How to take a creative portrait with a camera phone
Taking a simple self portrait on the fly
The best camera is the one you have with you…
As a mum of two young children, there are a few things that help me find time for creativity:
Using whatever tools I have on me. For example, if I’m taking photos: it’s my phone; for writing or journaling, also my phone.
Using “dead time” : Queuing at the supermarket, waiting at the school gates. These micro-moments are often pretty perfect to spark a little curiosity, and take a moment to explore them.
Making something quick. Or at least something that can be chipped away at. Start now, finish later.
Lowering my expectations of what I can create. Making something is more important than making something perfect.
A few weeks ago I was on the school run. After a few days of Spring sunshine we were back to blustery. As I made my way to the school gates, I felt inspired to take a creative self-portrait with my phone. But how do you take a quick portrait picture of yourself, when you’re on the move and you’re shooting with your camera phone? Well, my approach to this is to keep it simple:
Simplify your scene
I was in a middle of a busy street with cars whizzing up and down and houses all around. I’m not keen on distracting backgrounds so I held my phone underneath my face and reversed my lens to make the sky my background. I could see the screen beneath me to (sort of) guide me as to where to point the thing. Shooting from underneath isn’t typically the best camera angle for a selfie, but that’s ok, we’re going for something a little more creative and expressive.
Take a test shot
I always find it helpful to take a quick snap to see how things might turn out, then make adjustments from there. So for my test shot I was looking down at my screen and while I liked the movement of my windy hair (after all this would capture the blustery, wintery mood perfectly) there were a couple of things that didn’t work so well for me:
It’s too bright,
It would be good to get some light on my face
My arm is doing some kind of weird T-rex thing
Adjustments
So, to shoot the next few frames a little differently I decided to:
Bring down the exposure slider (before taking the photo) to capture the scene a little darker
Look up because that’s where the light is
Shoot in burst mode so I can capture the split second moment where the wind isn’t too crazy and it won’t matter too much if my camera isn’t held perfectly
Tuck in that T-rex arm
So as luck would have it, this was one of the very next shots I got. A quick edit in Lightroom to bring out the wintery vibe and done. Just in time for the gates to open.
Conclusion
If you’re looking for creative self-portrait ideas with your phone, why not give something like this a go. You should only need a few minutes to know if you’re heading in the right direction and then you can adjust from there.
My key pointers:
consider where the light is coming from , consider your background. If there’s movement in your shot, choose burst mode over portrait mode
Hope that was helpful!
Want more creative iPhone photography tips? You might enjoy this post.