How to: Perfecting Cellphone Photography to Elevate Your Storytelling

In the digital age, compelling visual content is not just an asset; it’s a necessity. But most nonprofits can’t afford to pay a photographer

The good news is that most people these days do have a high-quality camera in their pockets… their cell phone. More and more cellphones are capable of taking photos that even professionals would be thrilled with.

These visuals do more than just adorn your website or social media channels—they tell your story, showcase the impact of your work, and connect with hearts and minds across the globe.

With just a cellphone in hand, and some simple techniques we’ll explain in this post, you can produce powerful content that amplifies your message. Here’s how to do it effectively.

Understanding the Basics of Photography

At their core, great photographs share common elements:

1. Composition: though it may sound like fancy photography speech, but really it simply means, how you frame what’s inside your photo. Believe it or not, by making some simple changes to where you position things in your photograph can make a huge impact on the outcome.
2. Lighting: Modern cellphones are quite amazing at dealing with all kinds of different light, but it doesn’t hurt to take a moment to consider lighting before you take your photo. Are you outside, or inside? Is it dark or too bright? Though your phone can likely handle a lot of different situations, be aware of the lighting. You may need to reposition yourself to get better lighting for the photo.
3. Narrative: What is the story you want to tell? A series of photos can do a lot to tell a broader story.

Below we go into more details on each of these key ingredients. Master these, and you’re well on your way to creating impactful content.

Simple Rules for Better Composition

Professional photographers may spend a lifetime perfecting this art form, but there are three simple rules that you can consider every time you take out that cellphone to capture a moment.

The Rule of Third

Imagine your frame divided into nine equal segments by two vertical and two horizontal lines. Place key elements, like faces, along these lines or their intersections makes for a more balanced and engaging shot.

Leading Lines and Symmetry

Use the environment to your advantage. Aligning your shot with the natural lines of a landscape or architecture can guide the viewer’s eye and add a pleasing symmetry.

Leading lines are things within the photo that naturally make the viewer’s eyes move towards the subject of the photo.  You can see in this example that the lines from the siding lead to the volunteers face.

Symmetry refers to trying to keep the photo looking and feeling “balanced.” In this example, you can see how the having one volunteer in the middle of the frame, surrounded by two other volunteers feels like there is symmetry and balance in the photo.

Create Depth with Perspective and Angles

Sometimes, capturing the essence of a moment means looking at it from a different angle. Don’t hesitate to crouch down or climb high to find the perfect shot that tells the story best.

Consider trying to find things that you can have in the foreground of the photo, as well as the background. In this example, you can see how the the camera was placed very close to the shovel, and then the shovel leads your eyes towards the people.

Utilize Your Camera Focus

When you look at great portrait photos, you may notice that the background is often “fuzzy,” or out of focus, while the people are in focus.  This is a technique that helps keep the photo viewer concentrated on just one thing.

Most cellphones have “portrait mode” where the camera will blur out the surrounding of the people to give the photo depth and emotion.

In this example, you can see how the we utilized portrait mode to make the background blurry. This makes the image of the people more front and center.

Lighting and Exposure

Although our cellphones do a great job of making different lighting situations work, we still recommend being aware of the lighting situation to get the most of your photos. There are a few simple rules that can help make your photos shine.

Use Natural Light When Possible

If you can avoid using your flash. Instead, whenever possible, use natural light.

Natural light brings warmth and authenticity to your shots. Be mindful of the time of day; early mornings and late afternoons offer the softest light. But, obviously, we can’t make our photo opportunities always align with the perfect time of day.

In this example, you can see how the we’re utilizing the morning light to give the photo a feeling of renewal.

Avoid Shadows on Faces

One of the things we frequently see with bright sunny days are harsh shadows.  Particularly, if you’re taking photos of people outside, they may be wearing hats or standing near a structure that is casting a shadow on one portion of a face.

Be aware of how these shadows may impact your photo.

In this example, because the volunteer’s heads are facing down and the sun is above them, their faces are dark.

Adjusting Exposure

Once you’re comfortable with the other two lighting rules, you may want to consider taking more control of the situation.

With most cell phones, you can simply click on the object that you want the phone to focus and adjust exposure for.

Manually adjusting the exposure on your phone can help you capture the true mood of the scene, from the brightness of a sunny day to the subtlety of shadows.

Capturing the Moment to Develop Narrative

The previous two sections focused on technical elements that can help your photography.  But, photography is an art form after all, so let your creative spirit run wild.

Luckily we live in the age of digital photography, so experimentation and taking LOTS of photos doesn’t cost anything.  Even professional photographers take lots and lots and lots and lots of photos to get the one that they love.

If you’re at a loss for the types of photos to get started with, here’s a quick list of ideas.

Candid Shots

The most powerful images often come from unguarded, spontaneous moments.

Keep your camera ready to capture the laughter, concentration, and camaraderie of volunteers and community members.

Action Shots

Action shots convey the dynamism and energy of your projects. Use burst mode to capture movement without blur, telling a story of progress and purpose.

Emotional Impact

Aim to capture expressions and emotions that resonate. The joy of a family receiving keys to their new home or the determination of volunteers speaks volumes.

When taking photos of people, experiment with portrait mode to create better composition.

Abstract Photos

Photography can be used for all kinds of marketing. Though we are always looking to tell a story about the impact of our work, sometimes photography can be used for graphic design projects, campaign materials, etc.

Capturing things like piles or nails, house framing, hard hats, etc. can be useful to have in your content library for design purposes.

Get Familiar with Your Camera’s Capabilities

Modern cell phones have all kinds of different camera modes and settings. When the time comes to take that perfect photo, the last thing you want is to be fumbling around with your equipment to get the perfect settings.

Take some time to get familiar with your camera settings and don’t be afraid to experiment. One of the best resources can be YouTube.

Here are a few of our favorite videos that highlight features for iPhones.

Ethical Considerations and Permissions

As the world of online content has grown, so has our digital footprint. Not everyone is comfortable with their photos being taken.  Some individuals may even have concern for their safety.

It’s important that we are respectful of peoples’ preferences and concerns. Here are a few things to consider as you plan for photography.

Respecting Privacy

Always obtain consent from individuals featured prominently in your content, especially in sensitive contexts. It’s not just legal; it’s respectful.

A few things to consider:

1. Your volunteer waiver should include information about rights for any photography taken on your worksite or at events.
2. Provide colored dots that people can add to their name tags that indicate if they are OK with their photo being taken. Green dot means it’s OK to take photos of that person, Red dot means they don’t want their photo taken.
3. Before taking someone’s photo, ask them if it’s OK. Even if they originally consented to photos being taken, it may be a situation or instance where they don’t feel comfortable.

Cultural Sensitivity

Be mindful of cultural nuances and ensure your content respects the dignity and traditions of the communities you’re working with.

One way to do this is to allow service recipients to opt in (not opt out), to photography and use of their stories in any marketing materials.  If they are OK with this, ask ahead if there is anything your team should know before taking photos.

Hire and Manage Volunteer Photographers

One of the best ways to build capacity at your organization is to recruit community members to put their skills to work. Developing a Volunteer Photography Team is a quick an easy way to start building a great library of images.

Some of the keys to successfully building a team are:

1. Create a volunteer photographer job description. Not only will this help when you’re posting it to volunteer platforms, but it will also help set the tone for people interested in applying.
2. Create a photography shot list that you can give to volunteer photographers. A shot list will give photographers guidance on any specific photos that you want them to be sure they get. A shot list also means that you won’t have to be “on location” to manage the photographer.
3. Create a place to store and manage photos. Tools like Dropbox, OneDrive or Google Drive make an easy place for photographers to upload all of their photos so that your team can use them for marketing. Make sure that you create an organizational system of folders so that photos are easy to find. See more details below about best practices.
4. Create a calendar of annual events. Create a shared list of events that photographers can sign-up for and “cover.” The more time that you provide volunteers to work around your calendar the more likely you are to have all of your events covered.

Encouraging Volunteers to Share Content

For many people, a day volunteering is something they want to share on their social networks.  It’s something they are proud of.

One of the best ways to build your community connection is by encouraging volunteers to talk about their experience to their friends.

Here are a few ideas that can help build they social conversation around your work:

1. Encourage volunteers to tag your organization in their social posts. When volunteers are getting their orientation before their volunteer shift, ask your team to remind volunteers that when they tag your organization, they’re spreading the word.
2. Share and repost volunteer posts. When someone tags your organization, spread the love. Share and repost their photos with appreciation!
3. Encourage the use of hashtags in volunteer posts. Add a sign on at your project site or instructions in a follow-up email that encourages volunteers to post using a hashtag that your team can monitor.
4. Create a volunteer photo contest. You can take it a step further and start an annual photo contest for site volunteers. Volunteers can submit their photos and win prizes for the best photos.
5. For team build days encourage volunteers to tag their company in their social posts. If you run corporate team builds on your site, encourage volunteers to tag their company. This is more likely to get shared with the company social account and spread the word about your work.

Storing & Organizing Your Photos for Easy Use in Your Marketing

Photo organization is one of the most important parts of this process. If you’ve ever spent time wading through a folder with hundreds of photos you know that it can be hard to find that perfect photo.

As you have more success with taking more photos, organizing them will be even more important.

Most nonprofits will have some kind of online cloud file storage where they store shared documents and important company information.  This can be a great place to store photos.

Some of our favorite services to store photos are:

1. Dropbox
2. Google Drive
3. OneDrive
4. Flickr

Once you have your platform, we recommend developing a folder structure that helps make photos easy to find. Every organization can create a system that works for them, but here’s a folder structure you may want to consider

• Year
  • YYMMDD – [Event Name 1]
  • YYMMDD – [Event Name 2]
  • YYMMDD – [Event Name 3]

Most of the platforms that we recommended above may also allow you to tag files. You may consider tagging photos with the subjects of the photos.  For instance, you could utilize tags such as:

• Volunteer portrait
• Volunteer group
• Service Recipient portrait
• Abstract Photo
• [Name of location]