8 Tips for Taking Great Photos with Your Phone in Your Home
Whether you are hunkered down for the colder months, enjoying a staycation, or just don’t feel like exploring the outdoors, there is no reason you can’t capture the great moments happening every day within your home. But I bet you are already tired of having to delete bad smartphone photos all the time. This post will share eight practical tips that will help you immediately start taking better indoor pictures with your smartphone, iPad, or tablet. In case you missed our previous post on taking outdoor photos, you can read it here.
1.Use natural light
Most indoor photos tend to be taken with a flash. But this usually just makes the image look harsh and overexposed while leaving shadows in the background. Instead, take advantage of the sources of natural light you can find. Open the doors to let as much natural light in as possible. Also, by placing your subjects near a window, you will improve the lighting dramatically. Suppose you are taking a photo of yourself or someone else? Have them stand facing near the window for a better-lit shot. Light-colored semi-transparent curtains or blinds work really well at diffusing strong sunlight, so if you’re shooting in the middle of the day, this can help soften the light.
2. Experiment With Artificial Light
In the absence of natural light, you can also use artificial light to illuminate your subject. If this is the case, lamps offer you the best alternative to sunlight, but consider the color cast that you’ll get from different types of bulbs as this will influence the overall color of your image. You can play around with other artificial sources of light, such as phone screens or even the light from your refrigerator.
3. Think outside the box
You probably know your home like the back of your hand. But that doesn’t mean you can’t get creative and capture unique images all within your home. Observe every room in your home and search for vibrant objects that you can use as the subject or background for your shots.
4. Document your home projects
We engage in different projects in our home throughout the year, from complex ones like home renovations and kitchen makeovers to simple ones like baking a birthday cake or a DIY craft project with your kids. Whatever it might be, take a series of photos, documenting each step of the process. These “day in the life” images make great additions to your family yearbook.
5. Simplify the scene
One of the biggest challenges with taking indoor photos is that you are often capturing images in confined spaces. This means ending up with unwanted background distractions in your picture. But there is a workaround to this. Once you have chosen your image’s focus, simplify the scene so that the subject stands out. For example, if you’ve just gotten some fresh roses and want to capture them, place the vase in a neutral background to minimize distractions. Clutter can be distracting in a photograph so it’s worth taking a couple of minutes to tidy up before you start shooting.
6. Play around with shadows
Look around your home for interesting shadows created by ordinary household objects. For one, you can easily create a shadow by placing your subject in front of a wall and then shining a light towards the wall and object of your focus.
7. Take up-close photos
Don’t be afraid to get really close to your subject, even if this means not including all of their head in the frame. For example, capturing up-close photos of your kid or pet asleep can make a great keepsake.
8. Play around with editing
How about an entire photo is black and white, except for a single object? There are different IOS or Android photo editing apps that let you do exactly that. You can select an image, turn it to gray, sepia, or whatever photo effects you like, and paint the color back on your preferred subject in the picture—no more boring indoor photos. You can play around with the color effects and see how your home would look in a different shade.
Final Thoughts
Indoor photography might have more lighting and composition challenges when compared to outdoor photography, but that doesn’t mean you can’t find a way to create fantastic indoor photos. You just need to get a little creative and try out the eight tips we shared with you today. Wondering how to make the most of all the beautiful photos you will take with your smartphone? Then check out our family yearbook membership. It might be exactly what you need.
