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If you want to get started taking your own boudoir photos look no further than your cellphone. Everyone has a cell phone in their pocket, so why not learn to make the most of what you have before dropping a thousand dollars on a camera.
Here are 7 tips for using a cellphone for DIY boudoir photography.
Use the Main Lens
Clean the Lens
Keep it Steady
Pay Attention to Lighting
Improve Your Composition
Manually Change your Settings
Edit your Photos
Use the Main Lens
The best camera on a phone isn’t the selfie camera. If you are wanting the best photos possible you will want to use the main camera on your phone.
The downside of this is that you will not be able to see your screen while you are shooting. My suggestion is to frame your image by taking a few test shots to get the framing right. You can also shoot a little bit more zoomed out so that you can crop your picture the way you want it after you are done.
Clean the Lens
You are handling your phone all day so it’s no wonder that it gets covered in gunk and makes your pictures blurry. Take a moment before you start taking pictures to clean your lens.
Use a soft cloth (your t-shirt will work here) to buff the grease and fingerprints off your lens. If you are at the beach take a moment to gently blow on your lens before you clean it. Sand can scratch the lens so be sure to remove that first.
Hold it Steady
Because a cell phone is so small it can be hard to get a sharp photo holding it with one hand, so use two. Hold the phone in both hands and use one finger to lightly tap the shutter. The harder you hit the shutter the more likely you are to get a blurry photo.
Lock your elbows into your body. This restricts the amount of movement your arms have, leading to a steadier shot. Which will mean better photos.
Use a tripod and a remote if you are doing self-shot boudoir. Selfie’s may be tempting, but they limit the photos you can take while being difficult to control the composition And lets be real selfie’s and mirror shots can be cheesy. Taking the time to set up a tripod and lining up your frame is definitely worth it.
Pay Attention to Lighting
Cell phones don’t have nice large sensors to help capture a great image in low light. You will have to learn how to work around that. Start by remembering to take full advantage of natural lighting. The light streaming through your window on a sunny day can be used in multiple ways to create great images.
Use room lighting to full affect. You can use a table or floor lamps to light shots when shooting after dark or in rooms where window lighting is not adequate. Experiment with turning on select lights in your shooting space and with moving your light source around the room. An extension cord will come in handy here.
Improve your Composition
Most people shoot their photos at eye level with no thought about composition beyond having their subject in frame. By learning about composition techniques beyond having their subject in frame you can create more visual interest in your photos.
Since we mostly see images at eye level, images that are shot from a high or low angle instantly have more visual appeal. Getting low is easy, just crutch down or set your tripod on the ground. To get high, use a step stool or a chair. You can also attach your tripod to the curtain rod above the window too.
Another basic compositional technique is the rule of thirds. For the rule of thirds, imagine two vertical and two horizontal lines in a photo evenly spaced to give you nine squares with four points of intersection and four lines. By placing a subject at one of the points of intersection, along one of the lines, or filling one of the boxes you will create balance in your photo. Lucky for you every modern cell phone and camera comes with a setting to overlay a rule of thirds grid onto your screen while shooting.
If you would like more help with composition you can see my post on it here.
Manually Change your Settings
Automatic mode has gotten a lot better on modern phones, but if you want to get the most out of the camera on your phone you will want to start changing some of your settings.
The one that you will want to start with will be the exposure setting. Most cameras will want to expose an image for the entire scene. Which isn’t what we want we want the subject i.e. you or your model to be properly exposed. Taking control of this setting away from your phone will help you take more amazing photos. If you want to take some amazing images then you need to be the one controlling the exposure and not your phone.
Want more proof that changing some settings is the way to go? Watch the video below where professional boudoir photographer Michael Sasser uses an IPhone 11 Pro Max to get amazing shots.
Edit your Photos
You went through all the trouble of taking those awesome boudoir photos, get the most out of them by learning to edit well.
Filters are an easy place to start as most people have some knowledge of them thanks to Instagram and other social media apps. Keep away from the crazy filters and pick the ones that offer a more natural look. The one I like the most is the simple black and white.
You can get better results by using your phones built in editing options to make them your own. My suggestions would be to practice on other images you have before editing your boudoir photos and make backup copies before you start.
Final Thoughts
There you go, 7 tips to help you when using your camera on your own DIY boudoir journey. Of those 7 tips, there are two that I think are more important than the others, lighting and composition.
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