Posted on: May 16, 2021 Posted by: Stuti Shiva Comments: 4
person holding phone taking picture of served food

Sharing is caring!

person taking photo of dish in bowl
Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com

Pictures are a big part of the blogging world. They can practically make or break the deal. It’s true ” A photograph is worth a thousand words”, especially when it comes to your blog post.

So are you using your DSLR to click pictures for your blog? Or do you find, at times it gets tedious to lug the beast around . Don’t get me wrong, I am a great proponent of digital photography . It is one of the most unique gadget in my day to day life. But the thing is that you don’t need to have an expensive DSLR or to lug around a point-and-shoot to capture good photos.

If you have a smartphone with a built-in camera, you may already have the only camera you need in your pocket. The smartphone makes a surprisingly robust camera, thanks in large part to the built-in apps that let you shoot, manage, and sync your images.

person taking photo of tree covered with snow
Photo by Oleg Magni on Pexels.com

Why use a Phone Camera ?

Current generation mobile phone camera can work awfully well in most given situations where you might once have needed a digital camera.Smartphones are constantly upgrading the quality of their built-in cameras. Many even shoot high-definition (HD) video.

macbook air beside notebook and camera
Photo by Daria Shevtsova on Pexels.com

I use iPhone and I am sure other smartphones include a range of fun and creative editing apps.

Check out some of the iPhone editing apps https://iphonephotographyschool.com/best-photo-editing-apps/

One of the biggest advantage of a smartphone camera is that they are discreet. The phone stays in your pocket, so you always have a camera handy when unexpected moments come up. It’s also incredibly small, which makes it easy to capture scenes without drawing attention to yourself. You can edit images and share them instantly with friends and family. Finally, the simplicity of its camera tools makes a smartphone the ultimate entry-level camera.

Different Strategies to Snap Pictures

  • Adjust Your Settings

Unlike a compact camera or DSLR, your iPhone doesn’t allow you to adjust the most popular camera settings: aperture, lens length, shutter speed, and white balance. That said, several tools available within the Camera app (and other third-party programs) can aid you in taking the best pictures possible.

  • Exposure and Focus

On your iPhone, setting your exposure (how bright the image is) is as simple as tapping once on whatever part of the image you’d like to source. If you move, or if the view changes too much, the Camera app also automatically recalibrates and picks a new focus and exposure point.

  • HDR (High Dynamic Range)

When using the iPhone’s rear-facing camera, you can enable HDR (high dynamic range) for your photos by tapping the Options button and toggling HDR mode. Dynamic range is the light spectrum that an eye—or a camera sensor—can read, and can be really great for shots with multiple light levels. Your sunset-portrait shot, for example, will capture both your subject and the fire-red sky.

Landscapes also shine with HDR. Most smartphone camera’s HDR setting takes three images at different exposures (underexposed, overexposed, and in the middle) and combines them for an image with increased dynamic range. The resulting photos have more details in the shadows and highlights than a standard single-exposed image would have.

  • Flash

The flash saves many a nighttime picture from complete darkness, but often at the expense of adding red-eye and temporarily blinding your subjects or making them close their eyes in the shot. Your iPhone comes equipped with a bright LED flash, which can illuminate subjects well up to 6 feet or so.However, be sure to use it only in close quarters.

At large sports event, a concert, or any large space, your flash is essentially useless, unless you’re snapping a photo of the friend next to you.

If there’s a mirror, a TV or computer screen, or any kind of glass nearby, your flash will bounce off it and create a floating white light mote in your picture.

Keep this is mind while using flash. I generally keep mine turned off.

  • Framing

Photographers and artists alike trust in the “rule of thirds,” which tells us that photos look better when the subject is off-center, aligned about a third of the way from the right or left side. According to the rule of thirds, the most visually interesting parts should be along any one of the lines, or at any of the points at which the lines intersect.

Accessories

Third-party applications can help you make for breathtaking pictures; accessories can boost your final production. Use external lenses and mounts to get that long-range picture or to steady your camera for some solid shooting. You can also play with filters to get that in-camera Instagram look.

  • Holga Iphone lense Filter Kit

As a lens kit, it comes with a unique color wheel for enhancing your photos, with effects ranging from artistic distortion to colorization. Once you fit the device on your phone, you have access to nine lo-fi special effects and filters without needing to install any softwares or apps.

Holga iPhone 5 Lens Filter Kit SLFT-IP5 – Yellow

  • A tripod or a Gimbal

It’s important to have a some kind of stabiliser for your iPhone . It is essential for a stable and crisp image, especially when you shoot in low light conditions or make videos. I personally use the gimbal stabilizer. It helps me vertically rotate my phone 360° spontaneously when filming, giving me the pro video-making experience.

3-Axis Gimbal Stabilizer for iPhone 12 11 PRO MAX X XR XS Smartphone Vlog Youtuber Live Video Record with Sport Inception Mode Face Object Tracking Motion Time-Lapse – Hohem iSteady Mobile Plus

  • Clip on Lens Kit

Clip-on lens enables you to shoot macro, fisheye, and wide-angle photos. It works by clipping to the camera corner of the handset. The clip section is made of molded plastic and fits securely on the phone. The smartly designed gadget features two sides—one with a fisheye lens and the other with a smaller, wide-angle lens. You can easily unscrew the wide-angle lens to reveal a third, macro lens.

Xenvo Pro Lens Kit for iPhone, Samsung, Pixel, Macro and Wide Angle Lens with LED Light and Travel Case

  • Flash for Smartphone

If you love taking low-light or night shots with your smartphone, and you’re not getting the results you want, this handy flash is all you need. Built-in large-capacity lithium battery, charging time is 2 hours, for maximum brightness.

ULANZI VL49 2000mAh LED Video Light w 3 Cold Shoe, Rechargeable Soft Light Panel for DJI OSMO Mobile 3 OM 4 Pocket Zhiyun Smooth Sony ZV-1 A7 III RX100 VII Canon G7X III A6400 Camera GoPro 8 Vlogging

Conclusion

I hope that this guide has helped you make sense of smartphone photography and that you’re ready to embark upon your own photographic journey.

Thanks for Reading!

Disclaimer: All recommendations are impartial and based on user experience, with no bias to the products or the brand. The products in this post may contain affiliate links.

4 People reacted on this

  1. Thanks for the very practical tips offered…we have all been in situations where we are bereft of our cameras at the most opportune moment & it is our Smartphones which saves the day.
    Additionally, I believe that the rule of third also applies in the horizontal direction, example for natural landscape features like horizons .

Leave a Comment