The following content was presented at our September 6th meeting by Diane Sands
- Basic photography guidelines
- Good to know tips and what to avoid when using your phone camera
To begin:
- Learn What Your Camera Can Do – As you can see in these photos, not all smartphones are alike. There are iPhones (made by Apple) and Androids (all other brands).
- Each smartphone has different features and may put common features in different places. Use the default settings if you are unfamiliar with how phone cameras work. Check camera settings for more built-in features, once you are comfortable with basic functions. The make of your camera will determine what features are available. There are many apps that you can explore for more bells & whistles. Look to Google and YouTube for more information.
- Keep your batteries charged. Nothing ruins a picture-perfect moment faster than dead batteries. Good Charge is 85% plus – A 15% charge greatly reduces photo ops.
- Clean the Camera Lens – the easiest thing you can do. Dirty camera lenses can lead to unwanted flares, glaring, streaks, and focus issues. Avoid using jeans, a napkin you dipped in water, a tissue, or a dirty cloth for cleaning, as they could scratch the lens. Instead, use a softer material — like a microfiber cloth — to clean any smudges off your camera lens. Your t-shirt also works in a pinch.
Photography basics:
- Keep It Simple – Many of the best photos include just one, interesting subject.
- Check the scene for any distracting elements, before you take the shot. Move closer, or change your viewpoint, to remove unwanted objects from your photo.
- Shooting up close works best when photographing people and pets. Get down to the level of your subject and don’t be afraid to get in close.
- Apply the rule of thirds – The rule of thirds is the most common off-center composition technique used in photography. Instead of placing your subject squarely in the middle of your frame, you place your subject to the left third or right third of an image, leaving the other two-thirds more open. In the rule of thirds, an image is split into nine equal blocks that form a three-by-three grid (picture a tic-tac-toe board). You should aim to get the most interesting parts of your image near the corners of these segments, where the imaginary gridlines meet. Using the rule of thirds gives a more natural feeling to the image and allows the eye to flow around the picture with ease. In contrast to this, placing things symmetrical in your frame will give a clean and clinical feeling (which can also be a good look). Mention Grid Lines.
- Shoot from a different perspective, often from a lower angle. Most people take photos from chest height. This is usually the most convenient way of taking a picture. Shooting from a lower angle shows your subject with nothing but sky in the background. It makes your subject stand out against the plain background. This is perfect for removing unwanted distractions.
- Light is one of the most important factors in any photo. If you can, make use of the available natural light.
- Your best outdoor photos are taken on a cloudy, overcast day when you will not have to deal with shadows.Find a tree or an awning to shade your subject on a sunny day, something that will reduce squinting and won’t highlight every wrinkle or feature to which the subject might not want to draw attention.Position your subjects so they’re well-lit from the front, if possible, and not silhouetted by a strong light from behind, which will cause underexposure and make an image too dark for the subjects to be seen clearly.
- Wait for the Golden Hour if you can – the time when natural light is diffused and even. This time occurs in the two hours after sunrise or two hours before sunset.
- Ensure the subject is standing facing the light source when taking indoor photos. Have the subject face a window rather than stand with their back to the window. If the available indoor light is poor, switch on a few lamps.
Smart Phone Photos Tips
- Take as many shots as possible. One of the best things about smartphone photography is that you can take as many photos as you want, review your images, and delete all but the best ones.
- Take candid photos to better capture the emotion of a moment. Most phones come with a burst mode for this very purpose. On both iPhone (LIVE Photo) and Android phones, you activate it by holding down the shutter button in Photo mode.
- Get Close to Your Subject – One of the most common mistakes with camera phone images is that their subject ends up being a tiny, unrecognizable object in the distance, so fill up your viewfinder with your subject. Avoid using Zoom, which decreases the quality of your photo. The larger you zoom on a subject, the more your photo will blur – as pixels become further apart. Digital zoom nearly always produces poor results as it reduces the resolution of the image. Avoiding it is one of the basic photography tips for taking better photos, instead of using Zoom, simply move closer to maintain the image quality.
- Keep Still – As with all digital photography, the steadier your camera phone is when taking your shot the clearer your image will be. Keep in mind that many camera phones also suffer from ‘shutter lag’ (i.e. the time between when you press the shutter and when the camera takes the shot can be a second or so). This means you need to hold the camera still a little longer to ensure it doesn’t take a shot as you’re lowering it away from the subject.
- When people take photos with their phones, often they extend their arms in front of them as though they are reaching toward their subject. Don’t do this. This makes for a very unstable camera since you must use extra muscles to keep your hands steady.Instead, keep your arms as close to your body as possible. And then just walk closer to your subject if you want a closer shot.
- You can also lean back against a wall or tree to steady yourself.
- Especially in the dark – You need to keep the camera steady to capture sharp photos in low light. In low light conditions, the camera must use a slower shutter speed. This lets more light in over a longer period of time. During this longer exposure time, any movement (including camera movement) will be captured as a blur or streak. When you become more familiar with your camera – check out Nite Mode for taking low-light photos.
- Avoid using Flash (the lightning bolt icon). It tends to make smartphone photos worse than if you were to go without it. When taking pictures, the flash can produce unwanted effects, such as glowing eyes or overly-lit skin — even on the best smartphone. Your best bet with a smartphone camera flash is to keep it turned off in most situations.
- HDR mode – High Dynamic Range adds detail from the dark and light areas to provide better balanced exposure. In other words, it will stop the sky from being too bright or the ground being too dark and really suits landscape photography. Generally, it works best when your subject is not moving. If there’s a big difference between the lightest and darkest parts of your scene, using the camera phone’s HDR function it’s a good option. Whatever your make and model of phone, you should see “HDR mode” in a prominent place somewhere on the screen. If left to the default setting, the HDR mode will activate whenever the camera senses it could be useful. You can also turn HDR mode on and off manually but for most photos, the auto HDR function it’s a good option.
- Focus – Many phones have basic cameras that use a focus-free system (which means pretty much everything stays in focus all the time). But if you want to focus the shot on something—or someone—off to the side (using the rule of thirds to add interest to your shot), note that when you aim the camera, a white circle or square will appear in the center. Place your finger on the circle and pull it to where you want the camera to focus.
- Auto Rotate allows your device’s screen to automatically adjust and rotate depending on how you hold it. For example, if you turn your phone sideways, the screen will automatically switch to landscape mode. Go to Settings > Display > Auto-rotate screen to turn it on.
- Grid Lines: Your smartphone can display a rule of thirds grid on the screen to help you compose your photo. You can access this by tapping the Options button at the top of the screen. The lines will not appear in the photo.
- Use Editing Tools – You have easy access to editing tools, with the camera phone’s built-in editor which will allow you to crop and touch up your photos in seconds. Just select a photo from your photo gallery and at the bottom of the screen, you’ll see options for editing using tools, filters, etc.
Finally, if you want to know how to take a good photo with your phone, the best tip of all is to practice!
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