Tips & Tricks: Top 10 Tips To Get Great Photos FOR FREE.

1. Stop Using Social Media Apps

Ditch those built in camera functions on the social media app. The built in camera app on your phone is much better, you may not know it but you might be wasting your expensive phone camera but using these apps for your photography.

Snapchat is the worst offender for this, not even making true use of your cameras maximum potential- leading to blurry and undetailed images- however all social media apps commit this to some degree.

For best quality photos the tip is simple, just use your phones default camera app to take all your photos, making the most of your phone. Also note that any photos sent in social media chat will also drop in quality, so if you need to send someone the highest quality images- upload them to a file storage system like dropbox or google drive instead.

2. Less Selfies- More Portraits

The selfie was one of the big draws of mobile photography- the ability to take a photo of yourself, where ever you are without needing anyone else to take the photo or turning a timer on the camera. However, the selfie while convenient may be leading to you creating bad photos of yourself.

Your range of motion is limited with a selfie- you won’t be able to get the same angles or get as good of a split between yourself and the environment it is also harder to control the settings on your camera to adjust for focus or lighting. Leading to worse quality, less focused images.

The solution is simple, when you are alone, sure grab a selfie but when you are with others have fun, take photos of each other and see the benefits of better looking and more consistent photography.

3. Step back from the camera- let the background shine

Sometimes you want a close up portrait and those could be great. however- whenever you are not just sitting in your house, the background can often add more life to a picture than just the people in it. It allows the viewer to be sucked more into the experience, and allows for much more creative shots and range of expression not just from the scenery but also from your body language.

4. Watch out for the sun

When looking for perspective locations for camera shots, keep an eye on the position of the sun in relation to your subject, having direct sunlight coming from behind your target can make your subject unclear or indistinct and potentially ruin your shot, uneven lighting from the sun and shadows can also be potential photo ruiners.

Waiting for the best time of day can help with this, a lot of photographers swear by the golden hour- right before sunrise/ sunset or mid day when lighting is most even.

A useful tip to help resolve this is first the most obvious- moving away from direct sunlight or looking for an area of even sunlight- but a more surprising tip is to turn on the flash- yes even in daylight to help even out the lighting in each shot.

6. Take many shots- not just one

The secret that wedding photographers don’t tell you is that the perfect wedding photos don’t come quickly or easily. Your album of 50 wedding photos may come from a collection of 1000 photos that are slightly out of time or don’t look quite right.

Doing this might get you a few more bad shots, but the end result will speak for itself. Having a choice between 10 or more images of the same scene will give everyone the chance to look their best.

So don’t be afraid to take lots of shots, laugh at the ones that look bad and keep the ones that look amazing for ever

7. Be careful with filters

Photo apps have a selection of filters designed to clean up skin, even out blemishes and tighten up skin- however these filters come with a hidden cost, image quality. Even on top of the drops we already discussed for using social media apps as your camera.
As the filter attempts to mask and cover it drops quality, most filters are just images and fading tools that stretch over your face leading to worse lighting, and potentially blurry edges and features making the image look like it was made with a much cheaper and older camera.

8. Take Candid Photos

Staged photos can look great, however they can sometimes lack the genuine quality of the moment, especially when photographing children as they often struggle with plastering on a smile for a photo.

So (with the consent of the subject) try your best to capture those little moments that staged photos miss. Looking out to the distance, sitting casually sipping coffee etc. The end result is more intresting and dynamic photos that capture the subject in a much more realistic light.