We all have a smart phone, so here are a few tips on getting the best images possible with yours!
- Use your volume buttons as shutter buttons! This works when taking a photo vertically or horizontally.
- Consider the orientation of your phone. While we all hold our phones vertically, sometimes it makes more sense for a photo to be captured horizontally. Assess the situation and decide which makes the most sense.
- Turn your flash on or off depending on the lighting situation. Nowadays phone are supposed to automatically detect when to use the flash, but occasionally you may find that you don’t have enough light, but the camera isn’t compensating for that. It’s okay, because you can turn your flash on or off yourself!
- Have an iPhone? If you’re photographing a single person or a small group, consider using Portrait mode. While in portrait mode you are able to make adjustments to your aperture, which affects how blurry the background is behind your subject. Once in portrait mode there is a small F with a circle around it in the top right corner. When you tap that a slider will open up underneath your photo preview. If you want a more blurry background, slide your finger to the right, causing the number above the slider to go down. If you want less blur, slide your finger to the left causing the number above to go up. Be aware of the edges around your subject once you have taken the photo. Sometimes the iPhone doesn’t quite get the blur right and things can look a little funky! In that case, just raise the number above the slider a bit. If you have another brand of phone, you probably have this ability, but it may be called Live Focus or Depth Effect. The image to the right was taken with an iPhone 14 Pro in Portrait mode.
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If you have any questions or would like to take a phone photography class, just let us know! We’d love to get together you and your friends for an evening of photo taking fun.