Expensive cameras are no longer a prerequisite for taking good photos. Modern smartphones are capable of producing high quality images, but the camera itself is only part of the equation. Lighting, composition, focus and the way you hold your phone can make a bigger difference than upgrading to the latest device at this point.
While this may seem daunting at first there are a few simple habits that can dramatically improve the photos you take every day.
Whether you’re photographing people, pets, products, food or your next vacation, here are 12 easy ways to take professional level photos with your smartphone.
1. Clean Your Camera Lens
The #1 most common reason for photos not turning out is a smudged lens. Your phone spends much of the day in your pocket, bag or hand. That means the camera lens regularly picks up fingerprints, dust and oils that can make photos look hazy or slightly out of focus.
Because the smudges are often subtle, it’s easy to assume poor image quality is caused by lighting or the camera itself. The ideal way to address this is to give the lens a quick wipe with a clean microfiber cloth before taking an important photo. If you don’t have one nearby, a clean, soft piece of fabric can work in a pinch.
2. Use Natural Light Whenever Possible
Good lighting can make an average phone camera look professional quality. Bad lighting can ruin a picture no matter how much you spend on your smartphone. To be clear, this does not mean placing your subject directly in bright sunlight. In fact, harsh midday sun can create deep shadows, blown-out highlights and squinting faces. The ideal lighting environment is soft, indirect daylight.
If you’re taking a photo indoors, try moving your subject closer to a window. Position them so the window illuminates their face from the front or slightly from the side.
The time of day is also an underrated variable. The period shortly after sunrise and before sunset is often called the golden hour because the lower sun produces softer, warmer light. 99% of the time, this will make the photo turn out much better than using a flash.
3. Tap to Set Your Focus
New smartphone cameras automatically decide what it thinks should be in focus. Most of the time, it does a good job. But it doesn’t know what you consider important.
Before taking the photo, tap the main subject on your screen. If you’re photographing a person, tap their face. If you’re photographing your dog, tap its eyes or face. For a product, tap the part of the object you most want to appear sharp.
For portraits of people and animals, spend an extra second looking at the eyes. Viewers naturally look toward the eyes, so a photograph can feel out of focus even when most of the image is sharp if the eyes aren’t.
4. Shoot With the Final Use of the Photo in Mind
A photograph intended for an Instagram Story has different requirements than one you’re planning to frame, use on a website, include in a presentation or print.
Orientation is an obvious example. Vertical photos generally work better for mobile-first formats such as Stories, while horizontal images can be more useful for website banners and presentations.
It’s also important to consider cropping. Avoid framing your subject so tightly that there’s no room to make adjustments later. Leaving some space around the edges gives you flexibility to change the aspect ratio without accidentally cutting off someone’s head, an animal’s ears or another important part of the image.
This becomes even more important when a photograph will eventually be reproduced or transformed into something else.
For example, Paint Me Like works with customer-uploaded photographs that are converted into personalized products. Photos with clear subjects, good lighting and enough space around the subject provide much more flexibility than tightly cropped or poorly lit source images.
The same principle applies to almost any visual project.
You can always crop a little closer afterward. You can’t recover part of a scene that was never photographed.
5. Pay Attention to What’s in the Background
When taking a photo, your attention naturally goes to the subject.
Unfortunately, your camera captures everything else too.
Before pressing the shutter, quickly scan the edges and background of the frame.
Look for things like:
- Trash cans
- Cars
- Clutter
- Other people
- Bright signs
- Objects that appear to stick out of someone’s head
- Strong colors that distract from the subject
You often don’t need to remove anything physically. Moving yourself or your subject a few feet can completely change the background.
You can also change your camera angle. Crouching slightly might replace a cluttered parking lot with the sky. Moving to the left could put a clean wall behind your subject instead of a busy room.
This is one of the biggest differences between snapshots and photographs that feel intentional: the photographer pays attention to the entire frame, not just the subject.
6. Turn On Your Camera Grid
Most smartphones allow you to display a grid over the camera preview.
It’s a simple feature, but it’s surprisingly useful.
The grid divides your screen into sections, making it easier to keep horizons level, position subjects consistently and think about composition before taking the photo.
On many phones, you can enable it through the camera settings.
Once it’s on, try using the horizontal lines to keep landscapes straight. A slightly crooked horizon can make an otherwise beautiful photograph feel off.
The grid also makes it much easier to apply the rule of thirds.
7. Use the Rule of Thirds
Beginners often instinctively place the subject directly in the center of every photograph.
The rule of thirds is a simple composition technique that divides an image into nine sections using two horizontal and two vertical lines. Instead of always placing the subject in the center, position an important part of the image along one of those lines or near the points where they intersect.
For example, when photographing someone looking toward the right side of the frame, you could position them toward the left third and leave open space in the direction they’re looking.
For landscapes, try placing the horizon near the upper or lower third rather than directly through the center.
The rule of thirds isn’t a requirement. Symmetrical scenes and close-up portraits can look fantastic centered.
8. Adjust Exposure Manually
On many smartphones (iphone & android), tapping the screen to focus also brings up an exposure control. Dragging it up or down lets you make the image brighter or darker before taking the picture.
This is particularly useful in scenes with both bright and dark areas.
For example, if you’re photographing someone standing in front of a bright sunset, your phone might expose the sky and leave the person’s face too dark. In other situations, it may brighten the subject so much that detail disappears from the sky.
Try adjusting exposure until the important parts of the image retain their detail.
When in doubt, be careful about making the image excessively bright. Once a bright area becomes completely white and loses its detail, recovering that information through editing can be difficult or impossible.
9. Avoid Digital Zoom
A quick rule of thumb is the more digital zoom you use, the more image quality can deteriorate.
Many smartphones offer both optical and digital zoom. Optical zoom uses a different lens or optical system to get closer without the same loss in quality. Digital zoom essentially enlarges and crops the image.
If you can safely get closer to the subject, always use your feet instead of zooming in.
When that’s not possible, you may be better off taking the photograph without heavy digital zoom and cropping it afterward. This also gives you more control over the final composition.
Newer phones with multiple camera lenses can complicate things because certain preset zoom levels may switch to an actual telephoto camera. If your phone offers dedicated optical zoom, take advantage of it.
10. Try Different Angles and Perspectives
Most photos are taken from roughly eye level because that’s where you’re already holding the phone. Oftentimes it makes sense to try something different.
Crouch down. Move closer. Step back. Photograph from above. Get closer to ground level. Move to the other side of your subject. This is particularly effective when photographing pets and children.
Instead of standing over a dog and pointing the camera downward, get closer to the dog’s eye level. The resulting photograph often feels more engaging because you’re seeing the world from the subject’s perspective.
For food and flat-lay photography, the opposite may work better. Photographing directly from above can create a clean composition.
11. Keep Your Phone Steady
Phone cameras have become remarkably good at compensating for small movements, but stability still matters. Camera shake is especially noticeable in low light because your phone may need to capture light for longer.
Use both hands when possible and keep your elbows relatively close to your body. If there’s a stable surface nearby, use it. You can rest your phone against a wall, table, railing or other solid object.
Another useful trick is the camera timer. If you’re taking a carefully composed shot or using a small tripod, setting a short timer prevents the movement caused by tapping the shutter button.
If your nighttime photos frequently look soft or blurry, keeping the phone still may improve them more than changing any camera setting.
12. Edit Lightly Instead of Relying on Filters
Editing is part of modern photography, and there’s nothing wrong with making adjustments after taking a photo.
The problem comes when editing starts compensating for issues that would have been easier to fix while taking the picture.
Start with the basics:
Crop and straighten. Remove distracting edges and fix crooked horizons.
Adjust exposure. Brighten or darken the image when necessary.
Recover highlights and shadows. Small adjustments can reveal details in very bright or dark areas.
Adjust contrast. A little contrast can add depth, but too much can eliminate detail.
Check color temperature. If the photograph looks excessively yellow or blue, adjust the warmth.
Use saturation carefully. Increasing saturation can make colors more vibrant, but pushing it too far quickly makes a photograph look unnatural.
Filters can be useful shortcuts, but strong filters often affect every part of the photograph equally. Skin, sky, grass and clothing may all need different treatment.
Aim to make the photo look like a better version of what you actually saw rather than an obviously processed image.
Image by wirestock on Magnific
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