Take the MoPho challenge

Thanks for joining us for our content workshop!

The Challenge

Take photos on the eight following themes using your mobile phone:

  1. Colour
  2. Silhouette
  3. Shadows
  4. Reflections
  5. A unique angle
  6. Simplicity
  7. Shapes
  8. A portrait (you don’t need to identify the person, and keep it simple)
  • Enhance your photos using Snapseed (iPhone/Android). Be careful not to over-edit them. Most of the creative work should be done while taking the photo.
  • Choose the photos you think are best and upload in a carousel on Instagram using the hashtag #TAFEmopho

But first – 8 tips to make your mobile photography amaaaazing:

  1. Have a subject
    The subject is the first thing your eye sees.
    Boring subjects are better than none
    Multiple subjects can tell a story, or provide scale or context
    If you don’t know what the subject is, ask yourself why you’re taking the photo
  2. Take silhouettes
    Sunrise and sunset are good times because of the directional lighting (though a bright source of light such as a sunlit wall will also work perfectly well)
    Silhouettes look great because they’re high contrast (works well on a smaller screen)
    Silhouettes also add an air of mystery
    Shoot against the source of light (be careful of ‘flare’, or light shining into the camera lens)
  3. Include shadows in your composition
    Don’t crop shadows out
    Increasing contrast in a photo editing app makes the shadows stand out
    Best times are early morning and late afternoon (and winter is better than summer) because shadows are longer at those times
  4. Use reflections
    Find a good reflective surface (water, wet surfaces, glass, anything shiny)
    Get close to the reflective surface, try little tricks such as breaking the surface of a smooth puddle of water to create interesting distortions
  5. Take photos from a unique angle
    Familiar scenes look completely different from a unique or unfamiliar viewpoint
    Get low, get up high, point your camera up or down
  6. Use simplicity
    Don’t overcomplicate things
    Simple, clean images look better on a smaller screen such as a phone or tablet
    Eliminate distractions when you’re composing your photograph
  7. Combine all the above techniques
  8. Take several photos of the same subject
    Move around a bit, change the composition slightly, play with the exposure

Upload your 8 photos

Upload your pics to your Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook account using the hashtag #TAFEmopho

We’ll share the best photos on our Off Campus Instagram account 💛

Check out this MoPho Challenge gallery by our students – it’s great!