5 Simple Tips For Taking Better Club Photos On Your Smartphone
Capturing high-quality photos at club events is essential for boosting your organisation’s digital presence, but hiring a professional can be expensive. Fortunately, by learning a few smartphone photography tips, you can enhance your marketing materials.
I love photography, whether it’s a photojournalist like Nick Ut reshaping the way an entire war is seen, or a portrait photographer like Misan Harriman telling an entire story in a single image. There is something about it that just mesmerises me.
However, the photos we are talking about today are less about capturing the horrors of the human condition and more about capturing the horrors of the incredibly garish Hawaiian shirt Ted wore to the charity sausage sizzle.
Clubs and associations constantly need new, attention-grabbing pictures to post on social media, advertise events, and get new members through the door. Unfortunately, hiring a professional photographer is often way too expensive for the average not-for-profit.
The good news is you do not need a $20,000 Hasselblad and an expense account to take great photos; you certainly do not need them to take great photos for your club. In fact, the only piece of camera gear you actually need is likely sitting in your pocket right now. So, today, let’s take a look at five simple ways to get professional-looking club photos using your smartphone.
The Short Version: 5 Ways To Improve Your Club Photos
If you are in a rush or just want a quick checklist to keep in mind for your next event, here is the short version of exactly what we will be covering:
- Zoom with your feet: Stop pinching your phone screen to zoom in; it forces your phone to guess the pixels and destroys your image quality. Simply walk closer to your subject instead.
- Find the diagonal light: Avoid placing bright windows or the sun directly behind or directly in front of your subject. Move yourself around until the light hits them from an angle to create natural depth.
- Prioritise candid moments: People having genuine interactions will always look better than a group of forced smiles. If you absolutely must take a posed photo, chat with your subjects to get a natural, relaxed reaction.
- Use basic composition: Turn on your camera's grid setting to help balance your shots, always check your background for visual distractions, and use natural lines in the room to point toward your subject.
- Wipe your lens: Take two seconds to clean the camera lenses on the back of your phone before you start shooting.
1. Getting To Know Your Smartphone Camera
First, let’s quickly go over the basics of your phone’s camera, because if you get the basics wrong, everything else falls to pieces.
If you look at the back of any modern smartphone, you will see it has multiple lenses. These lenses are important because of their fixed focal lengths. Understanding this is the key to taking sharp, crisp photos.
Each lens on the back of your phone is fixed at a set length; it does not physically move in or out like a traditional camera lens. When you open your camera app, you usually see a row of preset buttons at the bottom of the screen, such as 0.5x, 1x, and 5x.
- 0.5x is your wide-angle lens.
- 1x is your standard, everyday lens.
- 5x is your zoom lens.
When you tap those preset buttons, your phone physically switches to the corresponding lens. This is called optical zoom, and it gives you a crystal-clear image.
However, when you pinch the screen with your fingers to zoom to an in-between number, like 2.5x, something weird happens. Because 2.5x is closer than your standard lens but not close enough to trigger the zoom lens, your phone is forced to digitally compensate. It takes the standard 1x image and digitally crops and stretches it to fill the screen. It artificially makes the image look closer, but at the cost of clarity.
As an example, I took three photos of my Moka pot because my dog was a poor model.
The image on the left was taken up close using the standard 1x optical zoom. For the middle image, I stepped a couple of metres back and pinched the screen to digitally zoom in to roughly 2.5x. For the image on the right, I walked to the far side of the room and digitally zoomed all the way into 13x.
You can see how each image is significantly less crisp and vibrant than the previous one. The middle photo looks pretty okay, but the overall sharpness has faded, and the fine detail in the wooden handle has been lost entirely. By the time we reach the final image on the right, the entire picture is washed out and grainy.
The secret here is really simple: walk. Never zoom in or out if you can help it; just walk closer or further to your subject, it will give you better quality images every time.
2. Getting The Lighting Right
One of the first things you learn when trying to take a photo is that lighting is super important. If the light is directly behind the subject, they will become a dark, featureless silhouette and end up looking like an anonymous witness in a crime documentary. Conversely, if the light is directly in front of them, their features will be entirely blown out and flat.
The key is to have your light source come in diagonally. You do not need to worry about setting up perfect studio conditions with complex key lights, backing lights, and reflectors. All you really need to remember is that having light hit your subject from an angle casts natural shadows; it makes details easy to see while adding drama and depth to the image.
Take, for example, the photos below of Steve Jobs. One is a fairly standard picture of Jobs taken at an event, where he is lit flatly and evenly across his face. The other is Albert Watson’s famous portrait.
Two headshots of the same man, from the same time period and wearing a very similar outfit, yet wildly different photos.
Now obviously, at your club's fundraiser dinner or car meet, you cannot start dragging heavy lights around the room or interrupting people mid-conversation and start spinning them around to face better lighting. Instead, just like last time, the key is walking. If you see something that would make a good photo, find a position where the lighting is working for you.
Also, I promise all these tips won’t end up with me telling you to walk; photography is slightly more than just walking. Slightly.
3. Prioritise Candid Photos
There is something about making everyone stand up straight and say "cheese" for the camera that can really kill a photo. Obviously, a professional on either side of the lens can massively change that, but for the average person, telling the group to look up from their conversation and hold still for 10 seconds while you take photos is going to result in stilted rather than stunning.
For example, imagine this famous photo if the photographer had made them all stop what they were doing and smile for the camera.
It would ruin it. Part of the appeal of Lunch atop a Skyscraper is that it’s a glimpse into a moment of time, perfectly frozen.
A picture of members mid-laugh, deep in conversation, or actively participating in an activity is going to look a lot better than asking them to line up. These natural, candid moments show prospective members that your club is actually a fun, vibrant community.
How to Fix the Unavoidable Posed Photo
Sooner or later, you are going to need to take a posed photo, however. It might be a group photo, or it might be an individual portrait for your about us page; either way, you have to find a way to make it not feel stilted.
When you raise your phone for these necessary shots, your subjects will inevitably freeze up and flash a forced, uncomfortable smile. If you want to break this tension, you have to talk to them. Do not just count to three and hit the button; ask them a question about the event, make a joke, or generally have a bit of a natter with them. All the while, taking photos. You’ll probably get 30 terrible photos, but you’ll also get one or two great natural photos, too.
4. Basic Photo Composition
The subject of photo composition is an immensely detailed one, and certainly not one we need to be going into in any real detail here. However, a few basics of composition can do a lot to make your club’s photos more attention-grabbing.
Turn On Your Gridlines
Go into your phone's camera settings and turn on the "Grid" feature. This places a faint grid over your screen. Instead of trapping your subject directly in the centre of the frame, try to line them up along the left or right vertical lines. This instantly makes the photo look more professional and balanced.
Check Your Background
Before you take a picture, take a second to look past your subject. Is there a rogue tree branch perfectly positioned so it looks like it is growing out of the club president's head? Is there an overflowing rubbish bin right behind the raffle winner? A slight step to the left or right can completely hide these visual distractions.
Use Leading Lines
Our eyes naturally want to follow lines. You can use things already at your venue, like a long dining table, a fence line, or even the edge of a running track, to point directly toward your subject. It naturally draws the viewer's eye right to the most important part of the photo.
5. Wipe Your Lens (Seriously)
I know it’s really simple, but our phones go through a lot each day, they’re in pockets, in bags, on desks, falling on floors, and as a result, they end up dirty, covered in fingerprints, dirt, lint and more.
Before you start lining up your subjects or checking your gridlines, just take two seconds to wipe the lenses on the back of your phone with a microfibre cloth or the inside of your shirt. It requires zero technical skill, but it is the easiest way to guarantee your photos stay sharp and clear.
Putting It All Together
So next time you are hosting an event and see a good opportunity for a photo, take a few moments before you tap the button.
Work out where the light is coming from, and move around to be in the best position to use it to your advantage. Work out how you will frame the image: will you place the subject on a two-thirds line, or use leading lines to guide the viewer's gaze? Decide whether you need to get closer to your subject, and remember to always zoom with your feet. Try not to interrupt the people you’re photographing and finally, give that lens a wipe and take the photo.
What To Do With Your New Photos
Taking better photos is just the first step in upgrading your marketing. Once you have a gallery full of fantastic, clear, and perfectly lit images of your members having a great time, you need to know exactly how to leverage them to grow your organisation.
If you are looking for the next step in putting those photos to work, check out these two articles: