Before the days of smartphones, if you wanted to take a good picture it would be a very long-winded process.
You would first need a camera. Secondly, you would have to purchase an editing program and invest a few hours learning how to use it.
But times are changing and the majority of us have a high-quality camera, and capable editing apps, in our pockets at all times.
Although taking a good photo on a smartphone isn’t as easy as point and shoot. There are some industry guidelines that professional photographers practice when shooting.
In this blog, we're going to show you some of the most common industry guidelines that if you put into practice with your smartphone photo's, you will notice a big difference to your images.
Composition
The composition is one of the most critical elements of taking a good photo. You want the viewer to know what subject they should be looking at. If the composition is out of place people can get confused as to what they should be looking at.
There are many ways to compose your image and the more experienced you get, the more creative you can become. Here are three compositions tips for you to try...
Leading Lines
Leading lines are lines within an image that lead up to your subject(s). The viewer’s eye will naturally follow these lines so they can be very useful in directing peoples attention to where you want it.
See the example(s) below.
Rule of Thirds
The rule of thirds is one of the most popular compositions because of how easy it is to implement.
All you need to do is to divide your frame vertically and horizontally into three equal parts. By placing your subject on one of the four points where these dividing lines meet you will reveal more of the image.
This also shows the viewer what the subject is facing and helps them feel more engaged in the shot.
See the example(s) below.
Repetition
Evenly spaced identical objects can be arranged to create repetitive patterns in your photo. Fence posts, trees, buildings, people etc.
Creating repetition in your images can look far more interesting to your viewer and encourage engagement.
See the example(s) below.
Embracing Negative Space
Negative space simply refers to the areas around and between the subjects of an image.
When you include a lot of empty space in a photo, your subject will stand out more and encourage engagement from the viewer.
What does negative space look like? It's often a large expanse of open sky, water, an empty field or a large wall.
See the examples below.
Editing
Editing your photos can make a big difference to the finished image. Editing allows you to make tweaks to your image that otherwise, couldn't be changed during the shoot.
Editing will allow you to adjust the images brightness, contrast, saturation etc, and also let you crop and resize images.*
There are thousands of editing apps available on iOS and Android. Although, we've compiled a small list the top three we use on a daily basis.
Lightroom
Lightroom is the more advanced out of the three. With Lightroom, you can adjust your images exposure, contrast, saturation, highlights etc, you can also adjust individual colour hue, luminance and saturation.
Lightroom is a mobile-optimised version of Adobe Lightroom from their Creative Cloud Suite. If you're an avid editor you can sync the two programs and share custom colour presets that you have made to make editing on-the-go even easier.
Lightroom gets the recommendation from us if you're more confident at editing and wish to get hands-on to make your images look the best they possibly can.
Snapseed
Snapseed, on the other hand, is the most user-friendly out the three. With Snapseed, you can adjust your images exposure, contrast, saturation, highlights etc, similar to Lightroom.
Snapseed is a simple, mobile-friendly editing app designed by Google, to help the beginner or intermediate photo editors create snappy shots on-the-go.
Snapseed gets our recommendation if you are not yet confident with gettings hands-on with your editing.
PicsArt
PicsArt is a Top 10 Rated editing app in the iOS App Store, and with its image editing and graphic design capabilities, it's no surprise.
PicsArt allows you to adjust your images exposure, contrast, colours etc, and also allows the functionality of creating high-quality graphics from scratch - just like the images below.
PicsArt gets the recommendation from us if you're looking for a simple, user-friendly image editor that can also be used to create small graphics for your social media channels.
Lens'
Often times with a camera, the lens you are using is as equally important to the camera body. This principle is no different when it comes to smartphone photography.
There are a lot of companies today that are pushing the boundaries of what is possible with smartphone photography.
Many modern smartphones often come with a variety of camera built-in to the device(s) but, if you're not lucky enough to own one these state-of-the-art devices, smartphone lens' will make a big difference.
You can view this blog by Digital Camera World to see a comprehensive list of the best smartphone lens' available to buy on Amazon.
Experiment
The majority of smartphones these days have settings you can adjust such as ISO, Aperture or Shutter Speed.
We encourage you to take the time to learn these terms and what the effect is that they have when shooting with your device. Although these setting may not have an immediate effect on your images.
Once you become more confident and creative with your shots, these will play a big role in how you plan your images.
You can watch this video by B&H Photo video on Youtube that explains, in detail, the definitions of the settings mentioned above.
We hope by reading this you have seen what is possible using the everyday tools around us. We encourage you to go and get as creative as you can and take your images to the next level without spending thousands on expensive equipment.
Thank you for taking the time to read this article and we hope it has brought you some value that you can implement yourself in your own work.
Who are we?
We are Peak Creative, a creative content agency that specialises in helping companies produce high-quality visual content.
If you need extra help with creating effective content for social media, you can get in touch with us by visiting our website here.
*Cover Photo by Kaique Rocha from Pexels. #photography #socialmedia #contentcreation #smartphone
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