Phone Photography 101: How to Take Good Pictures With Your Phone

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Before the days of smartphones -- if you can remember such a time -- taking a great photo was a labor-intensive process.

You'd have buy a fancy camera and editing software for your desktop computer, and invest some serious time and energy into learning how to use them.rnrn rnrnBut thanks to our mobile devices and the editing apps that come with them, we can now take high quality photos and edit them without too many bells and whistles -- all from the same device that we use to make calls.rnrn rnrnBrands are catching on, too -- the kinds of visuals remain important to marketing.

But make no mistake: Taking a great photo on your smartphone is not as simple as pointing and shooting.

There are plenty of bad smartphone photos out there -- I'm sure you've seen at least a few.rnrn rnrnWhat's the secret to taking great pictures with your smartphone, then?

Check out these tips below to improve your smartphone photography game. (And once you have the photo-taking part down, check out some of the best photo editing apps for mobile.)rnrn How to Take Better Photos on Your Phone: 18 Tips & Tricks rn 1) Use gridlines to balance your shot. One of the easiest and best ways to improve your mobile photos is to turn on the camera's gridlines.

That superimposes a series of lines on the screen of your smartphone's camera that are based on the “rule of thirds” -- a photographic composition principle that says an image should be broken down into thirds, both horizontally and vertically, so you have nine parts in total.rnrn rnrnAccording to this theory, if you place points of interest in these intersections or along the lines, your photo will be more balanced, level, and allow viewers to interact with it more naturally.rnrn rnrnSource: Digital Photography Schoolrnrn rnrnTo switch the grid on ...rn iPhone: Go to "Settings," choose "Photos & Camera," and switch "Grid" on. Samsung Galaxy: Launch the camera app, go to "Settings," scroll down and switch the "grid lines" option to "on." rn 2) Focus on one subject. rnMany of the best photos include just one, interesting subject.

So when taking a picture of one, spend some extra time setting up the shot.

Some professional photographers say that the subject shouldn’t fill the entire frame, and that two-thirds of the photo should be negative space -- that helps the subject stand out even more.rnrn rnrnBut be sure you tap the screen of your smartphone to focus the camera on your subject -- that'll help to ensure that it's focused and the lighting is optimized.rnrn rnrn Pro Tip: Once you've taken your photo, you can use filters and apps to make the subject even more vivid, or to crop it to frame the subject correctly.

The brightness, contrast, and saturation of the photo can also be adjusted accordingly -- all from your phone.rnrn rnrnSource: Patrick Janellernrn 3) Embrace negative space. rn"Negative space" simply refers to the areas around and between the subjects of an image --and it can take a photo from "good" to "great."rnrn rnrnWhen you include a lot of empty space in a photo, your subject will stand out more and evoke a stronger reaction from your viewer.

It's often a large expanse of open sky, water, an empty field, or a large wall, as in the examples below.rnrn rnrnSource: Eric Christianrnrn 4) Find different perspectives. rnTaking photos from a unique, unexpected angle can make them more memorable -- it tends to create an illusion of depth or height with the subjects.

It also makes the image stand out, since most mobile photos are taken either straight -on or from a bird's eye view.rnrn rnrnTry taking a photo directly upward and playing with the sky as negative space, like in the first photo below.

Or, you can try taking it at a slight downward angle.rnrn rnrn Pro Tip: If you take a photo and find the perspective is a little askew or tilted, use the SKRWT photo editing app to make the lines look clean and square.rnrn rnrnSource: iPhone Photography School; Paul Octaviousrnrn 5) Play with reflections. rnThere's something so idyllic about seeing the sky reflected in a body of water.

There's a reason why we love seeing that -- our eyes are drawn to reflections.

So look for opportunities to play with them in photos.rnrn rnrnThere are plenty of out-of-the-box places to find reflections -- puddles, larger bodies of water, mirrors, sunglasses, drinking glasses, and metallic surfaces are just a few.rnrn rnrnSource: Joshua Lott; Carlos Coppertonernrn 6) Use leading lines. rnIn some photos, there's a line that draws the viewer's eye toward a certain part of the frame.

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