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Every great blog post deserves a great photo to go along with it, and sometimes, there just isn’t a stock image that works, especially for those personal posts. I’m here to tell you that you CAN take an awesome shot with your camera phone and provide you with seven phone photography tips to capture a photo that’s perfect for your next blog post.
Phone Photography Tips: How to Use Your Phone Camera to Take Awesome Pictures
I grew a love for photography when I was an editor for my high school yearbook. I loved capturing moments under the Friday Night Lights and the DSLR camera for the staff had become my best friend, but sometimes, we simply don’t have the big fancy camera at our disposal and the next best thing is definitely your phone.
1.) Watch the Lighting
Taking photos indoors can be tricky and flash will tempt you, but don’t go for it. I like to open up all the curtains and let the natural light flow in or take it outside. It really does make a difference.
2.) Backgrounds are Important
Always consider your background when taking photos. Don’t let a messy background take away from your subject. I always try to find a clean and empty wall to take pictures in front of. You can also make your own backdrops.
3.) Play with Angles
To me, taking photos is an adventure. Take snaps from all angles and if you have to stand on a chair, go for it! There’s no harm in playing with your angles, sometimes they make the best photos. Make your photos unique and don’t go for the obvious shot. Experiment.
4.) Say No to Zoom
The second you start zooming in with your phone camera is the second your photo starts losing its quality. When zooming in, photos become grainy and pixelated, not clean. Instead, I go for a great shot and then crop when I edit. Remember, camera phones today have a pretty good resolution, so when you crop you’ll still have a nice crisp photo for your blog post. An alternative to zooming in is getting close, right on top of your subject. It makes for a great shot.
5.) An Abundance of Photos
Don’t take one photo and be done, give yourself options. I take between 9 and 15 shots and while sometimes the first one is the best one, I still allow myself to have another choice just in case a photo is blurry or if someone blinked.
6.) Keep a Clean Lens
I can’t tell you how many times I had a blurry picture because of a dirty lens. Take a clean, soft cloth and wipe your lens clean. When in a rush, your t-shirt will do. If you’re lens is really dirty, it’s time to pull out the lens cleaner.
7.) Photo Apps are Your Friends
There are a lot of great photo editing apps out there, use them! Don’t rely on filters alone; play with the lighting and composition. Some of my favorites photo editing apps are Hipstamatic, Camera Awesome, and SnapSeed. Instagram, a very popular app in the blogging world, just announced an update that introduces new creative tools that would allow you to edit brightness, saturation, contrast, warmth, and more! I can’t wait to try these tools out and see what they can do. I hope these tips help you when you’re having your next phoneography shoot. Remember, have fun with it!
KEEP READING
Looking for more posts to help you improve your photography? Here are a few posts that you’ll find helpful:
- Top 12 Photo Tips All Bloggers Need To Know
- 5 Best Photo Editor Apps for Smartphones
- Color And Contrast Photo Tips
- 5 Phrases I’m Giving Up For The New Year - Dec 30, 2015
- How To Create Twitter Lists - Dec 10, 2014
- Top 7 Phone Photography Tips: How to Use Your Phone Camera to Take Awesome Pictures - Jun 4, 2014
- Your Daily Blogging Checklist for 2014 – Plus FREE Printable - Jan 6, 2014
- Business Cards for Bloggers: Everything You Need from A-Z - Aug 12, 2013
I find that natural lighting is my biggest helper! Color is also an important element…especially making photographs of FOOD look tasty for my blog!
Great tips. I use my IPhone for all my photography needs so glad to add new tips to my already to dos 🙂
Great read! The art is often in the photographer not the equipment 🙂
Thank you so very much for the great tips! I have a new phone (FINALLY!) that seems to take decent pictures but I’m always looking for ways to make my posts pop a bit (and I will now start to play with angles and natural lighting).
Thanks so much for this 🙂
I am always trying to improve my food photography. Thanks for posting these great tips! I have pinned them for future reference.
These are great tips! I don’t use my regular camera nearly as much as I used to, my phone is so handy!
I loved this post! I’ve been using Hipstamatic but I downloaded the other two apps that you suggested right away 🙂 Do you have any apps that you suggest specifically for filters, I’m looking mostly for pics of people and really touching up the glow of their face rather than making them look deathly 🙂
I personally love Instagram’s filters.
Here’s a strange but useful tip given to me by a photographer friend. I was indoors at a conference and trying to take a picture of the people onstage and the lighting just killed everything. His suggestion (believe it or not) was to take out my sunglasses and hold them in front of the camera lens – voila – instant filter. I can’t tell you how much better my pictures came out. I could actually see the people instead of a bright blur! Now of course having a real camera would have made all the difference, but like you said, we don’t always have that option. And in this case, the sunglasses trick made a huge difference. Hope that’s as helpful to you as it was to me. And thanks for a terrific post!
Wow! That’s a great tip. Would never think of that. I just had that happening this weekend at my little brother’s football banquet. Missed a great shot because of lighting. Thanks for sharing!
That’s a brilliant idea! Im going to have to try that. 🙂
Oh, thank you SO much! I am notorious for taking horrible photos with my smartphone. I was going to do some test shots today, but guess what? It rained. BOOOOOO!
I won’t stop believin’, though. 😀
These are terrific tips, especially about the zoom. I have to use zoom at the ballfield but usually I just get closer to the object. I learned a long time ago by accident that flash is our enemy. The natural light is what you’re seeing the object in and that makes a much better picture! I haven’t found a good editor I like yet but I am hoping Instagram’s new addons will be awesome.
Thanks for the great tips!!
These are fantastic. Something I want to work on
These are fantastic. Something I want to work on
Nice post. Here’s something I just learned. You can take a pic by pressing the volume button??? Works great when trying to get a weird angle. Sometimes I end up pressing to hard and it take several at a time but that is also good if you have a moving object like the butterfly I just tried to photograph. Thanks for all the great tips.
I like the list. The topic are so helpful that it made me think of creating a blog about myself, even though personally I don’t know how to create one.
Sweet sauce!! Awesome tippers that can actually be put to practice. Thanks for sharing your knowledge. Hopefully I can take better pics of lean guns & weights for my blog:)
Great tips! Were were watching the keynote on iOS 8 and there looks to be some new features that should help even more!
If only we could get more storage:)
I really needed this. I love adding pictures to my posts, it makes a huge difference.
Thanks for the article. I’ve been trying to improve my iPhone photography skills lately, so this is helpful!
Hi Brittany!
Perfect timing because I just noticed the other day when I purchased an image, that it gave me all this copyright info at the download.
I used the image within a graphic.. but I thought “Geez, am I supposed to right 2 lines of credits within my graphic for the image I just bought?”
So I’ll probably start doing more of my own pictures from now on.
FYI, I think I’ve stopped by your blog to say “Hi” before because I’m also from Texas! 🙂
darlene
Super helpful, especially the one about zooming. Thanks for sharing!
Good tips…picture taking in my downfall…
Can we please stop calling DSLRs “fancy cameras”? They’re not fancy. They’re merely a tool for the photographers who use them.
Anyone can take quality photos regardless of the camera. It just takes a little bit of photography know-how and an ability to understand light and composition.
Thanks for the tips!! I am going to play around with my new phone today and take some pictures!!
Great tips! I use my phone for pictures with the help of some editing apps and it works just great for blog photos, Instagram or anything really. 🙂
Thanks for these great tips!
What handy tips. I rely entirely on my camera phone to take loads of pictures, especially for my blog. I love the app Camera + for photo editing and am a newcomer to Instagram but enjoying its social element. I’d really like to improve on my photography as I’m very much learning on the go, so this is a useful post. Thanks!
Thanks for the tips. The one about cleaning the lens is an important reminder!