Top tips for taking photos on your phone

Want to up your Instagram game? Then check out our hottest camera phone tips below.

These days, all half decent phones have cameras where you can just point and shoot. Press the shutter button, a nice photo appears on your screen, job done. But you can do a lot better with just a little extra planning. Follow our tips below, for quality photos that’ll light up your social feeds and rack up some serious likes.

Pro cameras have framing grids in the viewfinder window, to help you square things up and compose your shot. You’ve got this option in your phone camera app, so go ahead and switch it on. It shouldn’t be hard to find. If you’ve got an Android phone it’ll be under something like Settings > Apps > Camera > Grid Lines. You’ll now be able to keep everything parallel with any natural horizontal and vertical lines in your shot.

Natural light is a photographer’s friend. Making use of it is always a better choice than using your phone’s built-in flash.

Pay attention to where the light is coming from. Ideally, your subject should always be well lit from the front, rather than having strong light coming from behind them. So next time you take that beach shot, have a quick think about where the sun is, and adjust things accordingly.

A completely still phone is essential for blur-free shots, especially when the light is lacking.  Most phone cameras come with pretty decent stabilisation, but there’s an even better solution out there – we’re talking tripods.

Get a good tripod for your smartphone (they’re not too expensive) will make a huge difference to your landscape photography, and will help you master lots of different styles including time-lapse photography, light painting and even photos of the sky at night.

Let’s talk about HDR (which stands for High Dynamic Range). It’s a feature on your phone camera that stops your photos being overexposed or underexposed. Basically, it combines three shots (overexposed, underexposed and balanced) into a single image that shows off both shadow and lighting in lots of detail.

Portrait mode is on most phones, and it generally does a great job of giving your photos a professional look.

With the help of multiple lenses, it keeps the subject sharp while blurring the background. Just like professional photographers do it. And it’s not just for portrait shots of people – if you’re into Instagramming about food, it really makes your dishes pop. Yum!

Top tip: on some phones you can manually adjust the depth of field yourself, to create blurrier background that make your subject stand out even more.
 

There’s nothing selfish about loving selfies. If you’re front-facing camera comes with a wide-angle lens, you’ll be able to let all of your family and friends in on the action too. It also means you can get more of the background in too. If your lucky enough to be in a stunning looking place this summer, show it off!

Remember at the start of this article when we said there’s more to taking great photos than just pointing and shooting?  Okay, we lied a little. Because if your phone comes with AI technology built-in to the camera, that’s really all you need to do. The AI does all the thinking for you with sensors that can figure out what you’re looking at – then it automatically adjusts the camera settings to get the best shot. Whether you’re taking a photo of your pet in the park, a famous landmark or that best burger ever, you’ll get the most amazing pictures possible.

We hope these tips help you take better photos, and give you shots worth sharing. Got any suggestions of your own? Share your comments below!