How to Take Better Photos With Your Smartphone
CONTENTS
- How to Take Better Photos With Your Smartphone
- Curate and Edit; Hack Your Flash; Find the Light; Get in Close
If you're a typical PCMag reader, you have a smartphone, and it likely
has a decent camera. Despite having high megapixel counts, cell phone
cameras can't keep up with standalone point-and-shoots for a few
reasons. The physical size of a phone's image sensor is smaller than
even the lowest-price point-and-shoot cameras, and we've yet to see a
phone with an optical zoom lens. But if you're not the type to carry a
camera with you at all times, you'll likely rely on your phone to
capture an unexpected moment. It's possible to use your iPhone or
Android to grab photos that will turn heads.
Ditch the Filters
Whether it's Instagram or Hipstamatic, the square-crop filter look is tired. The filters can go a long way to mask the shortcomings of phone cameras, but they're entirely overused. Instead of relying on funky colors and borders to set your photos apart from the crowd, let them stand on their own merits. There is a social networking aspect to Instagram that you may miss, but it's just as easy to share photos via Facebook, Twitter, or Flickr.
Whether it's Instagram or Hipstamatic, the square-crop filter look is tired. The filters can go a long way to mask the shortcomings of phone cameras, but they're entirely overused. Instead of relying on funky colors and borders to set your photos apart from the crowd, let them stand on their own merits. There is a social networking aspect to Instagram that you may miss, but it's just as easy to share photos via Facebook, Twitter, or Flickr.
Snap Up an App
This is aimed at you, iPhone shooters. The iOS camera app doesn't give you much control over your shots. Spend a buck and grab Camera+ from the app store, or experiment with free downloads like Smugmug Camera Awesome. Android users have a more featured camera app out of the box, but Zoom Camera is a popular download if you want extra control. All of these apps add a digital zoom and also give you more control over the focus and exposure.
This is aimed at you, iPhone shooters. The iOS camera app doesn't give you much control over your shots. Spend a buck and grab Camera+ from the app store, or experiment with free downloads like Smugmug Camera Awesome. Android users have a more featured camera app out of the box, but Zoom Camera is a popular download if you want extra control. All of these apps add a digital zoom and also give you more control over the focus and exposure.
Camera
Awesome and Camera+ add digital image stabilization, a number of burst
shooting modes, and a self-timer to your iPhone. Knowledgeable shooters
will also appreciate the ability to separate the focus point and
exposure area when using Camera+ and the fact that it can show you the
current ISO, aperture, and shutter speed. Camera Awesome has a number of
overlays to help you with your composition—Rule of Thirds, the Golden
Ratio, an Angled Trisec, and a Square Crop frame can be shown.
Take Your Time
Shooting with a phone puts you in a different mindset than when you're working with a more substantial camera. You're likely to go for a quick shot, without giving too much thought to your angle, the lighting, and composition. This is exacerbated by the always-on nature of your phone—you want to get your photo online instantly, so your friends and family know what you're doing at that moment. Slow down. Take your time and get the shot right, or as right as you can get it. If you need to take a few photos to do so, go for it—you aren't paying by the frame.
Shooting with a phone puts you in a different mindset than when you're working with a more substantial camera. You're likely to go for a quick shot, without giving too much thought to your angle, the lighting, and composition. This is exacerbated by the always-on nature of your phone—you want to get your photo online instantly, so your friends and family know what you're doing at that moment. Slow down. Take your time and get the shot right, or as right as you can get it. If you need to take a few photos to do so, go for it—you aren't paying by the frame.
If
you're serious, carry a mini tripod and a mounting bracket for your
phone. There are also adapters out there to mount other lenses to your
phone. These include compact fisheye and teleconverter lenses, or more
ambitious designs that connect an SLR lens. My opinion is that they're
more trouble than they're worth—you won't walk around with the lens
attached in your pocket, and digging it out of your bag and attaching it
to your phone can be a pain. Whenever you add a lens to a lens image
quality is reduced, even with the best conversion lenses—and given the
prices, these aren't the best conversion lenses.
Curate and Edit
Don't shoot and post a photo immediately. There are ample apps available to crop, adjust brightness, and otherwise enhance your photos—right from the phone. Spend a little time to get a photo right before showing it off to the world. Download Adobe Photoshop Express —it's free for iOS and Android—it doesn't offer the level of editing that the desktop version does, but it's a great tool for on-the-go cropping and retouching.
Don't shoot and post a photo immediately. There are ample apps available to crop, adjust brightness, and otherwise enhance your photos—right from the phone. Spend a little time to get a photo right before showing it off to the world. Download Adobe Photoshop Express —it's free for iOS and Android—it doesn't offer the level of editing that the desktop version does, but it's a great tool for on-the-go cropping and retouching.
Distancing
yourself from the moment will also give you a better sense of the
difference between a good photo and a bad one. It's easy to get excited
about a shot right after you've captured it, but chances are you'll have
a better handle on its quality, hours or days after you've captured the
photo.
Hack Your Flash
The flash on your phone isn't a traditional photo strobe, it's an LED light. It's bright, but small, which can create a deer-in-the-headlights type look when using it. You can get better results by diffusing its output—essentially spreading the light it emits out further. This will give flash photos a softer, more pleasing look. You can see that the light is a bit softer on the sample photo on the left; it was shot with wax paper covering an iPhone 5 flash. The shot on the right, taken without anything to diffuse the flash, is a bit harsher and accentuates some shininess on the subject's face.
The flash on your phone isn't a traditional photo strobe, it's an LED light. It's bright, but small, which can create a deer-in-the-headlights type look when using it. You can get better results by diffusing its output—essentially spreading the light it emits out further. This will give flash photos a softer, more pleasing look. You can see that the light is a bit softer on the sample photo on the left; it was shot with wax paper covering an iPhone 5 flash. The shot on the right, taken without anything to diffuse the flash, is a bit harsher and accentuates some shininess on the subject's face.
Depending
on what type of case you use to protect your phone, it shouldn't be
that hard. Grab some wax paper from the pantry and use it to the cover
up the flash. This will be easiest if you have a case that covers the
entire back of your phone, with a cutout for the flash and lens. I took a
few quick snaps here in the PCMag Labs and the difference is subtle;
portraits with the naked flash resulted in a bit of harsh light that was
downright unflattering, but adding the wax paper softened it a bit. The
difference is subtle, but considering how easy it is to implement, why
not do it?
Find the Light
Even with a bit better flash output, your phone's performance in dim lighting is going to be disappointing when compared with a good point-and-shoot camera. Photography is all about lighting, and you'll get better photos when you're shooting in better light. Better doesn't mean brighter; the best natural light you'll get is right after dawn, and again just prior to dusk. You're also better off taking photos on a cloudy, overcast day than you are at midday under a bright blue sky—clouds work to soften the light, whereas photos shot under the noon sun have a harsh look to them.
Even with a bit better flash output, your phone's performance in dim lighting is going to be disappointing when compared with a good point-and-shoot camera. Photography is all about lighting, and you'll get better photos when you're shooting in better light. Better doesn't mean brighter; the best natural light you'll get is right after dawn, and again just prior to dusk. You're also better off taking photos on a cloudy, overcast day than you are at midday under a bright blue sky—clouds work to soften the light, whereas photos shot under the noon sun have a harsh look to them.
If
you're shooting indoors, try and consider what artificial light sources
you can work with. Avoid fluorescent lighting, unless you want a green
David Fincher look to your shots. Try and meter indoor snapshots with
care—Camera+ lets you separate the metering area from the focus area, so
you can get more natural-looking photos with a low-key lighting effect
by metering off the best-lit part of your scene and focusing on your
subject.
Get in Close
Not lacking in megapixels, your phone's camera still isn't capable of resolving the same level of detail as a good compact digital camera. There are reasons for this, including the relatively small size of the lens and sensor. So don't expect to get a detailed shot if you're far away from your subject—even if you engage digital zoom. That can be a useful tool when you simply can't get closer, just remember that you're essentially just cropping your photo before it's taken. If you can get right up to the subject of your shot and frame it tightly, you'll end up with much better results.
Not lacking in megapixels, your phone's camera still isn't capable of resolving the same level of detail as a good compact digital camera. There are reasons for this, including the relatively small size of the lens and sensor. So don't expect to get a detailed shot if you're far away from your subject—even if you engage digital zoom. That can be a useful tool when you simply can't get closer, just remember that you're essentially just cropping your photo before it's taken. If you can get right up to the subject of your shot and frame it tightly, you'll end up with much better results.
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