Tips for Taking Great Photos With Your Phone

Last Updated June 07, 2017

The amount of money someone is willing pay for your experience is known as your perceived value. As consumers, we rarely understand the true cost of production for many items we purchase. For example, we have no idea how much it actually costs to create a bottle of ketchup. Instead, we go off of an internal feeling of how much we think something is worth.

In the world of experiences photos can help instill trust in your brand, excite potential guests, and increase your perceived value.

If your budget doesn’t allow for a professional photographer, or you just want some new photos for social media, use these DIY tips to create some great looking pictures.

DIY tips for capturing great looking images

  • Try to use natural light
  • Pick a single element to focus on, remove clutter or distraction
  • Use the rule of thirds

How to use the Rule of Thirds

  1. Turn on the camera grid from your phone’s settings (If you have an Android device, you can watch this video https://goo.gl/l5O2bc)
    iphone-turn-on-grid-tour-photos
  2. Align elements within the left, or right, 3rd of the screeniphone-grid-lines

Editing Your Photo (known as “Post Production”)

Once we’ve captured the photo, we can use photo apps to create a more polished feel to the photo. For this particular example, we’re going to use the Facetune app from Apple App Store.

  1. Launch the Facetune App
  2. Click on the Camera icon in the top left and select “Open Photo”
  3. Choose the photo you want to edit

Quick Actions

Zoom into the photo: Spread 2 fingers apart on the screen
See the difference: Click the small blue circle in the bottom right to toggle your changes on/off
Save your photo: Click the box/arrow icon in the top right, select “Save to Camera Roll”

Adjust the Image Size/Ratio

  1. From the bottom menu, click Canvas
  2. The bottom menu will change options, then choose “Fixed Ratio”
  3. Select a ratio — 1:1 if you want a square image. For EzSites users, you’ll want to use a 16:9 ratio.
  4. Use your fingers, or pull the corners of the grid to expand/contract the size of the canvas
  5. Click the blue checkmark in the top right

Add Focus

  1. From the bottom menu, click “Details”
  2. Slide your finger across the areas you want to add focus
  3. Click the blue checkmark in the top right

Blur the Background

  1. From the bottom menu, click “Defocus”
  2. Slide your finger across the areas you want to defocus
  3. Click the blue checkmark in the top right

Adjust Lighting/Style

  1. From the bottom menu, click “Filters”
  2. Choose a filter from the styles available
  3. From the bottom menu, click “Lighting”
  4. Toggle between different lighting options to find the one that works best for your photo
  5. Click the blue checkmark in the top right

Adjusting photos is a game of trial and error. Have fun with the different filters and options in the app. If you don’t know what something does, try it. See how it looks. You can always undo by clicking the little arrows in the bottom left.

For some practice, you can access the original version of our croissant photo at: https://goo.gl/EGP28l
Save the photo to your phone, open it in the Facetune app, and make the following changes:

  1. Crop it to a 16:9 fixed ratio
  2. Add details to the croissant portion of the image
  3. Defocus the background (even though it’s already a little blurry — add a little more)
  4. From the Filters menu choose Paper: Beige 2, Lighting: Original, Lens: Smena
  5. Save your photo by clicking the icon in the top right

croissant-photo-before-afterYou can find the final version of our photo edit at: https://goo.gl/Hvgbpn

Facebook, Tweet, or tag us in photos you’ve tried this on. We’d love to see your work!

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