Basic Photography Tips. How to take a better picture with your phone

The quality of smartphone cameras has drastically improved since their invention. Whether you’re an iPhone or Android user, you can get stunning, high-quality images with the click of a button.

Thanks to smartphones having built-in features that make your images look great with minimal effort, it’s easier than ever to create professional-looking photos. The cameras automatically focus on a subject, adjust the exposure or the image, and increase or decrease the brightness of the background to make your photo look better.

Even with all of these incredible built-in settings, there are still a few more things that you can do to make your photos look great. Here are 3 easy tips to try.

Familiarize Yourself With The Settings

Images can be adjusted using a range of different settings, including their brightness, tone, contrast, exposure, and saturation. Changing just one of these settings can completely change your photos.   Spend some time playing around with the various settings to discover what they do.

Familiarizing yourself with all of the different options available on your smartphone will make it easier for you to find the perfect combination for your images. For example, if you’re on vacation and want to capture the vibrance of the ocean view, you might want to turn up the saturation on your photos.

Use the Gridlines

Smartphones have the option to superimpose gridlines over the top of your image.  The grid splits the image into nine even squares and can help improve photo composition.

Use the grid lines to follow the rule of thirds, where the main focus of your image is aligned with the area where the grid lines meet.   This technique will make your photo more balanced and interesting.

Use the HDR Settings

HDR stands for high dynamic range.  This mode is ideal for landscapes, portraits and images that have a lot of contrast (very dark and very light sections).  The HDR setting helps bring out details in your photo and makes the image look more like what you saw with your eye.  HDR works by taking three photos and blending them together.  As a result, the photo takes a bit longer to process, meaning it doesn’t work well for action shots.