Smartphone Photography Guide \/\/TOP\\\\

Use our guide to learn and master your smartphone photography. If you do it well, nobody will even think of asking you what device you used for taking the photos. Everyone will ask you how you did it.

Smartphone Photography Guide

Some smartphones allow you to choose between standard, vivid or smooth colors in your photos. This is in many ways similar to what we know as Picture Styles in DSLR cameras (such as landscape, portrait, standard and neutral)

In Night mode, the smartphone takes several rapid photos and combines the image data to get the maximum light and color information. Utilizing AI Image Stabilization makes the resulting photos look crisp even when shot handheld, which eliminates the need to use a tripod or turn on the flash to snap a great shot.

Traffic Trails is great during the blue hour for cityscape shooting. Put your smartphone on a tripod and try to catch the warm yellow and red lights of cars against the cold blue sky.

Metering is used to choose the type of exposure metering. The options are the common center or spot metering modes but your smartphone might have more options to give better results. Press the information button on your smartphone to have each metering method explained.

Some of the smartphones now have a 120-130 degree field of view which can be very useful. Now that all top brands have put a wide-angle lens in their smartphones it looks like this is something mandatory for all new models.

With the growth of Instagram and other social media, there are more and more people who are trying to edit their images. Typically, these photos are being edited with smartphone applications such as Lightroom for mobile, Adobe Photoshop Express, VSCO, Snapseed, Photo Collage and Afterlight 2.

Finally, your smartphone can be used as a mini-computer; you have a camera, photo editing apps and apps for planning shoots all in one place, and you can share the result immediately on social media.

Image stabilization helps combat camera shake, especially in low-light conditions that require a slower shutter speed to gather enough light to produce a good photo. Look for this feature in your smartphone camera to get the most functionality out of it.

For the highest-quality image, shoot in an uncompressed file format. This gives you more latitude to recover highlights and shadows when you edit. Not all smartphones support RAW format, but you can use the Lightroom mobile app to shoot uncompressed, and edit on your phone or computer later. Check out this tutorial to learn how.

Smartphone photography has transformed recently because of leaps forward in technology. To make sure you make the most of all phone photography can be, it's crucial you utilise the settings on your phone correctly. In this post, we lay out six tips to enable you to harness the power within your smartphone and elevate your photos.

Though smartphones may never rival a dedicated DSLR or mirrorless camera such as those used by serious photographers, they can still capture some impressive images (our best camera phones list has those that take the best snaps). You can even buy some pretty good detachable lenses and filters, which complement the phone optics. Or for times when you need something more heavy-duty, we've also found the best cameras for creatives. For more tips, see our photography cheat sheet, or if you have an iPhone Pro, see our guide to the best iPhone Pro camera tips.

Pocket-sized tripods are perfect for smartphone photography, and are often device-agnostic, meaning you can use it with almost any phone. You can even purchase smartphone cases with built-in mounting threads to stick them on more professional tripods or other camera accessories like shoulder straps.

What's the secret to taking great pictures with your smartphone, then? As it turns out, there are a few of them. Check out these tips below to improve your smartphone photography game. (And once you have the photo-taking part down, check out some of the best photo editing apps for mobile.)

Mobile tripods give you the freedom to mount your smartphone for quick hands-free shots without lugging any heavy equipment with you. Most mobile tripods are barely bigger than your mobile device and can bend to any angle. Learn how these miniature tripods can help enhance your mobile video experience below.

According to Wirecutter, the best camera lenses for iPhone photography are made by Moment, a manufacturer of mobile lenses. Start there, or do some research to find the lens add-ons that fit your smartphone photography needs.

Smartphone cameras have evolved by leaps and bounds, and they continue to improve every year, encouraging more people to learn photography and inspiring established pros to think outside the box. When used well, a mobile device can give a professional camera a run for its money, all while fitting in your pocket. Here are our best smartphone photography tips for getting started.

Manufacturers like Moment make lenses specifically for smartphones, including tele lenses (a useful alternative to digital zoom), fisheyes, and even macros. Investing in different lenses and experimenting with your perspective are easy ways to boost the quality of your images. Neal Kumar, a master of iPhone photography, has used tele and wide attachment lenses in the past.

Compact LED panels are a good place to start for continuous lighting, but companies like Profoto also make handheld studio lights specifically for smartphones, with the option to use flash or continuous lighting. You can even adjust the color temperature or add modifiers, such as gels or grids.

Over the past decade or so, we've seen the compact camera market crash, photo sharing explode and smartphones evolve into the most important cameras around. At the same time, camera performance has evolved into the most important aspect of those phones. It's not about call clarity, it's about photo quality.

We're not saying there's no space for real cameras any more - far from it - but for the everyday user, the smartphone has become the go-to camera. Whether you have the most expensive flagship iPhone or the cheapest entry-level Android, we've rounded up some top tips to ensure that you're getting the most out of your phone's camera.

Photos looking a little milky? This is the biggest problem we see on smartphone cameras. Because the lens is so small, it's very easy for it to get dirty while you're using your phone for other things. You spend the whole day groping your phone, so make sure you wipe away those smeary marks before you start snapping.

Many smartphones offer touch focusing. Just touch what you want in focus on the display and often that will just click into place. If it won't focus, you might be too close, especially if it's something small. Try moving back a bit.

This is as true to smartphones as it is to any camera. Keeping it steady will give you much better photos. Don't snatch at the button, hold things steady and take your time. While many phones now offer optical image stabilisation and AI correction for hand-shake, being stable is often the best thing you can do.

While it's a bit of an imposition to carry a tripod, with phones getting smarter, having a flexible tripod and a smartphone mount opens up a world of possibilities - impossible selfies, moon shots, night photos to die for - or longer exposures that turn water into smoke.

Night mode is the biggest shift in smartphone photography to have arrived in the past 5 years. The latest Google phones, iPhones, Huawei, Samsung and others all have some sort of night option. If it's night, use it.

Night mode importantly gives the phone an idea of what result you're actually looking for and deploys a lot of technology to clean up, correct, and come up with a photo that's worth sharing and cherishing. Most night modes will let you shoot scenes handheld that were impossible on a smartphone just a few years ago - while some will, with more support, give you longer exposures for even better results.

This one is a bit of a no brainer, but smartphones have started adding more lenses meaning more opportunities. They can now take better zoom photos, but many now offer wide-angle too. That means you can get a lot more in your photo and create new compositions. Some phones offer a second camera for "data", but don't fall for that - we'd rather have a wide-angle lens to take great photos instead.

All the photos above are straight out of the phone with no editing at all. But all smartphones are using a lot of software or artificial intelligence to clean up images and give you more pleasing results. The likes of Apple, Samsung, Huawei and Google will all boost your images for you. Google, perhaps, takes things a little further, with Google Photos able to produce some even more dramatic results in the background.

Photography courses online, in person and for schools. We provide training in Photography, Photoshop, Lightroom and Studio Lighting from beginner to advanced levels and pride ourselves in being the best in delivering photography education.

The details depend on your specific smartphone model, but try tapping on the screen, then look for some sort of exposure symbol (such as a sun). Swipe up (or drag the corresponding slider) to brighten the exposure, and swipe down (or drag the corresponding slider) to darken it.

is a culture, people and travel photographer, based in the Chicago area. Her images are fun, fresh and natural, and her love for nature makes it way into most of her images. She also has a Free Travel Photography Demystified E-Course, a 5-Day video series to help you improve your travel photography.

Images, and the devices that capture them, are my focus. I've covered cameras at PCMag for the past 10 years, which has given me a front row seat for the DSLR to mirrorless transition, the smartphone camera revolution, and the mainstream adoption of drones for aerial imaging. You can find me on Instagram @jamespfisher. 041b061a72