10 more tips for taking photos on your smartphone

We’re back for another round of smartphone camera tips

In a previous post, we covered a lot of ground with tips like cleaning the lens, use HDR mode, use night rather than the flash, and more. Now it’s time for more tips on how to get the best out of your smartphone camera. Here we go.

1. Understand shutter speed and burst photography

Phone cameras aren’t perfect. In your camera settings, find Pro Mode. Here, you can change a setting called shutter speed. High shutter speed reduces image blurriness but darkens photos. A low shutter speed captures more light but increases the chance of blurring.

If your subject is flooded with natural light, a high shutter speed can help balance it while reducing blur. Low-light situations almost always call for a low shutter speed and a steady hand.

With your shutter speed set, try taking multiple photos back-to-back. This reduces the number of blurry images and lets you take different angles – you can decide which ones work best later.

2. Get closer if you have a lower-megapixel camera

A 12 MP camera can take pictures in a fantastic resolution of 4247 x 2826. This gives you a lot of room to mess around with in post-production.

Lower-end Android phones may have a lower pixel density. If so, get closer to your subjects and practice taking close-range photographs. Large objects from far distances lose their definition with low-megapixel cameras.

3. Edit images on the go

Getting good pictures from your phone doesn’t start and end with your camera app. You can also add a photo editing app to the mix to tweak your shots before sharing them with the wider world. You’re spoiled for choice in this department. In addition to the native photo gallery and editing apps offered by Apple and Google, there are plenty of alternatives to explore on the app stores.

You can add filters, tweak colors, straighten images, and more. Also, keep an eye out for the “one touch” fixes that enhance your pictures with minimal effort from you. Some image editing apps import photos taken by your camera, while others have an integrated camera component of their own.

4. Adjust exposure

Smartphones are the modern point-and-shoot, but the apps that run their cameras typically offer some level of manual control. The most basic adjustment you can make is exposure—brightening or darkening a scene—and using it effectively can turn a bland image into a head-turner.

Use it to brighten the shot of your fancy dinner to make it perfect for Instagram, or to darken shadows in a portrait for a more dramatic look. Android phones typically have the more traditional +/- icon for exposure adjustment. On Nokia phones, go to Pro Mode and you can then adjust exposure from there.

5. Hold your phone steady

Having a steady hand when taking a photo is key. It helps make sure your photos are not blurry, especially when taking photos in low light.

Whether you're taking a normal photo at night or using some sort of night mode included on your device, keeping your phone steady helps these features work properly. Holding your phone steady allows the camera to open its shutter for longer and take in more light and detail.

6. Rest the phone on a flat surface

This follows hot on the heels of the previous tip. In dark conditions you can sometimes get camera shake, leading to blurred results. The camera will also push up the ISO – the lens’ sensitivity to light – which will lead to noise in your pictures. To reduce this, simply lean your phone on a flat surface like a wall, table, ledge. It’s more effective than trying to hold the phone steady in your hands alone.

This is a great bit of advice if you want to take pictures at a concert, music venue, bar or anywhere that has dark conditions.

7. Get innovative with angles

Some modern smartphone cameras are equipped with multiple lenses: wide-angle, ultrawide, macro, and telephoto sensors.

You don't always have to rely on the default primary camera lens for your shots. Get innovative with the camera lenses and angles.

• Ultrawide cameras can fit in more of a scene and can be used to take some breathtaking, dramatic photos.
• Macro lenses can capture an incredible amount of detail of close-up subjects such as leaves.
• Telephoto sensors can be used to take zoomed-in photos of your subject or to see far-away objects.

8. Only do so during the day

It's hard to find a great smartphone photo taken with a flash. Unless you use the flash expertly, it can make a photo look overexposed, negatively alter colors, and make human subjects look washed out.

Sometimes, using your camera's flash can improve a photo — but rarely does it do so at night. Because dark shots reveal a much sharper contrast against your phone's flash, it can make any flash look invasive and uneven. But in already well-lit spaces, a flash can help to soften some dark shadows behind or beneath your main subject.

When framing your next daytime shot, look on the ground or against vertical surfaces for any dark shadows you might want to remove. If you see any, flip on the flash manually in your camera app.

9. Avoid zooming in

When you take a photo from a distance, it's tempting to zoom in on something specific you're trying to capture. But using digital zoom while taking the photo is effectively the same thing as zooming in on the photo after its captured. So, it’s best to avoid zooming in, otherwise you might end up with photos that appear grainy, blurry, or pixelated.

Instead, try to get closer to your subject — unless it's a wild animal, in which case we would advise keeping your distance — or take the photo from a default distance, and crop it later on. That way, you won't compromise quality. In general, it’s easier to play around or optimize a larger image.

10. Remember the rule of thirds

One of the easiest and best ways to improve your mobile photos is to turn on the camera's gridlines. That superimposes a series of lines on the screen of your smartphone's camera based on the "rule of thirds" — a photographic composition principle that breaks an image into thirds, both horizontally and vertically, so you have nine parts in total.

Show us your photos!

Got good results on your Nokia smartphone by using these photo tips? As always, we want to see them! Head to Instagram and share your latest stills with us by using #ShotOnNokia. And don’t forget to tell us which Nokia phone you shot your photos on!