How to Take Great Travel Photos with Your Phone
By: Carrie Fulton
October 3, 2023
Not everyone has a full-sized camera anymore, yet most of us have a camera with us at all times. Here's how to take great photos during your trips...even a trip to the grocery store using your phone.
1. Practice
If you're not one to take pictures, you can't expect to take outstanding photos while on a trip. Take some time to take pictures at home...literally at home! You can study how your phone camera reacts to different light, shadows and structures.
Consider what TYPE of photos you want to take. Your house has tons of architecture features to practice on, pictures on the walls to take if you're heading to an art gallery, an exterior to take pictures of nature and invite friends or family to take part in pictures of people you may take.
2. Turn OFF your Flash
Most professional photographers will agree that natural light is the best way to capture your photos. Even the auto-flash feature will distort coloring, dimension and crispness of an image.
If an image is too dark, you can always turn it on and try again; and if you know you'll be in a dark area, consider a clip light rather than a flash so you can see the light you're capturing before you snap your picture.
3. Try Video
If you want to capture something that's happening fast, consider using video to get footage. Then take a screen shot of the part of the event of when you want a photo. This will help you get all possible images without your camera having to reset.
You can also use a selfie stick or tripod so you can stay IN the moment yourself.
4. Learn Settings and Apps
Your phone already has tons of features you can use to edit your images. Take the time to investigate the exposure settings to see what works best for the picture you're taking. At a minimum, you can use the auto correction feature to optimize the sharpness and light in your images.
Look into apps that can help you as well. Lightroom Mobile and FirstLight are very popular and user friendly.
5. Check Instagram
If you're looking for great spots to take pictures, look no further than Instagram. You can look for photos that are tagged for your destination as well as hashtags to find unique spots you might have missed.
It's also a great place for you to look for inspiration for great pics as well.
6. Upload Photos
Be sure to upload your current albums to your laptop and cloud before you travel so you have as much space as you can to fill during your trip.
Also consider an upload as soon as you get home as some post-production adjustments are easier to do on your laptop.