The Evolution of Using My Smartphone for Quality Visuals

During the past couple of months, I have found myself using my iPhone 7 Plus to capture quality pictures and video that make their way into client projects. This, in turn, has led to the creation of "lunch and learn" workshop where I work with my corporate clients to equip their associates to capture quality visuals with their own smartphones. But more on that later.

Most recently, I've been doing some pro bono digital marketing work for a new coffeeshop in town. I'm not doing anything terribly complicated. Mostly, I'm posting to their Facebook page and helping them build an email database. What's been fun is using my Iphone to take photos and include them in the Facebook posts. The "portrait" feature has be quite effective. The quality of the photos has been fantastic. With a quick touch of the screen I can do some minimal color correction and cropping. I've been happy with the results. And, more importantly, so has the business owner.

I haven't done much with the filters that come with the camera app, but there are a lot of options and they are simple to use.

The same is true of the video feature. I did a 30-second tour of the establishment. It came out fine for posting on Facebook and has been the most engaging post so far. It was nothing fancy but definitely adhered to the "show, don't tell" axiom of effective communications.

I did spend some time framing the photos and video. I did take lighting into account. I was able to trim video in the app, which was nice. So there are some insights I brought to the work that I've gained over the years as a video producer and someone working in visual communications.

Instructing Others

Because I have a video producer perspective and I can offer those insights, I've created a workshop to help others maximize the powerful tool they have in their smartphone. It's possible to make better use of smartphone video and photography, and there are some technical considerations when removing them from the smartphone environment to the desktop or laptop environment in order to work with the visual assets. I address these topics with the hope to see my clients and their associates make better use of a tool already in their possession.

I'm looking forward to how smartphone use will continue to evolve for me and for the clients I consult. If you'd like to share how you're using your smartphone for digital marketing, please do so in the comments!