Mastering the art of smartphone photography: Tips and techniques to enhance your skills

These days, thanks to smartphones, almost everyone has a camera with them and that’s mostly a good thing. At any time, you can capture memories with family and friends, painterly sunsets and crazy spontaneous moments. The problem is most of us have endless bland photos in our camera rolls because we simply don’t know how to take great shots.

When you’re on vacation or gathering with friends and family, a good photo will provide memories you can proudly share and go back to time and again. And if you’re active on social media, they’re crucial. In this article, I’ll show you how to set yourself up for photo success with the optimal settings and simple but effective composition tips from myself and a pro photographer. And if you’re interested in going further, I’ll highlight several third-party apps that provide even greater manual control. Note that this is focused only on taking photos — I’ll cover video in a future article.

Take advantage of your smartphone’s camera setup

Most smartphones have two or more cameras, each with different lenses, sensors and resolution. They’re usually called the wide (or main), telephoto and ultrawide cameras. These work seamlessly together: You can simply pinch to zoom on the viewfinder to fit your subject into the scene and your phone will switch between the lenses automatically.

Most smartphones offer shortcuts on their viewfinders for you to quickly jump between these, and you’ll usually see numbers like 0.5x, 1x, 2x and 5x to denote the levels of zoom. Ideally, you should use each camera at its optimal setting and avoid in-between digital zooms (like 2.7x) that reduce quality.

You should also know which camera is best for a given subject. People shots are best done with the main or telephoto cameras as those focal lengths flatter the subject and reduce distortion. They also allow for naturally blurred backgrounds and “bokeh” that helps your subject stand out. Since it creates weird warping around the edges of photos, the ultrawide camera is best reserved for landscape shots. Lastly, the telephoto lens is best for distant scenes, but avoid the most extreme settings (above 10x on most cameras) as your photos may become blurry or pixelated.

When it comes to your phone’s portrait mode, there are caveats. While it does create a soft blurred background and “bokeh,” it does so using computational tricks. That can create issues like pixelation around your subject or an overly artificial look. To get natural blur, switch to the main or the telephoto camera, increase the zoom level and move farther away from your subject to frame them.

Finally, this should go without saying, but clean your lens. Whenever you set your phone down, the camera can pick up grease or dirt that will ruin your photos. If you don’t have a microfiber cloth, clean it with any soft cotton fabric — just avoid tissue as it’s rougher than it looks and can mar your lens.

Nail your settings

One big plus with smartphones over dedicated cameras is that they have bigger, sharper displays. To start, boost your screen brightness when taking photos so you can easily see your subject and compose your shot.

Take a few extra seconds to decide whether to snap a vertical (portrait) or horizontal (landscape) photo, depending on the subject. Get in the habit of holding your phone in a way that keeps your fingers away from the lenses, as that’s another great way to ruin a shot.

Most recent iPhone and Android models automatically focus on a subject quickly and accurately. However, if multiple people are in a shot, the AI may focus on the wrong person, so be sure to tap on the correct one.

Exposure, or the brightness or dimness of a subject, is typically selected automatically by your phone.