Most of us walk around with a decent camera in our pockets everyday, but how many of the photos in your gallery would you hang on the wall? I'm a big fan of photo printing and think we should show off the images we take on a daily basis. There’s nothing more frustrating, however, than failing to capture a moment, so here’s some tips to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
Firstly, get to know your camera. Play around with it as every camera on every phone is very different. Most new phones now come jam packed with features so identify the ones you like and then implement the following steps.
Grid lines:
Enable grid lines on your screen to ensure your photo is symmetrical. This is particularly handy for shots of landscape. To enable the grid on an iPhone simply go into Settings > Photos & Camera > toggle the "Grid" option to on. To enable it on Android open the Camera > Settings > scroll to “Grid” > tap.
Kill the flash:
Smartphone flashes rarely add to the quality of the image, in fact, they can take from it. Try to use natural light where possible. Take your image and then boost it if needed thereafter.
Avoid zooming in:
Most smartphone cameras have the ability to zoom but few cameras have an optical zoom mode. What does this mean? Well, very often zooming leads to the loss of quality in the image. If you want to focus on a particular part of the image you can crop afterwards.
Edit:
Don’t be afraid to play around with settings on your device and to add a filter or two onto the image. Instagram is great for tinkering with the brightness and contrast of photos - so don’t feel you have to put a filter on it. Upload your image and customise it!