A few days ago, I uploaded some of my favorite photos I took on my smartphone in 2021. In this blog post, I want to explain some of my shooting and composition techniques with phone photos. I will also add some outtakes of the photos. Maybe this will help you apply some of what I do into your own phone photos, or maybe you’ll just enjoy the breakdown of my photos. I don’t know. Either way, you’re here now.
The case for smartphone photos
What I like about phone photography is that everyone has a smartphone these days. There’s no excuse, no ‘they have a 5D/A7/Z9 and I don’t!’ when it comes to taking pictures on the phone. I always have my phone on me, wherever I go. Good phone photographers know that gear really doesn’t matter (just ask @audiphotography). Moreover, as much as I am an advocate for the manual mode, the swiftness a smartphone in auto-exposure provides is unbeatable when I want to capture that ‘decisive moment’. Taking photos on the phone is inconspicuous, and in a country where security guards instantly put you on their watch list if they see you with a camera, phone photography brings the much-needed respite.
Embrace the depth of field
It’s a tale as old as entry level DSLR users with a 50mm lens. We love that bokeh. Phone manufacturers get it and even they want in on the fun, thus there’s a portrait mode which does a half-decent job blurring the background and thinning the depth of field. However, portrait mode is not something I prefer using for the kind of photography I do with my smartphone: street photography. Instead, I like having my entire photo in focus, and the wide camera on a smartphone is the perfect choice for this.
Simplifying for composition
There’s just something about a well-composed photo that is incredibly satisfying to absorb. There’s a popular advice photographers give in favor of prime lenses: a prime lens makes you a more conscious photographer. I believe that a phone can do the same, forcing a photographer to think more about their compositions instead of their settings or switching lenses. With my phone, I am in the moment and I miss lesser shots. Some of my inspirations like @framesofaj and @vineet_vohra often apply methods of creative compositions with street photos, regardless of which camera they use.
How I take pictures on my phone
Now, let me show you some of my favorite phone photos, and what I like about them.
The composition here is really simple, and that’s what I like about it most. The light hitting the umbrella is soft, and it also illuminates the textured sand on the beach. There are a few light sources in the distance, but nothing too distracting to take away from the main subject, the umbrella itself. When it comes to phone photos, I tend to underexpose my photos slightly to get my shadows and blacks to be darker. This is a trend in my digital photography and I really enjoy good contrast.
Color and texture
Two other things I generally look for when it comes to taking photos with my phone are color and texture. There is a lot of texture and contrast in the photo above.
This photo is all about color. It was taken behind La Cigale hotel in Al Sadd. What I noticed was the amount of red in this photo. It’s common to find these hydrants in any building, but the red slabs in the background add well to this one.
Timing
This photo is not something really special, composition-wise. However, it is a case of being in the right place at the right time. I took this photo on Qatar National Day, at Torba Market in Education City. What first caught my eye about this frame was the sunset lighting up the sky in these gorgeous colors of blue and orange. I framed up my shot to show the flag in the exposure (again, QND theme) and noticed that the foreground looked empty. Luckily, right then a boy in a thobe (traditional clothes for Arab men) ran through the frame, and that’s the frame I wanted to see.
Outtakes:
This is another example of freezing the right moment after composing the photo. This photo also has a nice case of sub-framing and layering, with the pigeon silhouettes framing the Howrah bridge in the distance.
I chose this photo from all the rest, especially because of the silhouette of the flying pigeon on the right, and the sub-framing.
Outtakes:
Symmetry and Juxtaposition
My favorite composition techniques in street photos are symmetry and juxtaposition. For me, symmetry is more than just framing up a shot with a subject in the center. It is also repetition and harmony.
I like to call this photo ‘Sixes’ because it has 6 of everything. 6 neatly arranged windows, 6 men, 6 COVID guidelines on the right of the frame. Overall, this photo also has a basic vertical symmetry with the feature of the building very centrally composed. I like to keep my lines straight, vertical walls look best when they are vertical. If I don’t get them right in camera, I tweak with the perspective on either Lightroom or Snapseed.
Somehow, I run into interesting shots on a run, forcing me to interrupt it to take photos from time to time. This is one of those photos. What first caught my interest in this scene was the bright red tricycle, and I took a picture of it, then I changed my perspective and tried again. There are a lot of things happening here. Firstly, the colors are perfect: red and green, which complement each other really well. Then there is the juxtaposition with the cycles, yes, two of them. The two cycles are going in opposite directions.
Outtakes:
Lines
This is perhaps the best photo I took on my phone in 2021. There's just so much going on. There is juxtaposition: The arrow points downwards while the men are moving up. There is repetition in the ordered arrangements of the wet floor signs. At last, there is symmetry in the outfits and the poses of the men pushing the cart upwards.
Outtakes:
Final thoughts
Phone photography has been extremely rewarding for me, especially for the style of photos I enjoy. As you can see, I like taking a lot of photos before I have to choose which one I like most. I also really enjoy composing some shots before I capture the right frame. I also take a lot of garbage photos that take up space on my storage for no good reason. But hey, I guess that's just a small price to pay for salvation.
I hope that this analysis has been insightful and it inspires you to take photos with your phone too.
Beautifully explained and such a well written blog on smartphone photography... One of the best I have come across in a while.. Great work!
So fun and engaging to read. I am sure everyone will pick up a few good bits to learn from this blogpost.