Understanding and mastering fundamental photography techniques such as composition, lighting, and exposure is key to achieving professional-looking phone photos. To capture sharp, clear images on your smartphone, focus on the subject, utilize gridlines to compose your shots, and ensure proper lighting conditions to avoid blurry or grainy photos.

A well-composed photograph captures attention by following principles like the rule of thirds, leading lines, symmetry, and framing. Lighting sets the mood, highlights the subject, and creates depth and dimension. Explore your smartphone camera’s settings and features, experiment with different shooting modes, and use third-party camera apps for added control and creativity. Consider investing in external lenses or accessories to enhance your photography experience.

Simple adjustments like exposure, white balance, and contrast, as well as using editing tools for cropping and filters, can greatly enhance the visual impact of your photos, turning ordinary snapshots into visually striking images. With advancements in smartphone camera technology and a good understanding of photography principles, capturing professional-quality photos with your smartphone is entirely possible. Master the basics, pay attention to details, and continuously practice and refine your skills.

Stunning smartphone photos on social media often involve creativity, attention to detail, and post-processing techniques. By carefully composing shots, using natural light, editing for impact, and experimenting with different perspectives, you can elevate your smartphone photography and captivate your audience on social media platforms.

Understanding Your Phone’s Camera Settings

Exploring Manual Settings: Adjust exposure, ISO, and focus to significantly enhance photo quality, allowing for more creative control and expression.

The Importance of Resolution and Aspect Ratio: Select the appropriate settings for different platforms and purposes to ensure your photos look their best when shared or printed.

Composition Techniques

Rule of Thirds: Master the fundamental principle of dividing your frame to create visually appealing compositions that draw the viewer in.

Leading Lines and Symmetry: Use leading lines and symmetry to guide the viewer’s eye through your photos, adding depth and interest.

Lighting and Time of Day

Golden Hour Magic: The golden hour, just after sunrise and before sunset, provides soft, warm light for stunning photography.

Using Natural Light to Your Advantage: Manage harsh sunlight and leverage shadows creatively to capture compelling images.

Advanced Smartphone Camera Features

HDR Mode: Understand when and how to use High Dynamic Range to capture intricate details in both bright and dark areas of your composition.

Portrait Mode and Depth Control: Achieve a pleasingly blurred background and emphasize your subject with precision using portrait mode and depth control.

Editing Apps and Tools

Basic Adjustments: Enhance your photos with essential adjustments such as cropping, exposure correction, and color enhancements.

Creative Editing: Use filters and presets responsibly to elevate your images without overshadowing their original quality.

Keeping Your Lens Clean and Your Phone Steady

Regular Maintenance Tips: Keep your lens spotless to ensure crystal-clear pictures.

Stabilization Techniques: Prevent blurry images using tripods, monopods, or other stabilizers, ensuring sharp, professional results.

Practice Makes Perfect

Experimenting with Different Subjects and Settings: Explore various subjects and settings to hone your skills with each shot.

Reviewing and Learning from Your Photos: Critically evaluate your images to identify areas for improvement, transforming each critique into a step toward mastery.

Related

ROCKPORT — From June 1 through June 27, the Rockport Public Library will host a show of photography by local photographer Jim Dugan entitled “Rowing in Eden.” The exhibit will feature images of fourteen watercraft on Penobscot Bay, “striking seascapes which capture the indelible magic of sailing along the Midcoast in the summer,” said the Library, in a news release.

The public is invited to meet Dugan at his artist’s reception on Saturday, June 22, from 3 to 5 p.m., in the lower level of the Rockport Public Library.

“My nautical photographs celebrate the timeless nature of the vessels and the hard work, dedication, and passion of the crews and owners,” says Dugan, in the RPL news release.

Dugan knows a thing or two about crews, having worked aboard schooners in various capacities for the past twenty-five years.

Jim Dugan came to Maine in 1989 to study photography at the Maine Photographic Workshops (now the Maine Media Workshops). He stuck around, working first as a photographer’s assistant, then as a print and website designer. Design work for the schooner Mary Day led to trips aboard and a few stints filling in as deck crew and galley hand. Dugan now teaches photography for a week every summer aboard the schooner Mary Day, where he has also served as relief crew and sails a few times every summer. Learn more about Dugan’s photography at JimDugan.com.

Two photographs by Garth Lenz at The True Cost Of Oil exhibit. Photo by Jonas Smith

The True Cost of Oil photography exhibit, presented by Environmental Defence and Keepers of the Water, took place from May 15th to June 1st. Here, Colleen shares her Impressions of the exhibit launch on May 16th.

It poured in Edmonton, the day Garth Lenz’s The True Cost of Oil photography exhibit launched on May 16, at the University of Alberta’s Fine Arts Building (FAB) Gallery. Each time I shook out my umbrella, people remarked “we really need this rain.”

Just a few days before, emergency air quality warnings due to wildfire smoke flashed across the top of FAB’s webpage. That day though, the smoke cleared.

Jean L’Hommecourt, co-chair of Keepers of the Water, arrived early, even though she made the more than five hour journey all the way from Fort McKay First Nation on Treaty 8 territory, where wildfires had forced nearby evacuations.

Together, we watched the life-sized projection of photos by Tori Cress from G’Chimnissing in Williams Treaty Territory (communications manager for Keepers of the Water) from communities living downstream of the tar sands play out on the gallery wall. Jean smiled and commented as the reel showed a crow on a truck top, salmon preparation, elders at a community meeting, a hand game competition.

She explained during the panel discussion later that tar sands operations impact these Indigenous Nations’ ability to collect medicines, have social gatherings, consume traditional foods and maintain their close relationship with the land.

As more people arrived, we made the journey up a flight of stairs, past the landing decorated with sculptures, to the room where students, environmentalists, and community members were gathered.

The Oil Sands and the Last Great Forest

There Garth Lenz, renowned editorial and fine art photographer, stood in front of his photograph of tailings waste water that reflected pure white clouds – and if you look closer, contains a swirl of toxic bitumen. He talked about the inner friction associated with fossil fuels, saying, “our cities have become kinds of temples to fossil fuel consumption…The more oil we have to use, the more we use it, the more we need it, and we get this very lamentable kind of positive feedback situation.”

When he flies in helicopters to shoot images of the Boreal Forest region, he shared that “there’s this kind of adrenaline thrill because you realize at the time that you’re hopefully making a powerful and meaningful image. But then when you actually look at it, especially when you’re looking at hundreds of them, then it kind of sinks in, what we’re really doing to the planet.”

Treaty 8 Territory

As the panel continued we learned more about the impacts of fossil fuel production that Garth saw from the air and how they are unequally distributed.

Jean shared that Fort McKay First Nation’s “land base is so small and so close to the vicinity of …industrial wastelands that are in our backyards. We hear it 24/7. We smell it. We taste it and we feel it in our bodies. We are affected every which way….”

Yet, as Cleo Reece, a member of Fort McMurray First Nation (Keepers of the Water Elders Wisdom Council ), explained, First Nations Peoples never did “cede or surrender the lands.” In fact, Jean added, the English words cede and surrender were not translatable into their language.

When asked what justice would look like, Jean expressed the need for more than empty land acknowledgments, saying, “the only justice is our land back…They’ve come here and taken our lands and done all this destruction. Acknowledge that. Justify that. We’re still waiting and we’re still here.”

She also explained that Treaty 8 gives “the right to hunt, fish and gather but then there’s more to it than just that. There’s also the spiritual aspect and how we consider our treaty to be our lifeline in protecting our rights, our inherent rights. This is our stronghold and it’s probably our only way to fight this battle.”

Work and Life

Oil and gas projects, like pipelines, can also create divisions in communities due to the tradeoff between short term benefits and long term impacts. An audience member asked if Cleo and Jean had any advice about that.  

Cleo joked, “you’ve got the oil sands up there and then you’ve got the oilers, and you’ve got the oil kings and you have the oil barons….did you ever see those stickers, ‘I Heart Oil’?” 

Growing serious, she explained how in an example of environmental racism, oil and gas jobs are often the only ones available to her community, and that they are well-paying and can offer training.

Jean added, “I have family members that worked in the oil sands. I’ve never worked for the oil industry or anything of that sort…I don’t want to have my family rely on oil for their way of life because when that’s gone, then what’re you gonna’ have. “

For Cleo, foresight is also key to a healthier, more just world. She said that “the elders, people who are concerned about the land, water and so on, they’re thinking ahead, they’re thinking of their grandchildren and their great grandchildren… what are we leaving for them?”

What’s in it for Everyone?

Back in the gallery, we continued the conversation. Light slanted in as the long Edmonton day neared sunset. It cast leaf-shapes over the wall, and onto Garth’s images of vast tar sands mines and pools of tailings water.

The images underscored that until communities aren’t forced to choose between a clean environment and good jobs, until Indigenous rights are upheld, until thinking generations ahead is prioritized, the tar sands industry will continue to jeopardize the lands, air and water.

Earlier in the day I’d heard someone say “what’s in it for us?” What’s in it for us if society changes to sustain ways of life in harmony with the environment, like that led by Indigenous communities for millennia? What’s in it for us if life itself is prioritized over profits?

What’s in it for us – everything.

As I envisioned what a healthier approach for Alberta, and for all of us, could look like, the sun also dappled Garth’s images of the Boreal Forest, the snaking waterways, the green peatlands. And there, surrounded by other guests, talking about how we could stay connected and work together for change, I felt just a little more hope.

Want to help hold tar sands companies accountable? Take Action

By now, the famed photographer Gregory Crewdson’s well-oiled, large-scale shoots are well documented. He has shut down areas of small towns and built soundstages of shadowy home interiors to get at what lays beneath the suburban facade, encapsulating a disquieting view of America. His weekslong productions include a full crew (and costs) comparable to small independent films, as well as a casting process to find subjects who have a particular sense of melancholy.

But for his earliest bodies of work, made in the late 1980s and early ’90s, Crewdson hacked it the best he could. As a student at Yale’s MFA photography program, he shot what he could find in homes in Connecticut and Western Massachusetts, directing families to act out scenes of creeping unease. He built uncanny table-top sets and tableaus of animals in nature akin to museum dioramas, using forced perspective to make them seem larger-than-life. For his formative images of small-town landscapes, he procured a tree surgeon’s crane to get high above the rooftops, and — dangerously — pirated electricity from homes to light scenes rather than rent generators.

“It was such a ragtag team,” Crewdson recalled in a video call with CNN. “It was a bit like the Wild West — we had very few permissions or permits. We were just out there improvising, and it felt so exciting.”

Three decades later, Crewdson is reflecting across all his work as a major retrospective opens at the Albertina museum in Vienna, showing all his series together (minus his commercial work) for the first time. Among them, the self-titled show brings together his grand, eight-year endeavor “Beneath the Roses” from the mid-2000s, his earlier low-budget black-and-white images of “Hover” from 1996, and his meditative return to photography after a difficult period of divorce and transition, “Cathedral of the Pines” in 2013. The show’s curator, Walter Moser, framed the show around Crewdson’s long dialogue with cinema, including inspirations such as David Lynch, Steven Spielberg and Alfred Hitchcock.

“He really is quoting popular culture,” Moser said in a phone call with CNN. “It’s a visual language we all know… so we can connect to that. At the same time, his topics are very in the present.”

When Crewdson began his career, he was among a set of postmodernist photographers — including Jeff Wall, Cindy Sherman and Philip-Lorca diCorcia — who were concerned with the artificiality of photography, often blurring truth and fiction.

“They analyze how we perceive reality, and how reality is constructed in photography,” Moser said. With Crewdson’s work, he added: “It’s completely staged, and every detail is thought through. But at the same time, it’s also documentary in the sense that he’s really reflecting the state of society.”

From the beginning, the now-familiar elements in his work were already present. Consider an image taken in the late ’80s made in Pittsfield, Massachusetts — a city he has continually returned to, including amid its industrial decline for 2018’s “An Eclipse of Moths.” In the cool glow of nighttime, he photographed the view of a lit baseball field outside of a bedroom window, gauzy curtains pushed back. The composition of mysterious lighting, nighttime stillness and window — motifs that he’s often returned to in the years since — clicked something into place, he said, a sense of something “there but not there” that he’s strived for ever sense. (The phrase is also the title of a 2017 documentary short directed by his studio manager and romantic partner, Juliane Hiam.)

“I remember taking it and knowing that it felt meaningful to me. There was something beautiful to me about looking through a window at something that’s slightly outside of reach,” Crewdson explained.

“When I look at the work I made when I was 25 or 26, it’s like — in a very early stage — it’s not that far from what I even did last week,” he added.

A ‘hyperreal’ environment

Desire and disconnection have served as the architectural foundations on which neighborhoods are built in Crewdson’s world, which he described as sitting “partially outside of reality.” His final images are composites of multiple frames, allowing for every area of the image to be sharp, making them appear “hyperreal,” as Moser described. Lost in thought or memory, the characters Crewdson places together rarely interact in these exaggerated environments. Instead, they are often confronted with strangeness cutting through the banality of the day in the form of a blinding spotlight, blazing fire or blood in the sink — a callback to Spielberg’s aliens lurking off-screen in “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” or the found severed ear in Lynch’s “Blue Velvet.”

Artists such as Sherman, Edward Hopper and William Eggleston, who played a role in Crewdson’s take on the American psyche, are also all apparent. But by now, the photographer’s highly recognizable and inimitable style has helped shape the country’s image, too.

Some of his forays into pop culture were by his own hand, like when he teamed up with HBO’s “Six Feet Under” — another uncanny, iconic study of the American family — to shoot a verdant kitchen scene with the cast for the promotion of the show’s third season. Another, his lone editorial commission, “Dream House,” for the New York Times Magazine in 2002, cast A-List actors Julianne Moore, Tilda Swinton, Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Gwyneth Paltrow as nameless residents of a Vermont home, nearly obscuring their celebrity.

But his vision permeates elsewhere, too, through direct or presumed nods from other creatives: the eeriness of life in the small town of “Stranger Things,” or the surreal floral-laden bedroom scenes of Taylor Swift’s music video “Lavender Haze” (with the latter parallels spotted by Swifties on TikTok).

“That’s the way culture works; it’s like a two-way street,” Crewdson said of unexpected references to his work. “And sometimes it can be a little beguiling, but… you just have let that be part of the equation.”

Though Crewdson’s body of work spans societal shifts that have included political polarization, an epidemic of loneliness, suburban anxiety and rural decline, he refrains from making specific commentary — though he contends “it’s in the work.” He also avoids markers of place or time, switching out street signs or storefront text, and favoring non-distinct cars and clothing.

Nor is his view of America a particularly wide one, shot primarily in Massachusetts, as well as New York and Connecticut, in the areas where he’s lived, studied and taught his whole life. (Crewdson is now the director of the graduate program he attended at Yale in New Haven, and resides in the Berkshires). Over time, he’s revisited streets or buildings he’s previously photographed and recast some of the same characters, creating subtle narrative connections across his series.

“There are photographers who chronicle the American landscape in a vast way — for me, it’s always been going back over and over again to the same towns,” he said.

“Part of that’s practical, because once you become a known figure in the town you can shut down streets and work with the fire department for wet downs,” he explained, referring to the method to drench a set for atmospheric or weather effects. “But the bigger part is psychological. I have a connection to this place in terms of an aesthetic response — it feels familiar to me.”

Chasing stillness

Even when Crewdson began his career, he knew his love for cinema would permeate his work, though he has always stuck with teasing out the enigmatic narratives of still pictures rather than moving into film. But he didn’t foresee that his productions would eventually become so immense.

“It built slowly and organically, until all of the sudden you realize, ‘This is kind of crazy, all these people,’” he said. “But you have to block all that out and think about the picture in the end.”

He hasn’t been behind the camera himself since ‘Hover’ in the 1990s; Instead, his longtime director of photography, Rick Sands, has that honor, while Crewdson prefers to have the scene come together in front of his eyes.

“This might sound disingenuous, but it’s the only way I really know how to make a picture now,” he said. “It’s how I’ve figured out how to reflect what I see in my head.”

In the 2017 documentary short “There But Not There,” he describes the tranquility that occurs as the chaos of production comes together into that “elusive” moment “when the picture actually works,” he said. It’s that moment — not the final picture — that he’s always chasing, he reiterated on the call. It doesn’t always come easily, though; in a recent shoot, it happened, “but barely,” he added with a laugh.

Crewdson acknowledges that many of the themes he’s returned to repeatedly, including the sense of being both “present yet absent,” are reflections of himself. His desire for a moment of stillness has wider implications in his own life.

“We live our lives in like partial chaos. There are so many things that are destabilizing in life, and I have a lot of anxiety day to day — that’s just a condition of being alive,” he said. “I think part of why we are drawn to art in general is to feel a certain sense of order or meaning. Even though my pictures can feel dystopic or sad, there’s that moment where everything just comes together, and it feels like it makes sense.”

White House photographer and Pulitzer Prize winner Rod Edwards has died aged 77. He is best known for his photographs of the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan in 1981.

Born June 16, 1946, Ron Edmonds decided to take a photography class in 1968 which would quickly come to change his life. 

Known for capturing an incredible presidential piece of history while following President Ronald Reagan, he was also an early pioneer of digital cameras, using a Nikon QV-1000C, their first filmless camera, to capture and transmit the world’s first images of President George H. W. Bush’s inauguration in 1989.   

His career began after he was encouraged to photograph anti-war demonstrations in Sacramento, California, selling one of his images for $25 to United Press International (UPI). 

“I saw it in the newspaper the next day, and I knew what I wanted to do for a living,” said Edmonds in 2013 while being given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the White House News Photographers Association. 

After freelancing in California, some time at the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, including a promotion to chief photographer, Edmonds then worked for the UPI, before moving to the Associated Press (AP) in 1980. 

Video: Ron Edmonds retells the story of the Reagan assassination attempt on its 30th anniversary

He was hired as the APs White House Photographer, covering Ronald Reagan’s presidential campaign. 

On only his second day in the role, Edmonds took a series of photographs of an historic moment that would earn him a Pulitzer: the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan. 

“The most important element of my job was to watch the president at all times, and I think, on that day, I did everything I was supposed to do,” Edmonds wrote.

President Reagan had just been speaking to the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations at a Hilton Hotel near the White House. As he exited the hotel, John Hinkley Jr fired a revolver at the President, hitting him in the left underarm, breaking a rib and puncturing a lung, almost killing him. 

With his camera already trained on the President, Edmonds was in place for an incredible series of images.

“Everything happened in such a quick, split-second. If you looked to your right to see what the shot, what the noise was, and looked back, the president was already gone. The president immediately, when the first pop went off, he kind of grimaced in his face and that’s when I pushed the shutter down,’’ Edmonds recalled.

The incredible images won him the Pulitzer Prize for spot news photography.  

“I wish it had been for a picture that had not been of violence, of people being hurt,” he said when the award was announced on April 12, 1982.

Edmonds retired in 2009, when he was the AP’s senior White House photographer. He had covered presidents and the world, Super Bowls and the Olympics.

J. David Ake, retired director of photography at the AP, remembers Edmonds’ kindness:

“He wanted to win and put the AP first more than anyone I knew, but never at the expense of the photographers he was competing with. If your batteries died or you committed the ultimate sin and ran out of film, Ron would hand you his,” Ake said. “He would insist he be the first one through the door at a photo op but he always made sure everyone else got through the door, too.”

If you want to follow in Edmond’s footsteps and try your hand at photojournalism, check out the best cameras for beginners, as well as the best cameras for professionals. 

PETERSBURG — Petersburg Area Art League has exciting opportunities this month. Did you know PAAL does not charge to see the art exhibits? If you haven’t been, you really should make a trip to Old Towne to check them out.

Michelle Wilkie, a native New Zealander and now a U.S. resident, will have her art quilt exhibit “Eyes Wide Open” featured at PAAL in the Main Gallery from Friday, June 14 through August 3. The gallery will host an opening night reception with the quilt artist present on Friday, June 21 from 5 -8 p.m.

“Moving to the United States, prompted a profound exploration of connection, community and cultural identity. There are a lot of nuances, socially and politically, in this new landscape [of the US] that are not always easy to overcome but quilting is my bridge to connection and community and now drives my art practice,” Wilkie states in her bio. “I relate to this traditional women’s craft, as it is in essence a way to connect community, the maker and our history. I have been exploring how to continue this through my work, while pushing boundaries of people’s expectation of what a quilt can be.”

Wilkie’s artistic practice revolves around modern quilting where she seamlessly blends traditional techniques with a contemporary twist, embracing both improvisation and minimalism. Her artistic narrative unfolds through a lens that captures her experiences – a visual dialogue shaped by photography, translating moments into textile works. Each quilt becomes a canvas where emotions and connections intertwine and a story is told.

PAAL encourages group visits from quilt guilds around the region. Groups may contact Martha Burton with Petersburg Area Regional Tourism at 804-731-1672 or mburton@craterpdc.org to inquire about lodging and dining. Visit mlwilkie.com to learn more about the artist and designer of modern quilts.

Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.

In the Upper Gallery, “The Photography of Gary D. Jones, A collection of images and memories of Petersburg, the town where I grew up” will be on display. In January, Jones won the prestigious Professional Photographers of America [PPA] 2024 Grand Imaging Award. Included in this show will be the award-winning submission “The Destination Ahead” that earned him the top prize, acclaim and a $10,000 cash award. Don’t miss his exhibit which will also be on exhibit at PAAL June 14 through August 3.

Jones was born in Petersburg and moved to DC at age nine. He returned to the area to attend Virginia State University [VSU] where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Commercial Art and Design. As reported by The Progress-Index in February, Jones has been a member of the Petersburg-based Cockade City Camera Club for the past 10 years. He has instructed courses in Off Camera Flash, Constant light and Print Competition. Currently, the Club meets monthly at PAAL.

The community is invited to PAAL’s “Friday for the Arts!” opening night, Friday, June 14 from 5-8 p.m. Petersburg Area Art League is open 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. on Sunday. Art lovers may visit the gallery free of charge, however, contributions are appreciated. PAAL is located at 7 E. Old Street in Petersburg. For more information about the non-profit organization’s programs, history, PAAL membership, gallery hours and more, visit paalarts.org and follow Petersburg Area Art League on Facebook.

Petersburg: Gennine Francis performs

At Old Towne Civic Center in Petersburg on Saturday, June 29 at 7:30 p.m., PAAL will present vocalist Gennine Francis. The California native will perform hits by Whitney Houston from her one-woman show “the Essence of Whitney” as well as hits from Anita Baker, Gladys Knight, Sade, Norah Jones and Marvin Gaye and many more.

Years ago, Francis and her sisters had a pop singing group The Jacksonics. They were blessed to perform with Billy Paul, Bill Cosby, Eddie Kendricks, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, Three Dog Night, The Pointer Sisters, The Whispers, The Manhattans, Sisters Sledge and more. Since September 2001, she has completed five CDs and is currently working on number six. To learn more about Francis who has been performing since age eight, visit genninefrancis.com.

To purchase tickets to PAAL’s second concert of the summer sponsored by Bill Nicholson visit paalart.org. Tickets are $30 for general seating and $50 for VIP. The VIP tickets with preferred seating also include a Meet and Greet with Francis. Old Towne Civic Center is located at 136 River Street in Petersburg.

’17th year of jamming on the Avenue’Petersburg: Halifax Music Festival, food, vendors, spirits garden, karaoke, dancers, fun

Check out featured lineupPetersburg Public Library: Jazz in the Stacks 2024 concert series

Kristi K. Higgins aka The Social Butterfly, an award-winning columnist, is the trending topics and food Q&A reporter at The Progress-Index voted the 2022 Tri-Cities Best of the Best Social Media Personality. Have a news tip on local trends or businesses? Contact Kristi (she, her) at khiggins@progress-index.com, follow @KHiggins_PI on X and@socialbutterflykristi on Instagram. 

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