Fall is in the air and it isn’t too late to grab your camera phone and take some pictures in your garden. Here are some tips for creating some memorable photos. All of the images in this article were created with an iPhone 4S, which means more recent iPhones and Android phones should be capable of doing everything you see in this article (plus one simple accessory for a few of these photos).

Take Lots Of Pictures

The more pictures you take the better you will get at taking pictures, and you will have a better selection of images to choose from. When I decided to write this article I went out into my yard and took almost 100 photos in about 45 minutes. The screen capture above shows about half of them.

Get The Big Picture – Take Some Establishing Shots

They may not end up being your favorite photos, but take some overall establishing shots that give a big picture, overall view of different areas of your garden or the whole garden.

Whenever you tell a story with several photos (even a garden story), you need an “establishing shot” which is a journalism phrase that refers to a photo that shows where the story takes place. If something happens inside a factory, you take photos in the factory that tell the story, but you need at least one establishing shot of the whole factory.

Deal With Focusing Issues

Camera phones can have issues focusing as you get closer and closer to your subjects. They need texture and contrast to focus accurately. It is not unusual to have focusing issues. Give your camera some time to focus and something with texture or contrast to latch on to. It isn’t unusual for a camera phone to find focus, and then lose it by the time you push the shutter button. Don’t be surprised if you get some out of focus shots. It is frustrating but hang in there. Another reason to take lots of photos. Camera phones have a hard time focusing on smooth subjects like the round, smooth shape of a balloon flower before it opens. This is especially true if the background behind your smooth subject has lots of texture and “busyness” to latch on to.

Shoot From Eye Level – The Flower’s Eye Level

I watch a lot of people take photos from about five feet above the ground. That’s where their eyes are when they are standing up. Your photos will be better if you get down to the flower’s eye level. If your flower is 12 inches off the ground, put your camera phone about 12 inches off the ground.

Watch The Background

A distracting background can take away from your subject. Change your camera angle to eliminate anything that takes away from your subject.

A change of camera angle removes the fence and blue tarp for a better image.

Shoot Up

As long as you have your camera phone close to the ground, why not put it on the ground and shoot up? I positioned my iPhone so the sun was directly behind the dandelion puffball. It makes for a much more dramatic photo than the puffball in the shade.

Get Close

Without any accessories, most camera phones can focus at a fairly close distance. It may take it some time to focus properly and you may get some out of focus photos, so keep shooting. The biggest challenge in this photo was the bee. It kept moving and my iPhone kept trying and missing the focus. It took several attempts before I got a photo with the bee in focus.

Get Really Close

As long as you are in close, why not get really close? There are some simple but effective closeup adapters made for popular brands of camera phones (link below).

I used an Olloclip on my iPhone for the closeup of the blanket flower just above and for the balloon flower closeup at the top of this article. It is easy to use. Just slide the Olloclip over the corner of your iPhone (or Android phone) so the Olloclip lens you want to use is directly over the iPhone lens (it is reversible). My particular Olloclip model came with three lenses: a wide angle lens, a fisheye lens, and if you unscrew the wide angle lens a closeup (macro) lens is underneath the wide angle lens. When you use the Olloclip closeup lens, move in close so the lens is only an inch or less away from your subject (it isn’t well suited for working with rattesnakes).

You will need a camera phone case that is fast and easy to remove since the Olloclip will not slide over the phone when it is in a case.

This image will give you an idea how close you need to be to your subject when using an Olloclip closeup lens. For fisheye photography (of subjects at more normal working distances) you would reverse the Olloclip so the fisheye lens is over the iPhone (or Android phone) lens.

Depth of field (near to far sharpness in an image) is very shallow when doing closeup photos. Part of your subject will look sharp, but not the whole subject. It will take some careful work to get the part of your subject that you want in focus to be in focus. You may get a few photos where the focus is off before you get everything right. Keep taking pictures and hang in there.

Capture The Critters

As long as you are getting up close and personal with your closeup adapter you might as well capture some of the critters in your yard and garden.

How sharp is the Olloclip lens (if you do everything right)? This is the cicada’s eye, cropped from the original, full sized photo. Despite the limited depth of field, you can see some of the individual cells in the eye.

Don’t Miss The Leaves

It is fall after all. Don’t forget to take photos of the leaves falling in your yard and around your garden.

Have Some Artistic Fun With Camera Phone Apps

Unleash your inner artist. Play with some of your photos with some camera phone apps. The Photoshop Police won’t come and take you away.

Some of my favorite apps are Photoshop Express (also called PS Express), Painteresque, and Snapseed. They are available for most popular brands of smart phones.

Make The Most Of Painteresque

The Painteresque app turns photos into paintings right inside your phone  – how cool is that?!  Open the app, pick a photo and have fun. Painteresque does tend to desaturate the resulting image so I like to add the saturation (color intensity) back to the photo using the Vibrance slider in the PS Express app. Here’s how.

Open the Photoshop Express app (PS Express) and choose the photo on your camera that you want to work on. Click on the sliders icon at the bottom center of the screen (indicated by the red arrow). You will see a variety of image adjustments, each of them controlled by an adjustment slider. Slide the icons left and right to see all of them from Clarity on the far left to Vibrance on the far right. Find the Vibrance  slider and drag it to the right until your colors have the amount of saturation you want.

Be Ready For Happy Accidents

I was trying to take an artsy photo of an acorn on the ground but my dog decided he needed to stand right in front of me. I was going to move him out of the way when it occurred to me I really liked the juxtaposition of his paw next to an acorn. My iPhone, as you can tell, is in the dirt.

Don’t Miss an Unusual Photo Op With An Ordinary Object

Found objects in your yard can be fun to photograph. Most people don’t take pictures with their camera phone on the ground, but an unusual camera angle can be just the ticket to a new look at an ordinary object.

Don’t Put Your Camera Phone Away When The Sun Goes Down

You are out in your yard and the sun goes down. Don’t put your camera phone away. You might miss a great sunset.

Links

Olloclip – Their auxiliary lenses are available for a variety of camera phones.

Camera phone apps:

Photoshop Express

Painteresque

Snapseed