"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!