7 Ways to Take Better Pictures With Your Phone

One of the features we always look out for when we look up a new smartphone to purchase is the back and selfie camera quality. It’s hard to ignore; we want to phone that can take great pictures, so we can flaunt them on our social media accounts and use them to apply for photography contests.

Digital cameras may be top tier when it comes to shooting lovely pictures, but your smartphone cameras can measure up, and with some decent photo editing apps, you’d become a pro photographer in no time.

What are the tricks to take better pictures with your smartphones?

Clean the lens.

First things first; your smartphone camera lens needs to be properly cleaned to capture crystal clear images for your viewing pleasure. When your camera lens is left uncleaned, there’s an evident buildup of dirt, gunk, and even finger smudges on the surface. And when you take pictures with it that way, what you get is hazy images.

What you need is a lens cloth to wipe the surface of your iPhone camera clean. You can use the lens cloth that comes with medicated glass. If you don’t have any, your T-shirt will do.

Understand what your camera can do.

Now that your camera lens is cleaned, you need to know what your smartphone camera is capable of. You can find out all about it by checking the auto-mode and check the light exposure. Tap your screen and direct the pointer to where the focus should be.

You can also check out the manual settings of your phone to see the shutter speed and white balance indicated there and play with the custom settings. Your understanding of these settings is very important to take great photos.

Take multiple shots of the same thing.

One of the ways to take great images and improve as a photographer is to take multiple shots of the same subject from different angles. This will give you the insight to see the object from different perspectives which boosts creativity.

If your subject is moving, for instance, it is best suited to use burst photos. After this, you can select the best shots that you’re going to edit.

For subjects that are not moving, take your time to move around it and take several shots. Take a bird’s eye view and a reverse bird’s eye view of the subject and edit when you’re done.

Make use of natural light.

A lot of people are prone to use the LED flash of their smartphones to take pictures even when there’s enough light surrounding the subject. What you end up with are blurry images and weird photos of people having white or red pupils.

Make do with natural light or alternative sources of light and take pictures with it. For street photography at night, make use of the street lights and take some unique photos to edit later. 

Do not zoom.

One of the ills of digital zooms the simple fact that it reduces the quality of the image (that is, the resolution). Taking great photos requires that you avoid zooming your smartphone camera when taking photos.

Instead of zooming your phone camera, why not try getting closer to the subject?

Tilt your camera to the side.

While portrait images are fun to look at, it is no fun to look at. Why? Because it takes the whole screen, unlike landscape images.

Thus, it is better to take pictures by slanting your smartphone on its side. Now, instead of tapping the shutter circle on the screen, make use of the Volume + button. This will ensure that your subject is perfectly balanced on your smartphone screen.

Lastly, use editing apps.

While you can edit your images with the editing software that comes with your phones, it is recommended to download and use editing apps to add filters and improve its quality. Some of these apps include Snapseed, Flickr, Lightroom, VSCO Cam, Beauty Plus, PicsArt, and lots more.

These apps are available on Apple, Windows, and Android stores for download. Start practicing.