Tips for taking summer photos with your smartphone

by Julia, 22 Jun 2021
A photo of a road made with a fish eye camera in a smartphone.

A photo of the sky taken with a phone.

1. Get creative and try shooting the same thing from several different angles for entirely new looks of the same subject

A photo of girls among the leafes.

Here are some ideas: Shooting photos from multi angles is good not only for avoiding brightness, it’s also important for producing diverse and creative photos. Shoot your summer photos Stand on a chair or table (carefully!).

Shoot from on your belly or crouching down. Lay down on your back and have your subject stand over you.

Shoot blind to get angles that aren’t otherwise possible. Think of the number of great volleyball scenes and situations you can capture by increasing the variety of viewpoints.

2. Avoid Under Exposure

One of the difficulties of takeing photos on a beach, is that the sand and water are reflecting sunlight and often causing your camera to under expose the photographed object. Due to those bright reflections camera could get the false reading and lower its exposure resulting in too-dark foreground image. In that situation it is better to change angles, move around and try to get as less sunlight reflectios as possibile.

Underexposed photo is a common mistake.

A photo of waves and sun in summer.

Lighted castle one the sand in the foreground.

3. Cloudy Days? Ideal For Photos!

Counterintuitively overcast days are perfect for making photographs. In that specific whether contitions clouds are dufusing harsh direct sunlight much like a profesional softbox kit. They also decrese high contrast and shadows that occures on a bright days , and create a soft, even light that is great for portraits in particular. Cloudy days produce a diffuse light that’s more balanced, which is flattering for practically every subject.

A woman in a heather wreath in a cloudy day.

Black and white photo of a woman’s face.

4. Turn off your flash

Because the lenses and sensors in smartphones are so amazingly, ridiculously small, they sometimes have a hard time capturing quality images in low light, compared with dedicated cameras like a DSLR. “That’s what a flash is for,” you might say. However—in the hands of an amateur—photos that depend on flash are almost uniformly not great.

“It blasts out the image and can make everything look flat,” Serkin says.

A flash photo of a running man at night.

Sometimes it's just better to leave the object dark and show the background behind. Turn your flash off, otherwise you will bring this harsh white flat flash to your picture. And there are so many biutiful places behind to show even if it's dark!

A boat on the lake in violet colours.

Dark foreground of a photo showing the purple sky.

5. Think non-conventional

Try thinking outside of the box. Take picture of non-conventional objects,or take picture of objects in a non-conventional way. By taking pictures with your smartphone, you can also be a part of your frame- on the beach you can show your feets, part of yor hand keeping your partners hand:)

Capture the object in another way, than everybody else. Standing in front of the object is so oobviously! Try to make it in a different way. Use flowers or bushes that may disturb to take a clear picture as a foreground. Focus on your main subject and produce a different, unique effect!

A photo of the observation point with out-of-focus foreground.

Sometimes your object will look much better as a reflection in the water. If you want to take a picture of an often photographed subject, you can create a unique image with finding it's reflection in the water, especially, when the water is still.

Reflection of palm trees in a lake with a pink-orange boat.

Photo by Vladimir Kudinov on Unsplash (http://www.vladimirkudinov.com)

On a summer evening you can find many places around the marina with nice city lights reflected in the water. The best time is just after the sunset.

Light of the seaside alleyway reflection in the water.

City lights at night reflected in the bay water.

6. Make 'em laugh

Evoke emotions! Sometimes the most memorable photos are the ones that make us laughing :) That kind of pictures are unexpected- you can't predict funny situations, but if you have your mobile allways with you, your chanches to capture it are pretty big. Be ready for it- it can be an animal in a funny situation, a foreigner or just a part of urban life.

A poster of a lost cat photographed with a smartphone.

A horse showing its tongue.

7. Attach an external lens

External lens can be attached to the top of your smartphone's camera lens. There are several types of them- from fish-eye to wide-angle lenses. External lenses can change the whole composiotion of your pictures, ranging from landscape and architecture to creative effects and even to portraiture. Start your research and find out which one will be the best for you!

A smartphone with an external lens.

8. Follow leading lines

A leading line draws an easy path for the eye to follow through different elements of a picture. That's why that kind of pictures are pleasant for the eye, you can have an impression of harmony and arrangement. Leading lines make your photo look purposefully designed, even if you decided to capture those line and some cool shapes by accident. It's a tip worth to remember not only in relation to summer photography, but in photography generally.

A geometric building.

A symetric road in a forest.

9. Find repetitive patterns around you

It may be very easy! Look around you and chceck, if there are some repetitive patterns. Lines, geometric shapes, forms or even colors- all those subjects can be captured in a nice and pleasing to the eye composition. Those can be mugs, side elevations, muffins on the tray, cars in the parking lot. Sometimes capturing the beautiful mosaic floor can be just enough to design a striking photo. Sometimes it's worth to find some repetitive patterns in the nature, in the city around you. That kind of photos seem to be very harmonious and well-balanced.

A row of green mailboxes.

Green bottles in a lime box.

Glassed balconies of an exclusive apartment bulding.

10. Look for symmetry

Symmetry is always the best idea to enrapture viewer's eyes withe the simplicity of the composition. In urban and natural enviroments there are thousands of opportunities to find symmetry in simply scenes. You can also create your own scene by moving some objects or by placing your model just in the middle of your picture. When you are in the big city, just watch to the sky, find the symmetry in the skyscrapers.

A photo of sky between two symetric buildings.

If you also want to take incredible photos with your camera, you can follow the same tips. The most important is to use some composition techniques for keeping the subject more attractive so you can shoot really nice picture during your summer holidays.

Oh, and don't forget to print them later on and store them in our photo books :)