eXtra
- Dec 31, 2023
- 2 min read

Master Smartphone Photography

With These Basic Steps

So, you invested in your phone to get the best pictures but find that your shots are still lacking Something. Here are some tips that will help you enhance your abilities and your phone’s capabilities in photography, whether you're using an iPhone, Samsung, Huawei, Honor, or any other smartphone.

Clean The Lens

This small step results in a big difference. Fingerprints on the lens can degrade the quality and clarity of your image and cause unwanted light dispersion. Help your phone's lens and wipe it with a clean, soft cloth. If you're used to shooting with a separate or professional camera, you might find this step repetitive too often, as camera lenses are generally away from fingerprints.

Composition

Sometimes the shot that you thought was excellent, disappoints you with elements out of the frame or a slightly tilted angle you missed out while shooting. Avoid such issues by enabling grid lines in your camera settings. These help you focus on the elements and their distribution in the shot, reducing horizon tilt and giving you balanced and professional photos.

Pick the Right Lens

Phone developers today take advantage of having multiple lenses within cell phones. All you must do is pick the right one for your shot. For example, if you want to master professional photography with the iPhone, you can choose 3 lenses. Here is your quick guide to choosing the right lens for the picture.

Wide Lens	Telephoto Lens	Macro Lens
For wide-horizon shots. (Nature photography and group photos)	For distant details. (Wildlife and fast movement)	For fine details. (Photographing flowers, plants, insects)

Some phones have the feature of using multiple lenses to capture a portrait photo that puts focus on the model while blurring the background. Try this feature for your next portrait to get beautiful results.

When in doubt, rotate your phone!

Try this when you are photo-shooting in tight spaces or difficult angles, try flipping the phone upside down and you will be surprised by the results. In addition, this will give you a more secure grip, and less mistakenly appearing fingers in the shot.

Use the Pro Mode

To make advanced photography simple and easy for you, try the professional mode (Pro) when you are confident enough for it. It allows you to control things such as aperture, shutter speed, and ISO settings. Add one or two new settings that you learn in each shooting session. This helps you to understand the capabilities of each setting. Start by photographing solid objects as they give you time to shoot in the same sessions but with various settings.

RAW Format & Editing Apps

RAW format is very crucial for professional photographers, as it gives you a great ability to edit and process photos. It's like having a photographic film that waits for you to develop and print it. This is what leads to the negligent part where you have to process the image before sharing it or soring but is countered by many positives.

As for photo editing, there is a basic rule that a good photo will become great after editing, but a bad photo will not get better. So, don’t hesitate to edit your beautiful photos to enhance their beauty further. Explore mobile apps and try several to find your favorite one. Or go advanced using Photoshop or Lightroom.

What About Night Photography?

It is challenging for both the photographer and the phone to photoshoot in the dark and dim light. Many phones today provide some auto settings for this matter, which is a perfect starting point. Have some advancements to improve the results by trying some of these tips to generally improve the quality of night photography.

Hold the phone still: Night mode uses settings that are highly sensitive to movement.
Avoid digital zoom: Step closer to the scene is
much preferable.
Find a light source: Before using the built-in flash,
think creatively to benefit from the dim lighting around you.

Top Photography Phones

There is no doubt that your skills matter, but there is also the matter of the phone’s skills. Mobile phone developers compete to provide the best technologies so you can get great photos. Here is a list of the best phones for professional photography with a brief overview of their main features.