Time of day
The first tip is to pay attention to the time of day that you are going to be taking the photo. This is because the quality of the light is going to be everything for your picture. If you are going to be taking the photos outdoors, then you are going to want to take the photos during the two magic hours. These magic hours are going to be right after sunrise and right before sunset. This is because the lightning is going to be softer and not as harsh.
Sunlight
The second tip is to make sure that your shoot out of the direct sunlight. This means that if you have to take the photos in the middle of the night, then you want to make sure that you are not taking photos of the people in the direct sunlight. You need to look for a place that is shaded so the lighting is going to be a lot better. It is going to be great if you have a day that is overcast because the cloud cover will diffuse the light.
Information
The third tip to try to capture as much of the light information that you can. This means that your smartphone is going to have a feature that is going to limit the dynamic range of the phone. It also has the ability to capture the information from the brightest part to the darkest part of the photo. In order to do this, then you need to set the exposure on the phone by tapping on the screen of your phone to the brightest part of the photo, which is usually in the sky.
Composition
The fourth tip is to know that you need to frame an interesting composition of the photo. Most of the time, the smartphone is going to have the grid feature that is going to help you with the align points of interests when you are taking the photos. When you are taking a photo of a person, you will need to frame them so that you will be cut mid shin or mid thigh. You should also consider the headroom because you don’t want to leave too much or too little of empty space above the person in the photo.
Apps
The fifth tip is to use the third party camera app. This is going to give you a lot of control over the photos that you are going to be taking. These apps are going to allow you to experiment with the shutter, ISO, aperture, along with a lot of other parameters. This means that you are going to have more freedom on how you can capture your shots.
Portrait
The sixth tip is to use the portrait mode. This is going to be especially true if you have a high-end smartphone because it is going to add a lot of depth of field and can emulate the look of a DSLR camera. If you are trying to get the best results, then you will need to use this feature when you have plenty of light and depth, according to Brandon Oda.
Selfies
The seventh tip is for when you are trying to take a selfie. You will have to need to remember that the front facing camera is not going to be as powerful as the one in the back. Therefore, it is usually a good idea to ask someone to help you with your selfie.
