Photo by Taan Huyn on Unsplash
What do you do if you want to take a top-level, high-quality photoshoot but all you have is your smartphone?
You carry on and get the job done!
Smartphone cameras are better than ever. The iPhone 13 has 1.7micron pixels on its ultra-wide photos, allowing for 47% more light to flow through a photo, according to Apple. The Google Pixel 6 has a 50 MP Octa PD Quad Bayer wide camera with a 1.2 μm pixel width and 82 degrees view, according to Google.
Impressive phones, impressive camera specs.
With this kind of hardware in a phone camera, it makes complete sense that you can direct an entire photoshoot with only your phone.
There are, however, a couple of tricks and pointers that you should know before you get started to really optimize these photos.
Let me fill you in on those so that your next phone photoshoot can really be the best it can be.
Pick a location with lots of natural light
Photo by Tyler Casey on Unsplash
One of the most important things when it comes to taking a great photo on any equipment is the level of light and particularly so natural light.
When you are setting up for your phone photoshoot, make sure to check out various photo-taking locations and photo studios so that you can get the perfect one for the kind of photos you are taking.
You can always make edits to photos on your phone after taking them, but getting the right light is something really difficult to fix if it isn’t in the raw footage.
Take some time to take test shots and check out the lighting at different times of the day. Once you get the lighting right, your phone will be much more able to produce professional-level photos.
Set up a neutral background
A really quick and cheap way to maximise your smartphone photos is to set up a neutral background behind whatever you are photographing. I say cheap because you can do this with literally any spare materials that are neutral in colour. A piece of cardboard with a bedsheet stretched across it is one of the easiest ways to go.
Using a neutral background will help your phone focus, get the lighting and tones right, and make the most of its portrait mode capabilities.
It is also a small thing that helps really increase the value and quality of your photos as it is something that takes them very quickly from an amateur to a professional level.
Get the background right before you start taking photos and you will make the process a lot easier on yourself. It’s also a great way to get experienced in pre-production mechanics.
Taking great photos and earning great photography experience? Way to go, smartphone photography studio!
Make use of the framing grid
Photo by Ibrahim Rifath on Unsplash
The little grid that pops up on your phone might be something that you regularly ignore but it is actually a very helpful tool that will help you take top-notch photos right from your device.
(If there isn’t a grid on your screen when you take a photo you might just need to turn it on in your phone’s settings).
The grid is there to help us frame and proportion our pictures. The basic rule to go by is photography’s rule of thirds. If you portion a picture into three thirds, your main subject should be in the middle third so that attention and the eye is drawn to it first and it is well framed by the rest of the scene.
If there are four intersecting points in a grid that appear on your phone, you will want your subject in the middle and for it to be touching those four points.
Very often our phone photos don’t seem to be on a professional level because they are framed badly or the subject seems out of place. But our phones already have a tool built in to help us so why don’t we use it?
Use everything you can that your phone gives you to help optimize your phone photos and you will find that you are well on your way to shooting a top-level photoshoot in no time.
With that kind of power and capability, who knows what content you could come up with next!
