Photography Tips and AT&T LGG4 Sweepstakes – A Sponsored Post

Hello! Happy Friday!

AT&T recently sent me an LGG4 phone to review. In order to celebrate the awesome 4K capture capability and 2TB of storage of the phone, AT&T is giving away one LGG4 every 4K seconds (66 minutes) for 23 days, that’s 500 phones! Read on for how to enter…

I thought I’d take advantage of this opportunity and share some cell phone photography tips too! I don’t know about you, but I find myself taking so many more pictures with my phone than with my big DSLR camera. It’s just easier, because the phone is small, and I always have in with me (usually in my pocket!) The camera on the LGG4 is so good! It’s 16MP with an F/1.8 lens, and the front camera is 8 MP, so I’m happy with the quality of the images. I know I’m not the only one who has become a “phone photographer,” so if we’re going to take lots of pictures this way, let’s try to capture the best possible images!

Here are a few tips for taking great photos with your phone:

Try different angles: Instead of just shooting a typical portrait of your subject every time, practice moving around. Get close-up, then back up really far and take a wide shot of the entire scene for a completely different feel. If you’re taking a picture of a person, try shooting from directly in front of them. That means if it’s a child, you’ll have to get down on their level! I took the pictures below while Kingston was swinging at the park one night. After I took a few straight on, I decided they were a little boring, so I went and sat below the swing to capture him from a different perspective. For the beach pictures, I took one of the lifeguard chair and pier but didn’t love it. (Jacksonville Beach is really flat and hard to shoot on). So I took the shot of Kingston and his little buddy from an angle that included lots of people and part of a beach umbrella. That one tells the story of an afternoon at the beach a little better. Switching up your angles changes the story you communicate through your images!

Find the light: Lighting is so important! If you’re shooting inside, find a window and shoot with it behind you. This will ensure that your subject is well lit. One feature I love about the camera on the new LGG4 is the manual shooting mode. With the images below, I was shooting towards the sun in automatic mode, so Kingston looked really dark. But when I switched to manual and bumped up the ISO, I was able to capture him. That’s incredible for a phone camera! It blew out the sky, but I really wanted him to be brighter, so it was worth it to me. Another trick is to focus (tap on) the darkest park of your image, and the camera will expose for that area, lightening the whole image. Both of the images below the park shots were taken in my house by a window. The LGG4 also has an exclusive Color Spectrum Sensor that uses white balance detection to determine accurate colors!

Capture details: I’m a detail person. Most people do a great job capturing the big picture, but I tend to miss the big picture sometimes because I’m focused on the details. That can be a good thing when you’re trying to capture memories though! When I took the two pictures below, we were getting frozen yogurt one night after dinner. I took the picture of Kingston smiling but then got a detail shot of our yogurt with his little blurry spoon moving up to his mouth. Even though he’s smiling in the first picture, I see more excitement in the one with his spoon! The LGG4 has a 5.5″ display, so it’s easy to see what you’re focusing on with close-up shots (like the toy car below).

Get in the Pictures: There’s no reason you have to be MIA from all of your pictures! Get creative, and get in the shot. Try the self timer function, or if your phone doesn’t have one, get a self-timer app! For the left image below I used the LGG4 self timer. You can also try a selfie stick, or use my favorite method and just ask a stranger to snap a picture for you. 🙂

Don’t forget about photography apps: A few of my favorites are Instagram – edit your photos and add fun filters, VSCOcam – another photo editing application, TimerCamera – take selfies with this one or just jump in a group shot, PhotoSync – easily transfers pictures from/to your computer.

Now for the fun part! The LGG4 4K Seconds Sweepstakes runs through June 20th. And in order to celebrate the awesome 4K capture capability and 2TB of storage, AT&T is giving away one LGG4 every 4K seconds (66 minutes) for 23 days, totaling to an impressive 500 phones!

For a chance to win, you need to:

1.  Register at http://4kseconds.att.com/

2.  Upload a picture you take on your phone. (This can be done from a mobile device, tablet or computer.) Images need to be .jpg or .png and less than 1 MB.

There is also a contest component to this program. All submitted photos (deemed eligible by the Official Rules) will also be housed on a gallery on the sweepstakes website. These will be open to public voting in order to determine a public appeal score. The photos will also be judged by a panel of judges. The photo with the highest combination score from the judges and public appeal will be deemed the Grand Prize Winner and will receive a 55” Class Smart Curved 4K OLED 3D TV with webOS 2.0 and a 3D-Blu-Ray Disc Home Theatre System with Smart TV and Wireless Speakers. The second and third highest ranked photos will be deemed the First and Second Prize Winner. These winners will receive a 65” Class IPS 4K UHD Smart LED TV with webOS 2.0 and 3D-Capable Blu-ray Disc Home Theatre System with Smart TV and Wireless Speakers.  The winners will be announced upon completion of the Judging Period, which ends July 9th.

I received an LGG4 from AT&T, and was paid for this review.