Tips and tricks for better photos with your Smartphone

Tips and tricks for better photos with your Smartphone

To be a good photographer, it takes more than just a good camera. That's right. Still, the technology is important. This also applies to the Smartphone photography. With a few tweaks, and without additional knowledge and apps you can get more from your Smartphone cameras. We have revised the article for you and added new tips.

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Smartphone cameras are getting better and it can get a lot out of them. / © ANDROIDPIT
Tips and tricks for Smartphone photos: Best resolution and image quality
Do you want to do your pictures in the best possible quality that provides you with your Smartphone? Then you should raise as the settings for the resolution and picture quality as possible. Later it will also be easier to edit the image. As the high-resolution images consume more disk space for some low resolution, you should have always a MicroSD card – this is of course only if your Smartphone has a corresponding card slot. This is not the case, backs up your old photos and flushes the memory before you photographed.

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Uses the maximum resolution and image quality for the perfect snapshot. / © ANDROIDPIT
Tips and tricks for Smartphone photos: clean lens
Make sure that the camera lens is free of dirt and finger prints. The Smartphone is probably in your trouser or jacket pocket most of the time – also as dust can settle on the lens. Wipes before photographing with a cloth over the lens. Uses a standard micro fiber cloth or a glasses cleaning cloth by the optician, to clean the lens without scratching it. Handkerchiefs to also go, leave but sometimes fine and annoying fluff.

Tips and tricks for Smartphone photos: Multiple snap, sort it out later
Instead of relying on the perfect snapshot, prefer multiple scans the subject. The only picture of your romantic Kiss photo before the Eiffel Tower in Paris is out of focus, namely you will probably later regret it. Take photos of any subject simply repeatedly and watch while the auto focus. Until you think that a successful image it is definitely. Nowadays, especially top smartphones offer a burst function, with which the camera with just a push of a button makes multiple photos in series.

Tips and tricks for Smartphone photos: manually set focus
Much depends the correct focus in a successful picture. Here most of the auto focus, helps but is not healthy, finally he often doesn't know what we actually want to have the focus. A hint is enough to work around this problem, because the touch-focus is the solution. That's where you want to set the focus point touches the screen.

Tips and tricks for Smartphone photos: Photographing from above
Want to make your Selfies or portrait photos of other people your Smartphone while shooting you should keep slightly higher, so that the motif on the scanning looks slightly upwards. So, it avoids annoying double chin effects and unwanted contours. Of course, there are other positions in which your best side comes to the fore. But her looks up, stretches her neck and face and it all without image editing and beauty mode slightly smoother and firmer. But overdoing it not shooting from above, otherwise the scanned person acts like a dwarf


Tips and tricks for Smartphone photos: Use both hands
Quick snapshots often live from the filth and dynamics of the moment, may be so even something blurred. If it should be but completely sharp, the casual one hand photography is just not convenient. Calm your breath stop and finds a way to fix your arms, it's on a subject such as the edge of a table or in an emergency also by relying on his own knees or pressing the elbows in the own torso. You thereby maybe not quite as sharp look, your pictures for this but all the more.

Tips and tricks for Smartphone photos: Shutter speed
With shutter speed (shutter) it is meant, how long the camera sensor is exposed to the light. Motives appear clear at a fast shutter speed, and how frozen at the moment. For example, If you jump in the air, it looks in the photo, as if it hovers above the ground. When a slow shutter speed, moving subjects can be depicted better - which breathes more life into the photo. The photo is obviously not a moving image (i.e. video), still you can see that the motive was during the snapshot in movement. When shooting with sluggish shutter speed, it is important to keep the Smartphone (see above) safe in the hands. At best, you use a tripod so that the details in the pictures by camera shake blur no longer than they should. Who has kids and wants love to hold memories in image format should use a very fast shutter speed, to get clear detailed photos.

shutter speed
Links: faster shutter speed, right: slow shutter speed / © ANDROIDPIT
Tips and tricks for Smartphone photos: The golden section (rule of thirds)
The golden ratio (or rule of thirds) is divided into thirds, so 9 box the picture as a whole (3 x 3). On many Smartphones, must you not mentally imagine the grid, but have usually a function in reserve, which serves as an aid. The subject should be on one of the four intersections (hence golden section) of the grid also longitudinal, or are placed in a line so that it is properly used in scene. With the rule of thirds, a great photo composition is guaranteed, but let more in the next point also some space to"breathe", but the motif.

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Golden section going. / © ANDROIDPIT
Tips and tricks for Smartphone photos: Square rule (rule of space)
As already mentioned, some of the motifs on the photo need also place "to breathe or look". As with the golden section is another element, which creates more harmony in the photo. Used with the square rule correctly, it creates a sense of movement, activity or degree in composition. In a portrait of the views of the subject within the distance can wander and there it is often ideal to leave space in the direction of the gaze and not to cut in the face. So the views can also to express, that the pictured just focused thinking - what breathes more life into the photo. You photographed about a car driving you should allow also space where the car goes instead to hold worn asphalt on the image. This rule, as well as the rule of thirds, may and should be broken if a photo requires it and promises to be something special.

rule of space
Square rule: some "breathing" room give your motif. / © ANDROIDPIT
Tips and tricks for Smartphone photos: Foreground makes healthy image
What is the ancient wisdom of country music? "Put a girl in it!" This also applies to photos - where it must not necessarily be a lady. Men also are good to give a foreground to a picture with a view into the distance. Enhances the image in landscape motifs or urban scenes an object in the foreground, because his presence gives more depth to the overall picture. If necessary, just a tree or similar must furnish.

Tips and tricks for Smartphone photos: find the correct ISO value
"What is hell? ISO", like to ask some hobby photographer. Everything you need to know to do this, is that the sensor is adjusted less light sensitive at low ISO and high value more. And Yes, the ISO value has also influence on the shutter speed of the Smartphone camera. It revs up the ISO value, image noise in the photos is noticeable but. The advantage of a high ISO value: Images can take up with faster shutter speed and images look even brighter. So, the lower the ISO value, the clearer and sharper is the photo. Here a rule of thumb to help: in a bright environment, you basically need a lower ISO value. On sunny days, you should be the lowest ISO value of your Smartphone or your came

Tips and tricks for Smartphone photos: Panorama
Do you scan less people and more nature and landscapes, the panorama mode for this is. Especially very large motifs, as a mountain range or a sunset on the sea need sometimes more space than is available on a single photo. Pretty much every current Smartphone has a corresponding mode that takes you off the Snipping of cooperation of multiple images and also clean joins you. If your Smartphone is slightly older, of course, an application with matching function from Google's play store can be useful. Panoramic images are suitable for a cover image on Facebook, even if not the whole picture just fits, the most beautiful part can further highlight your profile.

Panorama
A broad backdrop on the image, you should use the panorama mode. / © ANDROIDPIT
Tips and tricks for Smartphone photos: Tiny planet
With an app, you can turn your panoramic images in a so-called tiny planet image by the way. We recommend two apps for that: the first is the tiny planet FX. The application is not free unfortunately, offers many options to customize the effect. The second app planet is small and is freely available in the play store. The program requires a little training time. Then, the user can make but spectacular images.

Tiny planet FX Pro
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Small planet
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tinyplanet
The tiny planet effect is extraordinary. / © ANDROIDPIT
Tips and tricks for Smartphone photos: Light note
Light can be your friend and your enemy, depending on which environment you you are and what you want to capture. Frontal sunlight is often a real problem, unless you want to intentionally overexpose the image and play in post-processing with the contrast. If possible, so provides you with the back of the light and avoid strong shadows from the front. The frontal light source should be even unavoidable switches the torch, which sometimes helps.

Tips and tricks for Smartphone photos: Inserting Flash only in case of emergency
If a strong exposure is not absolutely essential for the image, you should refrain from the Flash rather because he produced rarely really nice pictures. Not only the quality of the colors, uniform illumination on the screen is often completely destroyed. The foreground shines in bright white, the background disappears entirely. There, a photo with natural light and more image noise is often pleasant and handsome as a met of the Flash at the end.

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Natural light is the best light for photos. Avoid flash photography as in this picture, if you can. / © ANDROIDPIT
Tips and tricks for Smartphone photos: LED flash
The Smartphone camera's LED flash your snapshots will supply the appropriate exposure, if the appropriate light is missing. But the result for smartphones is very disappointing and the subject looks unnatural overexposed. Also the background is suffering from the bright strobe light, which puts the subject in the foreground while, but casts shadow on the remaining details. This creates a strong contrast. So people look like people, you need a piece of Brown tape that just sticks you have the LED flash. It is also a half-transparent, white tape. So you have a kind of diffuser, which somewhat mitigates the brightness of the Flash. So the photo looks natural and beautiful. The homemade diffuser can help especially at parties with something more subdued exposure.

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From left to right: Without LED flash with LED flash (without diffuser), with LED flash (with diffuser). / © ANDROIDPIT
Tips and tricks for Smartphone photos: Wait for the appropriate time of day
Snapshots allow the luxury of not often the patient image composition. But if you're planning a photo, should consider, when he makes it, for morning and evening hours to provide often much more interesting lighting as noon. This is of course a matter of taste. Morning person, for example, you should not scan still better in the morning, shady figures not in the evening. That would be then something too much of a good.

Tips and tricks for Smartphone photos: Zoom with your feet
The digital zoom in the Smartphone may save you some steps, for that he ruined the picture however. Here is still a large deficit of Smartphone cameras compared to their counterparts with optical zoom, so compact and SLR cameras. Because the zoom lens is missing, only the image is increased, which has a Zoom effect, but drastically reduces the resolution of detail. So does you the favor and makes rather a few steps more.


Tips and tricks for Smartphone photos: Straight horizon
This tip builds on the last and here the superimposed grid in the viewfinder can also help. Skewed lines bring anxiety in the image, unless this is intended. The horizon is the dominant line when looking into the distance, so ensure that the horizon is not wrong.

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This image gives depth to the plant in the foreground on the left image third of recording, the leaning horizon is however disturbing and brings trouble in the image. / © ANDROIDPIT
Tips and tricks for Smartphone photos: Prefer shade than Sun
The HDR mode helps in smartphones increasingly to compensate for strong light discrepancies in the image. But first he has his limits, and secondly he must often do not come to use, if you you simply dwarfed and taken out of it. Direct light is unable to debit the image very, bright sunshine not always ensures brilliant images.

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Top with HDR, below without: the difference is visible. / © ANDROIDPIT
Tips and tricks for Smartphone photos: Filter uses
The apps Instagram and EyeEm offer you filter for the post processing of your recordings. You give your photo a very own character and can subsequently change the mood of the picture. There are retro-filter, black/white filter and other filters in all shades. Locates the appropriate filter for your recording and it shines the image in a whole new light.

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Different shots, different filters: Instagram / © Instagram
Tips and tricks for Smartphone photos: Play with the perspective
A photo must be not always at eye level, we have the perspective already throughout the day. Tried something different angle, puts you on a hill and photographed down or goes into the knee. So arise often much interesting images - but also the hated double chin. So beware of portraits from the bottom.

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A position was chosen for this image tightly above the ground, thus it is more dramatic and energetic. Putting up the saturation does your part. / © ANDROIDPIT
Tips and tricks for Smartphone photos: Effectively edit
Now we leave the realm of photography. More and more images are edited in Snapchat, Instagram, and other apps. Why not? Here, you can have fun and do something respectable or even exciting even from the most mundane snapshot. Here, you have to develop only a sensitivity that post-processing the image quickly robs the authenticity. So before asks you whether you want to have a real interactive image at the end or artificial looking. Here you get an overview of the best apps for image editing, there are tips and tricks for Instagram on this topic page.

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