Today we’re sharing 5 tips for improving your phone photography that Kate O’Sullivan, our Brand Marketing Manager, uses all the time to create many of the images you see on our social media, website and blog.
You don’t need a DSLR camera to take amazing photos- your phone camera will give great results! For most of us, our phone is our go-to-camera: it’s almost always close to hand and so we use it most of the time. By applying a few simple rules, you can easily produce high quality images that will look great on Instagram, your online business or blog.
5 Tips to make your images shine:
- Natural lighting- The best light for photography is soft, natural light. Turn off your flash and try to find the best possible source of natural light. This can often mean placing things on a table next to a window if it’s a bit gloomy inside- a deep window sill can be particularly handy on dark wintry days! However, too much light can be just as tricky as you’ll fight with glare. Early mornings and late afternoon often work quite well as the light is still full but more diffused than high sun.
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Focus- What is the main focus of your image? Make sure it’s sharp! To focus your camera, you will need to tap the screen on the object you intend to be the main focus and have a steady hand when you take the picture. If it’s blurred, take a deep breath, tap to focus and try again.
- Straighten up- Hold your phone in a position that is flat and parallel to what you are photographing, especially if it’s something flat on a table. Tilting your phone can make awkward angles and the image will feel a bit strange to look at. If you can’t manage this easily, it means you need to move. There’s a reason Instagrammers will often be found standing on chairs, taking a picture of their food!
- Exposure- This one is quite fun to play with. How bright or dark a picture is can really change the mood of an image. If you look at the two images below, you can see two very different tones created by changing the amount of light taken in at the point of capture. You’ll need to look up your phone make for this one: you’re looking to change either the ‘exposure’ or ‘iso’ setting. For example, on the iphone, tapping the screen will mean a little sun icon appears and a scale. Moving the scale up or down will make the image darker or brighter as you desire. On a Samsung, you’ll need to go through your settings icon in the top left of the screen.
- Let your images breathe- Take your photo and then edit it afterwards to get the best results. Don’t be tempted by the filters offered by Instagram or a lot of software programmes. You can often create really beautiful images by simply lifting or lowering the light levels if you’ve worked in good natural lighting. Free apps on smart phones that Kate uses a lot include PicTapGo, VSCO and Photoshop Express. It’s worth having a play to see what works for you but remember, let the image breathe, Early Bird was fun for a while but it doesn’t look very natural!
Putting it into Practice
Why not have a go using some of these tips? Practice is the best way to improve your photography above all! If you’d like us to look, remember to tag us, @thefibrecompany, and add the hashtag #madewiththefibreco so we find you.
Also, we’ve included this styling tutorial on our You Tube channel to help some of you get started:
Also, don’t forget, you can win 3 skeins of our new yarn colours by entering our brights vs neutrals challenge this month. We’ve had some amazing responses already! Details of the competition can be found, here.
Happy snapping!