I still remember the magical feeling of watching a black-and-white image emerge on a piece of photography paper in the darkroom, and being able to critically eye the picture cast by a negative in the photo enlarger, then framing and cropping to make the best of what the camera had captured.
Back then, in junior high, I never could have imagined that one day, practically everyone, from school-aged kids to great-grandmothers, would one day be carrying around a pocket-sized piece of technology capable of capturing high-quality photographs, and editing the resulting images in ways that perhaps even professional photographers could only have dreamed of in those days.
But many of us aren’t even familiar with the most basic features on our smartphone cameras, much less the myriad of inexpensive — and even free — tools that can greatly improve the odds of getting a great photograph in the first place, and tweak it until it’s even better. And sometimes, with the right software, it’s even possible to rescue so-so images and transform them into head-turners.
Since I’m one of those people who only had the vaguest idea of how to use my phone camera to do anything other than snap the odd, spontaneous picture of one of our pets, I had to start at square one when my editor at Good Times assigned me a story on how to make the most of your smartphone camera. Here’s what I learned about Smartphone Camera Photography.
A big thank-you to the three interviewees who shared their expert tips:
- Travel writer Alyssa Schwartz.
- Travel and lifestyle blogger/Instagrammer Andrea Traynor (aka MommyGearest).
- Storyteller and photographer Ramona Wildeman.
Photo by Tomas Malik Courtesy of Pexels