I get tons and tons of questions about what kind of camera I use, what type of phone I have, what I shoot my Instagram photos with, which editing apps I use, filters, you name it!! I'm going to show you guys how to take professional images using just your smartphone!! I shoot so many of my photos for Instagram with my LG G6. It's tiny, it's in my pocket, its convenient and it's high quality! It's perfect for shooting photos and video for social media, AND shooting photos and video at the same time! Might be one of my favourite options on phone! I'm going to jump right in and give you my top tips for taking better photos with your phone.
1. WIPE OFF YOUR LENS
As a professional photographer, there is nothing, nothing worse to me than seeing a photo or video online that is completely blurry or smudged. Most of the time the person who posted the photo has no idea that that photo could have been crystal clear and sharp. Each and every time before I take a photo or video with my phone, I use a tiny little cloth that comes with sunglasses, OR the inside of my shirt to wipe off my lens. I pick the fabric that's closest to me that is the softest and won't scratch my lens. Try it. Take a picture before you wipe your lens, and then take one after you wipe it. You'll see what I'm talking about. GET IN THIS HABIT!!!
Before a good wipe.
After wiping my lens.
2. STRAIGHTEN UP
One of the keys to unified, clean, professional images are straight photographs. Whether it's a skyline, flat lay, or picture of your dog, make sure the lines in the photo are straight. Again, to me there's nothing worse than a crooked photo, or WORSE, slightly crooked photo!!! Agh.
Does this make you dizzy??
Taadaaaaa
3. LIGHTING
Natural lighting is your best friend here. If you're about to take a photo of your food, or a flat lay of any sort, don't do it on your kitchen counter, make the better decision and move it closer to the window first for a much cleaner, more professional shot. Window light is easy to find and makes the biggest difference in photos. Shooting outside helps too.
Dim light indoors, not near a window.
Taken beside a window, wahooooo.
4. LIGHTING part 2
Somewhere down the line, we were taught that flash is bad. Forget that, flash is great!!! Especially when your in a dark space, at a restaurant, or a photo with your friends at night. Turn on your flash!! It will make for much clearer and cleaner images. You'll loose the grain and motion that you'd have if you took a photo without flash.
I don't even have to explain what you're seeing here. Use your flash!!!!
I hope these few tips help you out when you're shooting with your smartphone. I definitely recommend the LG G6 if you are in the market for a new phone annddddd into photography/social media. All of these photos were taken with and edited with my LG G6. I find this phone unbelievably easy to use, and keeps my files so so organized. I have it set up so that all of my images back up to my Google Photos as soon as my phone hits WiFi. It makes it SO easy if I'm shooting on my phone but want to edit on my computer, or if I want to access these photos from another device. It is definitely a game changer for storage that way too. Once your photos are automatically backed up, it gives you the option to delete them from your device. Yessss. ALSO just in case you STILL don't have enough storage (and even I haven't run into that yet) there is a removable option for your SD card. You can treat it just like a camera and remove your memory card and replace it with a new one. AMAZING. It's seriously the best, especially if you take a lot of photos and videos.
Definitely hit me up if you have any questions about your own smartphone photography. I think I'll do another post on here soon going over editing on your smartphone. So stay tuned!
xx
Allie
This post was in partnership with LG Canada