7 Ways I Critique My Smartphone Photos for Continuous Improvement

Even if you take every photography course and read every resource available, there is always room for improvement. Being confident and critiquing my own images has helped me up my smartphone photography game. Here’s how I do it.

1 Writing down what I like and don’t like about a photo story

In my opinion, an “ugly” picture with an interesting story is better than a photo that is pretty but doesn’t have much substance. I try to tell interesting stories with every photo shoot, and after taking a photo I like to review on my smartphone what I do and don’t like about what the photo shows.

This level of awareness was critical to becoming a better visual storyteller, but to be honest, I don’t set strict parameters. Sometimes I write whole pages in sentence form; on other occasions, a few bullet points are sufficient. I usually write them in a physical notepad, but you can achieve the same result with any note-taking app. I used the notes above for this image:

One idea you could try is to create a workspace in Notion to keep all your notes together. Alternatively, micro-journaling apps let you critique your photos quickly and easily.

2 Waiting before looking at the picture

In my early days as a photographer, I was always in a rush to edit and share my images. Sometimes I would post pictures from my smartphone of trips while I was on them. It might seem like a good idea, but to be honest, I felt like my edits – and the content I posted – would have been better if I’d waited a bit. This is one of the most common smartphone photography mistakes people make.

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When you look at the pictures you take right after they are taken, there are a few preconceptions that run through your mind. You will also be more emotionally affected than if you wait a while to critique your images.

I like to wait at least a few weeks before looking at the smartphone photos I take, and ideally I won’t look at them for at least a month or two. I don’t really care if they end up on Instagram much later, and if I do, my engagement will improve.

3 Request for feedback

Being receptive to feedback on any of your creative work is sometimes difficult; I’ve definitely been guilty of taking things personally in the past. You probably put your heart and soul into your work, and when we’re close to something, we often treat it like our baby.

However, this is exactly why I think it’s so important to ask others for feedback. Getting other people’s unbiased opinions is essential to finding accidents you may not have noticed yourself. Plus, others may have interesting ways to improve your image that you wouldn’t have thought of.

Of course, there is a huge difference between being helpful and being mean. If someone leaves nasty and unconstructive comments, don’t listen to what they say. I often ask people I already know, but forums like Reddit are also full of people who are happy to review your pictures. Consider making your Reddit account more private if you still want to maintain some level of anonymity and ask for opinions.

4 Assessment of technical aspects

I don’t think your photo needs to be technically perfect to be a great shot, but getting the basics right will definitely help. So when I critique my smartphone photos, I look at the technical elements to see if I did a good job.

Composition is particularly important to me. For example, when I use the rule of thirds, I want to make sure I line up my subjects the way they should be. For other compositional techniques like lead lines and foreground, center and background, I like to see how well I got these technical aspects right while still telling an interesting story.

I will also look at other technical aspects such as what to focus on next. And if I’ve intentionally underexposed or underexposed my images, I’ll try to figure out how to prevent that from happening in the future.

5 Outlining what I would do differently if I took the same photo again

I’ve taken many photos from my smartphone more than once, and each time it helps me think about what could be done differently if I were to capture the same scene again. For example, I often wonder if a different time of day might improve the shot.

I also like to think about whether to include elements that aren’t in the original shot, such as extra people. This is especially useful if I want a different result, but it’s just as useful if I’ve already captured something I think is a solid image.

Again, you can arrange your thoughts as you like; almost any note-taking app will do this. Bullets or sentences achieve the same result.

6 An analysis of how photography works in a sequence

Social media has improved in that you can now post multiple images to the same Instagram post or tweet on X, but most of the time we think about how smartphone images work in isolation. In doing so, I think we are missing the opportunity to become even better storytellers.

For example, I posted both pictures below on a trip to Italy a while ago; one signaling the end of the day and the other highlighting something I did during it.

When I’m on a long shoot, I like to think about how my smartphone photos work in a sequence. Turning on Burst mode is one way to get better context, but you can also determine how one image fits in with others you’ve taken on the same day or during a trip.

By knowing where my image fits into the sequence, I know what things I want to look out for on my next adventure. This is one of the many ways to take better travel photos.

7 Using the Live Photos feature

One of the reasons I love watching photography vlogs is that you get an insight into what the photographer was thinking when they took the photo. You can see how they positioned themselves and what they were looking for in the scene, which means you get a more complete picture of the end result.

However, you don’t have to be a YouTuber to learn more about your photos. As an iPhone user, I love using the Live Photos feature. When I do this, I can see how my image stacks up and determine what I would do differently next time. If my picture was blurry for any reason, I can understand why too.

Criticizing smartphone photos is easier than you think, and I like to look at my favorite shots to see why they’re good. On the other hand, it’s also useful to know why I don’t like particular images. From using Live Photos to annotating all of my images, this has helped me become a better smartphone photographer.