As you’ve already heard in this thread, one of the bigger adages in photograph is “the best camera is the one you have with you”.
I’ll also add one more, but it doesn’t sound quite as catchy: the better the shot looks “in camera” the better the outcome.
What do I mean? Try your best to nail framing, composition, and exposure as you’re taking the photo. You can always adjust after the fact via cropping, bumping exposure, etc if you need to but if you can avoid, or minimize the amount of, this you’ll usually get a better end result. Modifying the photo after you take it is called post processing.
You recognized a good opportunity for a photo, which is a great first step. I personally like the aspect ratio (eg lots of sky, some foreground) but I find the cars in both corners distracting. That’s probably why you’re hearing so many suggestions to crop. I suspect if you walked a little bit closer you could have gotten both cars out of frame. This would also frame the pizza place a little tighter and you probably wouldn’t lose much sky.
Possible standing locations:
standing on the same side of the car on the right thay you’re already on, but closer to it. You could probably aim over its trunk to put it out of frame
standing behind the car to the right, assuming the driver wasn’t ready to back up
standing on the far side of the car on the right, putting you closer to the building and the car behind you
The second building to the left is also a little distracting, but that might be harder to avoid. Move around! See if you can better isolate your subject unless you think something in the foreground or background is adding to the photo.
Personally when it comes to exterior shots I go for wider shots than 3x2. I’m talking like 3x1, 2x1, or 16x9. Mostly I like those wider shots because I feel they isolate the subject most for exteriors.
Here’s a quick and sloppy little crop at 2x1 I did of your picture. Unfortunately I’m away from my PC ATM so a better crop couldn’t happen but I think it shows what I’m trying to say.
Of course lately I’ve been really falling in love with 1x1 images but that’s a whole other ball pit.
Finally got back to my PC so I could do some fun editing
BTW would you be alright if I share this edit in my online album (DeviantArt page) provided I credit you as the original source for the non-edited image and provide a link here?
You can take cool photos even with a potatoe phone! It’s harder of course but still possible, it’s what you aiming at more than just the camera itself.
My stance on photography is “the best camera is the one you have with you”.
On the other hand, I don’t find taking pictures with a phone to be particularly engaging.
Personally I love film cameras most. Focussing by rotating the lens, the sound of the mirror slap, winding the film with a lever, and the moment when you get to see how your pics turned out days later are more than half the fun for me.
![Are Pixel photos allowed here? This phone is getting me into the fun of photography right now. [Critique Wanted]](https://sopuli.xyz/pictrs/image/72b39b60-feaa-4ec5-a7a0-1174b7ad36b7.jpeg){kind=link}