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How are you all hanging in there? I hope you are staying sane, healthy and happy! I have a special five day blog series that I hope everyone can find helpful in capturing beautiful portraits while social distancing and staying at home! I miss my clients and I am dying to get back out there and photographing but until then – I wanted to share how to get beautiful portraits (even if just on your phone!) until you get to see your photographer for your professional portraits!!

So with day one, let’s start with how to get great portraits with just your phone! I’m going to walk you through the steps that I use when taking a picture of Liam! 🙂 (He’s my favorite subject to photograph! 😉)

Step One: Find good, natural light!

The first thing you need to do is find the best natural light available! If you are taking the portraits indoors, choose the room with the best window light available! Some good spots include master bedrooms, kitchens near the sliding glass doors, your living room window or near your front door! Open those curtains, lift the blinds and make sure all lighting inside is turned off! You don’t want an orange cast on your portraits!

Now, if you are able to get outside – get outside! Outdoor lighting is what I prefer! Finding a spot in open shade is great! Think of a front porch, side of a house, or even in front of a blooming tree!

The last little side note in finding good light is to make sure the light is even on your family! (Or whomever you may be photographing!)

Step Two: Make sure your flash is turned off!

You don’t want to use a flash for these portraits!

Step Three: Use portrait mode on your phone to create dimension to your portrait!

I prefer to use portrait mode on my phone to get more depth of field in my portraits! It automatically creates the depth using this mode on my phone! Now if you don’t have portrait mode on your phone – that’s ok! Just make sure you click on your subject’s faces to get the focus on them and create a good distance with whatever their background is behind them!

Step Four: Don’t zoom in on your subjects!

Zooming in on your phone will make your portrait very grainy! If you want a close up portrait, move your feet and get closer to your subject! If you want farther back then move back! Just move those feet!

Step Five: Use a rule of thirds!

Do you remember the rule of thirds from art class? You want to do that when taking portraits too! Creating some space around your subjects and having composition will make your phone pictures more visually interesting!

These are the top five steps I use when I take a portrait on my phone! Be sure to come back tomorrow (especially you mama’s!) on how to get beautiful pictures at the hospital of your precious little one!