6 Cool Tips and Hacks for Mobile Photography!

One of the biggest reasons why people are so willing to invest huge sums of money in their smartphones is the quality of the camera. Not only photographers, but even regular people who had no prior photography experience can now do wonders with their high quality mobile cameras. If you are one of these people, you would be happy to learn the following hacks and tips that will get you the best results for mobile photography.

Tips and hacks for mobile photography

DIY macro lens

If you want to do something more productive than spend a sum of money on photography equipment, then here is a DIY project for you. Macro photography has been attracting a lot of attention due to its unique style photos. It gives us a great view of minute details of absolutely anything. While there are external macro lenses that can go with your smartphone, here is how you can create a DIY macro lens.

We all have had a laser point at least once in our lives. You can probably find one in your junk, or easily buy a new one. A cheap laser pointer will do the job.

Open up laser’s back cap to take out batteries
Now, open the front cap to disassemble the lens
Using bobby pins, clippers or a thin but sharp object to take out the lens without scratching it, do this step with a lot of care
Once the lens is out, it’s time to mount it on your phone
Take a new bobby pin, so that it is not bent, rusty or has a gap in between
Place the laser lens between the bobby pin. Again, be careful not to scratch the lens
Once placed inside, attach the pin to your phone’s back with a tape
The lens should be sitting in the very center of your phone’s lens

With this quick hack, you can have a home-made macro lens! Pinterest is one of the most interesting platforms where you can find a bunch of inspiring DIYs. Use fast speed Mediacom to browse the internet and excel at doing creative DIYs for mobile photography.

Attachable phone lenses

Did the DIY project mentioned above not impress you? Do you want to have something more proper and professional? No worries!

A huge variety of external attachable phone lenses are available. These lenses come with an interchangeable design, where you can change between multiple lenses just by quickly screwing them on or off. You have to mount the lenses into a clamp-like piece that clips on to your phone’s body, placing the external lens on the phone lenses tightly.

Some common types of lenses available are macro lenses, wide angle lenses, fisheye lenses and colored lenses. There are many high-end attachable lenses by some brands, such as the Sony QX30 Smartphone Attachable Lens or the TODI 4K HD 2 in 1 Clip-On Phone Lens.

Multiple shots

Yes, a good shot at the very first try always saves so much time and is much more exciting than repeated trials. But all professionals know that this happens very rarely. It is important to take multiple shots of one subject, and try different techniques, composition styles and angles to capture the beauty of a subject to the fullest.

Try taking a picture of a subject in both landscape and in portrait mode. It is not wise to stop then and there to take a look at the end results, as that might waste time and disturb the subject you were trying to capture. Also, try different angles and distances from a subject. Take a long shot as well as a mid-long and a closeup of a subject, so you can use either of those later on. Different angles, such as a drone shot from the top, a low-angle shot can also help you capture amazing pictures. These extra shots can be a really good backup in case the first one does not turn up nice.

Take advantage of editing apps

Many people think photo editing is only limited to tacky filters that come with our phones. However, editing is a lot more than that; it is the manipulation of photo elements such as brightness, exposure, highlights, saturation and much more. Our phones alone do not have enough tools for good, pro-level editing. If you wish to add filters, adjust photo elements, and even add some creative touch such as removing or adding things in the picture, use editing apps.

There are a bunch of free editing apps available on both the App store and Google Play Store. These apps have sophisticated features that can do wonders with your photo. Apps like Snapseed also have features that allow you to blur out and remove certain things from a picture. Snapseed is available on all types of smartphones, and is one of the most popular editing apps for most Instagram-photographers. You can even use it to edit your selfies!

Other apps that are good for photo editing include VSCO, which is more suitable for those who want cool and professional-looking photo filters. PicsArt is also a good choice. You can try out the free version of Photo Grid to not only edit one single photo at a time, but also create collages, photo templates, add text, watermarks, and much more. This app also has a video editing feature so you can explore videography on your mobile too.

Rule of thirds

There are various types of compositions photographers use in their pictures. Learn about all composition styles here.

For mobile photography, the best way to capture beautiful and aesthetic compositions is to use the rule of thirds. You can use grid lines given in your smartphone’s camera to be accurate with such compositions. The 9-segmented grid will help you in positioning your subject. Out of the 9 segments of the grid, keep your subject in the third segment of the grid.

So, let’s say you are taking a picture of a mountain. The mountain itself should be either in the third vertical segment, or in the third horizontal segment (depending on what orientation you choose). The other segments don’t necessarily have to be empty, but the focused subject should not be in those segments.

Look for deep shadows

Shadows add excellent depth in your pictures. You should keep an eye out for objects, such as tea cups or even cars that have a dark shadow falling onto them. In natural lighting shadows often form after 4pm, which is often referred to as the Golden Hour because of how the color of the sun changes as it gets ready to set.

You can even create amazing shadows with artificial lights to add depth and an aesthetic feel to your pictures. You can also increase the depth of these shadows in the editing stage if the original picture does not have a strong one.

Conclusion

We have amazing quality lenses in our handheld smartphone devices. Mobile photography has become increasingly popular even amongst professional photographers because advancing technology provides these smartphones with full-scale capabilities. Try out the hacks and tips mentioned here to become part of the photography world.