How to take better pics with your cellphone, plus improve on your Instagram photos

April 30, 2014

So my good friend Sam has started a new female tech site called Tech Girl, and it has some great content, tips and giveaways, which sadly I can’t enter as I’m contributing to the site!

I recently went to an Epson printer event, and wrote a post on Tech Girl about all the mobile photography and Instagram tips we were taught. Here’s my post – apologies for the cross-pollination, but I a) wanted to introduce Tech Girl in case you didn’t know about it, and b) share some great tips and apps, since most of us take pics of life – and our little ones – via our cellphones.

Sharing their tips at the Epson event were Gareth Pon, Instagrammer and nice guy extraordinaire, and Meruschka Govender, a fab travel blogger who admits to only using her iPhone to take pics, and hardly using any apps to edit.

Here’s their snap-happy advice:

Gareth Pon’s 10 cardinals of Instagramming

Get lost. Your device can go anywhere.
Your phone is not a DSLR. You can therefore get it into small places, and you can get away with a lot more.
Light is your friend
Get closer
Shoot before you think
Think before you shoot. Sometimes you need to shoot quickly
For style and comfort, wear good shoes
Align yourself with your environment
Keep looking but know what you’re looking for
Think in squares. This is the medium of Instagram

Basic rules

Keep stable
Avoid the flash
Use HDR
Shoot more
Don’t zoom. Rather move.
Change your perspective

Don’t forget to think about:

Rule of thirds, perspective, natural symmetry, textures, the right light, nostalgia (eg ice cream truck), be slightly odd, find a cutie (ie a cute child who looks small in a big space), add to the sunset (eg add a figurine, or a person), shoot out the box (eg flip images and jumpstagrams), learn from others.