June 11, 2019
Take better photos with your cell phone.
2 min readYou don’t need a DSLR, use your cell phone!
Ever wanted to take super rad photos of a room with only your cell phone? We got your back! Whether you are a content creator, small business owner, or just a vacation happy photo snapper, everyone takes photos with their cell phones. Follow our quick tips to make those photos look the best they possibly can.
Tip 01. Turn of the Lights
First thing I do when I get on set at a photo shoot is to turn off all the lights and see what natural light is available. Hopefully, the room you want to take a photo of has natural light and the more, the better! Natural light or window light will make any room look more natural, make the colors pop, and give the photos this intangible feeling of being “real.” If you absolutely can not turn off the lights in a business, then do your best to limit the number of light sources in the room.
Tip 02. Make it Straight
Tired of looking like an amateur? Get those verticals straight! This tip is huge for interior photos. Turn on the guides on your cell phone settings>camera>grid, and use those lines to help make all the vertical lines in your photo look straight. While tilting the camera down for a selfie might make you look great, using that thought on a room will only make it look bad.
Tip 03. Lock it Up!
Lock your focus and set your exposure manually on your cell phone for the best control. Hold your finger down on the screen in the spot you would like to lock focus. After a few seconds, you can then slide your finger up and down on the screen to either overexpose or underexpose your photo. In general, cell phones tend to overexpose most images, so underexposing your image will allow you the most room in editing to make it look rad.
Tip 04. Hip Tip
Most rooms won’t have grand views and giant ceilings. To help that room look as big and spacious as possible, shoot from around waist height. From this lower angle, the room will seem more substantial and in general offer a unique perspective on your image. If your small business office has windows, I suggest placing them in the shot to make the room seem more open.
Tip 05. Step to It
While it might be tempting to pinch and zoom on your cell phone to zoom in, never do this! It degrades the quality massively, and you want all that info. Instead, walk forward a couple of steps and bam, you zoomed in.
Bonus Tip. Step to It
Cell phones have certainly come a long way over the last decade, but you still need to edit those photos. For social media use, you can use built editing tools on Instagram, but I recommend VSCO. This app is free and easy to use. If you are taking photos for your website, you can use VSCO or an Adobe product like Lightroom to edit your images.
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