Top 13 'DSLR-Defying' Photography Techniques to master with your smartphone for shots that punch above their weight. - Goh Ling Yong
Ever look at a breathtaking photograph online, only to feel a pang of gear envy? You see the creamy blurred background, the tack-sharp subject, the perfectly captured motion, and think, “I could never take a shot like that without a giant, expensive DSLR camera.”
Well, I’m here to tell you that the gap between that professional-grade camera and the supercomputer in your pocket is shrinking faster than you think. The truth is, the best camera is the one you have with you, and modern smartphones are more capable than ever. The real secret isn’t in the price tag of the gear, but in the knowledge of the person holding it. Many people who follow my work are surprised to learn how many shots in my portfolio were captured not with a hefty DSLR, but with the phone in my pocket.
This isn't about ditching professional cameras—they will always have their place. This is about empowerment. It’s about unlocking the incredible potential you’re already carrying. By mastering a few key techniques, you can start creating images that truly punch above their weight, rivaling the quality and artistic impact of their much larger DSLR cousins. Ready to defy expectations? Let’s dive into 13 techniques that will transform your smartphone photography from simple snaps to stunning shots.
1. Master Pro/Manual Mode: Your Creative Cockpit
The default "auto" mode on your phone's camera is designed for one thing: getting a safe, evenly-exposed shot. It avoids creative risks. But photography is all about creativity! Pro or Manual mode is your key to unlocking it. This mode gives you control over the "exposure triangle"—ISO, Shutter Speed, and Aperture (sometimes digital)—plus White Balance and Manual Focus.
Think of it this way: Auto mode is like driving an automatic car, while Pro mode is like driving a manual. You have far more control over the performance. Want to capture the motion blur of a waterfall? You’ll need to lower the shutter speed. Shooting in low light without flash? You’ll increase the ISO. Learning what each setting does is the single most important step toward taking deliberate, professional-looking photos instead of just happy accidents.
Pro Tip: Start by adjusting only one setting at a time. For a week, just play with Shutter Speed. See how a fast shutter (e.g., 1/1000s) freezes action, while a slow one (e.g., 1/15s) creates blur. This hands-on practice is more valuable than reading a hundred articles.
2. Shoot in RAW: The Digital Negative
If you take one technical tip from this list, let it be this one. When you shoot a standard photo, your phone captures the image, makes a bunch of irreversible decisions about color, contrast, and sharpening, and saves it as a compressed JPEG file. A RAW file (often a .DNG file on smartphones) is the complete opposite. It’s the raw, unprocessed data straight from the camera's sensor.
Shooting in RAW gives you a "digital negative." It captures a massive amount of information about light and color, giving you incredible flexibility in post-processing. You can recover seemingly lost details in the highlights and shadows, correct white balance flawlessly, and adjust colors with precision—all without degrading the image quality. JPEGs fall apart quickly when you try to edit them heavily.
Pro Tip: You'll need an app like Adobe Lightroom Mobile or Snapseed to properly edit RAW files. The files are much larger, so they'll take up more space, but the editing power you gain is a true game-changer for producing professional-quality images.
3. Harness AE/AF Lock: Take Control of Light and Focus
Have you ever tried to photograph a person standing in front of a bright window, only to have the phone expose for the window, turning your subject into a dark silhouette? Or maybe you focused perfectly on a flower, but as soon as you shifted your composition slightly, the focus jumped to the background. AE/AF (Auto-Exposure/Auto-Focus) Lock is the simple, elegant solution.
On most smartphones, you can press and hold on your subject on the screen. A yellow box or circle will appear, often with the words "AE/AF Lock." This locks both the focus point and the exposure level on that specific spot. Now you can move your phone to recompose the shot—for example, to follow the rule of thirds—without the camera getting confused and changing your settings.
Pro Tip: After locking focus and exposure, you can usually still slide your finger up or down on the screen to fine-tune the brightness. This gives you precise control, ensuring your subject is perfectly lit, regardless of what’s happening in the rest of the frame.
4. Create Depth with Foreground, Middle Ground, and Background
A common mistake in smartphone photography is taking flat, two-dimensional photos. A simple way to create a sense of depth and make your image feel more immersive—like a scene you could step into—is to compose with layers. Think about your shot in three parts: a foreground, a middle ground, and a background.
The middle ground is usually your main subject. The background provides context. But it’s the foreground element that works the magic. By placing an object like a branch, a rock, or a railing in the foreground (often slightly out of focus), you create a visual starting point for the viewer's eye. This layering technique guides the viewer through the image, making it far more dynamic and professional.
Pro Tip: Get low to the ground to find interesting foreground elements you might otherwise miss, like flowers, interesting textures on the pavement, or a line of fallen leaves.
5. Master Long Exposure for Ethereal Effects
Want to capture those silky, dream-like waterfalls or the vibrant light trails of cars at night? This is the magic of long exposure photography, a technique once exclusive to high-end cameras. It involves leaving the camera's shutter open for an extended period, blurring anything that moves while keeping stationary objects sharp.
Many modern smartphones now have a dedicated "Long Exposure" mode built into their camera apps (like on the iPhone's Live Photos). If yours doesn’t, apps like Spectre Camera or ProCam X give you the manual control needed. The key is absolute stability; you must use a tripod for this. Even the slightest handshake will turn your entire photo into a blurry mess.
Pro Tip: For light trails, find a safe spot overlooking a busy road at dusk. Set your phone on a tripod, frame your shot, and set a shutter speed of 2-8 seconds. The results will astound you.
6. Use Reflections to Add Another Dimension
Reflections are a photographer's best friend. They can turn a simple scene into a complex, symmetrical, and abstract work of art. The world is full of reflective surfaces, and your phone is the perfect tool to capture them. Look for puddles after it rains, calm lakes, shiny marble floors, glass windows, or even your sunglasses.
The trick is to change your perspective. Get your phone's lens as close to the reflective surface as possible. Sometimes, turning your phone upside down so the lens is just millimeters above a puddle can create a stunning, perfectly mirrored world. It adds a layer of intrigue and sophistication that makes people look twice.
Pro Tip: A polarizing filter (you can get small ones that clip onto your phone) can help you control the intensity of reflections. This allows you to either enhance them for an artistic effect or cut through them to see what's beneath the surface of the water.
7. Embrace Negative Space for Impact
What you don't include in your photo is often as important as what you do. Negative space is the empty or uncluttered area around your main subject. Instead of filling the frame with detail, you intentionally leave large areas blank—a clear blue sky, a minimalist wall, a calm body of water.
This technique does two powerful things. First, it eliminates distractions and forces the viewer's eye directly to your subject, making it feel more significant and impactful. Second, it evokes a powerful mood or emotion, such as peace, solitude, or vastness. It's a hallmark of fine art photography and a surprisingly easy way to make your mobile shots look more curated and professional.
Pro Tip: When you're composing, consciously ask yourself, "What can I remove from this frame?" Often, simplifying the scene by taking a few steps to the left or right to get a cleaner background will create a much stronger image.
8. Perfect the Panning Shot for Dynamic Motion
Panning is a thrilling technique that captures a sense of speed and action. The goal is to keep your moving subject sharp while blurring the background into dynamic streaks of motion. It’s a classic sports and automotive photography technique that, with a little practice, you can absolutely nail with your phone.
The key is to move your body in sync with your subject. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and twist from your hips, not your arms. As the subject (a cyclist, a running dog, a car) enters the frame, press and hold the shutter to fire a burst of shots while smoothly following its movement. Continue the motion even after you think you've got the shot.
Pro Tip: This technique works best when your subject is moving parallel to you. Use your camera's Pro mode to set a relatively slow shutter speed (try starting around 1/30s or 1/60s). It will take a few tries, but the one shot you nail will be worth it.
9. Exploit the Power of Golden and Blue Hour
The best light for photography is rarely found in the middle of the day. The harsh, overhead sun creates unflattering shadows and washed-out colors. The real magic happens during the "Golden Hour" and "Blue Hour."
Golden Hour is the period shortly after sunrise and before sunset, when the light is soft, warm, and directional, creating long, beautiful shadows and bathing everything in a golden glow. Blue Hour is the period just before sunrise and just after sunset, when the light is soft, diffused, and has a cool, blueish tint, perfect for moody cityscapes and serene landscapes. Planning your shoots around these times is a professional habit that guarantees better photos.
Pro Tip: Use an app like PhotoPills or Sun Surveyor to track the exact times for Golden and Blue Hour in your location. It takes the guesswork out of planning and ensures you’re always in the right place at the right time.
10. Get Low: Change Your Perspective
Most people take photos from eye level. It's the most common, and therefore the most boring, perspective. To instantly make your photos more interesting, simply change your vertical angle. Get low—I mean really low. Crouch down, or even lie on the ground.
Shooting from a low angle makes your subject appear more heroic and dominant in the frame. It reveals textures and details on the ground you'd never normally see, which can act as a fantastic foreground. It completely changes the background, often replacing a busy street with a clean sky. It’s a simple physical action that has a massive impact on your composition.
Pro Tip: This is especially effective for photos of pets and children. Getting down to their eye level creates a much more intimate and engaging portrait than looking down on them.
11. Leverage Portrait Mode (and its Limitations)
Portrait Mode, which uses software to artificially blur the background (an effect called "bokeh"), is one of the most "DSLR-like" features on a smartphone. When used well, it can beautifully isolate your subject and create a professional-looking portrait. However, the software can sometimes be clumsy.
The key is to understand its limitations. It works best with a clear subject and a simple, distant background. Busy backgrounds with lots of overlapping elements (like tree branches) can confuse the software, leading to weirdly sharp or blurry edges around your subject. Always review the photo closely and, on most phones, you can actually adjust the intensity of the blur after you've taken the shot.
Pro Tip: Use Portrait Mode for more than just people! It’s fantastic for food photography, product shots, and even pet portraits to make your subject pop.
12. Use a Macro Lens for a New World of Detail
DSLRs use expensive, specialized lenses to capture the intricate, tiny world of macro photography. But you can get surprisingly close with your smartphone. Many new high-end phones have a dedicated Macro mode that automatically kicks in when you get close to a subject. It allows you to capture stunning detail in things like insect wings, flower petals, and water droplets.
If your phone doesn't have a built-in macro mode, don't worry. You can buy high-quality clip-on macro lenses from brands like Moment or Sandmarc for a relatively low cost. These small attachments open up a completely new realm of photographic possibilities, allowing you to capture professional-looking, detail-rich images that are impossible with the standard lens.
Pro Tip: When shooting macro, even the tiniest movement is magnified. Tap-to-focus carefully, and if possible, use a small tripod and a shutter timer (2-3 seconds) to ensure your shot is perfectly sharp.
13. Think Like an Editor (While You Shoot)
The final technique isn't about a button you press, but a mindset you adopt. Professional photographers don't just see a scene; they see the final image. As you're composing your shot, start thinking about how you'll edit it later. This is a principle I, Goh Ling Yong, apply to every single shoot, whether with a DSLR or my phone.
Ask yourself questions: Is there enough contrast in this scene for a dramatic black and white conversion? Are the colors interesting enough to be enhanced? Is the sky blown out, and if so, can I expose for it and bring up the shadows in post-production (especially if shooting in RAW)? This process of "pre-visualization" helps you capture the best possible source file, making your editing process easier and your final results far more stunning.
Pro Tip: Look for "dynamic range" in a scene—areas of both bright highlights and deep shadows. A phone shooting in RAW can capture an incredible amount of this information, and a scene with high dynamic range often leads to a very rich and compelling final image after editing.
Your Turn to Defy the DSLR
The line between a "phone photo" and a "professional photo" is no longer about the gear—it's about the craft. Your smartphone is an incredibly powerful creative tool, and by moving beyond the simple point-and-shoot, you can produce images that are rich, compelling, and full of artistic intent.
Don't feel overwhelmed by this list. Pick one or two techniques that excite you the most—maybe it's hunting for reflections after a rainstorm or experimenting with long exposure on a city street at night. Practice it. Master it. Then come back and learn another. The journey of a photographer is one of constant learning and experimentation, and you have everything you need to start right in your pocket.
Now, I want to hear from you. Which of these techniques are you most excited to try? Or do you have another "DSLR-defying" smartphone tip to share? Leave a comment below and let's start the conversation!
About the Author
Goh Ling Yong is a content creator and digital strategist sharing insights across various topics. Connect and follow for more content:
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