The birth of smartphones along with the growth of social networking sites has made taking pictures’ everybody’s habit. Anyone can just keep on taking pictures one after the other without the need to worry about running out of camera rolls. However, these smartphone cameras do not always guarantee professional-looking images. This is true especially if the person holding the smartphone is not a photography expert. If you’re one of these people, it’s high time that you take your photography skills to the next level by using all of the following tips:
Use a photo editing app.
What better way to enhance an image than to use an app? Some smartphones such as the Huawei P30 Pro have powerful built-in cameras. It has the best camera phone in low-light and it also has the mightiest telephoto capabilities. However, if your phone isn’t Huawei P30 Pro, you have the choice of downloading photo editing apps. For example, a photo editing app like Snapseed will help you edit your images much like a pro. If you’re not familiar with this application you can always browse the internet for a Snapseed app tutorial. Use this and many other photo editing apps and start making those ordinary smartphone photos look truly amazing.
Paint with natural light.
A beautiful subject taken with poor light will certainly result in a bad image. Using your smartphone built-in flash may not always be a good idea because it does not guarantee a perfect outcome all the time. In order to get the best result, remember that smartphone cameras usually struggle when there’s poor lighting. So, whenever you see some amount of natural light make sure to take this as an opportunity to capture your subject with it.
If you love taking outdoor pictures, use the “golden hour” for harnessing the power of natural light to create wonderful images. When taking pictures in the morning, wait for an hour after the sun has risen and in the afternoon, wait for an hour before the sun will set. It is during these hours that natural light will beautifully accentuate your photos.
Look for the perfect angle.
Next to light, another thing that you have complete control with when taking photographs is the angle from where you shoot your subject. Look for that perfect angle where a different perspective will be captured. Even though you will be taking a picture of a very common subject, but if you’re able to shoot it from a perfect angle the result will usually be surprising. This is because it is through finding the right angle that you ‘ll be able to tell a different story of a very common subject.
How to find the perfect angle? First, get familiar with the rule of thirds. This is when you’ll slice your image into three gridlines vertically and horizontally. Before you take the shot, see to it that your subject and all the other important elements of the image are all positioned well in these gridlines.
Another way to find the perfect angle is to do away with your usual stance of taking a picture i.e. standing in front of the subject. Look for an area where you stand higher than the ground where your subject is. This will give you a perfect shot from above. You can also choose to stay low by lying on the ground to be able to capture a subject from an unusual angle. Keep in mind that when it comes to taking photographs, there is no limit to how much creativity you can put into one shot after another.
Notice those repetitive patterns.
In most cases, these repetitive patterns look very attractive. Look closely at your subject and see if there are repetitive lines, colors, forms or geometric shapes that you can focus on. If you are able to capture these patterns well, your photos will create a stunning visual impact. These repetitive patterns may appear unintentionally and you’ve got to have a keen eye to be able to quickly notice these. Whenever you see a repetitive pattern, plan how you can take a picture of your subject with these. Those lines on the floor tiles, patterns on a person’s clothing, uniformity in the arrangement of things – look for patterns in these things and find the perfect angle to capture them. The result would definitely be one that looks as if it was taken from a professional camera.
Make use of color blocking.
Capturing images with the use of color blocking technique will help make each photo look more worthy of a thousand likes on Instagram. For example, the subject in the center is red while everything else in the background is black and white. This will not only make your subject truly stand out. It will also make your photo eye catching. If you find this difficult to do well, there’s an app for that! Look for an app online that allows you to automatically adjust the colors in your images. Some of these apps will also allow you to choose which part of the image you can colorize.
Don’t rely on the digital zoom.
Keep in mind that digital zoom shots from a smartphone camera is just resized or cropped version of the image. The digital zoom feature on your smartphone is not similar to what a full-blown professional camera has. If you rely on this feature chances are your images will have reduced pixel count and this will result in a grainy image. As the resolution of the overall photo reduces what you have as a final output is nothing short of an inferior representation of the subject. Instead, use your feet to move further forward or backward whenever you want to zoom in or out on the image. This way, you will be treating your smartphone much like the so called prime lens camera. So, as much as possible avoid using the digital zoom on your smartphone.
With these tips, hopefully, you can now take high-quality images, closer to what a DSLR camera can give you. Remember that even the most expensive DSLR cam will fail to give professional looking images if the one holding it does not employ his own creativity. The beauty of images captures will largely depend on the creativity of the one holding the camera.