVEL
Follow with me if you will. You're scrolling Facebook or Instagram. Your sister just posted a photo of her 7 year old little boy, Sue, in his brand new black suit. It's adorable. At least the black suit is. Sue is too, but you can't remember what he looks like because every photo you've seen of him since he started walking has been of the top of his head. Or at best, he's looking up, and squinting as he stares directly into the sun, I mean camera, while mom says, "look up here so I can send your picture to Nana and Papa."
CLICK!
Try this instead.
Take the photo as if you were taking a photo of a friend who's your height. Except, you have to drop to their height. Get low. Crouch or kneel if you have to. Point the camera at them from their own level. This will keep them from looking up and directly into the sun, causing them to squint. It also allows you to see their world from their perspective and capture their expressions as they interact with that world.
BONUS TIP: This also works well with pets!
*For those of you scratching your head, A Boy Named Sue is a Johnny Cash song released in 1969. I love music and will likely try to throw hidden music/trivia gems like this into my blogs for those of you witty enough to catch them.
TIP #2 - COMPOSITION - TURN ON YOUR GRID
The Rule of Thirds. Imagine a 3x3 grid over your camera view. A Tic Tac Toe board for those of us simpler-minded folks. Or, if you want to be fancy, go into your camera settings and turn on the grid that's pre-installed on your phone. Under Settings, scroll down to Camera. Under "COMPOSITION," turn the Grid on by moving the slider to the right (on iPhone). For you Android troglodytes, check your cave wall for hieroglyphics.
Now that you have a super annoying Tic Tac Toe board overlayed onto your camera view, put it to work. Use the grid to compose your photos as such that your focal interest point falls under one of the four intersecting points of your grid. This is what is known as the Rule of Thirds in geek speak. It is super helpful in planning your composition and creating photos that are more naturally appealing to the eye. In the images below, I've highlighted the grid in red on the first image where the ball is centered. The other two images, you should be able to see the faint, white grid and that the ball is now under the intersections. This will give your photos more dimension and a feeling of depth with a foreground, middle and background vs being flat and boring.
TIP #3 - FOCUS and EXPOSURE & AE/AF LOCK
AE is Auto Exposure and AF is Auto Focus. Your iPhone will guess (often times pretty accurately) what it is that you're trying to photograph. But sometimes, it just seems to hunt and hunt and hunt for focus. And sometimes you want your scene to be brighter or darker. If you touch your phone screen, a yellow square appears with a little sunburst icon next to it. This is how you tell your phone what YOU want it to focus on. The square is the focus selection and the little sun is your exposure control. Touch anywhere in your scene and that is where the phone will focus. Slide the little sun up and your scene gets brighter. Slide it down and your scene gets darker.
If you touch and hold your finger on the screen, your AE/AF LOCK will activate. That's Auto Exposure and Auto Focus Lock. Your iPhone will stay locked on that exposure setting and focal point until you cancel it or move your field of view completely away from it. This is a pretty cool feature that is easily accessible without diving into menus and settings.
TIP #4 - SELFIE TIMER
This may come as a bit of a surprise but your fancy cell phone camera has a self timer built in. That's right. No more holding your phone stretched out farther than your arm can naturally reach to get that group shot only to find out later that you cut off half of Pam from HR's face. Gruesome.
With your camera app open, find the little arrow (< or >) at the top or side of the frame. When you tap that it opens an icon menu. Find the speedometer (clock) icon and tap it. You should see three options: Timer Off, 3s, and 10s.
3s gives you three whole seconds to run back into frame and pose with your clan before your camera magically takes your photo all by itself. No chance you fat finger the shutter button this time. 10s gives you whopping ten seconds to stop and tie your shoe on your way back to getting into frame.
Make sure your camera has a stable support or mobile tripod when using your new-found timer.
BONUS TIP: If your iPhone came with EarPods, the volume control on the EarPods cable also acts as a shutter button when connected to your phone!
Did you find any of these tips to be helpful? Do you have any additional tips (like above but for the unknown world of Android) that you feel may help our community?
If so, leave a comment below and I will consider making this a series moving forward and include your tips. Be forewarned, I will likely try to enlist your help in writing and including your screen shots and photo content for those blogs.
This is my first real foray into the blogging world so please, be patient with me as I learn and grow. I am planning to develop content that will hopefully be brief but useful and relevant while at the same time keeping you informed, engaged, and up to speed with me and my business.
Make sure to give a shout out to Lincoln and Carter for letting me annoy them with my silly projects!
Thanks for reading and Make It A Great Day!
12 Comments
Mar 1, 2023, 9:30:30 PM
Brent Smith - Love you guys!
Mar 1, 2023, 9:30:17 PM
Brent Smith - Thank you!
Mar 1, 2023, 1:34:13 PM
Richard Biron - Would expect no less from you other than perfection!! Again and always!!
Mar 1, 2023, 8:37:08 AM
Jaci Krawtschenko - Very informative. Great job.
Feb 28, 2023, 11:57:46 PM
Brent Smith - Awesome! Glad I could help!
Feb 28, 2023, 11:30:12 PM
Heather Anderson - This is nifty! Definitely didn’t know about the tic tac toe board 😅 thanks for this info
Feb 28, 2023, 10:21:55 PM
Brent Smith - Thank you so much!
Feb 28, 2023, 7:07:49 PM
Nicole Roberts - That's awesome information! Thanks I feel like I will take better pictures! Please continue to share!!
Feb 28, 2023, 12:59:13 PM
Brent Smith - You, ma lady, are a rock star! Thanks for the support!
Feb 28, 2023, 12:15:49 PM
Jenni Fantastic - Here for the algorithm! Congratulations on your first blog
Feb 28, 2023, 10:45:41 AM
Brent Smith - Thank you!
Feb 28, 2023, 10:41:42 AM
Richard Anderson - Very informative, awesome blog