Nowadays, taking pictures with our smartphones and sharing them on social networks has become almost indispensable, so it is essential to know all the tools and resources we have at our disposal to make our photos stand out in the digital world.
Here are some tips that can help you when taking pictures with your cell phone:
- Know the camera of your smartphone: before you start capturing photos, you need to know the details and specifications that your camera or cameras have, since it is possible that you have more than one lens. The main lens that all smartphones have is usually known as ‘Wide’, which is used for most shots and its angle of view is similar to that of the human eye. As new models have come out, other types of lenses have been added to provide more variety in shots, for example; the ultra wide-angle, which allows you to take pictures of wide landscapes or groups of people without having to move too far away from the subject; the telephoto, which is useful for taking pictures of distant objects or for optical zoom; and the macro lens, which allows you to capture minute details. None is better than the other, as each is used in different situations, so dare to explore the possibilities!
- Clean the lenses: this tip may seem too simple and insignificant, but when it comes to taking pictures it can radically change the result, since the dirt from your fingers tends to dull and dirty the image of your photograph. So it is essential that every time you take pictures you clean your lenses constantly.
- Use natural light and avoid using flash: as far as possible, it is always recommended to use natural light rather than flash, since the latter is usually more diffuse, generating an aesthetic appearance and higher quality in the photographs. On the other hand, flash generates more marked shadows and gives a lower quality look. Use the flash only in emergency moments, when the lighting is not enough to take a picture.
- Beware of backlighting: although backlighting can be a very attractive artistic element, it is not always desired when taking pictures, because if we expose in the background, a silhouette is created in the subject, but if we want to expose the subject properly, the background will be burned and everything will look white, generating an unaesthetic image, which can be avoided if the photo is taken from the direction of the light, instead of going against it.
- Do not use digital zoom: it is advisable to avoid using digital zoom as much as possible, since it is not optical, what it does is to cut part of the sensor and enlarge the image, thus losing quality. It is like when you zoom in on a photo, you can even see the pixels and how the quality drops. Optical zoom, on the other hand, takes full advantage of the sensor’s capacity and no cropping is done, so if your smartphone has it, use it without any problem!