You don’t need a fancy camera to take good pictures. In fact, all you need is a phone! I’ve had an iPhone for about 6-9 months, and I’m in LOVE! Seriously, what can this phone not do? Taking awesome pictures is at top of the list. I often find myself in the most beautiful, picture worthy light, wishing I had my “real” camera. Up until a few months ago I would just sigh and mourn over all the amazing pictures I was missing. But lately, I’ve been pulling out my phone just to see what I get. You’re seriously going to be amazed at what I’ve been able to accomplish with my phone. Check this out, and then keep reading because I have an assignment for you…
Even without the slight editing I did in Photoshop, these pictures amaze me. I’m so impressed, I decided I wanted to do a challenge! How fun is that? I’m calling it the iPhone Challenge (but you can use your Andriod if you want, you anti-Apple people-LOL). Here’s what you will do. Using your phone camera, follow the suggestions below to take some unique shots and images. Get creative! Challenge yourself to learn to spot the picture worthy moments, and always have fun! If you’re happy with your results, email them to me at me@jamieherreraphotography.com. I’d love to see your creativity and one lucky participant may even earn the glory and fame of being featured on my blog!
TIPS FOR AMAZING iPHONE PICTURES:
1. Take pictures looking into the sun.
This may go against a photography rule you thought you knew. But the iPhone’s exposure reading will adjust for the brightness. Tap your screen in various places to change the point of focus (a little box will appear and what is inside the box will be your focus point). By tapping the screen, you can also tell the camera to use different places in the picture to determine how light or dark the exposure is. This is how you get a really bright picture, or a darker silhouette type shot. It auto adjusts, so beware. Sometimes you have to angle it a bit up or down to get it to change the exposure using the auto adjust feature. Try it!! You’ll see what I mean. I LOVE the way the iPhone captures the sky using auto adjust. Look for storm clouds rolling in, or a beautiful formation of clouds behind your subject, or slightly covering the sun. You will LOVE the effect! For starters, just take pictures of the sky, sun clouds, etc.
2. Angle your camera.
Most of the sky pictures you see above, I was close to the ground and my camera was at a 45 degree angle back toward me. I have found that a landscape type scene is what the iPhone does really well, but try it out on other things as well! Use different angles to achieve some creative and unique shots.
3. Take the same picture multiple ways
Try it with multiple angles, and various heights. If you want your image to look the same as every other person’s on the planet, then stand at normal height and shoot. But if you want to be unique, squat down, low… or even lay on the ground for that matter. Or get up high and shoot downward. Try the same shot a dozen times and then don’t delete a single one! Wait until you download them to your computer to decide which one you like best (trust me on this!)
4. Take pictures when the sun is low in the sky
This is a photographers secret. You will never achieve jaw dropping images unless you have perfect lighting. Perfect lighting is soft, not harsh, which is also achievable when there is slight cloud cover. LEARN to watch for good lighting and then get your camera out. You’ll be amazed at how beautiful things look in perfect lighting (within 1 hour before sunset, or within 1 hour after sunrise is the most AMAZING light).
5. Fill the frame.
Fill the entire picture with something interesting, but put your subject in an interesting place (rarely in the middle). The rule of thirds is a good place to begin. Imagine your picture was divided into thirds horizontally. Now imagine it is divided into thirds vertically. Your subject should fall into the intersection of any of these lines. Need a visual? Go get your iPhone. (Really, go get it!) Or maybe you’re on it! Push the main button on the phone and it will take you to your lock screen. Don’t unlock it yet! To the right of the “Slide to Unlock” there is a camera icon. Touch the camera icon and slide it up toward the top of the phone. That will take you immediately to your camera. COOL, HU! You’ll love this feature! Ok, on the camera screen you will see the lines I described above. How nice that they are built in!
That’s a good place to start. I cannot wait to see what you come up with. REALLY, send them to me!! I know my readers live all over the country, and I would love to see the beautiful part of the world that you live in. Go capture it, and have fun!!! I’ll be anxiously waiting to see them…
