Documenting Your Days: Tips For Great Phone Photos • RI Children's Photographer
"The best camera is the one you have with you". I've heard this phrase more times than I can even count, but you know what? It's true.
These days, nearly all of us have phones with us all the time and are snapping photos of everything. Countless photos of the kids, of course (or in my case, my nephews!). There are those times that you see a beautiful sunrise or sunset or rainbow and raise your phone up to capture it. Vacation photos, selfies, snapshots of times out with our friends....our phone is always there to capture moments. I may be a RI children's photographer, but even I don't always have my camera at the ready.
Cameras on phones are pretty good nowadays. Snapshots are easy, but it's also easy to make your phone photos into great photos by paying attention to and implementing just a few things. Take a look below for three tips (with examples) on how to make your phone photos shine.
1. Light
The basis of photography is light. Finding good light or interesting light will make your photos better than when there is poor lighting or boring, flat light. Bonus: situations with contrasty light make for great black and white photos!
2. Composition
Well-composed photos are more pleasing an interesting to the viewer than ones that don't have much thought put into composition. Don't overthink this...you don't have to be an artistic or composition master. However, try to put thought into how you're composing your shots (when you can...sometimes it's all about capturing the moment!). Try to make your photo engaging and draw a viewer's eye into it. Photograph with a purpose. Using leading lines is one great way to do that; there are several examples of that above. A path, fence, or shoreline that leads to a focal point of your children is another great example of leading lines.
3. Color
There are all kinds of ways to use color to make your photos more interesting: a child wearing a pop of color in an urban concrete jungle environment. Bouquets of multicolored fall leaves, or spring flowers. Little hands painting with finger paint. One of my favorite ways to capture color with any camera, including my phone, is to capture the colors of the sky during sunrises and sunsets. I've captured quite a few beautiful skies standing right in the middle of the street in front of my house, and have captured sunrises in various places like this one at Narragansett Town Beach.
Do you have any other tips for taking your phone photos from ok to great? If so, let me know in the comments!