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How to Take a Picture South a Person Again by Bright Background

How to take professional portrait photos with your iPhone or Android phone

Two smartphones with portrait photos
(Image credit: Damien Demolder)

Leaf through well-nigh people'south camera rolls and yous'll find that portraits are, aslope dog photos, ane of the most pop forms of smartphone snapping. While there's cipher wrong with point-and-shoot snaps, those photos could likely get a serious boost from just a few small tweaks – and that'due south what we'll exist showing y'all in this handy guide to nailing portrait shots.

There are lots of reasons why using a smartphone is a good idea when information technology comes to portrait photography. For a start, most are equipped with some kind of Portrait or Discontinuity manner, which you can use to recreate the upshot of using a DSLR or mirrorless camera to split up your beaming subject field from their groundwork.

Most iOS and Android smartphones also now come with a variety of different lenses, giving you the opportunity to create unlike portrait effects by using the various focal lengths available to you. Of form, you lot'll also accept your phone with yous most of the fourth dimension, so you'll be fix to become should your friend discover an interesting backdrop or crash-land into a Kardashian.

Begetting all of this in listen, we asked two professional photographers to supply some tips for transforming your portrait shots using just your smartphone. Our pros are using both Android and iOS devices, and then you should find that all of the tips here use to whichever model of telephone you have. With just a little insider knowhow, your portrait snaps will go from blindside-boilerplate to bokeh-licious.


1. Keep your distance

Professional person lensman Damien Demolder (opens in new tab) uses a variety of different cameras, but has a special fondness for working with smartphones across multiple genres. He's particularly cracking on using them for portraits, and offers a number of practical tips for improving your images.

A phone screen showing a portrait of a man looking through a window

(Prototype credit: Damien Demolder)

"Almost smartphones take wide-angle lenses that are generally considered unsuitable for portraiture (unless you lot're going for a wacky approach)" he says. "Zooming is a skillful option, and so long every bit you don't lose besides many pixels in the process. But you will likewise avoid making the person's face look distorted if you proceed a decent distance from them and include a bit more environment" he adds.

"Portraits don't have to be shot from 30cm away. Stand back a bit – perhaps four feet – and their features will look in proportion. You can also get close for effect, but make sure y'all keep the phone perfectly upright and level – that will besides help to avoid distortions. If your telephone has a longer lens besides every bit the normal lens, make sure you employ that when you want a tighter head shot."

2. Bank check your settings

The native camera apps on about smartphones have a few different modes, and knowing which ones to employ in different situations actually pays. Naturally, 'Portrait' mode is often (only not ever) the best for snapping people from between two-to-eight feet abroad. On both iPhone and Android, yous tin quickly adjust the level of background blur and add lighting furnishings, like 'loftier central', later on yous've taken the shot (either in the camera app, or using apps like Google Photos).

A man looking towards the light on an iPhone screen

(Prototype credit: Damien Demolder)

But according to Damien Demolder, information technology can sometimes pay to delve a bit deeper using the transmission settings available in the all-time camera apps. "Telephone makers mostly get a bit over-excited with contrast and color saturation considering they think everyone wants impact," he says. "Check to run into what settings or photograph modes your telephone offers, and experiment with them. There volition frequently exist a 'Portrait' mode that will produce less contrast and more moderate colors, and then use that if you lot can. If y'all also accept manual controls, plough contrast and color saturation downwards."

Experimenting with your phone's modes as well means picking an unexpected ane. "Sometimes a 'night' mode can be useful in normal conditions to reduce contrast with accentuated dynamic range," Damien Demolder says. "'Aperture' modes that throw the background out-of-focus tin can too be proficient to make the person stand out. They aren't always perfect, though, and then experiment to notice the limits of what information technology can do."

3. Don't recollect differently

Information technology can be tempting to think of pictures taken on your phone as not being 'proper' photography, then you lot might rush the process a bit more than than y'all would do with a conventional camera.

Professional photographer Carolyn Mendelsohn (opens in new tab), who specializes in portraits, advises adjusting your mindset when using your telephone. She mainly uses standalone cameras, just will switch to using her telephone if an impromptu portrait session presents itself.

A girl looking towards the light on a dark background

(Paradigm credit: Carolyn Mendelsohn)

"I use the same rules as I would when taking a portrait on my DSLR or other camera," she says. "Make sure y'all take your time to wait and etch. Think carefully about how you desire to frame the shot – practise yous desire it to be the head and shoulders, or make it more than environmental?", she adds.

"With a DSLR or mirrorless camera y'all'd position the focus point on the subject'southward eyes. Information technology's exactly the aforementioned for a telephone. Here, you can make sure they are in focus past touching the screen on the eyes" she says.

4. Tweak the exposure

Perhaps more and so with portrait photography than any other kind, lighting is extremely important. Sometimes phones can be thrown off when lighting is mixed, or at that place's a lot of contrast in the scene. Working with just your phone's built-in tools tin drastically improve exposures – merely sometimes it might likewise be virtually moving your own position, or framing, differently too.

A man looking out of a train window on a phone screen

(Image credit: Carolyn Mendelsohn)

"Always look for the light and how it works with your subject. In this photo above, it'south arguably just a snapshot, just the same principles still apply," she says. "Here it is illuminating the side of Oscar'due south face up – and I also idea about how the shot was equanimous to give it the context of beingness on a railroad train journeying. With portraits yous desire to look for soft lite on the face, which is flattering – so avert anything with harsh shadows or contrast. Sometimes, placing your subject confronting a night groundwork can work really well, likewise" she adds.

"You tin also use exposure compensation. I apply an iPhone, then with that, afterwards yous've tapped to set up your focus (usually on the eyes), you lot volition encounter a small lord's day symbol. Y'all can pull information technology downwards if the scene is too vivid, and upwards if it feels too dark, until you go a more than counterbalanced effect. Similar settings are also available for Android phones."

v. Add together some editing polish

When you've taken a flick, it can be tempting to stick it straight on the 'gram and exist done with it. Only by tweaking it just a trivial using the all-time photo editing apps, y'all can make a adept portrait great.

Two phones showing a portrait photo being edited

(Epitome credit: Damien Demolder)

Damien Demolder is a fan of making adjustments. "I always use some form of mail-processing on the phone to end off a portrait," he says. "My favorite apps are Adobe'due south Photoshop and Pixlr (above), as they are quick to use and have all the controls I need. I'yard as well very familiar with them and know what options they offer me" he adds.

"I utilize these to reduce contrast past lifting shadows and pulling down highlights, and to command color unremarkably by reducing saturation and increasing vibrance. They as well offer a number of overnice filters that can be applied for warm effects and texture - and yous can reduce the effect to keep them subtle" he says, and you can meet the results of one such edit in the 'before and afterward' below.

"I also like to slightly nudge the blacks off pure black so shadows aren't as well deep. In Pixlr, I practice this with the Monochrome Negative filter and reduce it to virtually three%, which is enough to elevator the whole image" he adds.


  • Download Snapseed for iPhone (opens in new tab) or Android (opens in new tab)
  • Download Lightroom for iPhone (opens in new tab) or Android (opens in new tab)
  • Download Darkroom for iPhone (opens in new tab)
  • Download Spectre Camera for iPhone (opens in new tab)

  • These are the all-time photo editing apps yous tin can download right now

Mark is the Cameras Editor at TechRadar. Having worked in tech journalism for a ludicrous 17 years, Marking is at present attempting to break the world tape for the number of camera bags hoarded by one person. He was previously Cameras Editor at Trusted Reviews, Interim editor on Stuff.tv, every bit well every bit Features editor and Reviews editor on Stuff magazine. Every bit a freelancer, he'southward contributed to titles including The Dominicus Times, FourFourTwo and Arena. And in a erstwhile life, he besides won the Daily Telegraph'southward Young Sportswriter of the Year. But that was before he discovered the strange joys of getting up at 4am for a photo shoot in London's Square Mile.

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Source: https://www.techradar.com/news/how-to-take-professional-portrait-photos-with-your-iphone-or-android-phone

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