I would often take my camera and never take pictures or take a few and never use them. Since the advent of smartphones, I take photos all the time and I’ve gotten good at it. And, the smartphone cameras are getting so much better, especially in Samsung, sorry iPhone.
Below is Traveling Culturati’ guide to taking better photos with your cell phone.
- Learn the settings and features on your phone and how your phone’s camera functions.
- It’s best to keep your camera on “auto” and change it as you need to for different types of photos or environments.
- Go to your camera settings and check out the different settings and what they do for various shots like, wide shots, action shots, daytime, night time, etc.
- Play around with it in your free time. Sounds a bit narcissistic but it’s necessary for getting to know your camera
- Clean your camera lens!
- Our phones get dirty because of all the touching. Use the same cleaner you would use for your eyeglasses and use a soft cloth.
- While you’re at it, sanitize your phone as well.
- Samsung has a new feature that tells you if the lens is dirty.
- Use your onscreen functions like Focus, exposure & brightness:
- Tap your screen to set your focus and exposure. Try touching different areas of the background or foreground to experiment with different levels of light. Lock the Focus / Exposure by keeping your finger on your object of desire until you see the AE/AF lock banner
- Slide your finger up and down to adjust brightness on the bar.
- It sounds odd but keep the flash off for low light.
- The in-phone flash of your camera should almost never be used unless it is very dark or at night.
- Natural lighting should always be used when shooting in low light.
- Use HDR or High Dynamic Range.
- HDR captures greater detail from bright and dark areas in your photo.
- Take photos while you video.
- When filming a video on your smartphone, the camera shutter button will appear on screen, it’s next to the record or “stop record” button. When you use it, your video will continue to record but you can take candid and usually awesome photos.
- Depending on your phone the photos will either go to your gallery or will be in your video frame. If it’s in your video frame you’ll have to screenshot it.
- Use other buttons on your phone to take photos
- The camera shutter isn’t the only way to snap a photo on your cell phone. I learned this one by accident. These buttons can be your volume buttons or another side button. Using these alternative buttons allows you to take a more stable photo because you’re using both hands to hold the phone.
- Use burst shot
- By holding the shutter or the alternative buttons your camera will take numerous shots of the same image and you can select the best one and delete the rest or, depending on your phones features, create a cool GIF.
- Get close
- There’s nothing more annoying than seeing a photo of people that are so far away, you can’t tell who they are.
- Sometimes you have to decide what’s important, the people in the photo or landmark. Either way, your focus should be what’s important.
- Also, consider, it’s usually not important to have feet in the photo. It’s much better to get close to your subject in the photo for a clearer and more personable image.
- Cheers & Jeers
- The best photos are when your subjects are engaged. Do something to make everyone laugh and get great smiles.
- Snap away while your subjects are getting ready for the photo.
- Use your burst shot.
- Social Media photo and camera features
- Instagram and Messenger have great features, filters, and functions when you use the camera within the social media app.
Snap away!
Yours truly,
Ja’Vonne, AKA, The Traveling Culturati