Will Smartphones Replace DSLRs?

The horizon is a third down from the top. 

Maybe. Maybe not. The technology does make one's head spin though.

There are times when I get tired of lugging my Canon with me and take a little break and rely on my iPhone for pictures. I can get some incredible shots. A lot has to do though with learning to frame your subject, choosing how much of something to include in the frame and watching the lighting.

There is a rule of thirds that can get confusing for some but simply think about what is in the picture. The main object should probably be off to one side or the other instead of smack in the middle. A horizon should not cut your picture exactly in half. Make it more interesting by offsetting things. Leave all the exacting proportions to the engineers of the world and be a little more artistic.

Choosing how much to include in the frame of your picture is another quick decision to be made sometimes if you are in the midst of a crowd or a lot of objects are before you. What draws your eye to the scene that makes you want to take the picture to begin with? You might want to zoom in a bit on that. If there's no time to be too choosy, remember there is always the edit app on your phone to help you zoom in and crop.

Cropping your photo can
give better composition.

The best outdoor lighting comes from the sun being low in the sky. For some reason colors tend to pop more. Maybe it has to do with the bending of the light rays. I'm sure there's a scientific reason but the best lighting in my pictures happens early in the morning or late in the afternoon. I still haven't mastered a good shot with the flash on the smartphone. One of us is obviously not that smart.

Rarely does a photo come out perfectly so get familiar with the functions on the edit app. Add a little color or brighten a picture. We recently took a picture that had our faces in a dive mask looking through an aquarium. To look at the original you could not make out the faces. When we brightened the picture we suddenly saw our smiles come through.

Adding a little more color and
adjusting the brightness helps
us see the cicada better.

I mentioned cropping your shot already but it needs repeating. You can zoom in with the cropping tool and even move the picture around to get that horizon in a nicer place or your subject matter off to one side or the other to enhance the picture.

I'm not an expert but I am having fun. You may not be able to do quite as much as you could with a DSLR but you can still make some great memories.