Almost everyone has a smartphone with a camera. And almost everyone takes photos with it. Whether it is ‘just’ everyday things or, for example, a children’s party or holiday. Did you know that you can easily get more out of your mobile camera? Here are 5 smart tips for improving your smartphone photography.
Tip 1: Your smartphone is super complete
For years, smartphone cameras struggled to match the quality of SLR and mirrorless cameras. However, the landscape is gradually changing.
The latest smartphones now offer the ability to capture mobile photos that are on par with “real” cameras. Even if you’re not well-versed in the technical aspects, you can still leverage the available light, your surroundings, and your creativity to create impressive images.
One of the major advantages of smartphones is their comprehensiveness. Not only can you capture photos with them, but you can also adjust settings such as depth of field, ISO value, and shutter speed. Additionally, you can edit your photos directly on your smartphone and easily share them on social media. Your smartphone encompasses your entire photography workflow.
Tip: 2 Choose the focus point
Your smartphone focuses automatically. This is often useful. But what do you do if your mobile phone doesn’t focus in the right place? Or even can’t focus at all? This happens, for example, in situations with low light or low contrast. Your smartphone will not focus or focus at the wrong point in your composition.
You can easily help your phone by tapping on the screen and let it focus where you want it to focus. The optimal sharpness is then in the spot that you want.
To secure the focus point for subsequent photos, hold your finger a little longer on the screen. And do you want to focus in a different place again? Then just tap your finger on that spot.
Tip 3: Use the volume button as a trigger
Let’s dive into the next smart tip for capturing great photos with your smartphone. Building upon the previous suggestion, we have an ingenious trick for you: utilize the audio volume button as a shutter release. While the on-screen button is undoubtedly helpful, it can sometimes be challenging to press it, depending on how you hold your phone.
That’s where the audio volume button comes to the rescue! Depending on your smartphone model, simply press the “+” or “-” button to capture the perfect shot.
But wait, there’s more! You can even use your wireless earphones as a remote control, adding an extra level of convenience to your photography experience.
Tip 4: Avoid taking photos with a skewed horizon
Let’s continue with 5 smart tips for smartphone photography. A skewed horizon is usually not so beautiful. Unless you consciously aim for a creative effect.
If you turn on the grid in your smartphone, you have a handy tool to avoid a skewed horizon. It’s not perfect. But use this simple feature to your advantage. This also helps you with the plain division in the image.
Tip 5: Post-processing your photos is super easy
Let’s talk about post-processing, a valuable tool in enhancing your photos. We want to be honest with you – post-processing alone won’t salvage a poorly taken picture. We’ve gathered this insight from our extensive 22 years of experience as professional photographers. However, post-processing can give your images that extra touch, adding a hint of magic that brings them to life. Thankfully, there is an abundance of apps available to assist you in this process.
Feel free to explore all the options, but we recommend choosing one or a few post-processing apps that truly resonate with you and deliver the desired results. As we are just embarking on this blog, we haven’t yet conducted an extensive comparison of the apps. Nonetheless, we would like to highlight two apps that have caught our attention and deserve the spotlight.
Snapseed
A completely free app in which you can adjust a lot of settings and use filters is Snapseed. We’ve been using Snapseed for our phone photos for a while now.
Lightroom CC Mobile
The version of Lightroom for your smartphone. As far as we’re concerned, this is a great app. We’ve been editing all our photos in Lightroom CC on the computer since 2011. This makes Lightroom CC mobile very easy for us. This is a paid version, and in our opinion it is worth it.
What do you want to know more about?
With these 5 smart tips for shooting with your smartphone you can already move forward. Apply the tips the next time you take pictures. You could just read that we recently started this blog. Do you have questions about smartphone photography? Feel free to let us know below this blog. Then we will write a blog about it in due course.
We’re here to help! If you have any questions about the blog, feel free to leave a reply below and we’ll get back to you. And if you’re curious about mobile photography, ask us anything! We’d love to chat with you. Get in touch through this page.
About Better smartphone Photography
Better Smartphone Photography is a new company aimed at improving your smartphone photography skills. Our aim is to provide helpful advice, tricks and tutorials to help smartphone photographers like you, regardless of your experience level. Meet Frank and Yvonne, the founders of Better Smartphone Photography with over 22 years of experience as professional photographers. With our guidance, discover how to create and capture exceptional photos with your smartphone.
Get ready for your next steps in smartphone photography
Better Smartphone Photography is official dealer of Ulanzi, VIJIM and MOJOGEAR.
Do you want to work with us?
That is possible. Companies are also welcome. Check out this info.
Better Smartphone Photography is a part of Betere Landschapsfoto (website in Dutch).
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