Taking better photos...with your cell phone!

Someone once told me, "The best camera is the one you always have with you." For many of us, that comes in the form of a cell phone. Smart phones these days have very capable cameras in them. They produce images with decent enough quality for printing, and the newest smart phones produce images worthy of enlarging! What happens to most of those photos, though? They sit, taking up space. Some of them get tweeted or posted to Facebook, but most of them languish on our phones never to be seen again. It's time to start printing those photos! In several years the phone you have now will be long gone and, with it, the photos. If you have foresight, you'll save the images to your computer at home where they will sit until the computer crashes....In the end, the best way to SAVE your photos for the future is to print them! So, how do you take a photo with your phone that is good enough to print? Well, let's talk about that!

(Note: All photos in this post were taken with a Samsung Galaxy S3.)

1. Change your perspective.
I see so many photos from friends taken of their children from a standing position. This leads to a lot of images of tops of heads or children straining to look up at their parent that is begging them to smile. Instead, crouch down and meet the child at their level. The photo will be more intimate and you'll be able to capture a natural moment from within the moment. Try capturing flowers from ground level, or trees from a laying position under them. Find something to stand on if you're trying to capture a crowd or a scene with a large scope.

This is my daughter watching a hail storm out our back window. There are dog toys strewn about and the camera couldn't expose properly for the outside, meaning a lot of lost detail in the bright white spots. 

This image was taken right after the above image. Notice how I placed the window frames equal distances from the edge of the image, adding interest. The clutter on the floor is no longer distracting and the viewer can feel more like they are a participant in the moment. 

2. Compose! Be aware of what's in the image.
Sometimes we take photos of moments to keep a memento of a birthday party or talent show or a pond full of baby geese, but when we look at them later they are full of clutter. When a photo isn't composed properly it's hard for the viewer to figure out what the subject of the image is. Composition goes hand in hand with changing your perspective. If you're taking photos of your child opening their birthday gifts, get in close and take photos that don't include all the chaos going on around you. Take photos of only your child. Like taking photos of food? Don't just snap away. Move stray forks, cups, napkins, and other distractions away from your plate, then shoot from directly above so the viewer can see the whole dish.

This was at a fundraising event. There were several children using hula hoops in this small area. I didn't want the focus of the image on the group, though, so I got low and close to my daughter to snap a more interesting image. Had I stepped back and snapped the whole group, there would have been a lot of distracting colors and objects in the photo. 

 3. Get genuine smiles.
I rarely ask a child to smile (and sometimes won't even ask adults!) It's sure way to get an awkward, forced look. Instead, I ask questions or tell jokes. For babies I make noises and give little tickles, sometimes I play peakaboo. Use tactics like these rather than saying, "SMILE!" It works much better!

I have been putting a camera in my daughter's face since she was born, so she instantly does "giggle smiles" when the camera is raised. She just makes herself giggle and I get a photo of a sweet smile and sparkly eyes!

4. Don't zoom! 
Smart phones use digital zooming, which degrades the quality of your photos. Instead of zooming, get as close as you can to your subject. Take the photo, and then use free editing apps to crop the image how you like. Cropping will give you a higher quality image than zooming in.

5. Stop using flash.
The flash on a smart phone is harsh and doesn't work the same way the flash on an SLR will work. it doesn't speed up the shutter on the camera, it just adds light. So instead of freezing the action you want to freeze, it just makes the blurred image brighter! Find a better light source if you can. I very, very rarely turn on my phone's flash because there just aren't many images it will improve. However, any picture is better than no picture! If it comes down to it, using the flash may be your only option.

And that's it! There are many more tips for taking better photos, but I'll discuss those at greater length on a later post. These five will get you on your way to taking better photos of your daily memories right now! Once a month, go through your images and decide which ones you'd like to print. I just printed dozens of my Instagram photos using Foxgram and I was really happy with the price and service. There are several apps to print photos straight from your phone, including an app from Walgreens that I've heard great things about.

Happy snapping!