Don’t want to lug your bulky camera about during your next holiday? Smartphone cameras today are just as good at capturing great vacation moments. With increasing camera resolutions and wide screens, photography has never been so easy.
We hear from the folks at Adobe who have come up with a handy checklist of ways to make the most of your mobile’s camera.
1. Find your focus
When taking planned action shots (e.g., someone jumping, or fireworks going off), lock the point of focus before you take the photo. Then you can shoot the picture without worrying about finding clarity.
2. Blur it out
Getting a shallow depth of field with a phone’s small sensor is hard – but not impossible. To see a nice blur in the background, be sure to keep your subject at the minimum focusing distance of your phone.
3. Go where the bigger cameras can’t
Smartphones can fit in tight spaces where bigger cameras can’t go. Make use of this size advantage to get some interesting perspectives.
4. Approaching people
Some subjects get self-conscious around big cameras, and that’s where smartphones come in handy – they allow you to more easily take photos of people going about their daily lives.
5. Go manual
The idea of phone photography is to “keep it simple”, but when you have extra options, you might as well take advantage of them! Many newer smartphones let you control shutter speed or ISO manually.
6. Image processing
Some advanced smartphones also shoot RAW images, and apps such as Adobe Photoshop Express and Adobe Lightroom for Mobile allow you to process your pics on your phone.
This is an article that first appeared in the September 2016 edition of Expat Living. Subscribe now so you never miss an issue!
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