How to make phone photos better according to a photographer - 5 quick tips

'Be deliberate.'

(Coco Liu)

The cameras hardwired into our smartphones are now of such a quality that you don’t necessarily need an expensive DSLR and a ton of lenses to take professional-looking shots.

Elevating your photography from the realms of ‘drunken blur’ to genuine art can be as simple as thinking more carefully about angles and when to use flash (almost never).

A photographer on Reddit popped up with some particularly simple but useful tips this week, which we’ve reproduced below.

(All photos in this article were taken on an iPhone)

Athena Tan

1. "Move in closer. Fill the frame with your subject. Omit needless background clutter. If you're taking a picture of a flower, for instance, you don't need the entire meadow, skyline, parking lot, whatever in the picture. Simplicity is beauty. Look around the viewfinder and consciously note all the stuff that's going to appear in the image when you press the shutter."

Melisa Barili

2. "Think about your angle. Not every photo needs to be taken at eye-level while you are standing. If you're taking a picture of your kid for instance, kneel on the ground and try shooting from their eye level. If you want an action shot of your friend skateboarding, lay on the ground and shoot up at them. The right angle makes for more visually interesting, dynamic images."

Erika Brothers

3. "Do NOT use flash when taking pictures of people in low light. Nothing is less flattering than a facefull of blinding white light that accentuates flaws in skin tone and smooths out any striking facial structure. Go into your camera settings and find a way to make the ISO (film speed) higher. Even point and shoot digital cameras should have a way to do this."

Alexa Seidl

4. "When shooting portraits of people, especially if you are shorter, do not shoot up from below their chin, it is just the most unpleasant angle. Get slightly above their eye level, a bit off center of their nose, have them tilt their chin down and forward just a tad, and look up into the lens. You know this angle because it's the exact angle you're trying to achieve whenever you take a selfie. Makes a world of difference."

Aaron Pike

5. "You don't need a $2000 DSLR to get great pictures. What most people do that ruins their pictures is that they just stand there like a bump on a log letting the camera do all the work for them. All of your shots will look like your aunt's boring vacation snapshots when you do this. Be deliberate."