Today everything is being combined together. This is no longer the day when a camera only functions as a camera or a mobile phone just as a mobile phone. Instead, digital cameras are found inside of numerous gadgets, including mobile phones. In fact, you may be surprised to learn that camera phones are the fastest growing segment of the digital camera market.
Unfortunately, even with these great features, many of the pictures that are taken by mobile phones are still of rather poor quality. While this could be the result of lower quality cameras, oftentimes it is actually the result of poor technique. With this in mind, here are 12 tips that can help you get better pictures out of the camera that is part of your mobile phone:
- Make sure that your subject is well lit. The better lit your subject is the clearer your photograph itself will be. This is why it is a good idea to take your photographs outside whenever possible. If you have to take a photograph inside, make sure that you turn the lights on. However, you do need to understand that artificial lighting will impact the colors in your photographs, which is why you may want to experiment with the white balance. Of course, there are also some camera phones that do have a built in flash. This can really help to make a picture more clear, even if you8 are taking it outside. If your camera phone does not have a built in flash, try to avoid taking pictures in bright light as this will give you subjects that are silhouetted.
- Get up close to your subject. Since camera phones have low resolution, your images are going to tend to be small to begin with. For this reason, you need to fill up your view finder with your subject so that you do not have to do any zoom editing and thus decrease your photograph’s quality later on. Of course, if you get too close you may have distortion, especially if your camera phone does not have a focusing mode.
- Make sure that you stand still. If you need help with this, then make sure that you balance either yourself or your camera phone against something steady. The reason why this is important because the steadier you are the clearer your picture will be. This is especially important whenever you do not have a lot of light because your camera will select longer shutter speeds in order to compensate in these situations. Another thing that is important to remember is that a lot of camera phones suffer from ìshutter lag,î which simply means that there is a few seconds between you press the shutter and when the camera actually takes the picture. With this in mind, you will need to hold the camera still for a few seconds extra in order to make sure that you actually take the picture that you are intending to take.
- Remember to edit your images later. While you may enjoy doing this with the software that is built into your phone, you will get better results if you do it on your computer. You should also make sure to take all of your photographs in color because while you can make a photograph black and white later on, you cannot make it color.
- You should never throw away your mistakes. Since the quality of your camera phone’s screen may not be as good as your computer’s screen, you should always keep the photographs that you take until you do see them on your computer. You never know, you may discover that they will look better on your computer and thus be usable after all.
- Do not use the digital zoom. While it may be tempting to zoom in on your subjects, doing so will actually decrease your picture’s quality. This is especially true if you have ìdigital zoom.î As such you are going to end up with a photograph that is pixelated. Remember instead that you can always edit your photographs later on. On the other hand, if you have an ìoptical zoom,î this will be find to use because it will not enlarge the pixels and thus make your subject enlarged as well.
- Take the time to experiment with white balance. More and more camera phones have an adjustable white balance on them today. This will allow you to modify the brightness of your pictures based upon the conditions wherein you are taking the picture. You will need to experiment with this in order to get a real good feel for how it will impact your photographs because it will vary from one camera phone to the next. It is also a good idea to take the time to read about this feature in your user manual.
- Experiment, experiment, experiment. After all, experimenting will not cost you anything. Therefore, you can try different modes, angles, perspectives and compositions but only keep those that you really like
- You need to understand that while rules of composition are meant to be followed, they are also meant to be broken as well. Some of the simple tips that you can pick up in regards to basic composition can be really helpful. However, you should know that some of the best photographs are those that break all of the rules.
- Always do your best to keep your lens clean. This type of maintenance can be quite challenging. Since mobile phones are kept in pockets and bags and are used in all types of weather conditions, they can get easily get damaged or really dirty. For this reason you need to take the time to clean your camera lens with a soft cloth, such as the type that are used for cleaning glasses, every once in a while.
- Make sure that you use the highest possible resolution. There are some mobile phones that will allow you to choose the resolution that you take your photograph at. You need to remember here that the higher your resolution, the clearer your picture is going to be. However, this also means that your photograph is also going to be a larger file size as well. Therefore, it will take more time to send it to someone.
- There is proper camera phone etiquette that you need to observe. While there are no ìformalî rules, it is still important to consider how your usage may affect others. For instance, you should never use your camera phone to take sneaky or voyeuristic photographs. Instead, if you want to photograph a stranger, get their permission. It is also important to consider that there may be some restrictions on these phones’ use if you are in a theater, at a concert, etc.
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stefan 12.27.11 at 12:22 pm
some really useful tips
i have a 2mp camera phone