Saturday Daily Dynamics/Photography/Taking the perfect photo with your smartphone

I am sure that you all know that our smartphones are the most used camera in the world.

With a smartphone we can tell a whole story from the photographs we take instantly as we all carry our smartphones with us. Some of the smartphones are so advanced that we don’t need a professional camera anymore. They are good enough to take that perfect high quality photo.

Photutorial’s data estimates that an average of 2.3 billion photos will be taken per day in 2022.

People are no longer buying smartphones for what they can do with them but for the quality of photos they can take.
To help us to understand how a camera works and how to make the right choice when you buy that smartphone there are a few terms which we need to understand and we need to put them to the test.

Megapixel (MP) – The images which we capture with our smartphones and professional cameras consist of tiny units which we call pixels. A megapixel is made up of one million of these pixels. Normally the more megapixel in a camera the better the photo. This is not always the same for a smartphone camera.

A good phone camera must have large pixels and a sizable sensor.

Sensor – Where the image is capture is where you will find the camera sensor. What happens is that the lens opens, light comes in and the image is developed on the sensor. The quality of the sensor and the size of the sensor affects the quality of the photos you are taking. In smartphone cameras the sensor has been well developed.

ISO – ISO tells you how sensitive your camera is to light. Most smartphones allow you to change the ISO and will allow you to set it between 50 and 6400. The darker the light the higher you should set the ISO and the lighter the photo the lower the ISO setting. Read the manual if you don’t know how to change the ISO settings and practice to find the right settings.

Aperture – This the hole through which light travels into the camera. It is not possible to change the aperture on a smartphone as it is already inbuilt.

Depth of field – This is the area of a photo which is clearly seen. For a blurry background the image will have a low depth of field and for a sharp background the image will have a high depth of field. With smartphones most of the image is normally in focus. What you need to remember when you take a photo with a smartphone is that the closer the subject is to you the blurrier the background will be. Trial and error is the best way to learn this. Some smartphones do have settings which can help with depth of field like, portrait mode.

White balance - We refer to white balance as the manner in which your camera can deal with colours. This is basically how your camera handles colours and you can normally see this when your photos have a yellow or pink glance. You can change the setting to default by using the application already installed on your smartphone under camera settings. Play around and select the options which works best for you. (auto, cloudy, daylight etc.)

Shutter – This is the time the shutter of the camera is open to allow the light to come into the sensor and better known as “exposure time”. When capturing fast moving subjects, like birds, you need a fast shutter speed. Smartphones use E-shutters (Electronic shutters). You can however use applications like Adobe Lightroom CC Mobile on some smartphones to change the shutter speed.

OIS - Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) is the term used to recompense for those times when your hand shakes while you are taking a photo. It will not stop the shaking at all but it will minimize it. Smartphone technology is constantly on the improvement which OIS as one of the main focus point. You can also make use of a monopad or tripod to stabilize your camera.

HDR – Most professional photographers use HDR cameras. These types of cameras help to take more professional photos. The good news is that most of the newer smartphones already caters for HDR photography. What it does is that it takes several photos straight after each other with different exposures and then it combines it to give you the best outcome. You can set the HDR on most smartphones.
HDR “ON” – The camera take a HDR photo every time you use it
HDR “AUTO” – The camera will analyse the scene and when the contrast is right it will automatically take an HDR photo so that increase the detail in the photo

Now that we understand how a smartphone camera work and the settings we can change let’s look at a few tips;

• Know your smartphone camera and what it can do
• When you are taking a portrait focus on the eyes. Use the touch focus
• Composition… Composition… Composition. Go back to last week’s lesson on composition if you are not sure what to do. The most important composition rule for me is for sure “The rule of thirds”. This where you must place the subject mainly in the left or right area of the photo. If you can master this rule you will start taking those perfect and well compelling photos.
• Your smartphone make capturing a photo easy. It is small, it is light, it is portable and it is easy to use. You can truly play around and mix up the angles when you take a photo with your smartphone.
• Keep it simple! The best photos are taken with less but interesting.
• Keep your smartphone straight when you take a photo!
• Keep it steady. Rather take a shorter video with your smartphone than a long video which shakes
• Don’t over edit your photos rather practice until you get it right
• When you download applications make sure that it is compatible to your smartphone and read the reviews on these applications before you download them. Also remember why you want to use them, to improve your photography
• Before you buy any accessories make sure it can be used on your smartphone and that it is what you truly need. The first thing you can buy is a tripod
• Lastly, enjoy your photos!

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