Mobile Photography Tips

The camera you have on you, really is the best.

And for most people, the one you have on you is your phone camera. For me, even though I love my DSLR, my phone camera is just way easier to carry around when I'm not doing a professional session. I absolutely love pushing the limits with my phone camera and seeing what I can create with it. I mostly use it for travel, my kids and just those little everyday moments. I'm going to give you guys some of the tips I use when I'm trying to take the best possible photo with my phone!

Get Close


  • Any phone you have will work.
  • If your an iPhone user, portrait mode won't always give you the best results. I use regular photo mode for all of my phone photos.
  • Using regular photo mode will allow you to get closer to your subject and focus on small details.

Wide open


  • If you have a wide angle option, use it to get the whole picture.
  • Look for natural frames around you.
  • Be mindful of composition.
  • Try not to cut off limbs or frames. I made sure to get the whole window in the photo and also made sure my arm was sticking out far enough to make the composition interesting.

Stay straight


  • Always make sure your horizon line is straight. This makes your photos look much more uniform.
  • If you didn't get it straight in camera, use your phones editing tools to straighten it.
  • Shoot towards the sky for a negative space composition and also to hide distractions!
  • Fun fact - I shot all of the photos in this collage while riding on the back of a motorcycle.


Art is all around


  • Look for colors, textures and patterns.
  • Take pictures everywhere! I took this one at a local nursery.
  • Utilize mobile Lightroom to give your photos an extra boost of color and clarity.
  • This is a trend that I've been seeing a lot of but... STOP desaturating your green tones!

Portraits


  • As I mentioned previously, I much prefer regular photo mode to the iPhone portrait mode since its much sharper and you don't get those weird blurred edges.
  • For indoor selfies, turn off all artificial lights around you and get near a window.
  • Facing towards a window will give you a nice, glowy skin tone.
  • Use brushes in mobile Lightroom to brighten up eyes and give them a slight color boost!
  • I also like to use brushes to add extra texture to hair, freckles, eyelashes, eyebrows and eyes.
  • STOP over saturating your orange tones in mobile Lightroom. Your skin is not supposed to be neon orange.