Top 14 Smartphone Gear Essentials to Practice Advanced Photography Techniques
Let's be honest: the camera in your pocket is a modern marvel. Smartphone sensors and software have advanced so dramatically that they can produce images worthy of a gallery wall. We've moved far beyond blurry concert photos and grainy selfies. Today's phones are powerful creative tools capable of capturing stunning, high-resolution RAW files and cinematic 4K video.
But even the most advanced smartphone has its physical limitations. The tiny sensor, the fixed lens, the lack of ergonomic controls—these are the barriers that separate a great snapshot from a truly breathtaking, technically advanced photograph. To break through these barriers, you don't need a new phone; you need to augment the one you already have. The right gear can transform your phone from a point-and-shoot into a versatile, professional-grade camera system.
This isn't about buying every gadget you see on Instagram. It's about being strategic. It’s about identifying the kind of photography you want to master—be it ethereal long exposures, intimate macro shots, or sweeping cinematic landscapes—and acquiring the specific tools to make it happen. This guide will walk you through the 14 essential pieces of gear that will unlock the full potential of your smartphone camera and empower you to practice advanced photography techniques you thought were only possible with a DSLR.
1. A Sturdy Tripod and Phone Mount
If you buy only one item on this list, make it this one. A sturdy, reliable tripod is the absolute cornerstone of advanced photography. Why? Because it eliminates the number one enemy of sharpness: camera shake. Holding a phone perfectly still for even a fraction of a second is impossible, and for any technique that involves a slow shutter speed, it's a non-starter.
A good tripod opens up a whole new world. It allows you to tackle low-light cityscapes, capturing crisp details and beautiful light trails without a hint of blur. It's essential for astrophotography, where you need long exposures to gather faint light from stars. And it's the only way to shoot silky smooth waterfalls or misty ocean waves. When choosing, don't cheap out. Look for a tripod that is stable, has a decent height, and is paired with a high-quality, secure phone mount that grips your device tightly and won't droop.
Pro Tip: Use your tripod for more than just long exposures. Set it up for self-portraits, group photos where you can finally be in the shot, or perfectly level architectural photography. This is a technique I, Goh Ling Yong, rely on constantly to ensure my compositions are deliberate and my images are tack-sharp.
2. A Flexible "GorillaPod"-Style Tripod
While a full-size tripod is king for stability, a flexible, "gorilla-style" tripod offers unparalleled versatility. Its bendable legs can wrap around tree branches, railings, street signs, or fences, allowing you to get unique angles and perspectives that would be impossible with a traditional tripod. This is your go-to tool for creative composition.
Think about placing your camera low to the ground for a dramatic foreground in a landscape shot, or attaching it to a railing for a high-angle view of a bustling street. These tripods are also incredibly lightweight and compact, making them perfect for travel, hiking, or just throwing in a bag for a spontaneous photo walk. They are the ultimate tool for the adventurous photographer who wants to find a creative shot anywhere.
Example: Want to shoot a time-lapse of a flower blooming on a plant? You can't set a large tripod in a flowerpot. But you can wrap a flexible tripod's legs around a nearby stem or support stake to get the perfect, stable, and unobtrusive shot.
3. A Remote Shutter Release
You've got your phone perfectly framed on a tripod, ready for a long exposure. You reach out and tap the shutter button on the screen... and the whole setup wiggles, introducing a tiny bit of blur right at the start of your shot. This is where a remote shutter comes in. It's a small, simple, and inexpensive device that makes a huge difference.
Most remote shutters connect to your phone via Bluetooth and allow you to trigger the camera from a distance without ever touching it. This completely eliminates that initial camera shake, ensuring your images are as sharp as possible. It’s also invaluable for self-portraits and group shots, giving you the freedom to compose yourself within the frame and capture the moment without a frantic 10-second dash.
Pro Tip: Many smartphone headphones with volume controls can also act as a remote shutter. Plug them in, open your camera app, and click the volume-up or volume-down button to take a photo. It’s a great backup if you forget your Bluetooth remote.
4. A High-Quality Clip-On Lens Kit
Your phone's built-in lens is a fantastic all-rounder, but it's just one focal length. A quality clip-on lens kit is the fastest way to expand your creative options. These kits typically include three essential lenses: a wide-angle, a macro, and a telephoto.
A wide-angle lens allows you to fit more into your frame, perfect for dramatic landscapes, large architectural scenes, or group photos in tight spaces. A macro lens lets you get incredibly close to your subject, revealing intricate details in flowers, insects, or textures that are invisible to the naked eye. A telephoto lens brings distant subjects closer, and more importantly, it can create a beautiful compression effect that flatters portraits and isolates subjects from their background.
Example: Use a macro lens to capture the delicate veins on a leaf or the complex patterns in a snowflake. Use a wide-angle lens to capture the entire expanse of a mountain range without having to use the panorama mode.
5. An Anamorphic Lens
If you're serious about creating cinematic-looking photos and videos, an anamorphic lens is a game-changer. In traditional cinema, these lenses are used to create a wider aspect ratio (that "black bars on the top and bottom" look) and produce distinctive, horizontal lens flares that are a hallmark of Hollywood films.
For your smartphone, a clip-on anamorphic lens does the same thing. It optically "squeezes" a wider image onto your phone's sensor. You then use a specific app to "de-squeeze" the image, resulting in a beautiful, ultra-wide cinematic frame. The unique lens flares it produces add an incredible amount of character and professionalism to your shots, instantly elevating your mobile videography and giving your still photos a unique, filmic quality.
Pro Tip: Anamorphic lenses are fantastic for street photography at night. The horizontal flares from headlights and streetlights create a moody, cyberpunk aesthetic that is very difficult to replicate with software alone.
6. A Portable LED Light Panel
Your phone's built-in flash is harsh, unflattering, and should be avoided at all costs. To truly control your light, you need an external source. A small, portable LED light panel is an incredibly versatile tool for both photographers and videographers. These panels provide a constant, soft, and even light that you can position anywhere.
You can use it as a key light for portraits, a fill light to soften harsh shadows, or a backlight to create a beautiful rim light effect that separates your subject from the background. Most modern LED panels allow you to adjust both the brightness and the color temperature (from warm to cool), giving you complete creative control over the mood of your shot.
Example: When shooting food photography in a dimly lit restaurant, use a small LED panel off to the side to illuminate the dish. This will make the food look more appetizing and professional than a dark, grainy photo ever could.
7. A Circular Polarizer (CPL) Filter
A circular polarizer is a secret weapon for professional landscape photographers, and you can get one for your phone. A CPL filter works by cutting down on polarized light, which translates into two major benefits: reducing glare and enhancing color.
Ever tried to take a photo of a beautiful lake, only to have the shot ruined by the sun's reflection on the surface? A CPL filter can cut right through that glare, revealing the rocks and life beneath the water. It also deepens the blue in skies, makes clouds pop, and increases color saturation in foliage, all without making the image look fake or over-edited. You simply rotate the filter until you see the effect you want.
Pro Tip: A CPL filter is a must-have for automotive photography. It will eliminate the distracting reflections on the car's windshield and glossy paint, revealing the true color and contours of the vehicle.
8. A Neutral Density (ND) Filter
This is the key to one of the most sought-after advanced techniques: long exposure photography in broad daylight. An ND filter is essentially sunglasses for your camera lens. It reduces the amount of light entering the sensor, forcing your phone to use a much longer shutter speed to get a proper exposure.
This is how photographers create those dreamy, ethereal images of waterfalls where the water looks like silky ribbons, or seascapes where the ocean is a misty, tranquil surface. It's also used to capture motion blur in clouds, making them streak across the sky in a dramatic time-lapse effect. ND filters come in different strengths (measured in "stops"), allowing you to control just how long your exposure can be.
Example: To capture the movement of a crowd in a busy city square while keeping the buildings sharp, use a tripod and an ND filter. The long exposure will blur the people into artistic streaks of motion while the stationary elements remain perfectly in focus.
9. A High-Capacity Power Bank
Advanced techniques drain your battery—fast. Shooting long time-lapses, recording 4K video, or using your screen for hours to compose the perfect shot will leave your phone dead in no time. A reliable, high-capacity power bank isn't just a convenience; it's an essential piece of your kit.
Don't let a dead battery be the reason you miss the perfect sunset. Look for a power bank with at least 10,000mAh (milliampere-hours), which is enough to charge most smartphones two to three times over. If you plan on shooting a lot of video or multi-hour time-lapses, consider a 20,000mAh model. Ensure it has a fast-charging port to get you back up and running as quickly as possible.
Pro Tip: When shooting a long time-lapse, plug your phone into the power bank from the start. This prevents the phone's battery from draining and potentially shutting down mid-shoot, which would ruin the entire sequence.
10. An External Microphone
While this is primarily for videography, a great photo is often part of a larger story, and that story often includes video. Your phone's built-in microphone is designed to pick up sound from all directions, which means it also picks up wind, background noise, and echo. An external microphone is the single most important upgrade for improving your audio quality.
There are two main types to consider. A shotgun mic is directional and mounts on your phone rig, capturing clear audio from whatever you're pointing your camera at. A lavalier mic (or "lav mic") clips onto your shirt and is perfect for interviews or vlogging, as it isolates your voice from an A High-Capacity Power Bankenvironment. Clean audio is what separates amateur video from professional content.
Example: If you're creating a short film or documentary piece with your phone, using a shotgun mic will make your subjects' dialogue sound crisp and clear, while a lavalier mic will ensure your narration is professional and easy to understand.
11. A 3-Axis Gimbal / Stabilizer
For videographers, a gimbal is non-negotiable. This motorized device uses sensors and brushless motors to counteract your movements, keeping your phone perfectly stable and resulting in incredibly smooth, cinematic footage. It's the difference between shaky, nauseating home video and silky, gliding shots that look like they belong in a movie.
But gimbals are useful for photographers, too. They can be used to create complex motion time-lapses (or "hyperlapses") where the camera moves smoothly through a scene. They also offer superior stability for handheld shooting in low light, allowing you to use a slightly slower shutter speed without a tripod. Some gimbals even have features like object tracking, automatically keeping your subject in the frame as it moves.
Pro Tip: Use a gimbal's "inception" mode, where the camera rotates 360 degrees, to create mind-bending video clips or unique "vertigo" effect photos by combining it with a forward or backward walk.
12. A Smartphone Cage or Rig
As you start adding more accessories—lenses, microphones, LED lights, filters—you'll quickly run out of places to put them. A smartphone cage is the solution. It’s a metal or plastic frame that your phone sits inside, providing multiple cold shoe mounts and 1/4"-20 threaded holes (the standard for camera gear).
This rig becomes the central hub of your entire setup. You can mount your phone in the cage, attach an LED light on top, a microphone on the side, and then mount the entire cage onto your tripod or gimbal. It provides protection for your phone and transforms it into a professional, modular camera system that’s ready for any shooting scenario.
Example: For a mobile journalism or vlogging setup, a cage allows you to have your phone, a shotgun mic, and an LED light all connected and ready to go as a single, easy-to-handle unit.
13. A Dedicated Camera Grip
One of the biggest ergonomic challenges of smartphone photography is simply holding the device. Phones are thin, slippery, and not designed to be held like a camera. A dedicated camera grip attaches to your phone (often via a clamp or magnet) and provides a chunky, contoured grip that makes it feel much more like a traditional camera.
Many of these grips also include a physical shutter button that connects via Bluetooth, which is far more intuitive and satisfying to press than a spot on a glass screen. This added stability and improved handling can significantly reduce minor shakes and make the entire shooting experience more comfortable and professional, especially during long photo sessions.
Pro Tip: Look for a grip that also has a built-in 1/4"-20 thread on the bottom. This allows you to mount it directly to a tripod without needing a separate phone clamp, streamlining your setup.
14. A Portable SSD
Shooting in RAW format and recording 4K video consumes a massive amount of storage space. It's easy to fill up your phone's internal memory in a single day of shooting. A portable Solid State Drive (SSD) is a fast and reliable way to offload your files in the field, freeing up space on your phone and creating an instant backup of your precious work.
Modern SSDs are incredibly small, durable, and fast. With the right cable (USB-C to USB-C, for example), you can transfer gigabytes of data from your phone to the drive in just a few minutes. This is essential for traveling photographers or anyone undertaking a multi-day project where running out of storage is not an option.
Example: After a full day shooting a time-lapse sequence that generated 50GB of RAW images, you can plug in your portable SSD and transfer all the files before you even get back to your computer. Your phone is cleared for the next day, and your work is safely backed up.
Your Camera Is Ready—Are You?
The camera in your phone is already incredibly capable, but it's the gear you pair it with that truly dictates the limits of your creativity. This list may seem long, but remember: you don’t need everything at once. Start with the tool that will help you master the one technique you're most excited about. If you love landscapes, get a tripod and a CPL filter. If you're fascinated by tiny details, a macro lens is your first step.
As we often discuss here on the Goh Ling Yong blog, photography is about problem-solving. Each piece of gear is a solution—a way to control light, to achieve stability, to gain a new perspective. By thoughtfully building your kit, you are building a toolkit of creative solutions. You are empowering yourself to move beyond the snapshot and start creating images with intent, precision, and artistry.
Now I want to hear from you. Which piece of gear are you most excited to add to your bag? Or what’s your favorite smartphone accessory that you can’t live without? Share your thoughts in the comments below
About the Author
Goh Ling Yong is a content creator and digital strategist sharing insights across various topics. Connect and follow for more content:
Stay updated with the latest posts and insights by following on your favorite platform!