Indoor phone photo tips
If you don’t know how to get extra light into your big camera by using the manual controls you might find your phone camera is the better option for indoor photography.
Click here for our previous post which covers general phone photo tips including tap to focus, blur the background and panoramas.
Learn to control your big camera
Join A Year With My Camera (free by email) and learn photography skills that are interchangeable between your big camera and your phone including composition, lighting and creativity. You will also learn how to get that extra light into your big camera by using the manual controls so you can be confident indoors or out.
Join here and start today:
1. Colour temperature
If you are taking photographs indoors, chances are there will be indoor lighting switched on. This causes your photos to have a yellow tinge to them. You might not even notice it because we are so used to seeing it. It’s easy to fix in post-processing: find the “neutral colour picker” tool (it’s usually an eyedropper) and click on an area of the photo that should be neutral (white, grey or black). Your whole image will instantly be colour corrected.
Tip: if you’re not sure if the colour balance is wrong put your phone (with the photo showing) on a piece of white paper. If the whites match, the photo is fine. If the photo looks yellow or orange (like the one below – compare it to the web page white background) then it needs fixing (unless you like the sepia tone):
Before: the tungsten indoor lights are competing with the bright sunshine and the phone camera doesn’t know what white should be. Emma Davies, 2022.
After: one click with the neutral colour picker tool and the correct colour balance is restored. Emma Davies, 2022.
2. Go super-wide
Most phone cameras now have the option to switch to a wide-angle view. If yours doesn’t you can buy inexpensive attachments that have the same effect. This feature is a must-have for interior shots and indoor group shots.
Tip: don’t forget you can turn your phone and take a super-wide vertical photo as well as the more traditional horizontal:
Teatro la Fenice Venice. Emma Davies, 2018.
3. Portrait mode: not just for selfies
If your phone has a portrait mode (check now to find out) you can use it to get stunning close-up shots of anything – not just people. This mode forces a close focus and knocks the background out to blur:
Zurich. Emma Davies, 2022.
4. Avoid digital zoom
It can be tempting to zoom in to catch the details but the quality of your photos will deteriorate quickly. Best avoided.
5. Clean the lens
Do your photos look misty? Are there streaks of light appearing from nowhere? You’ve probably got thumbprints on your lens; give it a good clean with something non-abrasive.
6. Mirror selfies
Have some fun next time you have time to kill indoors. Find something reflective – it doesn’t have to be an actual mirror – and try a selfie.
Tips: keep your phone low down so it doesn’t draw focus in the photo and look into the lens of the phone (not into your own eyes) to get the eye contact correct.
Mirror selfie. Emma Davies, 2018.
7. Composition
The rules of composition apply equally to phone photography and big-camera photography. Learn them once and apply them whatever tool you are using. Educate yourself about the rule of thirds, leading lines and the single focal point (you can do this for free on the A Year With My Camera beginner’s workshop – join below).
In this shot I used a traditional “frame the view” composition technique looking out from a museum window in Venice, made the most of the natural symmetry and took advantage of the bonus leading lines in the bottom third of the frame:
Venetian view. Emma Davies, 2017.
If you want a deep-dive into photographic composition take a look at Emma’s online course Composition: Beyond the Basics. It’s applicable equally to phone photography and DSLR/mirrorless (ie. you don’t need a big camera).