There’s a moment in every newborn shoot when a new mother rocks and sways with her baby, her lips pressed to a tiny, perfect ear in that old-as-time motion: shhh little one, shhhhh.

There’s a moment in every family photo shoot when little faces turn to their mother with a wide-eyed look of adoration as if she is the whole world and the stars and the moon; because to them, she is.

These moments are fleeting and precious. (Though when you’re rocking that baby in the deep of the night, it can feel like it just might last forever – as they say, the days are long but the years are short).

I’m a professional photographer and I love capturing these moments. I want every mother to see the way her children look at her, to see just how beautiful she is through their eyes, and to have that look captured for all time.

When I first became a mum, I felt I had to capture it all… every giggle, every smile, every milk-drunk moment. It was easier to snap away on my phone than it was to get my fancy camera out and I was quickly overwhelmed by the sheer number of photographs on my Camera Roll – 20,000 and counting – mostly poor quality, blurry and so many the same. As a photographer, this frustrated me, so I set out to learn what my phone could really do. I trialled and tested what I knew about lighting, adapting to the capabilities of my phone. I soon realised that it was possible to take great shots; it turns out the phone camera is a pretty powerful machine… you just need to know how to drive it!

I’ve created a guide to help parents take beautiful photographs with the best camera available; the one they have in their pocket. Here are my top photography tips for your phone camera.

Tip 1: The best exposure

Exposure is the amount of light you let into your lens. Adjusting the exposure before you take a photograph (rather than trying to edit it or add a filter or preset later) will help you take better shots. I almost always reduce the exposure a little, which creates a slightly darker image with more detail. How? Look through the screen at your subject and tap the part of the image you want to focus on. A symbol of a sun will appear – tap and hold the sun and slide it to increase the exposure (make it brighter) or decrease the exposure (make it darker). For iPhone, you'll slide the sun up or down, for Android slide it left or right. Have a practice and see what a difference it can make.

Tip 2: Lock it up

Little people have a habit of moving just at the wrong moment – usually right as you’re about to take the perfect photograph! Typically, each time something (or someone!) moves within the frame of the shot you’re lining up, any adjustments you’ve made – like setting the exposure or focus – will reset and you’ll have to start again… and we know that new mamas just don’t have time for that! To lock your exposure and focus into place, tap and hold on the screen until the yellow AE/AF LOCK symbol appears at the top (for iPhone) or the little padlock symbol closes (for Android). You can then adjust your exposure and focus as desired, and those settings will stay exactly where you set them – which means that even if there is movement while you’re taking the shot, the exposure and focus won’t change.

Tip 3: Don’t go off-grid

Improve your phone pics by turning on your grid. This will enable you to see gridlines when taking a photo which helps you get the horizon line and other key lines straight before you snap. The result is a much more appealing image with straight lines. Don’t believe me? Take a look at the image below. Taken without the benefit of gridlines, I was standing and my phone was on an angle, tilted slightly towards the subject. In the next image, I moved back a little and knelt down and used the gridlines to make sure my phone was straight up and down and the lines in the image were straight. I think it’s a much better photograph!

For iPhone go to Settings > Camera > Composition and set Grid to ON.

For Android go to Settings > Apps > Camera > Camera settings and set Grid lines to ON.

Tip 4: Be quick!

They grow up so fast – sometimes you have to be quick to catch the cute stuff! The fastest way to access your iPhone camera is to wake your phone up without unlocking it, then swipe left… your Camera App will open straight away. Both Android and iPhone users can also unlock their phones from the home screen by tapping and holding the camera icon at the bottom right of the screen.

Practice these tips and you’ll be taking the first steps towards better photographs of your little ones; photographs that are worthy of printing, posting and sharing far and wide. As a kid, I loved looking through photo albums; sitting with my mum, looking at the pictures, and sharing stories. I’m so grateful to my mother for those photographs. I hope that passing on a little of my knowledge is a gift to you and that you can pass on the gift of memories to your children in years to come so that one day you’ll sit with them and share stories of your own.

Nadinne Wilkinson is a professional photographer who specialises in newborn and family shoots. She is the author of ‘The Memory Gift’, a guide jam-packed with tips and tricks for taking beautiful photographs on your iPhone, available at

www.nadinnegracephotography.com

For 10% off your purchase of The Memory Gift please use code: BBB10