8 DIY Smartphone Photography Tips

DIY Photography  •  Photography Tips  •  Smartphone Photography

They say the best camera is the one you have with you—and often that’s your phone. Smartphone cameras are getting more and more sophisticated, but there are also some ways to improve your smartphone photography for free using some of these easy tips! COOPH made this video to help us come up with some fun ways to play around with our camera phones:

1. Aerial Shots

Let your phone fly high above the crowds. Procure a tank of helium, an industrial balloon, and some fishing wire. Inflate the balloon and tie a line to it with your phone hanging below the balloon. Set your camera’s shutter with a timer app or use a remote control.

Aerial

2. Sunglass Filter

Some sunglasses have a gradient from the top to the bottom. Hold them over your phone’s lens like a filter. This works great when you have a bright sky and darker foreground as it helps darken only the sky to even out your contrast.

Sunglass Filter

3. Pinhole

Punch a small hole in a piece of cardboard and hold over your lens to create a dramatic vignette! The camera will only be able to capture a small area.

Pinhole

4. 3D Frame

Use a cutout Polaroid border to frame your subjects. Hold it up to your subject and allow your subject to burst through the frame to create an image that looks 3D.

3D Frame

5. Tiny Planet

Everyone loves panoramas but as the video points out, you can’t Instagram them. A tiny planet app for your phone can transform a panorama into a little globe bursting with life. Now you’re ready for Instagram.

Tiny Planet

6. High-Key

Hold your finger on the screen to lock the exposure on a dark surface. Use that exposure setting on your subject for a high-key effect.

High Key

7. Inception Selfie

Find some interesting faces, like a funny looking dog or a statue, and take close up shots of them. Hold this photo up to your own face and take a selfie. This has a photo within a photo effect.

Inception Selfie

8. DIY Projector

Find a lens or magnifying glass. Trace it on the side of a box, cut a hole out, and tape your lens into it. Use a stand to stabilize your phone and play a video upside down inside the box. The image will be projected by the lens onto a flat surface!

DIY Movie Projector

These are all pretty simple to do from home without buying a lot of supplies. Which one will you try?