Quick Links
- Looking Beyond the Subject Is the Key to Smartphone Photography
- What Framing With Awareness Does to Your Smartphone Photos
- How to Achieve Better Smartphone Photography by Taking a Moment
Key Takeaways
- Look beyond the subject you're shooting to guarantee better smartphone photos every time.
- Framing with awareness enhances the composition of your photos, switching them from snapshots to thoughtful photography.
- This is easily achieved by taking a moment to consider what's surrounding your subject before hitting the shutter button.
The majority of us now use our smartphones to shoot photos. And why not? Our smartphones boast powerful cameras, and we carry them with us everywhere we go, making them the perfect tool for photography. However, too many people rush their shots, and end up with terrible photos as a result.
Thankfully, there's an easy fix to that, and it's the one technique I think is guaranteed to make your smartphone photography look better every time it's employed.
Looking Beyond the Subject Is the Key to Smartphone Photography
There are obviously plenty of techniques you can employ to take better smartphone photos. However, if I had to pick just one, it would be to look beyond the subject of your photo.
What do I mean by that? Well, most people focus their attention completely on the main subject of a shot, and for obvious reasons. The subject should be the main focus, and shooting it in the right way is important. However, what else is in the photo is also important, and can make the difference between a quick snapshot and a beautiful photograph.
Consider a photo that has a nondescript subject at its heart. If that's the only aesthetic element, then that photo will be instantly forgettable. Whereas, if you take a moment to look at what else is surrounding the subject that you can include in the shot, you can create Instagram-worthy photos that you (and others) will want to look at again and again.
In the examples above, the subject is still visible, but they're augmented by what's around them. In one, the bridge is the focus, the canal draws your eyes to it, and the foliage on either side provides extra interest. In the other, the island is the focus, but the triangular wedge of greenery in the foreground provides a natural frame.
What Framing With Awareness Does to Your Smartphone Photos
Looking beyond the subject, which could also be described as framing with awareness, means you are, by default, considering composition. It forces you to consider the whole of what you're shooting rather than just the small part of the screen dedicated to the subject of your photograph.
This ensures that your photos are much more interesting than they would be otherwise. Because you have the subject of the photo and other elements surrounding it included. These elements may not be anything of particular note, but if used in the right way, they will aid the look and feel of the photo as a whole. And that's the key.
A good analogy for this is how the different elements of music all aid a song as a whole. The singer or lead guitarist may be the focal point, but by layering in percussion, keyboards, and other instruments, you create a much more memorable and must-listen piece of music that lives on in the hearts and souls of people exposed to it.
In the photo above, the train waiting to leave the station is loosely the focus, but the platform and angular structures provide context and added interest.
How to Achieve Better Smartphone Photography by Taking a Moment
To accomplish this technique, all you need to do is take a moment before clicking the shutter button on your smartphone camera. That's the key, and it really is that simple. Point your smartphone camera at your subject exactly as you would have done before you read this. But before you take a shot, look at what else your lens is capturing.
Is there something in the foreground that can lead the viewer's eyes to the subject? Is there something in the middle ground that can be used to frame the subject? Is there something in the background that could add extra interest to those who look at the photo for a while?
Use what's there rather than dismiss everything other than the subject as surplus to requirements. It may only be window dressing, but the whole point of window dressing is selling the subject at its heart.
In the photo above, there is no real focal point, it's more about capturing a moment in time and space. So I purposely filled the frame to build a picture that could otherwise have been boring.
Too many people use their smartphones to grab snapshots rather than strive to shoot photographs. Beautiful, artistic photographs that employ composition the way professional photographers do. This technique of looking beyond the subject and framing with awareness is all you need to do to up your mobile photography game.
