We live in an era of being over-exposed to visual content; in the form of photos, videos and infographics. We want our favourite images to be noticed and enjoyed by others too.

Capturing and sharing images has been democratised by the smartphone and made it really easy to share a bad photo. The next step to transition from a happy snap to an engaging, impactful image is - make it instantly obvious what you want the viewer to notice first.

One of the best strategies in my recent article, '3 steps to capture a WOW photo on your smartphone' the second step was – clearly communicate the subject or story.

Here's the 10 tip list:

I have written an article on how to blur the background to really make your photos pop off the screen. Why does it work? It isolates the background and reduces our attention being distracted by the unwanted content in the image.

In my article - Blur the background on your Android & iPhone photos, I explain the different modes available in various smartphones, shooting techniques and three different photo editing apps to blur the background on any image captured on an iPhone or Android smartphone.

A location where there is a slither of lighting hitting the subject can produce an ethereal mood.

This can also be reproduced in food photography on your smartphone by holding two boards and letting directional light pass between them.

Learn more: These lighting tips will help you master smartphone photography

Our eye is attracted to objects in sharp focus, vivid colours and bright parts of an image. Hence, darkening the background can also isolate the subject. This can be achieved in two easy ways:

An app like PicsArt allows you to convert the image to black and white, then reveal the colours that you want to make the subject stand out. Open an image in Picsart then go to Effects > Colours > Colour Splash then drag the circle onto the colour you would like to highlight.

What I love about this app is you can add a second and third colour to include. If some extra bits are included that you want to remove - tap on the eraser on the top of the screen, wipe over the sections to return them to black and white and tap on the tick mark.

Lastly, hit Apply then the arrow on the top right corner to save or share instantly.