Charr’s QuickStart Guide to Thinking Visually and Getting Great Photos and Videos with Your iPhone

This is a quick-start guide on how to use your camera phone and your brain to create powerful photos and videos for use in the digital communication world.

Whether you are shooting photos for business or for pleasure the iPhone has made it possible for all of us to think visually and capture our lives in images. Our phones become a visual diary of sorts and those images can be used in multiple ways.

Follow these simple guidelines and watch your photos and videos get better instantly by applying a few simple suggestions.

By Charr Crail

You don’t have to be a professional to make use of the iPhone’s powerful capabilities for illustrating things that matter to you and capturing them as photos or videos. You can photograph or capture on video your own testimonials, interviews, events and products.

The general rules are simple. Whether you are using a pro camera or a cell phone seeing light and making good compositions are key.

Simply ask yourself a few simple questions:

• Do you have plenty of room on your Device? Videos take a lot of space. Archive and clear your device relatively frequently.

• Is the lens clean? Use a clean cloth and wipe it free of dust.

• Do you need a tripod? If not lean on something or hold your breath.

• Where is the subject? Get closer, avoid the zoom, walk closer.

• Where is the light coming from? Is your subject in it? Find the best angle, where your subject is lit and looks good.

• What’s in the background? Is it too bright or filled with distractions?

• Does the picture look good to you in the camera? (good light, in focus, nicely framed)

• Find the best angle, where your subject is lit and looks good. Look up, Look down. Choose.

• Frame and shoot the picture. Then shoot at least a few more. The more you shoot the more chance of getting a good one!

Bottom line-- You’re there, you’ve got your cell phone camera, Elvis just entered the building, YOU CAN GET THE SHOT!

1. Hold the phone like a camera, with both hands. Look at the image in the phone instead of the live action happening. When ready tap the shutter button to capture the picture.

2. Avoid zooming, just walk closer. To fill the frame and get a close photo you have to get close. Camera phones lose quality with zooming. Your photo may likely look grainy, pixelated and will lose quality.

3. Shoot more than a few pictures when possible. You can take many photos of the same thing and one of them will be vastly better than the others. Nuance makes a difference.

4. Find the light and make the most of it. Decent light with camera phones is

important because the lower the light the more muddy or grainy the image. Keep the light behind you so your subject is lit. Side light can work too. Though camera phones have a built in flash it is usually brassy and can look bad by blowing out detail. In most situations you won’t need it.

5. Clean the lens. Lenses get dusty and smudged while hanging out in our pockets and bags. Even a phone can use a bit of TLC to keep the lens clean and ready for action. Even a shirt you’re wearing will do.

6. Move around, try different angles. The phone is small and easy to maneuver into interesting angles or small spaces. Get higher or lower with it for unique angles.

Tips for Getting Better Pictures

The Story behind the photo:It was a rare thing to find Leeloo and Toby close together in a friendly way so I was shocked when I happened upon this scene. I reached slowly and quietly for my phone to capture the moment. As if on cue Leeloo reached his paw over and laid it onto Toby for this super sweet moment. Had I not had my iPhone handy I might have missed it entirely.

Let’s Begin with Some Important Basics

Quickstart Guide to Thinking Visually © Charr Crail, all rights reserved. Do not share or reproduce.

We tend to take light for granted until it isn’t there. Beyond the obvious delights of light— the sun, the moon, the light we read by and the lack of light we sleep by… There is also vast and interesting world around our perception of it as well as an emotional relationship we have with it. Bright light can be happy, dark light can be scary, Bright light can be sterile, dark light can be romantic— get the idea?

Even the positioning of light can create worlds of thought about what we are seeing. Light from above is like the sun, light from below can look monster-ish, light from the sides can create a film noir drama.

We use all kinds of words, literal and descriptive, to describe our relationship with light.

...sunny cloudy shady indoor outdoor lamp reflected rays glow ambient strobe flash celestial luminescent side radiant phosphorescent incandescent florescent front back edge silhouette fill available daylight dark white warm hot cool low bright shadow dark soft bounce reflected…

There are countless variables of light, both ambient (what’s naturally there), man-made light (such as lamps and fixtures) and even reflective light, which is light hitting one thing but bouncing off and landing on another. What we “see” and what our brain translates for us are two very different things. Once you pay attention to the quality of light around you this interesting truth becomes quite obvious. The camera is smart and doing it’s best job but your eyes and brain are still a lot smarter!

It’s critical to have an understanding of “seeing light” because getting how light affects our relationship to making photos will ultimately impact how we use this amazing tool— the iPhone and it’s built in camera for both still photographs and video.

Though we often tend to take light for granted-- until the power goes off-- the simple truth is that light is everywhere and it is everything to our lives. Light is an important part of our overall well-being.

In relationship to photography Light is the foundation of all we do and are capable of capturing. Light is the undeniable and universal key to getting pictures and videos.

Without light you have nothing, literally. In fact I will take it just one step further.

When you point your camera at a subject you’re not really photographing the subject— You are photographing the light on the subject and in the end one simple truth remains— No Light = No Picture.

NO LIGHT = NO PICTURE

SEEING LIGHTSounds easy right? And it is, once you actually see it...

Quickstart Guide to Thinking Visually © Charr Crail, all rights reserved. Do not share or reproduce.

ExerciseSit comfortably. Close your eyes.

Just breathe.

Inhale, Hold for a few seconds, Exhale.

Inhale, Hold for a few seconds, Exhale.

Inhale, Hold for a few seconds, Exhale.

Slowly open your eyes and take a good look around the room.

Notice the various light sources, the shadows, the hot spots, a shaft of light falling on the decor. Notice the colors, bold or muted, highlighted or in the shadows.

Notice how light wraps around everything in the room, even you.

Hold your hand out in front of you and turn it it slowly while looking to see how the ambient light is falling on it. Move your hand a few inches right or left. Take note of if the light changes on it. Swivel your hand and note the subtle changes in light upon it.

Where are the brighter spots? Where are the shadows? Is there contrast or softness?

Consider that all the colors of light are mixed together. Every moment, night or day, our eyes are compensating and giving us back information in ways a camera never can. Our pupils are naturally dilating in constant response to the quality of light where we are.

… Daylight from a window, the bulb in a table lamp, light reflecting off a colorful wall...

It all gets beautifully mixed up.

So, keep looking. Keep noticing. Keep seeing. Wherever you go, There you are. Notice the quality of light surrounding you.

Seeing the extraordinary quality of light is the universal key to the world of photography and your ability to help the camera do it’s job so you can capture great images.

A very beautiful thing.

Quickstart Guide to Thinking Visually © Charr Crail, all rights reserved. Do not share or reproduce.

THINK VISUALLY

The moment you shine a light on something you create awareness— like a flashlight in a dark forest.

The truth is if you want to sell, and all of us in business want to sell, then why not use pictures to show off. In fact, if you don’t show and sell yourself and your business who will? Shy won’t cut it when it comes to spreading the word about you.

So— I went to a free-styling poetry/rap event recently. At some point I got hyper present to what I was witnessing and asked myself what

is here for me? How can I use this? I used my iPhone of course to take some pictures. I was enthralled by the originality of the performer and later added some artistic flair and a relevant quote and posted it on Instagram.

So if we are telling stories, and it’s no secret my own love story is about originality, creativity and self expression, isn’t your sales and marketing pitch really a love story too that needs to reach people who will get the possibility of transformation if they work with or buy from you?

Like that singer on stage grab the mic and speak your truth to the world. Some will be looking away, some will turn around to pay attention. Some are outside locked in conversation. Take a picture, use words and use the tools possible to deliver your message around the world to anyone who is listening.

There are ways of speaking that don’t need words at all— Music, art, photography, physical gestures. All speak as loudly as your voice on a microphone filling a concert hall. The look and delivery methods around advertising may keep changing but the essential core is and will likely stay the same. Use imagery to show product, deliver a message, get attention, make the sale.

You know your own stuff better than anyone so let’s put your brain on it. Let’s say you sell the most delicious gluten free chocolates— so delicious that no one knows they are a healthy alternative. They just need one bite and YUMMMMM. So, how do you illustrate “yum”?

Is it a face? Or is it a product you thought of?What kind of face? Man or woman, young or old? What came into your mind? Because something shot into your mind in the instant I made the suggestion of a face.

If product, what kind of product? What image shoots into your mind? A shop? A kitchen? A box of fancy chocolates or a tray of cookies?

Start there, fill in the details. Think Visually.Quickstart Guide to Thinking Visually © Charr Crail, all rights reserved. Do not share or reproduce.

CREDITSAll content in this companion guide is by Charr Crail

(unless otherwise noted) and subject to copyright laws. Do not copy, reproduce, share or distribute in anyway without

direct written permission of the photographer and author Charr Crail.

Contact Information for Charr Crailwww.charrcrail.com Phone: 916-672-8423 email: charr@me.com

Mailing Address: PO Box 19605 Sacramento, CA 95819

Charr Crail is an award-winning Northern California photographer, artist and teacher with an avid passion for transforming her original imagery into art that embraces the delicate beauty of our lives.   She develops select, unique, portraiture that is born from captured imagery to convey human meaning and our human story. 

Charr became a photojournalist and later a photo editor spanning two decades working for Northern California publications including The Sacramento Bee. 

Her photojournalistic experience has therefore been nuanced through everything she produces.  Her career, spanning over three decades, includes a thriving freelance photography business specializing in live entertainment, editorial work and extraordinary art portraiture.

Charr has won countless awards for masterful pieces including; The Kodak Award, The American Society of Photographers Traveling Loan Collection, WPPI Premier Award. Her work is in the permanent collection of the Di Rosa Museum in California and her work was on the cover of Rangefinder Magazine to name just a few of the honors she has received worldwide.

Charr is also a professor at Sacramento City College opening the eyes and minds for students of all ages who seek a career in photography or are building upon their portfolio. Separately, Charr puts on live Workshops and Masterclasses for students in a wide range of creative topics including Digital Imaging/Photoshop, iPad for Artisans and iPhone for Entrepreneurs Using Photos and Video.

Photo by Kevin Graft www.kevingraft.com

“I’ve been a pro photographer for 35 years and sometimes I get tired of strapping on all my camera gear. Sometimes I just want to go out without it, even on vacation. Now I can— with my iPhone!” Charr Crail

ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHER AND AUTHOR

Interested in Workshops and or Masterclasses with Charr?

Contact Charr directly with questions or visit her website to read and learn more.

www.charrcrail.com