A great vacation is incomplete without great pictures. We all love taking pictures with our smartphones, specially to post them on our social media profiles such as Facebook and Instagram. But the results are sometimes not great and one of the biggest problems is bad lighting.

Here are 9 tips to get great shots using creative lighting with just your smart phone:

• Use Natural Light

Let’s bear one thing in mind that photography is all about handling light. It can make the most boring composition an amazing photograph. It’s not easy to find a good source of light and it’s even hard to find a great smartphone photograph that was taken with flash. Find a good source of light available and try to take full advantage of it.

• Read Light

It’s not easy to use light; you first need to know how to read the light. A good source of light is always helpful for taking quality photos. If you know how to deal with the light you are halfway to making great photographs.

• Tackle Sunlight

Sunlight is the primary and the best source of taking photos during the daytime. You just have to tackle sunlight. Simply place your subject (the one you are clicking the picture of) to the opposite direction of the sun. So a good amount of light will fall on the subjects (or on face).

• Shoot in Soft Light

Soft Light is the light that tends to wrap around the objects in a photograph causing diffused shadows and soft edges. Soft light is achieved when the source of light is comparatively larger than the subject. Whereas hard light creates strong and edgy pictures.

• Play With Shadows

Light surrounds us everywhere, soft or hard there is always a source of light. And with light comes Shadows. Play with shadows and explore new perspectives of photography. Shadows will give a new dimension to your photos.

• Step Out of Auto Mode

Today’s smartphones’ technology is more than adequate. You don’t need to do much to take good photos because of Auto Mode. But I’ll say step out of Auto Mode and switch to Manual Mode. Go to settings of your camera app and turn on Manual Mode. Then tap on the screen of your smartphone to adjust light and brightness.

• Shoot in Golden Hour

Let’s talk about the Golden Hour. You may have heard of Golden Hour Photography, but what it is? Golden hour can be referred to as the hour leading to sunset and also the hour beginning directly after sunrise. In brief, the shooting in the hour of sunset and early sunrise is known as Golden Hour.

• Shoot in Blue Hour

Alike The Golden Hour, Blue Hour is the period of twilight in the morning and in the evening when the sun is at a notable depth below the horizon (the sunlight takes the blue shade due to depth)

• Time Exposure Settings

Manual mode is not only for setting focus and adjusting light but also set your phone camera’s exposure. Long exposure, Time exposure or Slow Shutter Photography involves using certain duration of shutter speed to capture sharp images. Use a tripod for shooting with time-exposed photos. Turn on Manual mode and set the shutter speed accordingly.

 

For more such travel tips, look out for our posts on TripOffbeat.