Over the past few years, I’ve spent a lot of time testing the capabilities of phone cameras and the results are better than you might think. If you want to know more, you can check out compare last year between me Canon R5 Camera and the iPhone 15 Pro. If that’s not enough to convince you, then maybe you’ll be interested in How well do these images print?. Or if you want to save time and trust me modern phone cameras are very good cameras.
This involves a really important mindset when it comes to phone photography. You need to take yourself seriously. Just because you’re not using a mirrorless camera with a huge array of lenses doesn’t mean you’re not capable of taking professional-looking photos. In fact, one of the biggest weaknesses of phone cameras is also their greatest strength. You lack lens choice, setting choice, and flexibility. This lack of choice limits your creativity, but that’s when creativity thrives. Oftentimes, we find ourselves at our most creative when we have the least resources. This means that if you find yourself learning photography on your phone and coming away with great photos, you’ll always be able to take great photos no matter what you’re using.
Shoot with purpose
The most important tip in this entire article isn’t about settings, composition, or how to shoot. It’s about rewiring your brain to stop associating your phone with snapping, thoughtless photos. One of the biggest differences between phone photographers and dedicated cameras is how they approach a scene. A landscape photographer shows up at dusk and can spend hours searching for a composition or waiting for the best light. Typically, phone photographers will walk in, take a quick photo to remember it by, and then leave.
This difference is what separates amateurs from professionals, not necessarily the camera, settings, or equipment used. So it’s important to treat your phone like a camera when you’re trying to improve your photography or take more meaningful photos. Take your time, slow down, and think about the images you’re creating.
Camera Settings and Applications
The first setting you’ll want to enable is grid lines. I personally shoot on an iPhone and the grid line setting is located in Settings > Camera > Grid. I suspect Android has a very similar setting. Either way, it’s a simple feature that often helps you compose your photos simply by making sure the horizon is straight. Newer iPhones even have a feature that adds a leveler to your look, which I recommend using as well. Plus, using this feature will start to introduce you to composing using the rule of thirds, which is one of the fundamental components of composition in photography. Not something that’s within the scope of this article, but definitely something you can learn. right here on Fstoppers.
The most important setting is to shoot in RAW, especially if you plan on editing your photos. RAW is essentially a format that gives you more data to work with and captures more detail in your photos. It costs twice as much in that RAW is meant to be processed or edited in some capacity. So if you shoot in RAW, you should plan on at least adding basic corrections when editing. The files will also be large or potentially much larger, which can be a deal breaker depending on your phone’s memory. A good way to manage these large file sizes is to remember to shoot intentionally, take your time, and just shoot as if you only had one roll of film left.
There are different levels of raw when it comes to mobile photography. For example, Apple has raw, ProRaw and ProRaw Max. To get a baseline, try shooting in raw and if you have the space, go for the highest quality, such as ProRaw Max, keeping in mind the huge file sizes.
Finally, consider using a camera app that adds some more professional controls to your images. I used Coral reef throughout my videos and it has features like a histogram, ISO control and the ability to set focus separately from exposure. No matter what you use, the best thing about using the app is really the mental reset. It helps with intentional shooting, reminding you to slow down and think about the images you’re taking.
Practice writing
One of the fundamentals of photography is composition. It’s a subject that will likely take years to learn, not something that can be taught in a few sentences in an article. However, there are some great tips that you can try, even if you don’t know what makes a good or bad composition. As mentioned earlier, you can apply the basic principles of the rule of thirds, which is essentially a guide to where to place your subject in a frame to help balance the image. But I’m going to give you some even easier tips to try.
Next time you’re out taking photos with your phone, find a subject and try shooting the same subject five different ways:
- Try getting low to the ground. Don’t just walk up to your subject and not move around! Getting low to the ground creates a unique perspective and can put a foreground element in the bottom half of the frame, making for a much more interesting image. See the example above, shot just a few feet apart.
- Shoot through something else. It could be a fence, a tree, a bush, some flowers, leaves, anything. Got a dull blue sky in your photo? Find a tree and use the leaves to fill the top of the frame with that element while still capturing your subject.
- Walk around and pay attention to the lighting on a subject. Where are the shadows? How do they interact with the angles of the subject? Be sure to think about how the light is hitting your subject and always remember that your camera isn’t necessarily as good as your eyes, so you’ll need to move around and find the best light.
- Find a leading line like a path, road, trees, water, whatever. Try placing something in the bottom half of the frame to guide the viewer’s eye to the subject.
- Find a secondary subject and use it in your composition. Instead of shooting that building, shoot it behind a lamppost or stop sign. Instead of shooting that mountain, shoot a flower or cactus with the mountain in the background. It’s a dance and a balance that you’ll have to play with. Have fun with it!
Illumination
Any professional or practicing photographer will tell you that the most important aspect of photography, no matter what genre you shoot, is lighting. Like composition, this is something that will take years to learn, but for the purposes of this article, it’s important to recognize when we typically take photos with our phones versus when professional photographers take photos.
It all comes back to intentional photography. Many of our phone photos are taken in the middle of the day on a sunny day while walking around town or hiking in the mountains. These are times when the light is often not flattering (depending on the type of photography). But if you push yourself to get up for the sunrise or go out in overcast conditions at the right time, your images will improve dramatically.
There are so many different lighting styles based on the type of photography you’re most interested in that it’s impossible to cover them here. The point is to prioritize finding good light over just shooting when it’s convenient. I can shoot a sunrise with a potato that will probably look better than a clear blue sky in the middle of the day with my expensive camera. Figure out what kind of light you like best for whatever you’re shooting and prioritize getting out during those times.
Edit
Editing doesn’t have to be complicated, and one of the most important roles of editing isn’t the editing itself. It’s that it forces you to look at your images. It forces you to sit down, look at your mistakes, and take a hard look at all the work you’ve created. It forces you to decide which images are better than others, and why one pleases you more than another. It also gives you the opportunity to see what you can improve in that area the next time you take a photo. If you just take photos and never look at or touch them again, you’re going to significantly slow down the progress you make in your photography journey.
When it comes to editing, I recommend getting Lightroom Mobile for your phone. It’s free (with limited capabilities) and processes raw images directly on your phone. There are more robust phone editing apps that will charge a fee but may not require a subscription. However, I recommend Lightroom because it’s something you can grow into as you continue to pursue photography. The interface and tools carry over directly to the paid version, giving you room to grow in your editing. That said, most of the tools will probably carry over from one app to another, but if you, for example, want to learn editing through YouTube videos, then most of those tools will be done in Lightroom.
The best way to start learning editing is to explore what everything does. Tweak some settings, press some buttons, and see what you can come up with. Then, when you want to learn more about specific tools or ideas, you can start researching and learning at your own pace what you want to learn. Some people love the editing process while others don’t even want to touch it. It’s up to you to decide and learn!
I hope you enjoyed this article and I would love to hear your own experiences or tips in the comments. I will end this article with a few more quick tips for you to follow when taking photos with your phone.
- Don’t take pictures with the sun in the frame. Phones still don’t capture the sun well.
- Only use the native lens on your phone. Do not pinch to zoom. This will crop your digital photo, which you can do yourself after editing.
- Clean the lens before shooting!
- Pay attention to where you place your hands when taking a photo. It’s much easier to put your fingers in front of the phone lens than it is to put them in front of the camera.
- Take yourself seriously. A phone camera is still a camera, just in a different package.
