LEVEL UP YOUR PHONE PHOTOGRAPHY

WITH GABRIELLE TOUCHETTE

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Welcome to Week 14 of 2025!

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In today's e-mail, you'll get:

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PHOTO TIP OF THE WEEK: How to shoot towards the sun (and make it look great)

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PHOTO OF THE WEEK: BTS of my commercial shoots

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RESOURCES YOU MIGHT LIKE: Stunning travel photos (shot on iPhone 16 Pro)

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PHOTO TIP OF THE WEEK

How to Shoot Towards the Sun

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Have you ever seen the sun do this when you take a photo of it?

Shooting towards the sun may seem like a faux-pas technique, but it’s one of my favourite ways of adding drama to my outdoor photos. It works well with a professional camera, but on a phone camera the results look bad.

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The sun doesn't have a smooth, glowing shape. Instead, it looks more like a misshapen blob with unnatural contrast.

❌ Original photo, with sun looking like a misshapen blob:

✅ Edited photo, with edges of the light smoothed and glowing:

I personally hate the look of the sun when captured on my iPhone like this, so I've come up with a quick fix in Lightroom.

Here's how to fix it:

Using Lightroom Mobile, apply a Radial Gradient Mask to soften the edges of the sunlight.

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Place the mask over the sun. Add brightness to the mask. I also add a bit of yellow (from the temp slider) to give it a warmer glow.

My settings for adding brightness:

My settings for adding a yellow glow:

This is my go-to fix so I can still get that dramatic look of the sun while smoothing out its irregular shape.

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I'm all about transforming the amateur iPhone look into a more pro-looking image. And this trick is one of the ways I do that.

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Let me know if you try it and how it goes for you!

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PHOTO OF THE WEEK

An iPhone Photo of my Nikon Z6ii

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Curious about my "day job"? Lately, I've been doing a lot of commercial shoots and headshots for my clients. For those I definitely don't use an iPhone! I do all my work with my two Nikon z6ii cameras. They auto-focus well, they have great sensor quality, and they're fast.

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But I always have my iPhone in my back pocket, and I love capturing behind-the-scenes shots when I'm working.

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RESOURCES YOU MIGHT LIKE

iPhone Photos by Hugo Cheng

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This collection of iPhone travel photos caught my eye. I was delighted with the photographer's strong use of the Rule of Thirds, as well as straight, clean levelling in all his photos. His compositions are intentional, his cropping is super appropriate, and he's a master with subject placement.

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If these photos fooled you into thinking they may have been taken with a pro camera and not an iPhone, you're not the only one! (I had to double check myself!)

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The reasons why his iPhone photos look so good is because of several factors.

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​The first (and most important one) is: his technique and creativity. You can tell he's been taking photos for a long time and has developed strong skills.

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Second: his editing is spot-on. He applied gorgeous custom editing to his photos. Very well done.

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Third: he used the telephoto lens (x5) on the iPhone 16 Pro. The lens quality is fantastic on the 16 Pro and it adds that "look" to photos that you just can't get in older models of the iPhone.

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Check out Hugo's photos here:

One more thing before you go:

There are rumblings of a mini online photography workshop that I will announce in 2025. A few of you have already responded, so if you're also interested, reply back to this email with a simple "I'm interested".

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and stay tuned... :)

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