The Ultimate Guide to Shoot Better Photos with your Phone

What I can say about myself is that I'm in no way a professional photographer. I have never used a DSLR, and I haven't taken any photography lessons in my life. However, everybody tells me how good my photos are. Is there a secret? Honestly, YES! I'm sure that you've already went through some other posts on the web telling you that in order to shoot the perfect photo, you need good, meaning expensive, equipment.

That's WRONG! You can take amazing pictures with any phone, and I am here to teach you how. What you need to do, is to keep reading because I'm gonna spill some tips and tricks, nobody tells you, to take awesome photos, no matter your budget.

In this post, I will mainly focus on landscapes and buildings. There'll be other articles that I'll talk about portraits and generally about how to photograph people. But for today, let's dive into this post!

So, here's The Ultimate Guide to Shoot Better Photos with your Phone. 

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Step one: Everything's about lighting

What you always need to keep in mind, is to match your smartphone to the lighting of the environment. There's a tool in your camera that will help you adjust the exposure. It is usually a small lamp and it shows up when you're about to take a photo. You can't miss it! 

Here's the secret formula I use to take my photos to the next level by changing only a little thing when I shoot!

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A Sunny Landscape

The sun can be tricky, especially when it comes to landscapes, it can even cause a BIG disaster. The question here is: How can you save the shot? Well, you need to take the exposure down! Don't take it to the bottom, but just enough to take away the shiny surfaces, and give more details to the frame.

Neon Lights at Night

Neon lights look really bad if you try to shoot them without changing the exposure. Here again, in order to show the contrast, you need to take the exposure down. Feel free to take it as low as you like it. By lowering the exposure in the shot you'll get all the details you need to show off the unique neon lights!

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Step two: What about the angle 

What makes the shot professional is the angle. Be creative! Stop taking the photos straight forward. This is the first mistake you probably make. Go closer to the ground, or just tilt the camera to give depth. You need to present the qualities, and one of the ways to do it is by changing the angle. I usually tilt the phone to the back to show the sky, create shapes, or follow hidden lines. But this is not the only way to do it. Like I said be CREATIVE!

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Step three: Patience is the Key

Everything takes time. And so does photography. You need to be patient with your photos. They can't be perfect from the first try. Experiment. Try again, and again, in different spots till you get what you are looking for. Don't get mad! And a tip from my experience if you want to get better shots, go alone. Friends are usually distracting, and they rush you to finish. 

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Step four: Always on Time

In photography everything is about timing. Have you ever heard about the golden hour? It's usually early in the morning, or when the sun goes down. At this time the light is soft and it makes everything looks perfect. The buildings look smoother, and the trees softer. The colours look brighter and clearer. So if you ever ask me when you should take a photo, it's then, the Golden Hour!

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Step five: Edit and Re-edit

What do I mean by editing? An option is to download an app. I always use Adobe Lightroom or VSCO, there are so many tools for free that I haven't found anywhere else. I know that you probably already knew about the apps, but do you know how to actually use them? Probably no. The trick when it comes to editing is to never exaggerate. Use everything but only a little bit. Play around and find what suits your style. 

I love giving an aesthetic touch to my photos, so I give only a little bit of contrast, and I try to make my colours softer for the eye. 

SECRET TIP:

In order to make a bad quality photo better through editing is simple. Take a little down the exposure, add some contrast, and then play with the highlights and the sharpen depending on how bad the photo is. If you follow this, the shot will look so much different.

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Extra tips:

 - Clean your lens
 - Never use the filters of the      camera
 - Avoid shooting at noun
 - Don't use preset filters
 - Don't exaggerate with the saturation and contrast in the colours

Try to combine at least 3 of these steps, and that's it. That's how you get an amazing shot effortlessly! Share your snaps with me, I would love to see them! Think outside the box and you'll become an expert!

The phone that I'm using in this post is the Samsung A7

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Thank you so much for reading my post!

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Copyrights: All the photos belong to me and only me. Copy is not tolerable.