Here are Android Authority’s best smartphone photography tips

Whether it’s for reviews, features, or just general curiosity, we spend plenty of time with smartphone cameras here at Android Authority. That doesn’t mean we’re all amazing photographers (certainly not me), but it does mean there’s a collective wealth of knowledge on the subject.

So with that in mind, I thought it would be a good idea to ask the team about their favorite smartphone photography tips. Whether it’s an obscure pointer or a very basic but still welcome tip, here’s what they came up with.

Senior Writer Kaitlyn Cimino has a handy tip, saying you should change the way you see your subject if you want a different-looking photo:

Everyone is shooting from the same average height but interesting images are just a small adjustment away. Phones are so lightweight and portable it’s easy to shoot from all different angles/positions and find more creative options.

This makes a lot of sense as a different perspective can make for a striking photo. It also gives us a viewpoint that we’re not used to seeing very often. So don’t be afraid to crouch, hold the camera up high, or play with your angles in general.

Colleague Rob Triggs also echoes this tip, saying that you can adjust your height to get more of the natural environment in your photo. He specifically says you should get lower to the ground for photos of pets and kids, as they’re closer to the ground after all.

Head of Testing and Data Science Rob Triggs says you should use your phone’s zoom camera for portrait shots:

Your standard 23mm primary camera has too wide a focal length of natural face shapes. Switch to a 2x or 3x telephoto lens (50-70mm) for a more true-to-life took and some free natural bokeh.

In other words, even a 2x crop from your primary (1x) camera will produce a distorted, narrow face shape compared to a proper 2x or 3x telephoto camera. So you should switch to your zoom camera for a more accurate look.

Managing Editor Bogdan Petrovan also recommends using your phone’s 2x or 3x telephoto camera, but not just for portraits. Bogdan says this can add a little more depth to your pictures, even if the subject is close to the camera.

Don’t have a telephoto camera? Well, Features Editor Rita El-Khoury suggests that you try using the 2x crop option instead of stubbornly sticking with 1x.

“If a photo doesn’t look as appealing as you thought it would, just switch to 2x zoom and see if you get a better-framed photo,” Rita explains. “You’d be surprised how often it happens that cropping the photo and shooting ‘less’ is better than shooting more and having a lot of distractions in your shot.”

Rita adds that one nifty way to avoid a skewed shot (e.g. when taking a photo of a building or document) is to step back and use 2x or more zoom.

Using 2x zoom is also my bonus tip, and that’s mainly because many phones without a telephoto camera crop from a high-resolution 1x camera to capture better 2x photos. In plain English, that means you can still get good 2x photos without a dedicated 2x zoom camera.

Deals Editor Matt Horne also suggests that you take a picture with the ultrawide camera for a different perspective.

“I want to be VERY clear that I suck at photography and the average Joe on the street would likely have better photography tips than me. However, discovering ultrawide was an eye-opener for me,” Matt explained. He added that ultrawide photos of groups, landscapes, and other scenes not solely focused on one subject all look better than 1x shots, or are nice alternatives at the very least.

I can definitely agree here. Much like switching to 2x, the different perspective can be very helpful. You’re not necessarily going to get a higher-quality image in terms of detail and noise, but there are some situations (e.g. landscapes and cityscapes) where the wider perspective alone is more important.

Senior Writer Andy Walker also suggests that you should simply take more photos:

I used to be reluctant to take photos, but I’ve found that the more I used my phone (and camera) to snap pictures, the more I learned about the process. It’s an obvious tip, but one that can be easy to forget if you’re hypercritical of the results. You can always delete the photos you don’t like later. No one will know.

Senior Writer Aamir Siddiqui’s hilariously frank walkthrough for taking photos also involves taking several snaps:

I just look at the sun, point the camera in the opposite direction, use the rule of thirds gridlines for rough guidance, and pray to God as I click five pics of the same thing.

Either way, taking more photos is a reliable way to get a photo you actually like. In fact, I remember attending a Lumia photography workshop with a National Geographic photographer over a decade ago, and this was also one of his top pointers.

Combine this tip with Kaitlyn’s suggestion of trying different positions and angles, you’re bound to capture a few worthwhile shots. Kaitlyn also recommended using the burst mode to capture loads of snaps, especially if you have children.

Managing Editor Oliver Cragg’s tip sounds obvious, but I’ve definitely forgotten to do this at times:

Tap to focus! Always tap on the subject before you take a shot. A lot of people don’t do this!

I don’t always do this as I tend to trust that my smartphone’s autofocus will work just fine. However, there have been more than a few occasions where my phone’s autofocus wasn’t playing ball, particularly in mixed lighting. And there’s nothing worse than taking a photo and checking it hours later, only to discover that it’s out-of-focus.

Pretty much every Android smartphone has a grid option, and YouTube producer Paul Jones says you should definitely enable it.

Grid lines are so simple, but they help you frame your shots better, and using the rule of thirds will always give you a better shot,” Paul explains. “You can use grid lines on almost any native camera app.”

Aside from ensuring effective use of the rule of thirds, grid lines can also help you avoid skew shots. This can be particularly useful if your phone camera doesn’t specifically warn you when your viewfinder is skew. In fact, several colleagues recommended that you use grid lines to help frame and line up your shots.

Drone Rush Editor and jack-of-all-trades Jonathan Feist suggested users turn on grid lines too, but also said you should turn on the level option. It’s certainly worth enabling both tools for maximum peace of mind before hitting the shutter button.

News Lead Adamya Sharma had plenty of great pointers, but one of my favorites is to use natural light where possible:

Of course, I’m no professional photographer but another one of the most basic tricks I follow is to always use natural light to take pictures instead of an artificial light source or flash.

This is an excellent tip as artificial light sources can introduce white balance issues (among other problems), while smartphone flashes can often be blinding and result in overly bright shots. Rita also echoed this advice, saying you should always disable the flash and “crush your instinct” to use it. For what it’s worth, both of the low-light photos above were taken without using the flash.

Adamya also recommends that your subject face the light rather than have the light behind them, unless you want a dark/silhouetted photo. The subject doesn’t have to directly face the light, either.

One of my favorite tips is to simply take photos during the golden hours, around sunrise and sunset. This is basically the closest thing to a cheat code for capturing great pictures.

Take photos during this time of the day, and you’ll usually get rich, golden hues and long shadows. Conversely, photos of the same scene taken in the middle of the day can look overly bright and washed out.

A couple of team members also suggested shooting in RAW if you plan to edit your snaps. Kaitlyn reasons that “the more information your image has, the more you can play around in post (editing).”

“If you’re not worried about saving space on your phone, toggle on the JPEG + RAW option,” Paul explains. “It’s always handy to have both in case you ever fancy getting into editing your photos through Lightroom or something similar.”

Of course, it’s worth noting that RAW files allow for non-destructive image editing compared to editing a standard JPEG image. In plain English, that means any edits you make to a RAW photo are reversible, and subsequent edits won’t degrade the quality of the image. That’s not the case with a JPEG picture.

The team also has a few extra smartphone photography tips worth noting. For one, Adamya says you should remember to clean your lens before taking photos. Meanwhile, Bogdan recommends you try out alternative camera apps.

Rita has a clutch of extra tips, such as enabling quick access controls (white balance, shadows, exposure) on Pixel phones to quickly dial in your photos. This toggle can be found by tapping the settings icon > More settings > Quick access controls. I particularly like the shadow slider, seen above. She also says you can use night mode in other situations, such as inside museums and on very overcast days.

Jonathan also noted that you shouldn’t rely on AI tools, nor should you be afraid of them. He specifically recalled that the Galaxy S25‘s suggestion feature for framing was focused on the entire scene and not on the specific subject he was trying to shoot.

“I got my shot by ignoring the AI-suggested framing, but I did look at the framing, and it was great if I was trying to capture the entire scene/object,” Jonathan explained. “Just like the back-up camera in your car, do not rely on it, but it is a powerful addition to your tool kit.”

Do you have any specific smartphone photography tips you’d like to share with us? Let us know in the comments below!