Want to take better smartphone photos? Build real camera confidence with my quick, bite-sized tips. Relax, take a breath and have some fun!
Yes, good smartphone photography takes practice. Don’t believe me? Check out the Mobile Photography Awards for dazzling inspiration. So, master the intention, skill, and confidence behind every shot and you can make your own cat photos turn heads.
Here are three great tools to start your journey!
Table of contents
Don’t rely on AI. Take control of your camera. Be unique, be you, be in control
Focus
Don’t just point, shoot and hope. Take control of your smartphone’s focus.
Tap the Screen
Your camera might guess the wrong subject and focus on that. Tap on the screen where you want the focus to be. Cat, human or other animal portrait? Tap the eye nearest you.
Find Your Focus Lock
Tap and press-and-hold on your subject until “AE/AF Lock” (iPhone) or a padlock icon (Android) appears. Your camera will stop shifting focus from one thing to another.
Depth of Field is Fake!
OK not always but…
On a smartphone depth of field is not as sophisticated as a DSLR/Mirrorless camera. Algorithms find edges in your subject and make their own bokeh effect. This is called Digital Blur or Portrait Mode. How far away you need to stand to make this mode work depends on your brand of ‘phone.
Optical Blur is a second option. Your subject needs to be close and the background much further away, like these trees behind Thomas. Your background will blur more naturally.
Light
Smartphone Light
Smartphones used to have a reputation for not taking good photographs in low light. Their sensors are smaller so the amount of light coming into your photo is less. Cameras are constantly improving as this shot of Toulouse with an iPhone 12 shows.
Window Light
Put your subject (cat, human) near a window. This lights them and gives them shape thanks to the shadows created.
Say No to Flash
Built-in flash lights your subject in a hard and unflattering way. Even the most glamorous Maine Coon cat would look poor with a smartphone flash. Disable your flash permanently.
Smartphone Portrait – Single Lamp – iPhone 12
Exposure
Did you realise your smartphone has the ability to adjust its exposure? What you see isn’t always what you are obliged to work with. A smartphone will try to help by making your image bright but this might risk bleaching out highlights or making shadows too dark.
Find Your Exposure Slider
I met a lady taking photos of the spectacular Bee statues on display in Wellington, New Zealand [October 2026]. She struggled with the interior light for one group until I showed her she had a slider to increase/decrease her smartphone exposure.
- Find your own exposure slider and see what a difference it can make to your photographs. There may be an icon (sun), or slider that changes colour. My iPhone has a plus/minus icon in a circle.
Expose For Your Highlights
Are there light areas that look too white (bleached) in your photographs? Avoid losing important details by moving your exposure slider down a small amount. You can recover/improve shadows when you edit but if an area is too bright you lose detail forever.
Do Not Use Digital Zoom
You will have found you can pinch to zoom in. Useful – right? But, this method of zooming degrades your photos resolution and adds a grainy texture to your images. If you want to make a card or photo canvas digital zoom can spoil a great shot.
Has your camera got a choice of lenses? Find out and learn to change them confidently. No time? Walk closer to your subject, if you can. Digital zoom is a last resort if you have no other options.
- I only have two lenses (see the bottom of the screen shot above 0.5 and 1x). How many have you got?
Challenge Yourself
Here’s a cool photo project! Find a scene with bright light behind your cat or human. Tap and hold to lock focus and exposure on the subject. Then slide the exposure down to turn the subject into a dramatic silhouette.
Ask a friend, or tempt an animal to relax near to a bright window. Take one photo facing the light source and another standing to the side to see how light direction changes and creates depth.
Organise Your Smartphone Photos. Try these guest post tips.
Cat Photographer, Instructor and Writer
Professional Member of the Cat Writers Association,
Winner of the Kuykendall Image Award
Published at the Guardian newspaper
I love your photos and how you share all your tips with others! Always award-winning pics!
I love the photos they are just amazing and the bee sculptures are fantastic. Your hacks are always so interesting although I do not have a smart phone but am learning from you all the time.
I’ve used the focus tool before but not the exposure, that’s next.
It’s an easy one to miss. It took me a while to find mine!
I don’t think I have an exposure slider on my Google Pixel 9 phone. I always have to brighten up my photos after taking them. It’s better than my last phone, a Samsung, but still mediocre at best. Great photos here as always!
Try this:
Enabling Quick Access Controls: You can put the sliders directly on your main viewfinder for faster adjustments:1. Tap the settings icon (cogwheel/photo settings button) in the lower-left corner of the Camera app.
2. Tap the three-dot menu.
3. Under Fast access, turn on Quick access controls.
4. Once enabled, tapping your camera viewfinder lets you pull up sliders for brightness, shadows, and white balance on the fly.
These are some excellent smart phone photography hacks. Since I take photos of stray cats (and they move all the time), my hack is just to take a ton of photos because if I overthink it, the cat will already be gone. I also love to get on the animal’s level. If you see someone flat on the street when photographing a cat, it’s probably me.
I know the feeling. Getting down low is a fave pose of mine too – and it works wonders.
Those are really good tips, I enjoyed reading them! Thanks for joining Angel Brian’s Thankful Thursday Blog Hop.
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