#1: WIPE YOUR LENS
This one is quick and easy and usually overlooked. If you’re using your phone for photos, quickly wipe the camera lens before you take a photo. Our phones are constantly with us and get so dirty. Clean lens = clear photo.
#2: GET IT STRAIGHT
Pay attention to the lines of your photo and do your best to get them straight. For example, a beach photo – the horizon where the sky meets the water should be straight, otherwise it just feels OFF to look at. Before you snap your shot, find vertical and horizontal elements that can “anchor” your photo. Stay as centred as you can, and pay attention to if you’re tilting the camera upward, downward, sideways… you get it. Use the grid lines on your camera as a guide. This one can be tricky to nail, but it makes a huge difference.
#3: ALL ABOUT LIGHTING
If you take one tip from this post, promise me it’ll be that lighting is basically e v e r y t h i n g. Because I promise you this, you can get a better shot on your phone’s camera in good lighting than you can on a DSLR (aka fancy camera) in bad lighting. If you’re shooting in good light it makes everything so much easier, especially your editing process. When you’re shooting on your phone, your photos will lose quality quickly if they need extensive editing (On that note, I’ve created my preset pack with this in mind! To minimize the grain and maintain a smooth look on photos, even those shot in poor quality lighting. You can learn more about them here).
INDOORS
Get a little obsessed with sunlight.
Especially if you’re using a camera phone, you’ll want to find a spot with as much natural light as you can get. For this reason, it’s a good idea to get to note where the sunshine is hanging out in your home and when. For example, if I want photos in my bedroom, living room, playroom, or Crew’s room it will likely be done in the morning. These rooms have east facing windows, so I’m in there like, HI MORNING SUN, let’s play! I typically wait to shoot in any rooms with west facing windows until the afternoon. On a very bright sunny day, or in an open concept home that gets lots of natural light, you can probably be more relaxed with this.
The more you pay attention to lighting, the more automatic it will become! You’ll start to notice when and where you can grab a great photo in your home without having to think about it.
OUTDOORS
Get shady.
It’s a beautiful and bright sunny day outside. Your kids are happy, everyone including you managed to get dressed, and your husband is like, can we please find a cute wall and get some photos of you guys? You’ve probably often found yourself in this situation. Hahahaha. Ok maybe that’s not the case but you are outside with your children and have either a husband or remote to press the shutter button on your camera. What next? Bright sunlight is harsh, casts weird shadows, and overall makes for a not great photo. Find a spot that’s shaded, give the kids a snack, and snap away there for best results.
If it’s an overcast day, or “golden hour” (the hour right before sunrise or sunset) you are basically unrestricted when it comes to shooting so take advantage!
#4: FIND THE RIGHT SPOT
Some photos just have that something right? I get a lot of DMs asking if you need to have an all white or all neutral house to have a cohesive Instagram feed. And I have gooood news. NO! What makes my photos all seem to “match” is that basically everything we own is a neutral of some sort. But colours can coordinate and look amazing in photos too. It just requires a little thought beforehand.
Quick example! Your toddler is wearing his favourite t-shirt of the summer, it has a happy yellow sun graphic on the front of it. You want a photo of him in it because HI, SO PRECIOUS. K, let’s do it. Take a second to think about where in the house that specific shirt would look best… maybe your sofa has gold coloured pillows on it. Or stick him on the kitchen counter next to the bowl of bananas or a vase of sunflowers. Basically take a second to coordinate your subject to the surroundings, and you’re on track for one of those photos that feels good to look at.
Also, no one’s house is perfectly tidy always. Take an extra second to look at the space where you’ll be taking your photo and remove stray or distracting things out the frame.
#5: EDIT WITH PRESETS
The quickest way to achieve a consistent look and feel to your photos or Instagram feed is presets. Presets are automatic adjustments and settings that bring a cohesive flow to photos, regardless of lighting, colour, and setting.
I recently released a NEUTRAL PRESET PACK with five presets, designed to highlight neutral tones and give images a soft and subdued feel. These edits also create perfect whites; no yellow or blue tones to them! They can be downloaded right on your phone, and used with the free Lightroom app. After spending years working on my editing style, and knowing firsthand how frustrating it can be, I’m so happy to offer these! They make editing so easy, and I hope they help people enjoy photos (whether of their family, business, home, WHATEVER!) even more. For more on my presets, or to purchase them yourself, click here.