You take a picture that looks great on your phone. Later, you open it on a bigger screen and realize it is blurry, the faces are dark, or somebody is halfway out of the frame. That is disappointing when it is a photo you really wanted to keep.
A few small habits can help you take better missionary photos. You do not need elaborate equipment. Pay attention to the light, leave some room around the people in the picture, and keep the original files for printing later.
Check That It Is Okay to Take the Photo
Use equipment approved for your mission, and ask people before taking and sharing their pictures. Being happy to appear in a family email is not necessarily the same as agreeing to be on a public website.
For Latter-day Saint missionaries, the Church's photo and video guidelines explain permission and subjects or places that should not be photographed. Follow your mission leaders' direction if you are unsure.
You can write about a meaningful experience even when you do not have a picture of it.
Find Some Good Light
Before taking a picture of someone, look at their face on the screen. If the face is dark and the background is very bright, try a different angle or a spot with more even light.
Open shade or soft light near a window can work well. Strong overhead sun can put deep shadows across a face. Moving a little may help more than trying to edit the picture afterward.
Also, clean the lens. It is a small thing, but a phone that has been in a pocket all day may need it.
Hold the device steady, pause, and take the picture. If it is appropriate to take a second one, do that too. Then check whether anyone blinked before everybody walks away.
Take a Few Different Kinds of Pictures
A collection of photos is more interesting when each picture adds something. You might have an appropriate view of the area, a picture with someone who agreed to be photographed, and a small detail mentioned in your letter.
That detail might be a meal you made or your very well-used walking shoes. The point is to photograph something you have a story about.
Watch for personal information in the background, including addresses or private notes. It is easy to focus on the people and miss what is sitting on the table beside them.
Leave a Little Room Around the Edges
Try not to put someone's face right against the edge of the picture. When a photo is fitted into a book page, some of the edges may need to be cropped. A little extra space gives you more options.
Take both a vertical and a horizontal version when you have time. Watch for distracting objects behind people's heads. Move closer when it is safe and appropriate instead of using a lot of digital zoom.
You are simply trying to make the subject easy to see. Nobody needs to spend the whole afternoon posing.
Keep the Original Photo
For a book, use the original image file when possible. Screenshots and copies from messaging apps may be smaller than the picture your camera saved.
Photo size is measured in pixels. More available pixels give you more room to print a picture larger. Adobe describes 300 pixels per inch as a common target for high-quality printing in its resolution guide. For example, a photo that is 1,800 pixels wide works out to six inches wide at that resolution, before cropping.
You do not need to calculate that for every picture you take! Keep the originals and check the book proof. Lighting, focus, and compression matter too. A smaller photo may still look good printed at a smaller size.
Write Down What Is Happening
Add a sentence about each photo in your weekly email. Include the date and names when appropriate, and explain why you took it.
A caption that says "Dinner" leaves a lot out. A caption explaining that it was your first attempt at making soup together gives the picture a story.
Letters Home keeps photos with mission letters so you can bring those stories into a book. See how it works, or use our guide to saving mission emails to check that the pictures are being saved along with the words.