5 Tips For Mobile Phone Photography Beginners

Updated: Mar 26, 2020

1. Make sure your lens is clean.

This is a simple step to begin with, but a very important one! Mobile phones are in our pockets and in our hands a lot every day, and they are prone to getting fingerprints and dirt all over them.

A simple wipe of your phone camera lens will ensure you get crystal clear shots every time. Any smears or debris on your camera lens will reduce the quality of your images and it will cause loss of sharpness and flares!

2. Tap to focus the camera.

This tip has been very handy in the world of smart phone photography for years and has now even made its way to DSLR's now that the latest cameras have touch screens too!

When your camera app is open, simply tap on the subject you want to take a photo of; whether its of your family or your food. Doing so will allow your phone to focus on what you are taking a photo of, and more often than not your camera will also expose the image correctly too!

3. Use Grid lines to help frame your image.

Grid lines, or more commonly known as the rule of thirds, is a very helpful tool to learning how to improve your photography!

By turning this simple overlay on, your camera will give you a nice guide to frame your image. Whether you want to photograph something in the middle of the picture, to the side, or even using the grid lines to make sure you are taking the photo on a level plane.

Don't worry this is just a guide, and it won't appear on the photos you take.

4. Try different perspectives.

This tip is when we can get a bit creative!

Try different shooting angles, whether you're facing head on with your subject, to the side or even behind, this really allows you to make a picture your own.

You can get in closer, or move further away, most phones don't have zoom lenses so you will have to move your feet to get the angle you're looking for.

Maybe you would like to get a higher view point by standing on something, or even laying on the ground to get an interesting look. Give it a go, you may find a perspective you love!

5. Keep your phone still whilst taking a photo.

This tip is another simple one, but it has bitten every photographer at some point!

Sometimes we get that carried away taking a photo, that we don't realise how quick we are moving whilst taking a picture.

Often we will think of the movement our subject is making, e.g. if your child is running, or if a car is whizzing past. But we forgot that we were waving our phones/cameras around so much that the photo becomes blurry!

Try to be mindful whilst shooting, it is best to keep still whilst taking the picture just so you don't add any motion blur to your photos.

BONUS TIP! Edit your photos.

Is a photo finished if it hasn't been edited?

Some of us edit most of our photos that we share, some may have dabbled and others may have not tried editing a photo yet.

Don't worry if you haven't yet, its quite easy to start editing your photos!

There is an abundance of image editing apps on our phones, simple ones like Instagram or more detailed ones like Photoshop or (my favourite) Snapseed.

Once you have one of these apps installed, I'd recommend that you have a play around with your images. Open them up and go through the options to see what they do.

Best place to start is by changing the brightness and contrast.

Hope you enjoyed this post on the 5 tips for mobile phone photography beginners!

Let us know in the comments what you thought and what you would like to learn about in the next one.

We will be making more of these soon to help pass on some of our knowledge of photography during the coronavirus lock down. Hope you are all staying safe!

See you all again soon.