Photographers of the past carried a full toolkit and several cameras with them in order to snap decent photos of what they see around them. Fortunately, thanks to the revolution in technology that has swept the planet in the past few decades -we do not have such problems anymore. The technology we carry in our pockets and purses has the ability to access all of the human knowledge, but also to compute, predict, analyze, and most importantly, help us make the perfect photo. Selfies have started going out of style, and with smartphones having cameras so powerful that they can threaten professional photography equipment, people have started looking into making high-quality photos by themselves. Usually, the first thing that comes to the mind of an amateur photographer is to take a picture of a landscape. However, that too may be a difficult task, but there are a few things that can help you take a beautiful photo.

1) Turn up your screen brightness

You will most likely be trying to take a landscape photo during the day, and the power saving mode that most smartphones have will dim your screen to maintain battery life. If you want a good photo, you will need to see precisely what you are taking a picture of, so turn off the automatic brightness control and turn it all the way up. This may eat up quite a bit of your battery, so be prepared for that when you are going out.

2) Mind the composition

Some photos just speak to us, and most of it is due to the way that the photographer has set the picture. You need to take into consideration what will be in your foreground and background; if you are in doubt, the rule of thirds is always a good way to go. Imagine a 3×3 grid, which consists of 9 little squares. Try to line up those things that you want to point out with the places where the corners of the squares meet, for a more interesting and vibrant picture.

3) Look for textures

If your photo is too uniform, the people watching it might consider it boring. A good idea to combat this is to take a landscape photo that includes objects with different textures, to balance out the whole structure of the picture.

4) Do not forget about the focus

Many people forget to focus their camera when taking a picture, and not realize until much later the mistake that they made. In order to avoid these situations, touch the part of the photo you want your phone to focus on, and shoot away. If you follow these instructions, you will be well on your way to taking cool landscape photos with nothing but your smartphone.