Smartphone cameras have come a very long way. These days the image quality is so great that people have totally forgotten about pocket cameras. This is all thanks to the greater investment in the camera hardware by smartphone makers, better computing power, and intelligent software features. In the hands of a skilled photographer, even a smartphone can be a powerful tool for photography. In this video, photographer Saurav Sinha shares 4 quick tips to help you take your smartphone photography to the next level:
Many cameras these days offer manual mode (pro mode). This gives you the control of the shutter speed and ISO. And no, using this mode does not guarantee you with better images. Switch over to manual mode only in difficult lighting situations, or when you want to get creative. In a well lit scenario, you can stick to auto mode, and use the exposure slider to adjust the brightness.
The night mode in your camera app can be a good feature to use in the low light situations. Another alternative to this is to use a slow shutter speed using the pro mode. For best results, be sure to keep the phone steady. Using a tripod works best.
Your camera app might have an option to set the exposure and focus independently when you tap on the screen. This is a life saver when you want to focus on something, but set the exposure based on a different area of the scene. Be sure to explore your camera settings and enable it. This feature will come in handy especially in difficult lighting conditions.
Smartphone cameras are pretty small and are quite limited in terms of dynamic range. Therefore, when taking the image, the idea is to increase the brightness as much as possible without clipping the highlights. This concept is known as “exposing to the right” and helps in taking an image with minimal noise. To help you out with this, also see if your camera app supports the histogram feature. If it does, be sure to enable it.
“It’s always good to expose to the right, and then adjust the contrast later in post processing.”
The more you understand the features that your smartphone camera has to offer, the easier it will be for you to take photos. Invest some time in getting to know your camera app better. This will in turn help you with your smartphone photography.
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