Those who dare to take a quick snapshot often use their smartphone and risk blurred and unsightly pictures. But thanks to modern lenses and ever better technology, you can shoot real professional pictures.
Smartphone Photography Tips
We have put together the appropriate tips for you here. In the past unthinkable, now more and more the case: smartphone cameras have overtaken “normal” cameras in everyday life. Most amateur photographers take their vacation pictures or quick selfies with their own cell phone instead of a DSLR camera.
Although the latter certainly have their advantages, smartphones have become indispensable. It’s just stupid if the snapshot with the handy device doesn’t succeed.
So that the anger about bad pictures is a thing of the past, we have put together some tips for you to get the most out of your smartphone camera. You don’t even have to be familiar with photo fine-tuning such as ISO values or exposure times.
Clean the smartphone lens
Decent images can only be made with a clean camera. A tip that can already help with many, especially old devices: Over time, the camera lens of the smartphone gets dirty.
This is because the device is in our hands and the lens can get fingerprints or fluff in the pocket of the pants can ruin the perfect picture. We have summarized the quickest and best way to clean your smartphone camera in a practical tip. If the lens is clean, you can continue with the other points.
Set focus correctly
Most smartphone cameras are automatically switched to automatic mode. In theory, this means that the pictures can be taken with just one click of the shutter button. In reality, however, there are often blurry images or blurred images that then fly into the virtual trash can afterwards.
So that you do not lose focus on your subject and that what you want to capture remains razor sharp, all you have to do is press the touch screen at the point of the image that is to be brought into focus.
Some smartphone cameras can even be set so that they trigger an image with the pressure on the screen and the focus found. This makes shooting even faster. Once you’ve mastered that, you can go a step further and use depth of field in your images.
Light, flash and the night mode
The night mode of modern smartphones makes photos in the dark child’s play. For the small lenses that are built into smartphone cameras, one thing is particularly important: light. Because without sufficient lighting, the automatic mode of the smartphone increases the ISO values and image noise is the result.
If you do not have a bright light source, but take a group photo in the twilight, for example, do not use the flash. This often only worsens the picture. Especially when you want to take a picture of a large room or an open area.
For several years now, several manufacturers have been using a so-called night mode on their smartphone cameras. These take several images and can use the data obtained in this way to deliver significantly better results in the dark. Check the settings of your smartphone to see whether you have such a mode and activate it if necessary.
The right picture composition
Once the correct settings are found, you should position the subject correctly. In the options of many smartphones you will therefore find the menu item “Grid”.
If this is activated, you will now see lines in the preview of the camera app. Don’t worry: these are only there for the recording and are not present on the final image. They will help you position the subject correctly.
So, for a more exciting picture, you should use the intersections of the grid and place your motif there: This is the so-called ” rule of thirds”. If it is right in the middle, the picture often looks boring. But if, for example, a person stands on the left side on the cutting points and reveals a panorama on the right, then you have chosen a much nicer composition of your picture.
Keep a steady hand
The best preparation for a picture quickly goes down the drain if it jiggles when the shutter is released. Some smartphone cameras try to sharpen the image afterwards. But even that doesn’t help if the subject is completely out of joint.
When taking pictures of landscapes or nature shots, where you have to wait for a very specific moment, it is worth taking a small smartphone tripod.
You can find a short selection of tripods for your smartphone in this article. Before making a purchase, however, make sure that your mobile phone fits into the specified opening on the tripod and that it can be adequately attached.
Avoid using third-party apps
The trend towards high-quality smartphone cameras has also been driven by social media networks and messengers in recent years. Although WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger or Instagram offer their own camera applications that are supposed to guarantee even faster uploads to the platforms, these are not recommended.
The compression of the images used in these apps is often quite high in order to keep the image data set as small as possible. You should therefore use the standard app on your smartphone to take pictures and only send them afterwards. This way you make sure that your friends see the best quality of the picture too.