Smartphone Photography

I. LEARN THE SETTINGS

1. Focus point

• Tap your screen where you want the focus to be.
• Slide the exposure up or down (The little yellow sun icon).
• Press and hold to lock the focus point and recompose your photo if you wish (AE/AF LOCK).

II. TIPS & TRICKS

Rule of thirds

Keep it simple

Sometimes less is more. When you cram too much info into a photograph, the viewer doesn’t know where to look and may not capture your intent. Keep white space and focus on a single subject. This will bring attention to the subject and give your photo more creative meaning.

Get down and raise it up

Shooting from the same perspective and position will most probably create some pretty boring and repetitious photos. Try getting down on the ground and see how the perspective changes. This can sometimes add some drama to your subjects. Also, look up! Look at the contrasts with the sky, buildings, trees, and clouds.

Observe light, colors, and shadows

Learning to observe how light affects objects and changes throughout the day is key to improving your photos. Observe how shadows get created and how the light hits particular objects and capture those unique events.

Look for contrasts of color or a single color pop in a monotone environment

Portrait Mode

As of the introduction of the iPhone 8 plus, Portrait Mode has been accessible and has provided some broader creative possibilities. The iPhone Xs and iPhone Xr have the option to adjust the depth of field while shooting in Portrait Mode. Portrait Mode makes great portraits, of course, but can also be used for so much more. Try setting to portrait mode when you want a bokeh effect or a blurry background in your photos.

1. Make photographs, don’t take snapshots

2. Composition.

3. Light

if you can do your smartphone landscape photography in the early morning or late evening – the “magic hours” – you’ll almost always end up with more dramatic images

Become familiar with how light behaves and what it’s doing to your subject, and your photography will automatically take big leaps forward. 

Tip: To make sure your photos aren’t under- or over-exposed (i.e., too dark or too bright), you can manually adjust the exposure (brightness). Most good phone cameras allow you to do this. It’s usually as simple as tapping on the phone where you’d like to focus; an exposure slider will appear, and you can make the image lighter or darker from there.

4. Use leading lines

Leading lines are a great way to lead the viewer into the frame and drawing attention to the subject matter. Roads, buildings, or even furniture placed creatively, can act as leading lines to draw the viewer into the image – almost inviting them to stay awhile and rest their eyes.

10. ClutterDon’t have too much going on in your photo. One of the reasons, in my humble little opinion, some of my phone photos are still fairly good even though they are pretty grainy and not even in the same league in sharpness and quality as my DSLR camera shots is that there is not too much going on in the photos. This allows you to get away with a lot.

Keeping one main subject and a scene where you want all/most of it in focus are best. 

• Learn how to see light and how it interacts with its environment: Light is the most important object in a photograph. It doesn’t matter what camera you’re using, how well you know how to use it, or how amazing your subject is; it all counts for nothing without light. You’ll often hear photographers talking about the Golden Hour, which is early in the morning and again in the evening when sun is lower, softer and the light is more directional.
• If you’re photographing with the sun behind you, know how that will make your subject look. Do you want to light up their entire face, for example? Or do you want to shoot from the side? If you move so the sun is behind the subject, then consider photographing them silhouetted. If the light source is behind the subject, the foreground will always be darker than the background. The way you position your subject – or wait until the light is right for your subject – is how you make an image more creative and stand out.
• Watch your background: Something that is often overlooked in an image is the background. A bad background can bring a great subject down. You need to think about your photo and what makes it interesting. If the subject you’re photographing is to be the only thing in the photo, then you should use a nice clean background, that isn’t going to draw away people’s attention from the main subject. However, backgrounds can also add to an image, and are great for environmental portraits.