iPhone Photography Tips – Lower Your Camera

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Prairie Smoke at Blue Mounds State Park with a blue sky background

How low can you go?

No, we’re not doing the limbo. We’re working on composition.

One rut that’s easy to get into when taking photos with your iPhone is to always compose at eye level. Sure, it’s easy to just whip out your phone and take a quick snap without thinking but when you slow down and spend some time on composition, you’ll be rewarded with all kinds of surprises.

Slow down for better composition

One way to slow down and look differently at you subject is to lower your camera angle. This technique, sometimes called “shooting up at your subject” makes whatever you’re photographing look larger and more powerful than if viewed from eye-level. It can really add drama to a otherwise plain photo.

Lowering the camera angle is easy to do with an iPhone. In the old days, when you had to look through your camera’s viewfinder to compose an image, you literally had to stand on your head to get this angle. Now that you have a big beautiful screen on which to compose your image, you may need to get close to the ground but you won’t need to do any acrobatics.

iPhone Photography Tips – Prairie Smoke

The first two images of Prairie Smoke were captured at the Blue Mounds State Park in June. The first image of this unusual flower is interesting  but there’s really not much contrast between the pink petals and the green stalks of grass. The colors and tones just sort of blend together.

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Blah! The Prairie Smoke and background blend together.

Lowering the camera angle and positioning the pink flowers against the blue sky completely changes the mood of the image. The light passing through the flowers shows their detail. The low angle gives the small plants a majestic feel and the texture of the clouds adds even more interest.

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Wow! The Prairie Smoke jumps out of the image when the background is blue sky.

 

iPhone Photography Tips – Wedding Couple

The next image is from a wedding at the Historic Palace Theater in downtown Luverne.  The iPhone was positioned right on the sidewalk as the couple walked out of the theater after the wedding. This camera angle isolates the newlyweds away from the other competing subjects. It also shows off the detail of the theater and, just like the flower image, gives the subject a “bigger than life” feel.

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Shooting up at the wedding couple adds drama to this image.

My challenge for you is to slow down and see how low you can go, with your camera. Put that iPhone right on the ground and shoot up at your subject. You will begin to see things in a whole new way.

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