The sun is shining, the birds are singing, the flowers are in bloom, the lambs are grazing in the grass: it is summer again. Nowadays, you no longer have to walk around with an SLR camera to capture the most beautiful summer moments: you can also shoot like a professional with your smartphone. How? vertumobile.in gives 11 tips to shoot the best photos with your smartphone.
1) Make sure the lens is clean
Before you even start shooting, make sure the lens of your camera is clean. Greasy fingerprints and other dirt can cause you to get blurry photos. You want to prevent that at all costs.
Does this mean that you always have to look for detergent? Of course not. There are special cleaning agents to keep the lens clean, but a good wipe along your T-shirt or with your handkerchief is enough to remove the worst filth. So before you take your first photo, first clean the camera lens on the outside.
2) Consider the camera settings
Nowadays, smartphone cameras are almost as advanced as SLR cameras. That means that you have plenty of opportunities to influence the final result of your pictures yourself.
Which photography options your smartphone has, depends, among other things, on the brand. One manufacturer gives more features than the other. The segment of your mobile phone - low-end, mid-range or high-end - is also responsible for the setting options. More expensive smartphones generally offer more options than cheaper budget phones. The more you play, the more you get.
What should you look out for? Some camera settings that you find on many smartphones include:
- Resolution: these are the number of pixels or pixels on your screen. The higher the resolution, the larger your photos will be, both in size and file size. In short, the following applies: the higher the resolution, the better the quality of your photos. But remember that there are plenty of other things that affect how your pictures will look. A lot of megapixels does not automatically mean that you only get beautiful pictures. It helps if, for example, you decide afterward to cut away part of the photo.
- Shutter speed: The shutter speed determines how much light falls on the image sensor. Two 'curtains' have been placed in front of this sensor, which is knocked away as soon as you take a picture. This exposes the sensor so that the image (the photo) can be saved. The time the sensor is exposed to light is called the shutter speed. The faster the shutter speed, the sharper your photos because the sensor captures light a fraction of the time. The higher or longer the shutter speed, the more motion blur you will see in your photos. Click here to visit Vertu mobile price.
- Aperture: the aperture is the light opening of the camera lens. Just like the shutter speed, it determines how much light falls on the image sensor. This gives you more control over the depth of field on a photo. The smaller the aperture (f / 20, for example), the sharper the objects on your photo. If the aperture is large (for example f / 1.8), then you have little depth of field and you see more blur on your photo.
- White balance: this is the correction that camera software applies to different light colors. To take a white piece of paper as an example: the color white looks different in the sunlight than in the shade. To compensate for these and other colors to make your photos look more vivid, there are different profiles that do this automatically for you (sunlight, fluorescent light, shadow, etc.). Try the different profiles under the same conditions and find the differences.
- ISO value: this is the light sensitivity of the sensor. The further you screw up the ISO, the less ambient light you need to shoot a photo. The downside is that your photo shows more noise. The trick is to find the right balance.
- Exposure correction: usually the camera automatically calculates the amount of exposure a photo needs to get the best results. But in the white winter months or the dark autumn days, it may be necessary to adjust the exposure manually to the circumstances. A winter landscape can look gloomy and dark because the camera detects many white colors and reflective light. The opposite applies to dark landscape photos: due to the lack of light, the camera tries to (over) compensate for this by increasing the shutter speed so that more light falls on the sensor. In both situations, exposure correction offers the solution to do something about this.
3) Use artificial intelligence
For some, artificial intelligence (AI) or artificial intelligence may sound like something from a science fiction film. However, more and more smartphones are equipped with AI. It is not the case that the smartphone does all the thinking for you or becomes self-aware, but it does make our lives a lot easier.
Artificial intelligence has been processed in all aspects of mobile phones, for example in the processor and battery. As a result, the chipset knows exactly when to run at full power, and when to take a step back to save energy. Background processes that have not been used for a long time, he turns a blind eye. You will also receive notifications at the right times, for example early in the morning before you leave home and it may rain. Or if you sit down on the couch in the evening and your phone tells you how many steps you have taken today. Artificial intelligence makes telephones faster, smarter and more energy-efficient. Also, visit vertu constellation.
Smartphone cameras also have AI. These help you to take the best pictures in every situation. One of the newer phones whose cameras are equipped with artificial intelligence is the Huawei P30 Pro. Thanks to the AI Camera feature the camera system recognizes more than 1,500 different scenarios in 25 different categories such as flowers, forests, sky, food, dogs, documents, and so on. When you are about to take a picture, artificial intelligence recognizes what is in front of the lens. The software automatically adjusts the settings accordingly, for example by giving buildings extra sharp contrasts, or by saturating the colors of the sky and flowers. The result is a photo with a good balance between colors, brightness, and contrast.
The artificial intelligence also works when you record videos. If you enable AI Portrait Color, it recognizes people in real-time and makes the background gray. In this way, the person in the foreground stands out even better. It is also possible to place various filters over the images if you are recording live. Ideal if you want to create a vintage look or bokeh effect. Thanks to the double Neural Processing Units or NPUs, these video effects can be applied immediately when you are recording.
4) Use photography modes
Not every smartphone has an AI. On the other hand, they often have another tool to help you shoot the most beautiful pictures. These are the so-called photography modes. You can, of course, shoot a portrait photo with the automatic mode. The camera software then determines the best shutter speed and aperture size to capture your model as cheaply as possible. On the other hand, do you want a portrait photo that looks like it was taken by a professional photographer? Then switch on the Portrait mode. The software then makes a distinction between the person in the foreground and the background. The person portrayed appears razor-sharp and the background is blurred. Photographers also call this the depth of field or bokeh effect. Because of this simple setting, portrait photos look even better. Click here to visit our latest vertu signature touch smartphones.
In addition to the portrait mode, smartphone cameras often also have other modes or modes. In this way, the panorama position helps you to perpetuate the most beautiful elongated landscapes. Phones such as the OnePlus 6T have Nightscape or night mode. This ensures that objects and people are well lit if you capture them late in the evening. And to photograph large contrasts between light and shadow, there is Studio Lightning or Portrait Lighting.
5) Use all lenses
The time of single-lens cameras seems to be behind us for good. Almost all smartphone producers give their devices two or more lenses. With flagships, three camera lenses are nowadays the most normal thing in the world. A normal lens, an ultra-wide-angle lens, a telephoto lens, and a depth camera. And there are rumors about smartphones with five cameras or more. The end is at least not yet in sight.
Smartphones with multiple camera lenses are not necessarily better than single or dual-lens cameras. They do, however, offer more opportunities for amateur photographers to take nicer shots. You can zoom in without a telephoto lens, but without optical zoom, the image quality of your photos will quickly deteriorate. A depth camera provides a realistic bokeh effect. And with an ultra-wide-angle lens, landscape photos look even more impressive. In other words, make optimal use of the possibilities of the camera lenses.
6) Make sure the camera is stable
If you want razor-sharp photos, it is important that you hold the camera as stably as possible. If you don't, there is a good chance that you will get motion blur on your photos. If you have a steady hand, then you have an edge. However, most photographers - both amateurs and professionals - do not have that.
Mobile phones in the more expensive segment in particular often have built-in hardware and software to partially correct shocks or unexpected movements. With optical image stabilization or Optical Image Stabilization (OIS), the lens moves with you as the camera moves. With digital or electronic image stabilization ( Electronic Image Stabilization or EIS) the actual recording has postponed a fraction until the camera stops again. Connoisseurs will agree that they are useful tools, but no panacea. After all, image stabilization can only compensate a little.
How do you increase the stability of your camera and reduce your motion blur? To start, hold your smartphone firmly with two hands: don't try to shoot a photo with one arm. Also, do not extend your arms unnecessarily far: the chance that you will move your arms while shooting is therefore greater. It is better to press your elbows firmly against your body and keep your smartphone at eye level. On some smartphones, it is possible to focus on a physical button and shoot photos, such as the Sony Xperia X Performance. Other manufacturers sometimes offer the possibility to change this at the settings, if you like it better than pressing the screen.
What if all this does not yet yield the desired result? Then your best option is to look for a solid surface, for example, a wall or bench. If you place your hands on it with your smartphone in your hands, you are guaranteed to always take sharp photos. There are also stands for mobile phones so that it is always stable.
7) Zoom in with your feet, not with your fingers
Your partner, friends, pet, a landscape: there is a good chance that the subjects that you want to capture will be right in front of you. But what if they are further away? Every smartphone camera has a digital zoom. So just zoom in. However?
You better not do that. By zooming in, the quality of your photos quickly deteriorates. Moreover, every small movement you make is magnified enormously. So there is a good chance that this results in grainy and blurry photos.
What digital zoom actually does is magnify an image: it 'cuts', as it were, a piece from an imaginary photo and brings it closer. You cannot compare digital zoom with optical zoom. This changes the position of the lens and the focal length, without affecting the resolution, the sharpness of the image.
What should you do if you want to magnify a subject that is far away? The best solution is to get moving and walk towards it. The closer the object is to your camera, the less you need to zoom. And the less you need to zoom, the higher the quality of your photos.
8) Be sparing with the flash
A flash seems the ideal solution if there is little light available, but appearances are deceptive. The flash on a smartphone is often an LED light that lights up when you take a picture. It is hard to light that you often overexpose yourself and your environment. So it's better to switch off the flash. This applies to both the rear and front flash units.
What if you want to take a selfie and it is dark outside? Manufacturers have devised the Selfie Flash for this. This lights the screen of your smartphone as soon as you take a picture of yourself. In this situation, too, it is not the ideal solution, because photos quickly look overexposed and look unnatural.
Our advice: if possible, try to make optimum use of the ambient light or to find a good light source.
9) Add effects to your photos
The most beautiful photos are not always sharp and colorful. Sometimes a photo comes into its own better by adding a nice effect or a filter. What if you are in a museum or have dressed in old costumes? In such a case, it can be fun to take black and white photos or add a sepia filter. It looks old-fashioned and authentic. Most smartphone cameras have a number of filters as standard. If not, there are more than enough to find in the Google Play Store or App Store. Your own creativity is the limit.
You can also enhance boring, static photos. For example, it is now possible to add Augmented Reality or AR effects to images. You can turn a boring table into a prehistoric landscape or a fairytale forest. Adding a frame or summarized text can also liven up your photos. With the Pixlr-o-Matic app, you add your own borders and effects to your photos. Create your own texts with your photos? That is possible with Photo. And so there are many and many more apps to add effects and filters: think of Prisma, Cartoon Photo and Scatch Camera, among others.
10) Edit your photos
A tip 2 (think of the camera settings) we provided various options for influencing the final result of your photos with a number of common camera settings. What if you are not completely happy with the end result, but you think the photo is too nice to throw away? A photo editing program may then make up for your day.
The best-known programs are perhaps Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom. With an Adobe Creative Cloud account you can edit your photos on your PC against payment. Would you prefer to get started on your smartphone? Then Adobe also has various free applications. If you keep in mind that the photo editing options with these apps are limited. For more advanced options you are dependent on the desktop version.
Other commonly used photo editing applications besides Photoshop and Lightroom include PicsArt, Camera360 Ultimate, VSCO and Snapseed.
11) Use accessories
A tip 6 (make sure the camera is stable) we already mentioned one tool that you can use to take better photos: a tripod. But there are several accessories in circulation that can help you shoot the most beautiful pictures. One is the selfie stick. Selfie sticks work very simply: you place your smartphone on the stick, you connect it to your smartphone (usually via Bluetooth, sometimes by pre-installing an app) and you press the button on the stick to shoot selfies. Selfie sticks date from the time that front-facing cameras were not yet equipped with wide-angle lenses, but even today they are still being used to capture a large group of people.
Another accessory for shooting nicer photos is a set-up lens. You actually place a large and powerful lens on your smartphone for photography. There are all kinds of types, depending on what kind of photos you want to take. For example, there are macro lenses to focus on objects that are very close to the lens and wide-angle lenses or telephoto lenses to get close to subjects that are far away. Zeiss, Exolens, and Sony have various objectives in their range. Look carefully in advance to see if a lens is universal or if it only fits one specific model.
Finally
Finally, final advice. Not so much to shoot nicer photos, but to ensure that you don't just lose all your memorable moments. It is always wise to back up your photos. With most cloud services, it is possible to automatically synchronize your photos with your account as soon as you have a WiFi connection. You also do not have to worry about the usage of your mobile data.
Some well-known cloud services include Google Photos, Microsoft Onedrive, Dropbox and STACK. With Google Photos you are not bound to an X number of GBs that you can upload: from Google, you can store an unlimited number of photos here. Absolutely recommended when it comes to free online storage space is without a doubt STACK. With this cloud service, you get no less than 1TB (1,000 GB) of free disk space for all your photos. In addition, you can also use STACK to back up other file types such as text files, videos, and music. For this, you must first register with the web host TransIP.
Have fun shooting!
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