Knowing how to take good pictures with your camera phone is particularly useful. Most people don’t even use any other type of camera anymore — and the best camera is always the one you have with you. Your phone is usually close by, easy to carry, and fast enough to catch those candid moments before they disappear.
You can take really amazing pictures with your phone. Yes, a good camera gives you sharper images, more vivid colours, and greater control — but with the right techniques you can get a lot more out of your phone than you might expect.
1. Keep It Clean
This might sound obvious, but we use our phones a lot, and they do get dirty. So, clean the lens of your phone camera regularly to make sure your pictures aren’t blurry.
2. Know the Shortcut
On most phones, there is a shortcut to go straight to the camera, without unlocking your phone first. So, find out how to do this, so you can access your camera phone quickly.
3. Don’t Zoom
Do not use the zoom because it can lower the quality and cause your photo to be more pixilated. Instead, use your feet to get closer to your subject.
4. Turn On the Grid
The grid will help you keep your lines straight, so that your pictures don’t come out wonky. The grid also helps your composition by guiding you to use the rule of thirds. The grid only shows on your screen, of course, and not on the pictures themselves. To find out more tips on how to take better pictures, download my freebies for parents or for businesses.
5. Tap to Focus
Tap on the screen of your camera phone to tell your camera where you want to have the focus. When you tap and hold, your focus will be locked in place and will not move when you reposition your camera.
6. Manual Exposure
You can control how much light you want to let into your camera. Your camera doesn’t know how much light to let in because there are different light levels in your frame. Especially handy for darkening overexposed faces and bringing back details. On my camera, there is a +/button where you can adjust the exposure. In other phones, you can do it by tapping the screen to refocus. You’ll see a small sun icon and a vertical scale, and you can swipe up or down to adjust the light levels.
Ready to celebrate your family exactly as you are?
7. Alternative Shutter Button
You can often click a different button on your camera to take a photograph. For example, by clicking the volume button instead of the red/white round button on the screen. This can be much more convenient in keeping your phone stable when taking a picture.
8. Portrait Mode
Most modern phones have a Portrait Mode that blurs the background and keeps your subject sharp — great for close-up images of your children. Use it in good light for best results.
9. Burst or Live Mode
For fast-moving children, use burst mode — hold down the shutter button and your phone takes multiple shots in quick succession. You can choose the best frame afterwards.
10. Shoot in RAW
If your phone supports it, try shooting in RAW or ProRAW. It gives you more flexibility when editing — particularly for adjusting exposure and colour after the fact.
11. Editing
You can edit your photos to enhance the colours, exposure, and composition of your photos. Be careful not to use filters that are too extreme, as they are more likely to look dated in the future. Some good apps to use are Snapseed for Android or iPhone, and it is free. You can also use Adobe Lightroom or VSCO.
Want to Go Further?
If you’d like to learn how to take better pictures of your family with your ‘big’ camera, these 7 tips will help.
Not sure which camera to buy? These 6 questions will help you decide.
If you’d like to practise your photography in good company, join one of my monthly photo walks in South-East London.
Want to Be in the Photographs for Once?
These tips will help you take better photographs of your family every day — and that matters. You are your family’s most important photographer. But even the most skilled phone photographer can’t photograph themselves. If you’d love proper family photographs with everyone in them — including you — that’s where I come in.
A documentary family photo session means you put the phone down for a few hours and just be present. No posing, no directions, no awkward smiling. Just your family as you actually are, honestly captured.
