Thanks to the amazing developments in technology these days, so many people have access to smartphone photography. With mobile photography it is possible to take amazing photographs, with people not just using their smartphones to take photos for social media, but even for product photography. However, few people know how to utilise their cameras to their advantage. Here are our smartphone photography tips to make your photos look professional.
In this post we will cover:
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- Exposure
- Manually controlling the exposure
- Lighting
- Sharpness
- Framing
- Ultra-wide lenses
- Smartphone photography kits
Exposure
When taking a photo on your smartphone, you may have noticed that the colour isn’t always accurate, and the brightness seems unbalanced – the lens picks up on one detail and makes it unevenly bright. This is irksome as it compromises the overall exposure and colour accuracy of the image. However, you can correct this with one simple trick. To balance the exposure you simply have to tap on the brightest part of the image which then balances out the overall exposure and makes the colours more accurate.
However, tapping the brightest part of the screen will create a drop in brightness for your image, so it’s up to you to decide whether you prefer more detail and colour accuracy in your photo, or a lighter, brighter look.
Manually control the exposure
Because tapping the screen also impacts the focus, you can try to rectify this by manually controlling the exposure using the sliding bar on the camera app. By using this, you can bring parts of your image into focus by tapping them, and then sliding the bar to set your optimal exposure and create the shot you desire with perfectly customised brightness and detail.
Lighting
One of the most simple and effective tips for taking excellent photos on your smartphone is good lighting. To get the best photo possible, the light source should be behind the camera, or better yet, diagonally behind the camera. When the light source is directly in front of the camera, it makes the photo appear dull and gloomy. The light source behind the camera constitutes a high-quality, detailed shot that is well-focused.
Sharpness
Another element of high-quality photography is the sharpness of the image. This is easy to achieve with smartphone photography, but it’s something that’s easily overlooked. To take sharper photos on your smartphone, tap on the subject of the image to bring it into focus. Another useful tip is that your mobile phone camera can focus faster if there is more light available. Ensure that your location is well lit so that your camera can adjust quickly and capture a well-focused image.
Framing
Mastering ideal composition can be one of the biggest challenges to inexperienced photographers. One of our smartphone photography pro techniques is the rule of thirds, which makes it simple for the person behind the camera to take an interesting photograph with a well-balanced composition. The smartphone designers have factored this into their camera features. You can go into your camera settings and enable the gridlines function. When you open your camera app to take a picture, the gridlines should appear on the screen. Place the subject of the photo on the intersecting lines to help create a good composition in your photo. You can also use gridlines in Instagram for feed posts and on stories.
Ultra-wide lens
If your phone is a new model purchased in the last year there’s a good chance it has an ultra-wide rear camera lens. An ultra-wide lens has a shorter focal length and a wider angle of view. By taking photographs with an extremely wide angle of view you can add more perspective and depth to your pictures.
When you open your camera app, there should be some options in the centre of your screen to choose from. By changing from ‘1.0x’ to ‘0.5x’ you can switch from normal lens to ultra-wide, or you can customise the width by using the sliding scale. Once you take a photo with the ultra-wide you will be able to tell the difference, as ultra-wide cameras produce more immersive photographs.
Smartphones with ultra-wide lenses also offer improved colour consistency, sharper resolution, autofocus, and good night-time capabilities. Some of the best smartphone cameras for mobile photography with ultra-wide lenses are:
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- Huawei P40 Pro series
- OnePlus 8 Pro
- Oppo Find X2 Pro
- Samsung Galaxy S21 series
- LG Wing
- Samsung Galaxy A52
- OnePlus Nord
Smartphone photography kit
If you’re looking to upgrade the quality of your smartphone photography you can always invest in smartphone camera accessories to take your pictures to the next level. Some accessories to consider are detachable lenses, LED lightboxes, tabletop tripods, and universal tripod mounts.
We hope you found our smartphone photography ideas useful. If you would like your photographs taken on your smartphone retouched, Splento offers an excellent retouching service at just 49p per photo.
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