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Sunday, November 29, 2020

"How to: Take Exceptional Photos Using a Phone" by Jonathan L

 

With the holidays around the corner and the many decorations coming up around neighborhoods and in shopping centers the amount of people we will see posing and forcing their siblings to take them photos increases as well. As a result however when scrolling through any form of social media everyone's poses, angles, and colors look identical and is as if a singular photographer was in charge of taking photos. Contrary to what many people say you do not need an actual camera to obtain great photos that can be shared and in this tutorial new techniques and ways to frame a shot will be discussed through two methods, an external app that can be downloaded, or the stock camera app on your phone. Let’s get to it!

 

Stock Camera App (This will be the easiest to learn will be able to be used within a day of practice)

 

Settings:

 

1.     Step one would be to turn on your HDR which gives the user the ability to work with the colors in post post production.

2.     Shoot in the normal shooting mode, many phones such as iPhones use what is called portrait mode to give an illusion of depth. This is basically the blurry effect you see in photos, in this case keeping this off as during the time of day we are working with does not have good enough light to provide enough information for the camera to work with. What will happen is a “tango” between the camera stating “move back” and “move closer”.

 

Downloaded apps (Halide will be my example) please note these apps are designed to be more extensive and will take some practice to get used to the settings.

Settings

1.     Use gridlines. Using grid lines will help to frame photos such as when using the rule of thirds

2.     Set focus “coloring” this will help to figure out what is in focus and what is not in focus, such as when shooting close up shots and wanting to get a certain part of the foreground being focused.

3.     If possible shoot in a flat color profile which helps in post to color grade

 

4.     Shoot in RAW this will help get the most information from a photo as possible since the sensors on a phone are not as perfect as the ones found on mirrorless, DSLR, and full frame cameras.

5.     Set your white balance, whether this means using a preset in the app or adjusting it manually, shooting on auto can wreck the colors of the image drastically and is not worth dealing with.

 

Tips for shooting photos

 

1.     You are in control of the camera which means you can dictate what positions the subject will be in! Do not be afraid to change up a position as you see fit.

2.     Get creative with shots! One great idea I use to spice up some photoshoots is to bring some water and spill a bit onto the pavement to create some great reflective photography!


Other ideas include using props such as fairy lights to create an “angelic effect”, or use some foam to recreate snow!

 

3.     Use burst mode. To use burst mode simply hold down the shutter button “button to take a photo” down and it will begin taking a burst. What this will do is help reduce the amount of times a person says “I blinked in this one”.

4.     Lock your focus. By locking focus this will avoid the amount of times a person or subject is no longer in focus. To do this simply press and hold where you want the camera to focus on and what it will do is lock the focus on that one spot, do make sure to lock the focus whenever you switch positions.

 

5.     DO NOT ZOOM IN!!!!! Unless you are using an actual camera with a true lens zooming in will degrade the photo quality. What happens is the phone is doing a digital zoom which will induce photo grain or noise which will degrade the photo quality.

6.     Just practice! Practice may never make perfect but it will make everyone better, take photos of daily life and over time you will develop that eye for taking photos.

 

Finally Post Editing!

 

When editing photos in post means is adjusting colors, exposure, and other things to help create the best photo possible. With most phones this can be achieved using the photos app or downloading an app to help get that aesthetic or look one may want. In this case I will be going over a fairly crude and rudimentary way of color grading a photo using basic tools found in the photos app.

 

Photos App (iPhone)

 

1.     Open the photos app and click on the photo you want to edit

2.     A good rule of thumb would be to make sure your shadows (areas in the dark) are not being crushed or just blobs, as well making sure things are not overexposed.

3.     Do not oversaturate photos, a good way to tell if this is the case is to look at objects near or around a subject, if colors become very unrealistic it is most likely oversaturated and should be brought down.

4.     Finally make sure to make your photo your own! It does not need to follow the normal of being perfectly tuned but rather some photographers and editors like the underexposed grunge or undersaturated look to give a different feeling and look to photos. After all it is YOUR photo and only you know what to look for/.

 

I hope this short piece can help many people taking photos over the holidays get the photos they want, though it may take a few times to get write it will improve your skill overtime. Who knows maybe you will be the next photographer who gets called to take photos for family events! Either way there is one thing that will remain constant, the setting will be correct!

32 comments:

  1. Omg thank you for this!! I'm usually the sibling that's forced to take the pictures but they're always dissatisfied with them. I will for sure be trying this out!

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  2. This is very helpful for someone like me who struggles with taking nice pictures, so thank you for that. Also when you said "dont zoom in", I couldn't help but say YESSS EXACTLY because zooming in ruins the quality and the depth of the picture (you can always crop after). Also I really good advice is also taking high quality videos on Iphone and just take screenshots of fraes that you like alot.

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  3. Don’t get me wrong you did an amazing job explaining everything and it makes taking good pictures a very easy process, but I think I am the WORST photographer ever so I will stick to not taking pictures of anyone. But thank you for sharing it was very informative!

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  4. I really enjoyed your piece. I am personally already into photography and you created a great guide for people who may have interest in taking higher quality photos or maybe wanting to pick up an new hobby. Overall it was informative and straight forward, great job!

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  5. I don't really enjoy taking picture because they never turn out good. But I will try out your guide this holiday! If the pictures turns out amazing, I'm sending you a thank you in advance ;)

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  6. This is so informative and super cool! I cannot take nice photos on my phone for the life of me, this was amazing advice. It was super super detailed in the process, and you really gave an outstanding explanations on LIGHTING, which is my ultimate weakness when it comes to taking photos. Amazing job!

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  7. Thank you so much for this! I have always wanted to improve my phone pictures but I thought that it would only be obtained through editing. This was easily explained by step and I will be trying this out soon.

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  8. Thank you so much for these tips! I really appreciated the detail and examples you included; it's very easy to follow along, especially for someone as clueless with photography as I am lol.

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  9. This is really helpful , I like the way you listed the instructions step by step and included tips!

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  10. This was really helpful, I like the way you listed the instructions step by step and included tips!

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  11. I am always the cousin stuck taking family photos at our Christmas parties so thank you for the tutorial! This piece was super informative and will definitely come in handy during every holiday season.

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  12. Thanks for the guide! I liked how you explained the photography terms that you used and used informal language so that uneducated people like me can understand xD I can't wait to try this out, because I usually suck at taking pictures, haha!

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  13. Thank you so much for writing this. I had no idea there can be this many tips on how to take much better phots. I also like how you emphasized not to zoom because I do that too often and my pictures always turn out as blurry. Great job for writing this very informative piece.

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  14. Thank you for this! Your instructions were well explained and easy to follow. I can't wait to try these new techniques!

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  15. Thank you so much! This was amazing and just what I needed! I love taking photos and this will make them so much better!! You were very clear and precise on how to edit the photos!! Great job! - Samantha Galarza

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  16. Kaitlin Dalisay: As a video editor myself, I am grateful that you have shared these steps with us. Zooming in really does ruin the image itself. Also, I can't wait to try these strategies for my personal accounts as well. :)

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  17. Thank you so much for this. I definitely cannot take pictures if my life depended on it and this is extremely useful especially for the holiday season. I am looking forward to using your method to take some better pictures. Awesome job!

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  18. Eniifeoluwa OluwadaraDecember 8, 2020 at 10:22 AM

    Good job for this tutorial. Very informative on how to take pictures and was made very well. Exccellent work!

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  19. THIS WAS SO INFORMATIVE!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH JOHNNY. Thanks to you, I am now a little more versed in the art of taking "exceptional photos"! Exceptional advice from an exceptional person :D

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  20. Oh my goshhh i’m so happy to have come across this!! I’m always so hesitant to take photos let alone post them anywhere because of how picky I am hahaha! But this tutorial was incredibly informative and useful TT so thank you a bunch!!

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  21. Oh my gosh, thank you for sharing this Johnny!! I absolutely love to take pictures, but I'm only confident taking them with my Canon camera. You explained this so great. Im definitely giving this a try!!!

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  22. Thank you for this tutorial, I hope from now on I take better pictures.

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  23. Oluwadamilola BabatundeDecember 8, 2020 at 5:42 PM

    Oluwadamilola Babatunde:
    This is such a wonderful price of information for anyone who ever wants to take pictures. Im really with you on the whole don't zoom in while taking a because it really makes the picture worse. My brother always makes me take his picture so I find this helpful.

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  24. Hopefully this helps me take better pictures, my family and boyfriend constantly make fun of the quality of my photos :p. I am absolutely going to take these tips into consideration next time I attempt to take a photo.

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  25. thank you so much !!! I will definitely be using this for my pictures whenever I post.-Leah Thompson

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  26. Thank you so much for these tips !!! I love taking photos and this will definitely help !!!
    -Oluwaseyi Alli

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  27. I LOVE THIS !!!!! I love taking pictures of other people and having other people take pictures of me. Thank you for all these great tips they will definitely be put to use. - marwa Jamily

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  28. Thank you for the help! I know during family gatherings it involves taking multiple photos for multiple people. This was very informative and I feel that I have the confidence to happily accept to take photos thanks to you :D

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  29. Honestly, this was so thorough! I was definitely not expecting you to go into so much detail about taking a single picture, but I'm honestly really glad you did. I'm super into photography, but don't have much money to purchase a nice camera so your writing was just what I needed. Nice job!
    -Michelle Williamson

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  30. I really enjoyed your topic. I personally am not the best at taking pictures and all that. Very easy to follow and very informative. Thank you for the tips and I will try them out.
    Amorette Correa

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  31. This was so helpful and you made it seem so simple! I love taking pictures, but I've always wondered how I could improve them especially on my phone which is a lot easier to carry around than a huge camera. I cannot wait to try out the new tips you just gave me

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  32. Thank you so much for this, you made it so easy to follow which will come in handy because I love taking pictures, but I've always wondered how I can improve especially with a cell phone which is a lot easier to carry around than a huge camera. I can't wait to try out the new tips you just gave me

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