A Year of Learning - Smartphone Photography

One of my goals this year is to find out more about the subjects I've been meaning to learn about for ages. Certain things have been in the back of my mind for years. This year I want to spend a month each on 12 different subjects and learn as much as I can in that time. I don't expect to become an expert in just a month but I do hope I'll feel more knowledgeable on the subjects I choose.

I picked Smartphone Photography first because it's something I enjoy but have never made an effort to improve. I take food pictures a lot for this blog and Around The World In 196 Recipes plus I enjoy taking pictures when I'm out and about walking.

I've never really composed a photo properly, edited pictures or used filters. I'm keen to learn more and put it to use. I've decided on Smartphone Photography because they say that the best camera is the one you have with you. I wouldn't enjoy carrying a big DSLR camera around with me so I want to make the most of the camera I do have.

To prepare for the month I enrolled in a free online short course in smartphone photography and spent some time making a collection of articles and YouTube videos on photography tips and hints plus anything that looked interesting in the relevant topic.

I'm about 20 days in and it's going great! I've really enjoyed having easily accessible reading/watching material for on my bus to and from work, waiting at appointments and whenever I have a spare 10 minutes on my phone. I've watched loads of videos about framing, composition, food styling, editing and much more. It's felt good to feel like I'm using my spare time wisely and towards something I'm interested in.

I've developed a new thing of wanting to take pictures of doorways I see when I'm out and I've really enjoyed being able to edit them on my phone using the app Snapseed. The above doorway picture was a bit dark, slightly off kilter and had a yellow hose running across the picture. I fixed all those in Snapseed and I think it looks much better.

This doorway near where I live was too set back for me to photograph without trespassing on their drive so I took the shot from further back and used the Crop tool on Snapseed to zoom in. I then lightened the shot and gave it more contrast so the colours seem brighter. I really like how it turned out. It's really fun to play with the settings when editing and see how each tool changes how the picture looks.

Another improvement I've noticed is when taking pictures of food. I used to snap and run (usually to go eat the food I'd made). But I try to take more time getting a nice shot. I haven't got quite as far as using props and a studio/lighting set-up but I'm thinking about it. What I have been doing is waiting to take the picture until the focus has properly adjusted and taking the time to alter the screen lighting. I also make sure to take multiple shots so I have a few to choose from, I often only took one and then lamented that it wasn't very good but had to use it.

I'm also trying out some different angles as suggested by lots of articles I've read. I mostly only took food pictures from the 45 degree looking down at the food angle but it's been fun to try taking pictures from all angles and seeing which looks best. This side view of a burger is a classic shot which I'm pretty sure I've never done before! It's still a little out of focus but still definitely an improvement on previous burger pictures I've taken.

It's really great how much information there is out there to learn from. I often read an article about a subject I was interested in which linked to more articles or more videos, it's like a rabbit hole! Obviously in just a month I haven't even scratched the surface of information available but I have lots of ideas for things to do to improve my pictures from now on. It's been really interesting and I'm really glad I did it.

In February I'm going to try learn as much as I can about Breadmaking! Watch this space :)