Photos that sell, with your phone
You don't need a big camera. The phone in your pocket can take photos that make people want to call. Here is how, for food, salons, barbers, builders, shops and churches.
Start with a clean lens and good light
First, wipe your phone's lens with a soft cloth. It takes five seconds and it helps a lot. Then find the light. Stand near a window, or go outside in the morning or late afternoon. Turn the flash off.
Try this If the light looks harsh on your subject, move the subject, not the phone.
Keep it simple and straight
Clear the clutter behind what you are shooting. Hold the phone straight and step closer. Tap the screen on your subject so it is sharp. Take five photos and keep the best one.
Try this Turn on the grid lines in your camera settings. They help you hold it straight.
Food: make people hungry
Shoot the plate by a window, from above or from a little to the side. Wipe the edge of the plate. Show the steam, the sauce, the hands that serve it. One plate on a clean table beats a crowded one.
Try this Shoot the food right when it comes out, while it still looks fresh.
Salons and barbers: show the change
Take a before and an after in the same place with the same light. Shoot the cut from the front, the side and the back. Show your hands at work and your clean chair. Always ask the customer first.
Try this Put a clean, plain wall behind your customer for every photo.
Contractors: before, during, after
Stand in the same spot to take the before and the after, so people can really see the change. Tidy the space first. Take a few photos in the middle of the job, with your team at work. Close-ups of clean, careful details tell people you take pride in your work.
Try this Ask the owner's OK before you post photos of their home.
Shops: one product, one clean spot
Put one product on a plain table or a sheet of white paper by the window. Take it from the front, then from the side. Add one photo of it in use, in a real hand or a real room. Keep every photo in the same style.
Try this Make a small "photo corner" in your shop, so you can shoot in two minutes.
Churches: bright rooms and happy people
Take your wide photos before the service, when the room is bright and clean. During worship, show the joy: the team, the singing, the hands. Ask your members before you show their faces, and get a parent's OK for children.
Try this Keep one friendly face at the door for the "Welcome" photo.
Picture this
Picture a woman who sells hair products from her shop. She wipes her phone's lens, puts one bottle by the window on a sheet of white paper, and takes five photos in two minutes. She keeps the sharpest one. Ten of those photos later, her page looks like a real shop that people can trust.
Do this today
Tap each one when you have done it.
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