To create a photo, all you really need is a camera and light. To create a great photo, you need just a little more than that.

What makes a great photo is one that has meaning for you as well as being appealing to your eyes. With these two values, your photos will transcend time and place.

It doesn’t matter if you have an expensive camera or not, any camera including your phone is a perfectly suitable gadget to capture great photos. Most people like to use smartphones to capture their special moments, whether it be your family, your pets, or the great cake you’ve baked while staying safe at home. With these 8 useful tips, you can start taking great photos with your mobile phone.

1. Clean your lens

Who would want a blurry picture of their kids due to their greasy lens? Throughout the day, we touch our phone’s lens several times and we leave fingerprints on it that ends up showing through the photo. Before you take a picture, make sure to clean your lens off with any piece of cloth. Even just wiping it with your shirt would work!

2. Turn off your flash + Look for natural light

Turn off the flash of your phone (Not Auto, Off) as it causes harsh and uneven light on our subject. Instead, try to take advantage of the natural light which you can find by going near the window. Natural light that’s soft and diffused is always best to capture natural colors. If you prefer indoor lights like lamps, then try using white lights and stay away from bulbs that give a yellow tint.

3. Skip the zoom

Most of the phones have digital zooms instead of optical zooms. Unless it’s a really minor zoom in, you will lose picture quality when using digital zoom. If needed, just move closer by walking towards your subject rather than zooming in from far away.

4. Look for a clean background

Busy, crowded backgrounds can distract from your subject. The cleaner the background is, the easier for the viewer to concentrate on the subject of your photo. While framing your shot, be aware of unnecessary details or disturbing alignments, like a plant sticking out behind your subject’s head.

Less is more, so walk back and forth, right and left to find a clean background.

Try shooting from a different angle to make sure no tree is sticking out behind your subject’s head.

5. Eye-level shooting for children photos

A simple technique to take pictures of children in a more candid and genuine way is to shoot at eye level. Don’t stand at adult height and shoot down on them. Being at the same eye level also implies a closer connection between you and your child, giving the photo a different perspective.

6. Lock the focus

By simply placing your finger on the main subject at the screen and holding there until you see AE/AF Lock, you can lock the focus. Let’s say that your subject isn’t sitting still but moving. The locked focus is perfect for you as the focus will follow him/her around.

7. Slide for exposure

If the exposure doesn’t look quite right (meaning your image is too dark or too bright), you can always brighten or darken the image by placing your finger on the screen and swiping up or down the little sun icon that should appear, to get the exposure just right.

8. For sharper photos, use the side volume buttons to shoot

Shutter speed is the amount of time your camera takes to capture each photo. Especially in low light settings, it is important to adjust to a slower shutter speed to allow more light in to be captured. While holding your phone with both hands, you can adjust the shutter speed by capturing the photo using the volume buttons on the side, rather than the capture button on the screen. This will help you to take sharper photos.

Now you’re ready to take great photos!

Post your pics with #StayHomeandGoCreative so I can see your work and comment.

Thanks for checking ‘8 Tips for Photos Takes With Mobile Phone’ and stay tuned for the future posts over ‘Composition Tips’, ‘Lighting Tips’, ‘Choosing a Subject’, ‘Post-Production’ and ‘Organizing Photos’.

Paper Cutouts: Flow Magazine

Illustrations: Caroline Ellerbeck

Gozde Otman Design + Photography

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8 Tips for Photos Taken With Mobile Phone

Gozde Otman
Design + Photography