Telling your SFU stories through smartphone photography

July 22, 2019

By Ivana Filipovic

With smartphones now ubiquitous, we all walk around with incredibly powerful devices, comparable with the cameras some of the all-time photography greats were using in the past.

Like any other camera or lens, smartphones have their limitations, and we need to learn how to overcome them or use them to our advantage. Diane Arbus, a photographer who immensely influenced contemporary photography once said: “I’ve never taken a picture I’ve intended. They’re always better or worse.” You just need to delete the “worse” ones.

For great photography information and tips, I usually like to visit PHLearn and PetaPixel. Both sites offer insights into traditional and smartphone photography and are available on social media as well. Below is a list of bonus tips to complement our session on July 16th, including some tips for black-and-white photography.

2019-06_Smartphone-Photography_SFU-Communicators.pdf
Visual Storytelling Workshop 2: Smartphone photography – Printer friendly version

Using photo burst feature

Hold the home button on your phone and take multiple photos, so you can choose the best option. This is very useful when you have a lot of movement in the photo, or you want to make sure you capture a perfect photo when you only have one chance for taking it. In pro photography, many photographers shoot burst when shooting events and even portraits. In addition, you can create loop animations with this feature.

Additional composition tips

Rule of thirds

25 composition tips

Outside the box tips

B&W photography

How to shoot in B&W on iPhone (video by Apple)

B&W photo tips (Huawei phone)

Snapseed B&W tutorial

How to shoot with manual controls

How to shoot in manual mode on your phone (Moment free app and great general photo instructions)

How to shoot with Camera+ 2 (Claudio Zavala Jr tutorial)

iPhone - Apple video playlist