Photography Tips – London Photowalk with Three

I recently attended a Photowalk with Three, a group of bloggers and I got to try out the Samsung S9 and iPhone X cameras whilst taking photos around London. On our walk we visited Maltby Street Market, Tower Bridge and St Katherines Dock. We were with a photographer called Rob, who was there to give us some photography tips along the way. Here are some really useful tips that I learnt:

Photography tips

• Use the rule of thirds so the subject of the image isn’t in the centre, this draws the viewers eye to the composition of the photo.
• Turn on grids, to do this on the iPhone go to settings – camera and then grid. When you take a photo, place the subject at one of the intersections on the rule of thirds grid to give the shot a clear focal point, this will help you create a balanced composition.
• Use the portrait setting to give the photo a focus point and blur the background, this is great with food shots.
• Take photos and edit in Lightroom, download the app and this will allow you to shoot in raw, giving you clearer and more professional photos.

Editing in Lightroom

• Up the vibrancy not the saturation to make it brighter but still look natural.
• Enable lens correction – this will fix any problems such as distortion.
• To copy your editing to another photo so all your photos look similar go to the top right hand side click copy settings, and then paste this into the photo you want. This will help save you a lot of time editing!
• Up the sharpening for more definition.
• Clarity can help bring out the texture and detail.

iPhone X

I already use the iPhone 7+ and love the camera, I use this for most of my blog photos. The camera on the iPhone X is really good too, I found the colours on the iPhone X slightly better than the Samsung. The one thing I couldn’t get used too was not having a home button on the phone, I found it a bit weird but I’m sure it’s something you’d get used too. Overall I really liked the camera on this phone and found it easy to use.

Samsung S9

What I loved about the Samsung S9 was the amount of different features available on the camera, it even has a food setting, which is great for getting decent food photos in dimly lit restaurants. I started using the Samsung S9 in the afternoon when it started raining, so most of my photos using this are a bit grey and dreary. However, I think with a bit of practise using this camera, you can get some really great photos.

Both cameras were really good, the iPhone X does most of the work for you and the colours seem more accurate but you have limited shooting options. If you play around with the settings on the S9 and put in a bit more work then you can get a better shot with the Samsung.

*A huge thank you to Three for organising this fun event!*