Smartphones these days are equipped with cameras that have steadily improved to the point where they frequently produce better quality photos than dedicate point-and-shoot cameras, and the ubiquity of high quality cameras in everyone’s pocket has caused billions of photos to be taken and shared in recent years.
But these capable new cameras do not necessarily mean most people will instantaneously take better photos. Even the most sophisticated professional cameras will take crappy photos if you aren’t aware of photography basics. Using the front facing camera to snap a selfie in your unlit room to send to your ‘bae’ is fine, but to create an Instagram classic, or even a photo you want to print and frame, there are a few things you will want to keep in mind when using your Android for photography.
Here are five of the best tips I can share that will help bring your photography to a new level.
Frame Your Shot
It might seem like common sense, but it should be said nonetheless: the most important part of a photo is what’s in it. What might not be as obvious is that what’s not in the photo is just as important. To emphasize the subject of your photo (whether that’s a person, object, or scene), make sure it’s separate from, or enhanced by, its environment. Another aspect to give consideration is the amount of space your subject takes within the frame. Different amounts of space the subject takes in the frame can affect the perceived scale of both the scene and the subject, as well as the amount of emphasis put on it.
Keep in mind the rule of thirds. Photos that are taken with the focal point at one of the intersecting thirds lines tend to be more interesting than ones with the subject squarely in the middle.
Almost all smartphone cameras don’t have an optical zoom, and pinching to zoom decreases the quality of the photo. A common phrase in photography is “zoom with your feet”, which means get physically closer to your subject in order to emphasize it, or to make sure you can even see it at all.
Better Exposure
The human eye is significantly better at seeing in low light than your phone’s camera, so you want to provide as much light as possible to keep your photos properly exposed and low on the image noise. A properly exposed photo is one that does not have any sections of the photo “blown out” (a blotchy white area), or underexposed (Dark areas where you can’t discern any detail). Image noise is the discoloration of pixels because the camera can’t tell what color it should be, so it tries to guess. This is what causes pictures to be pixellated and grainy.
Sunlight is plenty of light for most smartphone cameras and is the most abundant source of light we have (you know, during the day). Make sure your subject isn’t facing away from the sun, as this will make the darker areas lose detail. HDR mode (if your phone supports it) can compensate for this somewhat, but it’s best if you can get a proper exposure the old fashion way by having enough light in the first place.
You should also use whatever lights you have when daylight isn’t available. We talk about a budget-friendly way to get a more professional lighting setup below.
Accessorize
While you can often get a perfectly good photograph using just your camera and your hands, there are tools to help you get high quality images more consistently.
Since nothing is more stable than solid ground, let’s use that to our advantage by using a tripod. In order to use a tripod with your Android, you’ll need two things: the tripod itself, and a way to attach your device to it. While we here at DailyAppShow like to use Manfrotto tripod legs (Like the Manfrotto 055XPROB Pro), you can get started with Amazon’s AmazonBasics 60-Inch Lightweight Tripod.
Next, to attach your phone, you’ll need a tripod-compatible adapter. We like RetiCAM’s adapter for it’s solid aluminum build and easy to use mechanism. They also have an XL version that’s compatible with larger phones like the Samsung Galaxy Note and other 5″+ devices.
For Samsung Galaxy S5 owners, the latest Olloclip has four lenses that help us achieve photos we otherwise couldn’t. Check out our video review of the iPhone Olloclip here. With the Olloclip, you get a fisheye lens for ultra wide-angle views, a traditional wide-angle lens, and both a 10x and 15x macro lenses for the super tight-in shots.
For all other Android devices, Photojojo has a lens kit that uses magnets that you can use to attach to any smartphone and has a fisheye, telephoto, and wide angle lenses.
To get more professional with your lighting, you can invest in a softbox. Softboxes create bright, even lighting that will go far to help properly expose your scene without any harsh highlights. LimoStudio has a basic softbox kit for only $32 (as of this writing) that has everything you need to get going.
Ditch The Built-In Camera App
While the built-in camera app is easy to use and probably the fastest with a lock screen shortcut, it’s fairly barebones. App developers are able to squeeze a whole lot more functionality out of the camera than the built-in app gives you. One of our favorite apps is Camera FV-5, which gives you full manual controls over your smartphone’s camera, including focus, white balance, exposure, and more.
Edit Like a Pro
Now that we use an app that can take photos, we should then get our hands on an app that can make photos. You can’t rely on Instagram filters to make your photos great, and while iOS 8 brought with it a lot of improvements for editing photos directly in the photos app, we can still do so much more for a photo editing workflow.
Google’s own Snapseed is a great photo editor, and definitely a big part of my photo editing workflow on Android. Snapseed gives you fine grain controls over every aspect of your photos plus gives you fun tools to enhance your pictures like tilt-shift focus, frames, filters, and overlays.
We’re not averse to filters, but we find that a good rule of thumb is “less is more” when it comes to changing your photos. That’s why we like VSCOcam’s selection of photo filters, which adds a professional touch that doesn’t look heavy-handed.
