Smartphone Photography Tips

Often when you go searching for photography tips to improve your amateur photo game you get a lot of information that isn’t terribly applicable. Chances are if you’re looking for tips to make your smartphone photos a little better you’re not much of an expert, and if you don’t really want to go back to school in order to learn what all those terms mean, you might not find a lot of the advice on the Internet of much use.

So here, then, are some super practical tips for your smartphone photography – these tips will instantly up your game, but don’t require any scientific knowledge or understanding of complex concepts. But as simple as these tips are, chances are they’re currently impeding your photography and resulting in less-than great photos.

The Most Basic of Photography Essentials: Wipe Your Lens

Did we just blow your mind? The fact is, your smartphone goes in and out of your pocket, in and out of your bag, sits on the lunch table while you alternate between your sandwich and swiping the screen, and generally takes a lot of abuse. Your lenses (back and front) can get really filthy, and whether you notice or not a dirty lens means blurred, less-than ideal photos no matter the lighting situation or your composition skills. Make a habit of taking a micro-fibre cloth (like the ones used for reading glasses) to clean the lens on a regular basis, and before snapping every photo.

Hold Steady

One of those basic, practical photography tips that many people forget: Your smartphone won’t take the photo when you touch the shutter – it takes the photo when you release the shutter. Forgetting this often results in blurred, unsteady photos, because people begin moving before they touch the shutter button. The trick is to hold the button down for a moment and take a breath and ensure you’re holding steady and have the photo framed the way you want – then release the button and get exactly the photo you want.

Experiment with Apps

You don’t have to use the camera App that comes with your smartphone. Whether an Android or iPhone, you likely have a lot of choices for paid and free camera Apps which might offer better features, easier use, or superior filters and other little extras. If you want to improve your photos on your smartphone, one of the first things you should investigate is your options for replacement camera Apps. Make a list of features you want or challenges you face, then look for an App that addresses these issues until you find the one you’re most comfortable with. That might actually be the default camera App that came with your phone – people put a lot of time into those – but if not, at least you’ll know that your bad photos aren’t the fault of the App.

Using these practical tips, you’ll take better photos without knowing a thing about photography or Apps. And when you’ve created the best photos of your life, click here and we’ll help you celebrate by turning them into gorgeous wall art.