Shoot on a Phone Like a Pro

Sometimes, we don’t have access to the biggest, most fancy camera and we have to make do with the small one built onto our phones. Lately, even professional filmmakers like Soderbergh have even been making it a norm. On the flip side, we’ve all seen how bad a phone camera can look when not handled properly. Before you run out and make your masterpiece for Housebound Film Competition or Austin Youth Film Festival on your cell phone (which is fine by us!) here are a few tips we’ve compiled to get the most out of your mobile camera:

1) Shoot Horizontal

Yes, the phone fits better in your hand when it’s vertical and Instagram stories have started us down the path of vertical cinema, but when filmmaking, we must always keep in mind how the film will be screened. In our case, that’ll be horizontal. To get the best footage for your edit to horizontal, turn that phone on its side and shoot that way! Nothing screams amateur like a tiny vertical video.

2) Zoom = Walk Closer

Again, yes, our phone does have a zoom feature, but take your phone out and zoom as far as it can go and see what happens to the image. Unfortunately, the zoom feature on most cell phones is actually a digital zoom, and what that does is it takes all of our pixels and expands them. This results in a loss of resolution and a grainy, blurry shot. Those fancy lenses on our cameras have an optical zoom where the lenses inside physically move closer or further apart. To maintain your image quality, your best move is to move! If you need to zoom in, simply walk closer to the subject. It’s that simple! What is great is that your camera is TINY so having it in someone’s face is much less intrusive than the bigger cameras we’re used to working with.

3) Lighting

Another way to get the best image out of the camera on our phone is to ensure we have good lighting. A drawback to the phone camera is that its sensor size is quite small, which is the part of our camera that is “sensitive to light” and captures that light to form the image we’re recording. Most of our phone cameras also don’t have much range (if any) in f-stops. F-stops are the measure of how open or closed our aperture is. The aperture is the small gate that opens or closes inside our camera’s lens to allow more or less light through. On our bigger cameras, we have a setting to toggle if the camera isn’t getting enough light and the image is under-exposed, we can simply open the aperture a few f-stops and fix the problem. That being said, you likely have already noticed that when you try to record in low-light on your phone that the image becomes grainy and blurry if you can see anything at all. Because our phones don’t have as much range on that opening and closing and they aren’t as sensitive to light, we’re forced to instead focus on ensuring there is enough light in our location.

That being said, there are plenty of ways to add more light to your filming location if you notice the image quality not being… great. You could add higher wattage bulbs to a room, use clamp lights from the garage, take lampshades off, open windows, etc. One thing we would recommend skipping is using your phone’s flash feature as it can result in your film looking a little like the Blair Witch Project and cause your subjects to look a little flat (unless that’s the look you’re going for). Also, consider writing something that happens outdoors, during the day! Outdoor natural lighting is an IDEAL situation for phone cameras.

4) Check Your Focus

Most phone cameras will try to auto-focus for you. Which means it’s possible that it won’t know what YOU want it to focus on. There’s an easy fix to this that you already should be pretty accustomed to: check your focus before each shot. This can be as easy as tapping your subject on the screen and giving your camera a second to find the focal point and drop the rest out of focus.

Additionally, if you find that all of your shots feel soft, it is possible that you need to clean your camera lens! Because we handle our phones a lot, it’s pretty common that we may need to get a lens cleaning cloth out to wipe off our fingerprints. Gross, I know!

5) Stabilize Your Shots

With a camera that is super lightweight, it is much easier to end up with shaky shots. Most newer phone cameras have some degree of image stabilization built-in, but it certainly isn’t quite enough to keep your viewer from getting a little sea-sick watching a 4 minute short that is entirely handheld. Never fear though! There are plenty of ways you can stabilize a shot:

• Use a tripod! There are some great phone tripods on the market, or simply get a phone mount that has a tripod screw mount. Or if you have a selfie-stick, maybe tape it to a tripod or a chair to keep it steady.

• The most expensive route is to get a smartphone stabilizer rig, although they are super fun to use! They can run anywhere from $20-$200 on Amazon (we’ve tried this one and like it), just be sure to pay attention to reviews if you’re thinking about this option. We recommend looking for one that has a wheel that allows you to pull focus and zoom during a shot so you can get very fancy.

• Only move your camera for pans slowly so that it can make its focus and lighting adjustments smoothly.

• If you must be handheld, always keep both hands on the camera, and use your best power stance (feet at least shoulder-width apart) with your elbows tucked in at your sides. This allows you to use your core center of gravity to your advantage.

6) Good Framing

One thing we see time and time again with films shot on phones is the lack of cinematic framing. It’s so easy to forget when we’re shooting with a phone that we are still making art and still should practice the rule of thirds or plan out our shots and create great mise-en-scene. Mise-en-scene literally means “to put into the scene” and is often referencing the art direction and the things we put in front of the camera that better tell our story or tell us about a character in that story.

So, if you want your film to stick out in a good way, be sure you’re still framing up and planning your shots!

7) Consider Using an App

While using your phone’s built-in camera app can totally just work on its own, there are some apps that will unlock the ability to take over some features manually that are usually stuck in auto. Many of these allow you to play with the ISO, aperture, focus pulling, frame rates, shutter speed, white balance, or even turn on the grid overlay. This would allow you to take more advantage of the full features while also giving you better control when things like the light shifts in a shot. We’ve used ZY Play, a free app that links with our stabilizer but also have heard of people using ProMovie Recorder and enjoying it.

Over-all, an app like this also can just put you in the mindset that a phone is a serious tool that can and should be used to make a fantastic movie!

Happy filming!

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Do you have some tips that didn’t make this list? Contact us! We’d love to hear about the pros and cons to other software you’ve used! Do you have some amazing online resources that all filmmakers should know about?! Contact us! Maybe we’ll credit you and add it to a compilation of more recommendations on a future post!