Smartphone adverts are always talking about how amazing the camera is and showing examples of professional-level photos taken on the phone. But a lot of people find that, even with the best smartphone camera on the market, their photos still come out blurry or dark and they have to take ten shots before they get a good one. You might assume that the photos that you see on adverts are taken by a professional and your photos will never match up to that. However, that isn’t the case because smartphone photography is not as daunting as it seems and anybody can take good photos if they know what they are doing and they practice. If you want to take professional quality photos on your smartphone, here are some great tricks you can try.
Clean Your Lenses
This is quite an obvious tip when you think about it but most people don’t consider cleaning the lens before they take a photo. The thing is, your phone is constantly in your pocket or your hands all day so it gets dirt and grime on the lenses. This shows up on your photos and makes them look blurry, so you need to clean the lens if you want to make sure that your photos are crisp. Be careful when cleaning the lenses because they’re quite delicate and they can easily get scratched, which will ruin your photos for good. You can use a special lens pen or a can of compressed air to remove dirt and grit and then gently clean the lens with a microfiber cloth to avoid any scratches.
Upgrade The Lenses
If you are looking for some great accessories for your smartphone, you should definitely consider investing in some new lenses. You can buy a whole range of different lenses that easily fit on the back of your phone, giving you a wider angle and better zoom capabilities. With the right lenses attached to your phone, it can be just as good as a proper camera without the big price tag. You can get some great sets that are nice and portable so you can put them in your bag and get them out when you want to get some great photos.
Set The Focus Manually
Most smartphone cameras have an autofocus feature and it works pretty well in some situations. However, if you find that your subject still looks a bit blurred, even though you have cleaned the lenses properly, the autofocus may not be working as it should. It doesn’t always get it right and sometimes it focuses on the wrong thing, so it’s best to set the focus manually if you want to get better photos. Setting the focus on a normal camera can be tricky and it takes a lot of practice, but on a phone, it’s so easy. Simply line up your shot and then tap the screen where you want it to focus. You will see a yellow square or circle on most phones to indicate where you are focusing. This one simple trick will drastically improve your smartphone photos.
Use Night Mode
Taking photos at night is difficult and most people find that they come out dark and blurred. But a lot of phones these days have a specific night mode to help you get better shots in the dark. The night mode iphone is the best example but other phones have a pretty decent alternative as well. When you use night mode, the phone actually takes a collection of photos over a certain time period, depending on how dark it is. The phone automatically works out how much light there is and adjusts to improve the photos, giving you the best one at the end. On iPhones, it will switch on automatically when needed but on other phones, you may have to go into the settings and activate it.
Learn To Adjust Exposure
Terms like exposure can seem daunting to people that aren’t professional photographers but it’s not as complicated as you think. Exposure just means the amount of light that the camera takes in, so it’s basically the brightness level of the photo. If you let more light in, the image will be brighter. When photos turn out way too dark or too bright, that’s because you haven’t got the exposure right and you need to learn to adjust it. The good news is, this is so simple to do on a phone. Usually, when you click the screen to focus the image, you can then swipe up and down to adjust the exposure. When the brightness level is just right, you can take the image and the colors in your picture will be a lot more vibrant.
Use Portrait Mode For People
If you are taking a picture of somebody, you should always use the portrait mode. When you see high-quality portraits taken with a proper camera, they always have a blurred background and a crystal clear picture of the subject. You might assume that you can’t recreate that on a smartphone but the portrait mode allows you to do just that. It’s a great feature that often gets overlooked and it allows you to take some really amazing photos, so you should play around with it. If you decide that you don’t like the blurred background, you can easily remove it as well.
Learn To Edit Photos
All of the amazing photos that you see didn’t come out like that right away, they’ve probably been edited. If you want to improve your photos, you should learn a few editing tricks. Most phone cameras have a built-in editing tool that allows you to change the brightness, add filters, crop bits out and sharpen up your images. Making a few simple edits can really improve your photos and make them look professional. However, it’s important that you don’t go overboard because too much editing makes the photos look fake and ruins them.
If you use these simple tips and tricks, you will be taking professional-quality photos on your smartphone in no time.
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