Before the days of smartphones — if you can remember such a time — taking a peachy photo was a labor-intensive process. You'd have to buy a fancy photographic camera and editing software for your desktop computer, and invest some serious time and energy into learning how to utilize them.

Only, thank you to our mobile devices and the editing apps that come with them, we can now take loftier-quality photos and edit them without too many bells and whistles — all from the same device that we utilize to make calls. Download Now: The Marketer's Guide to Photoshop

Brands are catching on, too — these kinds of visuals remain important to marketing. Merely make no error: Taking a corking photo on your smartphone is not every bit uncomplicated as pointing and shooting. There are enough of bad smartphone photos out there — I'grand sure you've seen at to the lowest degree a few.

What's the surreptitious to taking slap-up pictures with your smartphone, and so? As it turns out, there are a few of them. Check out these tips below to improve your smartphone photography game. (And once you have the photo-taking part down, check out some of the best photo editing apps for mobile.)

How to Take Good Photos With Your Phone: 25 Tips & Tricks

1. Employ gridlines to balance your shot.

One of the easiest and best means to improve your mobile photos is to turn on the photographic camera'due south gridlines. That superimposes a serial of lines on the screen of your smartphone's camera that are based on the "rule of thirds" — a photographic limerick principle that says an image should be broken down into thirds, both horizontally and vertically, so y'all have nine parts in full.

Co-ordinate to this theory, if you place points of involvement in these intersections or forth the lines, your photograph volition be more than balanced, level, and permit viewers to interact with information technology more naturally.

rule-of-thirds.jpg

Source: Digital Photography Schoolhouse

To switch the grid on ...

  • iPhone: Get to "Settings," choose "Photos & Camera," and switch "Grid" on.
  • Samsung Galaxy: Launch the photographic camera app, become to "Settings," whorl downward and switch the "filigree lines" option to "on."

gridlines.jpg

Source: Lynda.com

2. Fix your camera's focus.

Today's phone cameras automatically focus on the foreground of your frame, but not every moving-picture show you take on your phone has an obvious subject. To adjust where you want your camera lens to focus, open your camera app and tap the screen where you want to sharpen the view.

If you're taking a photo of something in motility, for example, it can exist difficult for your camera to follow this subject and refocus equally needed. Tap the screen to right your phone photographic camera'due south focus just before snapping the picture to ensure the moving subject field has every bit much focus as possible. A foursquare or circular icon should and then appear on your camera screen, shifting the focus of your shot to all of the content inside that icon.

3. Focus on one subject area.

Many of the best photos include just one, interesting subject. So when taking a picture of one, spend some extra time setting up the shot. Some professional photographers say that the subject shouldn't make full the entire frame, and that two-thirds of the photo should be negative space — that helps the subject stand up out even more.

Only be sure you tap the screen of your smartphone to focus the camera on your subject — that'll help to ensure that information technology'south focused and the lighting is optimized.

Pro Tip: Once you've taken your photo, yous can use filters and apps to make the subject area even more bright, or to crop it to frame the subject correctly. The brightness, dissimilarity, and saturation of the photo can as well exist adjusted accordingly — all from your phone.

@aguynamedpatrick instagram picture of himself in mirror holding a phone taking a picture of himself

Source: Patrick Janelle

four. Embrace negative space.

"Negative space" but refers to the areas effectually and between the subjects of an image — and it can have a photo from "good" to "groovy."

When you include a lot of empty space in a photo, your subject will stand out more than and evoke a stronger reaction from your viewer. And what does negative space looks like? It's often a large expanse of open sky, an empty field, a large wall, or water, as in the case below.

eric christian in front of an ocean on instagram

Source: Eric Christian

5. Find dissimilar perspectives.

Taking photos from a unique, unexpected angle can make them more than memorable — it tends to create an illusion of depth or top with the subjects. It besides makes the prototype stand out, since almost mobile photos are taken either straight -on or from a bird'south eye view.

Try taking a photo directly up and playing with the sky every bit negative infinite, like in the first photo below. Or, you can try taking it at a slight downward angle.

Pro Tip: If you lot have a photo and find the perspective is a little askew or tilted, utilize the SKRWT photo editing app to make the lines look clean and foursquare.

bookshelf-perspective.png

Source: iPhone Photography School; Paul Octavious

6. Play with reflections.

There's something so idyllic most seeing the sky reflected in a body of water. There's a reason why we love seeing that — our eyes are drawn to reflections. So look for opportunities to play with them in photos.

There are plenty of out-of-the-box places to observe reflections — puddles, larger bodies of water, mirrors, sunglasses, drinking glasses, and metal surfaces are just a few.

capture-reflections.png

Source: Joshua Lott

seven. Use leading lines.

In some photos, in that location'southward a line that draws the viewer'south middle toward a certain role of the frame. Those are chosen leading lines. They can be direct or circulinear — think staircases, edifice facades, railroad train tracks, roads, or fifty-fifty a path through the wood.

Leading lines are groovy for creating a sense of depth in an image, and tin can brand your photo await purposefully designed — even if you just happened to come upon a really absurd shape by accident.

leading-lines-path.png

Source: Carlos Copertone

8. Await for symmetry.

Symmetry tin can be defined equally "a vague sense of harmonious and beautiful proportion and balance." And pictures that contain symmetry tin be incredibly pleasing to the eye — it's also one of the simplest and about compelling ways to compose a photo.

In photography, symmetry ordinarily means creating an image that tin can be divided into two equal parts that are mirror images of each other. That's a flake different than reflections — symmetry can exist found "in the wild," as per the staircase pic, or you can set up your photo appropriately, similar photographer Eric Christian did in the first photo beneath.

And recall — use those gridlines from tip #1 to line everything up perfectly.

symmetry.png

Source: Eric Christian

nine. Keep an center out for repetitive patterns.

Repetitive patterns are very pleasing to the center — they appear whenever potent graphic elements are repeated over and over again, like lines, geometric shapes, forms, and colors. These patterns can make a strong visual touch, and photographing something similar a cute, tiled flooring can be enough to create a striking paradigm. Other times, information technology's more fun to continue an centre out for where they appear naturally or unintentionally, similar with the congruent burn down escapes on the left.

soup-pattern.png

Source: Patrick Janelle

10. Play around with colour blocking.

Isn't it cool when an unabridged photo is black and white, except for a unmarried object? It turns out that yeah, indeed, at that place are apps for that. One of our favorites is Bear on Colour — an app that automatically converts a motion picture to grayscale and lets you fill in the parts you desire to colorize.

Color blocking can help to highlight the elements of a photo that you want to stand out, similar a plant or something else with a bold hue. It achieves a like goal as negative space, in that information technology tin can help a single subject stand out — simply with color blocking, the photograph's other elements remain intact for a cohesive prototype.

Grayscaled photo taken on mobile camera with color blocking to reveal purple flower in woman's hand

Source: Coloring Pages

11. Avoid zooming in.

When you lot take a photograph from a distance, information technology's tempting to zoom in on something specific you're trying to capture. But it'due south actually ameliorate non to zoom in — doing then can make the photo appear grainy, blurry, or pixelated.

Instead, try to get closer to your subject — unless it's a wild fauna, in which instance we would advise keeping your distance — or take the photo from a default distance, and crop information technology later on. That way, you won't compromise quality, and it's easier to play around or optimize a larger paradigm.

crop-photo-1.jpg

Source: Obama Pacman

12. Capture small details.

You may have heard the phrase, "It'due south the little things." Sometimes, that besides applies to photos. Close-up images that capture small, intricate, and frail details can make for actually compelling visual content. Keep an eye out for textures and patterns like peeling paint, a gravel road, or a tile tabletop.

Pro Tip: Use the "acuminate" tool in your favorite photo editing app to (conservatively) sharpen the details of your photograph. Yous might also download the Camera+ app and utilize its Clarity filter, which is what The Wall Street Journal's Kevin Sintumuang calls the app's "undercover sauce — it adds pro-camera crispness to most any shot."

tile-patterns.png

Source: Eric Christian

13. Employ natural calorie-free.

It's hard to discover a great smartphone photo that was taken with a flash. Most of the time, they make a photo wait overexposed, negatively altering colors and making man subjects wait washed out. In fact, even the iPhone seven's wink is rumored to accept some flaws.

Take advantage of the sources of natural lite y'all can discover, even after dark. This gives yous a chance to play with shadows, like in the second prototype below, or create a silhouette with other ambient sources of low-cal, like traffic and surrounding buildings.

Once you've taken the photo, play with the "Exposure" tool in your favorite photograph editing app to see if yous can brand the image slightly brighter, without making it too grainy.

no-flash-flower.png

Source: Paul Octavious

14. If you lot utilise wink, but do so during the day.

Sometimes, using your camera'south flash can improve a photo — but rarely does information technology do so at dark. Because dark shots reveal a much sharper dissimilarity against your phone's wink, information technology can make any flash look look invasive and uneven

In already well-lit spaces, however, a wink tin help to soften some night shadows backside or beneath your master field of study.

When framing your adjacent shot, look on the ground or against vertical surfaces for any dark shadows you might desire to remove. If you see whatsoever, flip on the flash manually in your camera app. Setting your telephone'south camera flash to "machine" won't guarantee that your phone will discover the shadows you want to get rid of. Just remember to turn the flash off again when y'all're done.

Consider the importance of flash for enhancing or hiding certain lines and features the next time yous're shooting production photography.

15. Consider ownership a mobile tripod.

Although mobile devices make information technology easy to snap any photograph on the go, there'south never been an easy way to ensure the shot stays level and balanced when you shoot — specially if you lot want to be in the picture and not just have a typical selfie with your extended arm.

Mobile tripods give you the freedom to mount your smartphone for quick easily-free shots without lugging any heavy equipment with you. Almost mobile tripods are barely bigger than your mobile device, and can bend to whatever angle. Check out 1 of them from Joby, higher up, and acquire how these miniature tripods can assist enhance your mobile video feel beneath.

16. Set your photographic camera app's exposure manually.

Another mobile photographic camera characteristic you'll want to ready manually is your exposure. Tapping your screen when your phone's camera is on doesn't just refocus the lens on a new subject — it also automatically adjusts how much light the photographic camera lets in. This, besides, won't ever look but right. Information technology's best to suit information technology by manus.

To change your mobile photographic camera'southward exposure by hand, open your camera app and tap the screen. When you lot see the lens refocus, you'll see a very small-scale sun icon and a vertical calibration. Slowly swipe your finger up and down this calibration to adjust the light level.

17. Create abstracts.

Abstract photos are meant to capture the essence of an object, or a serial of them, without revealing the entire landscape as a whole. In other words, they serve the purpose of creating unique, surprising images from ordinary subjects.

This look can exist accomplished by cropping an abstract portion of an otherwise normal photo, or by taking close-up shots of objects that go out the viewer wondering — in admiration, of form — what the subject might be. And subjects with patterns or repetition are groovy candidates for abstract photography, like in the photo of sliced figs below.

abstract-architecture.jpg

Source: iPhone Photography School

xviii. Take candids.

Posed photos can be swell for the sake of memories — happy moments with friends, family, or the occasional run-in with a celebrity. But sometimes, candid shots of people doing things, or people with people, can be far more interesting.

That'south because candid photos are better able to effectively capture the emotion and essence of a moment. Ane of the best ways to capture this kind of shot is to just accept every bit many photos as possible. You'll have more to choose from, and the best photos often happen when the "stars align," and then to speak, in a single moment — everyone'due south eyes are open, one person is tilting their head simply so, and you finally got a shot of your chronically closed-lip friend smiling with his teeth.

eating-candid.png

Source: Patrick Janelle

19. Exist not-conventional.

Composition is a huge part of what makes a photo keen, simply so is the photograph'due south subject. Some of the most delightful and remarkable photos come out of cool, unique ideas. Images are more effective than text at evoking emotion from your viewers — that often means getting your photos to say something.

Endeavor thinking outside of the box when information technology comes to what y'all're capturing — your viewers could be pleasantly surprised by a cool or unexpected subject.

leaf-dog-constellation.png

Source: Paul Octavious

twenty. Brand 'em laugh.

Speaking of evoking emotion, sometimes the most memorable photos are the ones that make us giggle. The image below of an older woman wearing a brightly-colored shirt stating "Hi hater" is funny considering it'southward unexpected — and there'due south a part of usa that admires her, too. The 2nd image of the domestic dog toy on a dinner plate pokes fun at archetype Instagram food shots, but information technology's from a dog's perspective. If y'all tin make your audience laugh, they're likely to savour your photo.

pug-eating-toy.png

Source: Jeremy Veach

21. Clean your telephone'due south lens.

A smartphone camera might be more than convenient to carry around than a full-fledged photojournalist'due south camera, but it comes at the cost of protection.

Your telephone is usually in your pocket or your bag when yous're out of the house. All the while, the device's photographic camera lens is collecting all kinds of dust and lint. Be sure to clean this lens with a soft handkerchief earlier taking a photo. You lot might not be able to tell just how muddied the lens was until you lot outset editing your flick, and making sure the lens is crystal clear before taking a shot can keep yous from starting from scratch.

22. Attach an external lens.

Desire to get really fancy? External lenses are for you. There are really several out there that can be attached to the top of your smartphone's native camera lens — from fish-middle to wide-bending lenses, these add-ons can bring an entirely new quality and perspective to your photos.

Co-ordinate to Wirecutter, the best camera lenses for iPhone photography are made by Moment, a manufacturer of mobile lenses. Showtime there, or do some research to find the lens add-ons that fit your smartphone photography needs.

Horses looking into fisheye external lens attached to phone camera

Source: MobileFun.co.great britain

23. Don't exist afraid to edit.

Composing and taking your smartphone photo is only the first stride to making it visually compelling. Editing your photos is the adjacent pace — and a very critical one, at that. Filters tin exist a valuable photographic tool, particularly when information technology comes to two goals: 1) Removing blemishes from a flick, and 2) making food wait fifty-fifty more delicious.

For the first, InStyle magazine compiled a fun listing of "The Best Instagram Filters for Every Beauty Complaint" — and now, the iPhone photos app offers many like filters. There are also apps similar Pho.to, which tin can automatically retouch facial photos without a lot of work. And when it comes to those photos of your daily meals? One of the latest apps available is Foodie, which comes with its ain set up of filters optimized for unlike types of food.

But there are many other corking photo and video editing apps out at that place for mobile devices — check out this post to encounter some of the best ones out there.

51b3f40f.png

Source: LINE Corp.

Desire more tips on creating visual content? Bank check out these examples of explainer videos.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in November 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Marketer's Guide to Photoshop

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Originally published Oct 19, 2020 7:00:00 AM, updated October 26 2020