The smartphone is getting cheaper and almost everyone is having one now. This makes it the most handy camera that most people carry with them these days. The camera is one of the most important feature of any modern smartphone. The Smartphone camera has fully matured in the last few years, it’s used to take videos and photos on a regular basis. But even if you have the ultimate fusion of smartphone and camera, you still need to have a few basics to take great looking photos. You may have the triple camera set up of the Huawei P20 Pro, or the Dual selfie camera set up of the Itel S12, but your photos will still suck if you don’t use these tips for taking beautiful photos with your smartphone.
1. Clean the lens.
Yes, a clean lens is vital for a beautiful photograph. Most times, we may find the camera lens is covered with fingerprints as we try to use the rear mounted fingerprint sensor to unlock the device. A dirty lens may create blurry and unclear photos no matter what smartphone or camera you are using. Wiping the lens clean will solve this.
2. Focus on the subject.
When taking a picture, we are obviously interested in a particular subject and not everything that the camera can see. Focusing on the subject we are interested in will bring it out clearly and you will have a beautiful photo of it. Smartphones nowadays support background blur which will leave your subject clear.
3. Try to stay still.
Most affordable smartphones (which most people have) do not have Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS). This means clear photos when the subject or phone moves is not guaranteed. You therefore need steady hands is your device doesn’t have OIS. Try to hold your phone against a solid object like a wall, lamppost, table, car, anything solid.. etc. In this way your shot becomes more steady than taking pics from shaky hands. Also, you could consider buying tripod stands if you want some serious smartphone photos.
4. Shoot in landscape mode.
Simple mechanics, it’s easier to turn a landscape picture into a vertical than to turn a vertical picture into a landscape. Portrait photos are only great if taken with care. Portrait photos are one of the reasons why your nose appears bigger in selfies, bigger heads and smaller legs. Seriously, people who post portrait photos on social media platforms are basically like a grandfather who still dials his cellphone with his index finger instead of his thumb. The future is an uncropped widescreen landscape, and it looks beautiful.
5. Do not ZOOM.
Never Zoom when taking photos with your smartphone camera especially if your handset doesn’t support optical zoom. Most smartphones zoom in digitally rather than optically. The more you zoom in, the less number of pixels a photo will cover and the end result will be poor. Just move up close to the subject and then take the photo. Or buy additional lenses to add to your smartphone camera.
Using the above tips with any smartphone will help you shoot better pictures than you were shooting before. Check out our article on the affordable best selfie smartphones in Uganda to up your selfie photography game.
