How to Take Great Pictures with Your Smartphone
Smartphones are the equivalent of having a powerful computer, camera, and marketing tool in our pockets 24 hours a day. These devices make running a local business and marketing your business easier than ever before.
Studies show that using quality images for your business attracts more customers and sales. You’ve hired a local marketing agency to set up your Google My Business, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. but now it’s time to optimize with some beautiful photos.
Have you ever looked at another business’s website or Instagram advertisements and thought that the only way to step up your photography game was to purchase an expensive camera? While it’s true that a nice camera has the ability to take higher quality images, there is a lot you can do with the smartphone that’s in your pocket.
Worldwide marketing campaigns by big-name brands have been shot on phone cameras. Without spending a penny more, you can use what you already have and create amazing photographs. Make the most of what you have and you’ll be happier with the end result.
Here are 3 key components of better photography:
Lighting
Composition
Purpose
Lighting
Long story short: better light equals better photos. Natural light is your friend here. This is especially true when you’re taking photos earlier in the day and later in the afternoon. These two times of day have “golden hour” light. The light is softer and more even.
Experiment by taking a photo of yourself during golden hour and then taking a photo in the middle of the day when the sun is brightest and the light is harshest. You’ll notice a big difference. That soft light that compliments your facial features carries over to your store or product that you are photographing.
If you don’t have a lot of natural light at your business, grab an extra lamp to brighten up the room or the subject of your photo. Your smartphone usually automatically corrects color in the photograph (which is why those beautiful West Texas sunsets look washed out on your screen) but a smartphone can’t correct bad lighting.
Pro Tip: If you’re just using artificial light, look at the color temperature of the lightbulbs in your store and make sure they’re all the same. Typically lightbulbs will say something like ‘soft white’ or ‘daylight’ which indicates whether they have a warmer or cooler look to them.
Composition
Essentially this means that you decide things will be in the frame of the photograph. The “frame” of the photo is like that of a painting on a wall. Usually, you don’t want things too high or too low in the frame. A basic rule of composing a photograph is called the Rule of Thirds.
You’ll want to compose your photo so that the object or product in focus is aligned in one of the intersecting thirds of the frame. It’s also important that you make sure the focal point of your photo isn’t cut off.
You might need to move your phone to get more of the subject in the frame. Another thing to consider is what is around the subject. Give context to your image.
For example, if you’re taking a picture of a new lemonade your restaurant is offering, place some other drinks in the background or some of the drink’s ingredients around the lemonade glass.
Purpose
Even if you hire a professional photographer to create the images for your snazzy website and social media accounts, it’s important to have smartphone-quality shots on your Instagram or Facebook stories. What is the purpose of the photo you are taking?
Typically if you’re taking a picture for Instagram or Facebook Stories you don’t need to have the same quality as something that you would post to your main feed. These photos can and should be more spontaneous and focus on giving someone a picture of the culture and character of your business.
For your main feed and website, focus on communicating a single, clear message. For stories, focus on a broader message like ‘Prepping for the Day’ or ‘Behind the Scenes.” By having a broader message you can share multiple photos throughout the day or week.
Bonus Tip: Buy a microfiber cloth for a few dollars and wipe off your phone’s lens. Sometimes you’ll be surprised at how much better the image on your phone will look just by getting a fingerprint (or a lot of fingerprints) off of your lens.
Take a look at our post on creating great video content if you want to post videos online.
