30 Tips and Tricks: How to Take Good Photos with Phone

How-to-take-good-photos-from-mobile

Are you looking for photography ideas at home with your phone? You’ve come to an equitable place. Here are some tips for better smartphone photos, so you don’t need to make an investment for DSLR. I am a professional photographer and I always follow all these point for ease of taking gorgeous photos. Photography school is no longer necessary, because you can become a professional photographer by following these 30 tips:

Turn on HDR Mod

 When we turn on HDR mod, our camera captures three photos of the subject, correctly exposed, under-exposed, and overexposed. It captures clear detail of light and dark areas accurately. Afterward, it integrates  three photos by using software to balance the bright and dark elements. Finally, it gives an artsy and vibe glance to the image.

While capturing a picture it becomes strenuous to get the proper exposure for bright and dark elements. Shaded sections become too dark and bright segments pop up too flashing. We couldn’t capture the fine detail of the contrast moment. By turning on HDR mode we can resolve our problem of getting clear and balanced detail in a high contrast photo.  

Hold the Phone with Both Hands

Usually people grasp the phone with one hand and try to snap a shoot with the other hand. Obviously, they end up with a shaken image and fail to capture a sharp image.

I recommend you to clasp the phone like a camera with both hands and use your thumb to press the shutter button. This tip will help you to take a clear photo.

carry phone with both hands

Turn on Grid Lines

To turn on grid lines is an amazing tip for better smartphone photos. Go to your camera settings and enable grid lines for a stabilized image. These are 2 horizontal and 2 vertical lines intersected at four points. These intersection points assist us to forge a composition while capturing images. Moreover, we can apply the rule of thirds only by enabling grid lines. 

Clean the Glass of Lens

We usually carry our mobile phone along us , so there are most likely chances for the glass of our mobile phone lens to be smeared by  fingerprints, body lotion, oil, or dust.

These blurred lenses badly impact the quality of photos. Clean the glass of the lens accurately by microfiber cloth for a lucid and alluring image.

clean the glass of lens

Steady Your Phone After Pressing the Shutter Button

By using an HDR feature, the camera captures three shoots of a highly contrast scene. It takes a few seconds to fetch a fine detail by merging three photos through a software. If we stir our phone, we’ll get a blurred image. So, hold your phone static after pressing the shutter button.

Use a Highly Portable Mobile Selfie Stick

It’s almost unfeasible to take an eye touching, balanced and typical selfie without a mobile selfie stick. It’s difficult to extend arms and compose a frame for enticing selfie. You should use a Bluetooth remote, available with a selfie stick to click your selfie, when the phone is beyond your reach.

use a high portable selfie stick

Avoid the Use of Flash Light at Night Time

Flash light can make our photo alluring but if we use it at a nice time. When we use it during night time it divulges much sharper contrast in image. We can’t get fine detail of the focused subject in contrast due to the dearth of balance in dark and bright elements. So I recommend you to manually use flash light just during the day time.

Apply the Rule of Thirds to Create a Story

When we prop our focused subject at any intersection point of grid lines and make an appealing frame or composition, it’s called the rule of thirds. We apply the rule of thirds to create a story about the focused subject. You must follow this, if you want to fetch the attention of viewers or to create environmental portraits.

use the rule of thirds

Buy Mobile Tripod to Capture a Balanced Photo

Mobile tripods will ensure to have a balanced shot without a shaked or blurred image. By mounting your smartphone, it gives you freedom for sharp hands-free shots without any luggage. Tripods give us flexibility to snap a shoot at different angles by bending capability.

Explore for Symmetry Photography

Symmetry means two mirror images with opposite dimensions join at the same point. A picture, especially of any architecture with mirror images becomes visually pleasing and appealing. To design a perfect symmetry, use a calm body of water or any other smooth reflective surface, keep your mobile perpendicular to that surface and snap a shoot.

explore for symmetry photography

Don’t Use Digital Zoom

While capturing a picture don’t zoom it digitally, because digital zoom just increases the size of pixels. Obviously, when the size of pixels increases the count of pixels automatically turns down in a photo. When we reduce the number of pixels, we lose the quality of the photo and make it unattractive.

Manually Tab on the Focused Subject

Before snapping  a shoot tab to your focused subject 2-3 times manually. It’ll give a perception to your smartphone camera about the subject and the camera will take a detailed, balanced, and sharp image of the subject. When we tab on the phone screen, we simply give a recommendation about a focused subject to the camera.

Prefer Natural Light to Artificial

Snapping a shoot outdoors in natural light gives a balanced exposure to our photo. Real shadow below the subject gives artsy and natural affections to the image.

This activity makes sure to add natural beauty in our photo by capturing environmental portraits.

Prefer-Natural-Light-to-Artificial

Get Closer to the Subject

If we snap a shoot at a far distance from a focused subject there are most possible chances to flop many interesting viewpoints. For capturing portraits, especially of landscapes, getting much adjacent to the subject becomes compulsory. So, get closer to the subject physically instead of zooming your screen digitally it’s among amazing tips for better smartphone photos.

Use the Rule of Odd

If there are more than one subjects in an image, we can make it appealing by grouping them in odd numbers. Paired elements usually make an image composition dull, so I endorse you, group them in 3 or 5 elements to create a sense of harmony in the image. This rule becomes so amazing in landscape portraits, like to capture the photo of flowers.

apply the rule of odds

Take Multiple Shots

 Take a burst of shots with different camera settings and compositions. Practice different frames at different locations to apply all rules of professional photography, then select your favorite shoot. This activity will build your trust and will boost your experience as a photographer. 

Don’t Apply the Rule of Odd in Couple Portraits

It’s not mandatory to restrict the rule of odd for each portrait, because sometimes we want to capture an image of a couple like in wedding ceremonies. Moreover, there may be a couple of birds, pets, wild animals, etc. In this case we should prefer paired elements in the image instead of 1 or 3.

don't follow the rule of odds in couple portraits

Install Third Party Camera App to Enjoy Extra Features

Our stock camera does not give extra customization like a third party camera app. You can use a third party camera app to get access to a chunk of tweaking tools like exposure lock. I recommend you to install any one of the five best camera apps available on google play store:

  • Camera MX
  • Better Camera
  • Google Camera
  • Open Camera
  • Pixita

 Always Notice the Position of Light Source 

Before snapping a shoot make sure that source of light shouldn’t be behind the subject. Light should directly fall on the subject instead of the lens of your camera because sensors could be overwhelmed by a lot of light. Light coming from the back of the subject makes it underexposed and we cannot capture splendid detail of it. 

Use Reflective Surfaces

To achieve the goal of idyllic shoots you can use reflective surfaces. Reflective surfaces authorized us to have a photo of the subject along with reflection.

Use the surface of water, ice, glass, shiny floors and shiny cars. You can take a shoot of your subject with a mirror image by getting your phone closer to the reflective surface.

use reflective surfaces

Manage the Sensitivity of Camera by ISO Scale

Main role of ISO scale is to control the exposure. At low scale the entrance of light into camera will be minute sting, so minimize the ISO scale in high intensity of light for ease of perfect shoot. Similarly, maximize it when the availability of light is not adequate.

Use Leading Lines

Leading lines point towards the main subject. We should use leading lines in our frames to grab the attention of viewers towards the focused subject. We can consider roads, staircases, building facades, train tracks and any other straight or curvilinear path as leading lines to attract viewers towards focused subjects.

Use Leading Lines

 Use 2 Second Timer

We often get a blurred image instantly as we wobble our hand while pressing the shutter button. So go to your camera settings and start the timer for a balanced and exhaustive image. We can fix our hands and phone in 2 seconds to achieve perfection in our image.

Try to Set the Shutter Speed

 You should cope with the shutter speed to freeze the movement of the subject clearly. At high shutter speed the camera will freeze the subject’s movement plainly, while at low speed it gives a blurred image of the dynamic subject. Moreover, it’s also essential to control light for better exposure.

Balance the Negative and Positive Space 

The most flattering tip for a stellar photo is to manage the positive and negative space. If you want to generate emotions through an image then maximize the use of space beyond and behind the subject. But if your main ingredient in the image is only focused subject, then minimize this space.

Use Frame within Frame Composition

Try to fix your main composition within another frame to place your focused subject within it. The use of a second frame within the main frame will grab the attention of viewers towards the focused subject. You can try that frame in any geometrical shape to make your photo glorious.

use frame in frame composition

Make Yourself Technically Sound About Camera 

You can make your photos alluring by making yourself technically sound about camera settings. You should practice different shots by altering camera settings to boost your creativity. You should have curiosity of practicing things in different styles and profuse features.

You can make yourself technically sound only by practicing extra things. I propose you to go to your camera settings and amend the scales of different filters to observe their functions. We can learn more by practicing extra things.

Make a Fun by Taking Different Pose

Posed photos are the best way to preserve emotions and feelings of a moment. Posed photos should be much practiced during a wedding ceremony, in a meetup with family or friends, and during birthday parties. In this way we can preserve our memories in very glorious manners and can also make our photos alluring.

make a fun by taking different poses

Take Shoot from Different Perspectives

Get out of your comfort zone and don’t hesitate to uplift your creativity. Use different perspectives to take a shoot in more visually pleasing ways. Practice different frames, patterns, leading lines, and mirror images for stunning shots. Boost your expertise by shooting from different postures and angles.

Don’t Hesitate to Edit Your Photo

If you are bound to take photos within a specific place, with unbalanced lighting. You can make your photo alluring by editing it later through an AI photo editing app like Remini. I suggest you break your comfort zone and boost your creativity by practicing new things. Try Remini Mod APK to upscale the quality of your photos.

Don’t Hesitate to Edit Your Photo

Conclusion 

You can capture a good photo on your phone by adjusting exposure and composing a good frame for a shoot. Moreover, we will get  beguiling photos by following different rules of compositions for photography. Third party camera apps and AI photo editors can also uplift the quality of our photo. All above tips for better smartphone photos will help you to become a professional in photography without visiting any photography school.

Frequently Asked Questions


While taking a photo it’s compulsory to keep the phone steady and balanced. That’s only possible if we hold it with both hands. So, it’s best to hold the phone with both hands to provide it a stable grip and to use your thumb to press the shutter button.

You can make our smartphone photos look better by using the rule of thirds, leading lines, symmetry, frame within frame composition and by managing the negative and positive spaces.

You can edit smartphone photos by using the best photo editing apps like Remini photo enhancer, Snapseed, Pixlr, Photoshop, etc.