1. It's all about the light. "Photographing
in the right light -- early morning or late evening -- has the
potential to make the most 'boring' situation into a spectacular one!"
2. Never use the mobile zoom.
"It's terrible and the first step to an unsuccessful image. If you want
to get close, zoom with your feet! Get close and your images improve,"
he said.
3. Lock your exposure and focus. Your
photos will improve 100%, Hernandez said. "With the default camera app,
you can tap and hold on the screen to set where you want your exposure
and focus. Once the box "blinks," it's locked. You can also use other
apps like ProCamera to separately set and lock the exposure and focus.
4. Silence your inner critic. "See if you can go one day of shooting every time your inner voice says, 'I'd like to take a picture.'"
5. Edit, edit edit.
Restrain yourself from sharing everything. Post only the best, and your
audience will grow. "We don't need to see all 10,000 of your ugly
children," he said. "I try and pick my least ugly. it's hard to choose
and very personal."
6. Technical proficiency is overrated. "Exercise your power of observation. Learn to look and see deeply."
7. Filters don't replace a good eye.
"You still need the basics. Look for the moment and light and subject.
If you choose to add a sepia, black and white or other nostalgic or
creative filter later [with an app such as Instagram or Hipstamatic],
that's OK, but remember lipstick on a pig, it's still a pig." And if
it's for journalism, he added, "then it needs to be unfiltered."
8. Shoot from the hip for better candids.
"Hold the phone about waist-level and tap away. Your friends and family
will not know what you're doing. Be sneaky about it. The moment they
know you're shooting, the images become less candid. You'll get a lot
more bad shots, but when you get a good one, you'll want to hang it on
the wall!"
9. Give yourself assignments and deadlines.
Take 20 images of one thing from different angles. You'll begin to see
the world differently, even if it's just walking around the bowl of
fruit on your kitchen table and observing how the light falls on it from
different angles.
10. You have to know what you want to see before you can see it.
"Make a list of things you want to photograph today and find them! If
you know my work, then you know the No. 1 thing on my list are men in
fedoras! Or any hat for that matter!"
11. Study other photographers.
"I spend an unhealthy amount of time looking at images. It's the only
way to get better, in my humble opinion. My favorites are Roy Decarava, so happy we discovered Viviam Maier, and on Instagram, a dude named Daniel Arnold out of New York is just killing it!"
12. Always be ready.
"You want to make sure that when your mind and heart says 'shoot,' you
have no excuses, like, Oh, my camera was in my purse, pocket, or, gasp,
your camera wasn't around. It's one of the main reasons I love mobile
photography -- my camera is always with me."
