Smartphone photography 101: Tips and Tricks to Take the Best Smartphone Photos
Smartphone photography has been all the rage in Malaysia ever since a photo taken by a Malaysian student was featured on Apple’s Instagram page. It is quite amusing yet unbelievable for certain people because the featured photo was taken using only a smartphone camera.
Most smartphone brands have high-quality camera features in their latest devices nowadays. But why do their photo results seem to differ enormously? Well, here’s a secret – It’s not the phone; it’s your smartphone photography skills!
Not to worry, though. Here are some tips and tricks on how you can take high-quality photos and even edit them with little time and energy.
Fingers Off Your Camera Lens
Perhaps just before you start figuring out what camera features your smartphone offers, you should check if you have a smudged camera lens. Since our fingers tend to be swiping all over the phone screen, it’s easy to leave marks and create a film over the camera lens. All you need to do is take any lens cloth to clean up the smudges on the lens right before you begin your smartphone photography lesson.
Make Use of the Gridlines
Whether you’re using the Apple iOS operating system or Android one, you’ll find that every smartphone camera has a grid system. If you don’t have the grid system turned on, here are the instructions on how to switch it on.
Apple iOS: Setting>Camera> Toggle on the Grid
Android: Camera App>Settings> Toggle on the Grid lines
One common mistake that people make before taking a photo is setting their eyes on the camera balance without using the gridlines. The result of the images will always turn out to be offset without the visual guidance that tells our eyes where we should be focusing on.
There are a lot more compositional rules to learn in order to improve your smartphone photography skills. These rules act as guidelines that will help you “arrange” the elements in the scene of your shots. Spend time researching composition techniques to level up your smartphone photography skills.
Always Set the Focus & Exposure Yourself
Modern smartphone cameras can automatically focus on the focal point of the camera frame. However, photos can still end up blurry because the cameras will try to focus on multiple parts of the photo if you have a complicated background. As a result, nothing is really in focus.
To set your camera’s focus manually, just tap on where you want the focus to be. If you plan to take multiple shots, make sure you “lock” your camera’s focus on the targeted subject. Simultaneously, the exposure of your photo will be affected. So, swipe up or down on the slider to adjust the overall brightness of your photo.
Avoid Zooming In
It’s challenging not to try and get a closer view of a subject for a better shot. However, let’s not forget that there are still differences between the resolution of photos taken on DSLR and smartphone cameras. So, it is advisable not to zoom in too much to maintain the original photo quality.
Alternatively, try to get your camera closer to your subject from a default distance. You can always crop the excess frame into the size you want later.
Nevertheless, if it’s impossible to get close to the subject, change your focus or move your vantage point. There are always different angles you can explore when you are honing your smartphone photography skills.
Explore Different Angles
In the photography world, different angles can create different illusions of the subjects. In simple words, you can decide either to make your subject stand out in the photo or less significant.
Try taking low-angle shots if you want to take landscape shots, such as photographs of skyscrapers and street shots.
In contrast, high-angle shots will make your subject look vulnerable and insignificant. You can use these high-angle shots to take photos of the emptiness of the space with minimal subject to focus on, groups of people walking on the street from high buildings, or simply just to convey the meaning of powerlessness of the subject.
Try to Use an App to Edit or Filter
One of the best things about smartphone photography is that you can edit your photos right away after you snap the photos. Most smartphones now can automatically remove blemishes and beautify one’s selfies, saving us the time from covering up our freckles or pimples.
Want more smartphone tips? Browse our large collection of articles where you can find more helpful tips on how to take the best smartphone pictures.
