Tips for Smartphone Photography

Tips for Smartphone Photography

Whether it is vacations, summers or winters, taking photos never goes out of favourite hobbies of a majority of people. And this trend has only gained more adoption as our dainty smartphones have started to pack more beastly and powerful cameras. So here are some quick tips to churning out the best photos out of your smartphone cameras.

• Keeping the lense clean

Considering the fact all the light that goes into the camera of a smartphone is through an irreplaceable aperture, unlike DSLRs, keeping the camera cover clean is of utmost importance. The unfortunate placement of cameras on phones results in smudges from the touches of our fingers, leading to aberrations, unwanted halo formations.

The trick is to wipe it with a clean lint free cloth for every first shot that you take, but never overdo that. Also protect the camera surface from scratches as there is no wiping away to them.

• Know the Pros and Cons of Your Phone

Knowing what your phone ( and its camera ) is capable of pays off a long way to taking really good snaps. Familiarizing with the camera app that you use and the various options ( both software and hardware based ) present on your devices can reduce time spent on post processing. 

As an example, if your camera produces warmer colours, try to fix it by compensating the White Balance and the Hue settings. You can always switch to camera apps other than the default one, if the latter doesn't satisfy you much.

• Holding it steady and still

Ok, here's the deal; no software can compensate ( until now ) for the accidental shake or push that you incur while clicking a potential master piece. So follow this trick.The best way to hold your phone is with both hands, feet kept apart and elbows tucked in. If you have a platform to mount your phone on, use it. 

While shooting videos, keep the image stabilisation on if you need smoother videos, but otherwise, keep it turned off as it cuts down the field of view. Remember not to cover the microphones while shooting videos as this will muffle the sounds and their stereo effects. Also, do not ever shoot videos in portrait mode. Videos are meant to be viewed horizontally ( see the orientation of your eyes ). People who shoot videos in portrait; nobody likes them.

• Lighting it Right

Light is the principle medium upon which cameras of all shorts work, and the tiny cameras of smartphones get only a little of it in comparison to the DSLRs. This is why they perform well in bright outdoor light but not as much in indoor lights.

So move your object to a well lighted area. If object can't be moved, switch to the low light mode and make sure to keep the phone very still.Avoid having the light source directly behind the object or behind you yourself, unless casting those silhouette shadows is what you intend.

When clicking glossy surfaces, keep the light source and yourself off from showing up in the reflections. Positioning is all that matters here.When in a uni-source lit scene, use reflecting surfaces for balancing out light and dark shades.Switching to the HDR mode can always be a saviour as it brings out the details in overly bright or under-lit scenes. Just remember to hold the camera still and for a bit longer; the HDR mode increases the exposure time in order to capture the details in darker or blown out regions.

• Focus

Tapping on a spot and making it the focus of the snap is a child's play now. What matters is if you focus on the right spot. If there's a very bright spot in the frame, focus on it and adjust the exposure accordingly so that it doesn't become a white spot at the end.

If capturing a moving object, auto focus does not work its magic.

What you could do is focus on a still object at the right distance and keep the button pressed until the moving object comes into the frame. This will shoot in burst mode and might give you the right shot with fair clarity.

• No Flashes Please

The only good suggestion about flashes on smartphones would be to not use them.

Avoid using those LED flashes until the object in the photo are really poorly lit. It ruins the natural lighting of the photos otherwise.

• No to Digital Zoom

Until and unless your phone has optical zooming capability, don't zoom while taking shots. Optical zoom is the only real zoom, digital zoom crops the image and blows it up to the resolution of the screen, resulting in more grainy or, in worst case, pixelated images.

Rather take an image and crop it later to the field of view you want. That way you won't lose out on the quality of the image.

• Let Me Take a Selfie

Since even Oxford dictionary had to bow to the fame of 'Selfies', people are taking self portraits more than ever before. Make sure that your face is well lit, because front facing cameras are even worse off at low lit scenes.

Also avoid any casted shadows on your face. Always look at camera ( and not the screen ) while taking selfies.

Adjust your look, as you would in front of a mirror, while seeing the screen and just as you tap the shutter, look towards the camera. This will produce more natural photos without you staring at some random point below the camera.

Remember to have a desirable background while taking self portraits; you don't want to end up showing the whole world how your bathroom looks.

With that we wind up this list of tips. Got some more with you to share ?

 Please head to the comment section right below. :)