While photography might be your passion, there are several reasons why one cannot use a professional camera; reasons vary from the expenditure to the sheer inconvenience of carrying equipment everywhere you go. That is why, in continuation to the last article, I bring you tips that will help you chase your passion but with just the smart device in your pocket.
Use gridlines for composition
Remember the simple rules of composition: the Rule of Thirds, the Golden Ratio, and Rule of Odds. The gridline function in your phones will help you achieve great composition by following these rules.
Play with perspective
Do not just frame your picture at eye level and shoot! Face your phone up, or down. Think with a dog, a bird, or a rat’s perspective. Pursue different angles and see how interesting the images turn out.
Reflect on-axis
Find a lake, a puddle, a mirror, or any reflecting surface. Use one border as the dividing axis and take a picture for a gorgeous reflected symmetry.
Leading lines
Shallow tracks between trees, roads on mountains, stairwells, all lead your eye through the picture giving a sense of depth. Use such lines to frame your picture.
Symmetry
Symmetry is soothing to the eye. Choose an axis and make sure both sides are identical.
Repeats
Repeats of an object or art create a pattern, which can be print on fabric or windows on a tall building. Just like symmetry, repeats are pleasing to the eye.
Colour-block
Highlight a single portion of your captured image by rendering the rest in black and white hues. There are several apps that will help you do that.
No zoom, No flash
Remember a cellphone camera is not equipped with the lens you find in a DSLR, the zoom will not help you better focus on your picture, but instead eat away the details. If you want a closer effect, try moving closer to the subject. Do NOT use flash, it renders your subject in harsh light and leads to overexposed pictures.
Natural light
This leads me to my next point- while light is always better than using flash, try your best to use natural light.
Exposure
Sometimes you have more or less light in your hands than what is needed. This can be simply adjusted by moving the square or sun icon in your camera app while framing a picture.
Manual mode
Experiment with the Manual mode in your phone, know your device.
Clean the lens
All the tips are pointless if your lens isn’t clean enough to capture all that the scene has to offer.
Shoot RAW
As I mentioned in the previous article, RAW is a digital negative that retains all the details, containing more information than a traditional format and the camera does not adjust or add any of its own details to the picture. Nowadays flagships phones come with the option of shooting pictures in RAW mode. You have option to switch from AUTO to RAW by changing the output format from .jpeg to .raw. or .dng (Adobe).
Edit
Processing your picture after shooting RAW or editing a picture after shooting is necessary to see the similar or sometimes better effects that you pictured while taking the photograph. Avoid using filters while editing, try to manually edit what aspects of a photo you would like to enhance, edit, or remove. I personally prefer Adobe Lightroom.
Appreciate
Lastly, appreciate that which made you rush to your camera. Take in your surroundings and the beauty around you before you decide to capture it. The picture might stay documented, but how often will you look at it? The memory stays with you forever.