Everyone desires to have a very good image of themselves, even when it comes to photos. Thanks to Mobile phone cameras, we can take good pictures of ourselves, others, and beautiful scenes and moments at any time and anywhere. Many today base the choice of their phone on how good the camera is, even mobile phone manufacturers use it as a selling point. But sometimes, the camera is not to blame for a bad or not too good pictures, it depends on the person behind the camera or in front of it, as in the case of a selfie. So here are a few guides on how to take good pictures with your phone.
These simple tips are in no way exhaustive and you might have had other small hacks that always work for you, you can add that in the comments. However, these tips will go a long way in improving your quality of mobile phone photography.
How to Take Good Picture with your phone
1. Clean and protect the Lens
Unlike other dedicated Digital cameras, your phone camera does not have a lens cover to protect it. Over time, the use of your phone will expose your camera to scratches if not handled with care, for example, dropping the phone might crack the lens, dragging it on rough surfaces might cause scratches. Also, fingerprint smudges from touching, clouds of dust it gathered from use, and in the pocket will cause hazy images that post-editing might not fix, regardless of the quality of the camera.
So, before taking that picture, use a soft cloth to wipe the camera. Be mindful not to scratch the camera lens.
2. Use Gridlines
This seems to be one of the most underrated features on phone cameras. However, the gridline feature can go a long way in improving the quality of your pictures. Gridlines help you balance your shot when taking pictures which an easy way of getting a very good picture with your phone. This is in accordance with the rule of thirds in photography.
When you turn on the gridline feature, it places lines on your screen that divides the screen into thirds both horizontally and vertically. This helps to have a properly symmetrical image that will compete well with a professional photograph.
To activate this feature, on iPhone
- Go to setting
- Locate photos and camera
- Find grid, turn it on
On other Android devices,
- Open the camera app
- Go to settings
- Find the Gridline option and turn it on
3. Move Closer, Avoid Zoom
It is really great that you can take a picture from a far distance by zooming in on the object, however, this digital zoom on the phone camera is a trade-off on image quality as a lot of image details are lost. To avoid this, take a little step closer to snap the picture and avoid zooming. Improvements on phone cameras have made it so that as you move closer, there is more focus on the object while the background is blurred out. This is called bokeh effect
4. Do not use the filters
Yes, you read that right, don’t use the preset filters on the camera app, well except if its for special purposes like Snapchat. This usually reduces the fine details of the image, and not making the picture flexible for editing afterward. Rather than using these preset filters, you may try and edit the picture afterward to your taste. There are a number of amazing mobile apps that help you achieve this.
5. Do away with the flash
LED flash comes with virtually all phone cameras these days and can prove helpful, for example as a flashlight or as you may expect taking pictures in the dark. However, using the flash for taking pictures on your phone can greatly spoil the whole image. Most time you get a blurry image or even worse red-eye effect, where people in the picture have red eyes or strange-looking eyes. As an alternative in the dark, if possible, get another source of lighting or wait for a perfect moment when you can have a good shot.
When not in dark, rely heavily on natural light, this gives you very great images
6. Try weird angles and Take multiples
Common things around can come out to be an amazing image if you try some weird angles to take your shots. Some beautiful and amazing pictures of nature and almost unbelievable pose of people are captured by photographers who tried different angles of taking the picture, some lay on their backs to capture the sky, climbed up a high place to get an aerial image, or crouch to take a perspective image. While doing this, make it a habit to take as many as you can, you will delete the unwanted ones later.
7. Use Landscape and Holdfast
Most of the best pictures of sceneries are horizontal, except portraits of people. To have wider coverage and a well-detailed image, try taking your pictures horizontally while avoiding shakes as you hold the phone. A brief shake to the phone while taking the picture might tell very badly on the image quality. To prevent shakes, you can use the volume key for taking the picture.
How to take good pictures with a phone – Get A better Phone
Getting a better phone with a better camera is another option to consider. There are many good phones today that have amazing cameras whose images can compete well with that of dedicated digital cameras. Most with Multiple cameras stacked on them to give you the best image. If after trying different methods and your image quality is still not satisfactory. you may consider getting one of these.
So useful even from a marketing perspective, thanks for sharing!