What are the latest pictures that you’ve snapped with your camera phone?
I love my Canon EOS 60D 18 MP Digital SLR Camera and it takes amazing, sharp, and dreamy pictures. But I don’t always have it with me and it is heavy (my poor shoulder!) For those other random street snaps/food snaps/funny moments, I use my camera phone. It is also a chic ‘n cheap as well as efficient way to record those special moments.
I am still learning but it helps to have guides like the one blog buddy Monica of Ciao Chessa has written – she takes amazing pictures with her iPhone and wrote a tutorial here.
I now have the HTC One X+ as part of #HTCONE #TroopOneX and as I mentioned here, I love playing around with the superior camera features on the phone.
Here are a few favorite photos I have taken lately with my HTC One X+ as well as my own tips for using the camera phone. You may have already seen some of my photos on Instagram (I’m here!) but I am surprised and impressed with the original photos as well since the app cuts off a bit of the original picture.
1. Frame appropriately
What do you want to be highlighted in your picture? What kind of mood do you want to create? Framing – placing that imaginary border around exactly what you want to capture – enables you to hone in on the objects and setting that you want to include in that one shot. The law of thirds or placing the subject in the intersection lines of a picture if it were divided in to three equal horizontal or vertical portions is also a useful guide. Each camera phone is different so play around with yours to determine how much you can include in the picture.
2. Let light work for you
Light, especially natural light, is your friend when it comes to photography. Work in natural light as appropriate. Notice that the contrast of your shot may change dramatically depending on the angle that you hold your camera. Change this angle a little and see how this may change the mood and colors of your picture. Take advantage of daylight or the beautiful pre-twilight hours.
3. Understand the features
What are the special features included with your phone? Can you zoom in? Can you change the saturation, contrast or speed? My husband’s iPhone 5 has the cool panorama feature so that he can take very wide landscape shots. My HTC One X+ can take continuos shots in different light so that I can select the best shot in a series. I can also change the ISO and white balance with my HTC One and when I did this, I noticed that some shots became just a little more vibrant. Know what your phone can do and adjust accordingly.
These pictures in Singapore were shot with a higher ISO (the nighttime shot much more than the indoor shot).
4. Work it with related apps
Your picture may not be picture perfect right after you take it. A boost of color or perhaps a vintage light may transform your shot into a truly beautiful shot. PS Express and Diptic are two popular apps that allow you to edit pictures as well as add effects to them. Do you have other favorite apps for editing your phone photos?
Very handy article! You’re so lucky to have a camera phone that lets you adjust the ISO; I think that would improve my camera phone pics a lot as I find the biggest advantage of a real camera is its ability to adjust to low light.
I love used Pixlr Express on my tablet for photo editing – it’s like a mini photoshop with tons of filters and frames!
Great tips! Are those apps for android phones? I use picsart.
Stacey, yes PS Express & Diptic are on Android as well though my phone luckily already has good editing features.
This is such an awesome tutorial! I take all of my pictures with the camera on my iPhone, so I am always trying to get the best shot possible. 🙂
Useful article. I don’t even know how to take photographs with my mobile, but that’s just me, on the other hand, I have a pretty good camera, too;)
Great photos! I am still learning to use my iphone, and agree that using apps can help turn “so-so” photos into keepers. Love that last night shot of yours 🙂
I cannot believe the pictures my phone takes sometimes, they’re pretty amazing.
Great tips! I need to check out PS Express and Diptic.
Awesome post! I love every tip and I could definitely frame my photos better. And those photos? Amazing!!!
These are great tips! I always have a camera with me so I rarely use my phone for snaps but I’m definitely impressed with how good the cameras on phones are these days.
Rowena @ rolala loves
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ohhh i love this guide! thanks for doing this 🙂
totally off topic but your breakfast. OMG. looks INSANELY delicious hahaha! i love love mango haha!!
hahah you know i’m actually thinking about unloading some chanel.. i can’t believe i’m saying that.. but it’s been on my mind.. so it may happen in the next few months. it’s so hard to part with but there are just some that i just never use! haha i don’t think i’ll be moving on to hermes anytime soon! hermes is lovely but i just can’t justify it price wise yet haha!!
you should get the metallic turqouoise though.. nobody does metallics like chanel! the only complaint i have with my gold is that it does tend to scratch really easily.. so i try not to handle it too roughly but i’m not very delicate with my bags.. so it does get scratched up a bit.. but to me it’s nothing really to cry over.. i tend to like the look of bags a little more worn in 🙂
Lisa, is your metallic lambskin? I’m contemplating a lambskin camelia WOC as well as a yellow patent WOC. BUT, the camelia is a little worn and the yellow actually picked up light stains. So hmm should I still consider them?
Oooh and for sure let me know if you sell anything!
Wow, your phone takes excellent photos. I probably don’t use the lighting to my advantage, and all I use to edit the photos are those on the phone. Def need to check it out.
Wonderful pointers! Sometimes it can be so easy to get lazy with phone photos, but with so many sharing apps these days it’s important to have a few solid good pointers! Thank you for such a helpful post!
Thank you for the sweet words dear! I try to be helpful and share tips when I can!
I’m so bad at taking photos with my phone!
thanks for the tips! my camera phone is awful and needs help 😉
Lighting is the key element for me… If not images look all yellowy… Ha!
great tips! i definitely agree about the light. it helps so much w/ my camera phone photos.
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