Here's How to Take Better Smartphone Photos

Tips For Smartphone Photographers

In the digital age, that old saying "a picture is worth a thousand words" is a bit outdated. That exchange rate seems to apply tenfold when it comes to social media. Photo-centric apps such as Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok and Pinterest are soaring. Experts estimate that we upload about two billion photos per day to the Internet. Pictures, and the attendant buzz they generate online, are the currency of social media. Whether you're uploading a photo of your lunch, or emailing a cute pic of your kids, you'll benefit from these smartphone photography tips.

My first tip is a simple but important one. Keep the lens clean. Phones spend a lot of time in pockets and purses gathering dust and lint, and other gunk. Fingerprints easily cover camera lenses when phones are pulled out hastily, and a dirty lens will result in cloudy photos. Use a microfiber cloth to gently clean the lens. A cotton swab moistened with water can remove stubborn specks.

Next, use the “rule of thirds,” a basic photography tip. The rule is based on the theory that images look more interesting when their subject straddles imaginary lines that divide the field of view into thirds, horizontally and vertically. These Google Image search results instantly convey the idea. The points at which the imaginary lines intersect are also important in photo composition because viewers’ eyes are naturally drawn to those points. Check the settings in your phone's camera app to turn on gridlines to aid in getting that effect.

Lighting is the most important aspect of photography. The direction, color, and intensity of lighting can have dramatic effects on a photo. Most smartphone photos are taken under conditions that give the photographer little control over lighting. But you can move around to get the light at your back and on your subject. Try different angles to see how light and shadows affect the composition.

These next two tips were given to me by a professional photographer. He advised me to avoid using a smartphone’s flash. Due to the size constraints of phones, a built-in flash is always too close to the lens, resulting in overwhelming glare, washed-out patches of skin, and the infamous “red-eye” effect. Use natural light whenever possible. If necessary, consider a detached LED lamp with adjustable intensity.

And never use digital zoom. Optical zoom works by physically moving the lens closer to the subject. Digital zoom is a software trick that enlarges pixels, which makes the image look larger but blurrier. The best way to make objects look bigger is to get closer to them, unless the object is an alligator, or the edge of a cliff.

It's also fun to experiment with different angles and perspectives to add depth and interest to your photos. Shoot from a vantage point above, below, or from unique angles. Digital "film" is free, so take lots of shots to get thw most interesting angle.

Experimenting With Camera Settings

Understand Camera Modes. Using your phone's Camera app, you’ll notice that various modes are available. Most people just leave their camera in “auto” mode, letting it select the best setting for each shot as best it can. But choosing the right mode can yield a much more interesting photo. Some you can try include Selfie mode, HDR mode, Panorama mode, Night mode, Time-lapse mode, Bokeh/Portrait mode, and Sports mode.

Try browsing through your camera’s settings and experimenting with its various modes. Some phones will show a small arrow on the left side of the camera screen, which will reveal a variety of settings and options. Others have a gear icon to access settings. You can always delete shots you don’t like. Try different filters to add subtle or slapstick effects.

If you have trouble keeping the phone steady when clicking the button to snap a photo, turn on voice controls. This will allow you to get your subject in focus, and take a picture by saying "shoot."

HDR, or High Dynamic Range, is an important mode. It is a form of image processing that balances lights and darks in images, and helps them look more like the way the human eye would see the photo’s object. HDR actually takes three photos very rapidly - light, medium, and dark - then mashes them together to yield an image that includes all the highs and lows of a scene. As you might imagine, HDR works best with still scenes like landscapes, while moving objects will appear blurry.

If available, panorama mode lets you pan across a wide scene and capture it one wide-angle photo. In most cases, you'll want to hold your phone horizontally when taking pictures or videos. Panorama mode is the exception. Holding the phone vertically will increase your depth and result in a better image. It's important to keep the phone level while sweeping across the scene. If your phone doesn't have panorama mode, check the Google Play store for an app to add that functionality.

Some high-end phones provide advanced simulations of professional photography features, such as aperture priority, shutter priority, and full manual, as well as ISO (sensitivity) and white balance. Most casual shutterbugs will find these settings overkill, but they can come in handy at times if you take the trouble to learn them.

If your camera has a RAW image option, you can save images in uncompressed (raw) format instead of JPG. RAW gives you better editing options and yields sharper photos.

Speaking of editing, there are lots of great photography apps to help you enhance your images by cropping, or adjusting the brightness, contrast, and other settings. See the link above to find those apps, and photography tutorials.

Backup photos automatically. Oceans of tears have been shed over lost memories when phones and their SD cards are lost or damaged. Your iPhone will back up your photos in iCloud. Google Photos provides 15GB of free cloud storage for photos and videos. You don’t need a Google account to use Google Photos. By simply activating the Backup & Sync function on an Android or iOS-based smartphone or tablet, Google Photos automatically saves all photos and videos stored on all the devices a user owns, as well as any taken in the future.

Do you have some tips on taking great pictures with a smartphone? Your thoughts on this topic are welcome. Post your comment or question below...