3 ways to improve your iPhone photography
If you’ve done any kind of travel, you know what a pain it is to lug around a camera of any size. As a professional photographer, carrying around a huge and EXPENSIVE hunk of plastic and metal isn’t only exhausting, but the odds of it getting damaged or stolen is pretty dang high.
A few years ago, while on a 2-month backpacking trip in Europe, I made the risky (In my opinion lolz) decision to leave my professional camera at home in favor of an iPhone, and after figuring out a few tricks to create some gorgeous photos on the fly, I never looked back.
(Drumroll please) Here are my tried and true secrets to amazing travel photos!
#1 / Find a focal point
All the best photos I’ve taken on my phone have one point of focus or are taken around one particular thing that caught my eye while exploring. In the photo above, I was wandering around Budapest at the Fisherman’s Bastion, and the view of the Parliament building through the pillars caught my eye. I made it the focal point, and centered it in the middle of the pillars and voilà!
Also, did I mention this was taken on an iPhone 5? You don’t need special equipment or the latest iPhone model people!
#2 / Try the same photo from a few different angles
Oftentimes, what would have been a mediocre photo can be instantly improved by simply changing where you stand while you take it. This photo on the left happened after a few different experiments where I stood a couple different places in the church.
For example, look at the photo on the right. This was taken in the exact same church as the one next to it but I’m standing in a different place (in the center aisle instead of off to the side). It’s still a good photo, but notice in the first picture how the church just seems to “open up” and you can see the grandeur of it in a way that just doesn’t happen in the second one.
This, my friends, is the difference between a good photo and a great one.
#3 / Look for moments that no one else is seeing
So often, when we’re in a “touristy” city or area, everyone’s focus is drawn to a local landmark or monument. But the drawback is that EVERYONE is going to be getting the same photo as you, and honestly, that’s just boring.
I mean, if you go to Paris, everyone and their mother is going to get a picture of the Eiffel Tower, but not everyone is going get creative enough to take a picture of the man scooping gelato at his stand nearby with the Tower in the background. Travel photography is largely about capturing moments, and travel photographers worth their salt don’t spend all their time and energy getting a stereotypical shot, they look for what nobody else is seeing.
This photo above was taken in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in a very popular arts district with a very over-grammed mural nearby. While all my friends were fighting with other people to snap pics of this mural, I snuck off and found a little old man playing his accordion right around the corner. Nobody else saw him, but this moment and this picture remains one of my favorites from the trip.
If you slow down for a moment and take the time to look around, you’ll find that there is beauty that is just waiting to be captured.
BONUS TIP!!! #4 / Download VSCO Cam.
No, I am not being paid to say this, so you can trust me. This app will freaking change your photo editing game for the rest of time. I don’t use a single other app; this is where it’s at yo! You should deeefinitely download the A1-A10 presets; they give a beautiful photojournalistic feel to images. I’m considering proposing marriage to this app + presets, that is how serious I am here.