Smartphone Photography for Creatives - Post-Grad Connects Workshop

As part of this month’s Post-Grad Connects line-up, I had the chance to host the workshop Smartphone Photography for Creatives: Portfolio & Social Media Edition. It was a 60-minute interactive session curated specifically for creative students across artistic disciplines to learn how to capture high-quality visuals of their work using just their smartphones.

Before we started, I made one thing clear: as artists and creatives, we know when a professionally shot image is necessary and when a good-quality phone image can do the job just fine. This session focused on the latter, making the most of what's already in our hands for day-to-day documentation, social media, and portfolio building.

We began by introducing ourselves and talking about our artistic practices. Everyone shared the kind of visuals they usually capture, and I loved the mix of responses like installations, paintings, objects, textiles, and more.

The first section was Photography Basics 101, where I broke down the fundamentals of composition, introduced the use of gridlines and the level tool on iPhone, and shared a few examples of how I’ve applied these techniques in my own mobile-captured images.

Then we moved on to understanding exposure. I broke down the basics of exposure compensation and aperture, and we explored a quick trick to turn Live Photos into long-exposure shots. We also talked about focus and how to use touch focus and the AE/AF lock to get sharper and more intentional shots.

After that, I walked everyone through some key iPhone camera settings to level up their mobile photography game and gave a live demo of features across Photo, Portrait, Panorama, Cinematic, and Video modes. I also introduced ProRAW, and how it can be a game-changer when it comes to shooting high-quality, editable images.

We then moved on to one of the most important aspects of photography, Lighting. I shared tips on how to make the most of natural and artificial light, things to avoid, and how to work with what you’ve got. I also demonstrated the use of a simple reflector, which can completely change how light hits the subject and elevate an image instantly.

Before wrapping up, I briefly spoke about editing apps that are easy to use yet incredibly effective in enhancing mobile images. We also chatted about how to maintain a consistent visual style on social media and things to keep in mind when posting work online.

To bring it all together, we ended with a fun hands-on activity. I asked participants to create a portfolio-worthy photo using the tips and hacks they’d just learned. I had some objects, props, backdrops and phone accessories ready for them to experiment with. Everyone got super creative, and the experimenting, laughter, and creativity in the room made it such a fulfilling experience to watch.