Do you want to immortalize your summer vacation by taking beautiful photos? Good idea! The smartphone encourages you to leave your big camera at home for the holidays. Ever more sophisticated, they now have the necessary equipment to be powerful cameras. The software also gets involved to embellish your shots, but that will not be enough to succeed in your photos. The key to really succeeding in your vacation photos (and shining in front of your family and friends): it’s you!
Here are some tips and recommendations that will help you take great photos with your smartphone.
The light
Learning to manage light is one of the keys to taking a successful photo and our smartphones have understood this well. When it is lacking, we will use night mode to benefit from a better rendering. In broad daylight, you will have to succeed in playing with it and taming it so that it does not spoil your shots.
You can take photos at any time of day, but we recommend saving enough battery (and storage) for the golden hour. This time, also called the “golden hour,” refers to the short period after sunrise or before sunset. On vacation, you’ll be more likely to encounter the period before sunset, but probably less likely to encounter dawn.
Conversely, the sun is at its zenith around noon and this is a challenge of another kind. It will not be impossible to take successful photos in full sunlight, but you will have to watch the shadows (more pronounced) and manage the exposure (beware of overexposure). Don’t hesitate to challenge your smartphone by exiting automatic mode to try your own settings. You are on vacation, this is the best time to take the time to test all the features of your device, or to exploit its full potential.
If you are photographing human subjects, the sun may make it difficult. From the front, you will often see a grimace or closed eyes, so it is best to try from the side. This will also help to limit shadows and give your photo an artistic touch.
Composition and framing
With a smartphone, we tend to take pictures of everything and anything. To take a memorable photo, you have to think about its composition and your smartphone can help you with its composition grid. Most photo applications offer this option and if this is not the case, you will find other apps in the app stores. You should not immediately dismiss it thinking that you will see better what is happening through its screen.
Composition refers to the different elements that make up your photo. The grid will help you find the right balance and manage the famous rule of thirds. Well known to photographers, this technique is very effective in ensuring a harmonious rendering.
In fact, you must have already seen that your smartphone cuts the image into 9 (3×3) and this offers you what we can call “reading zones”. To succeed in your photo, you must ensure that the important elements appear on the vertical/horizontal lines and/or at their intersections. You should therefore not center your subject, but this rule is only a technique that can help you and it is not mandatory to follow it. We still advise you to test it for your landscape photos.
Reflections, perspectives… be creative
Do your holiday photos look like your neighbours? Don’t worry, it happens to all of us. It’s not always easy to stand out, but photography encourages creativity and recent smartphones are here to make it stand out. Performance is improving and you will most often succeed in capturing moments that feature prominently on your social networks or the family WhatsApp conversation.
For the wow effect, you have to go beyond the classic by not hesitating to play with reflections and using perspective. The latter can give much more impact to your photo, because it changes our perception of reality. One of the ways to better realize this is to use the different sensors on your smartphone. In most cases, you will have at least one wide-angle (main sensor) and one ultra-wide-angle. The latter can be perfect for landscapes and give more depth to your photos.
If you have a higher-end model, you will probably have a telephoto lens which will give you new possibilities.
Be observant
Tips for taking great photos can help, but you’ll be alone (or in a group) when it’s time to tap to take your photo. On vacation, you don’t always have time to think about the best location or angle to really get a great shot. It’s also not always possible to retrace your steps and take a moment dedicated to practicing photography.
The best advice we can give is to be as observant as possible. Indeed, your eye remains the true master and it is it that will succeed in a very large part of your photo. The good photographer will be the one who sees what others do not see and no device will be able to tell you. In this sense, you should not necessarily put aside your smartphone by the way that it is not at the level of the best of the moment.
A smartphone costing over 1,000 euros will always be more comfortable in photography than a model costing 200 euros, but it does not guarantee the success of your photos. An argument that is also valid if you want to turn to a camera.
How to choose a smartphone camera?
Before you embark on your quest for a new model, here are some things to look at to help you make the right choice:
Sensor size
There’s a reason why the size of the camera block in our smartphones has been growing rapidly in recent years. Larger sensors capture more light and offer a greater dynamic range, helping to deliver sharper and more accurate images, especially in low-light conditions.
Pixel size
We are not talking here about the number of megapixels of the sensor (see below), but about the size of the pixels. Larger pixels ensure better absorption of light, which helps to improve the quality of the captured shots (level of detail, colors, etc.), even when conditions are not optimal.
Opening
Aperture is a very important element in photography, although it is less emphasized on smartphones than on cameras. You usually have to switch to a Pro or Manual mode to change the aperture of your smartphone camera. It is important to know this information – even if you only use the autonomous mode – because it affects the quality of your images. The aperture controls the amount of light that enters the camera:
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- A smaller f-number means a larger aperture and more light coming in. This is best used in low light conditions or for shallow depth of field (blurring the background).
- A larger f-number means a smaller aperture and less light entering. This is useful in bright conditions or for extended depth of field (keeping a large part of the scene in focus).
Stabilisation d’image
A tripod is not a must-have for mobile photography and is not usually part of the accessories you carry with you. Many smartphones now have an optical image stabilization (OIS) system to help you capture sharp images. The device helps with both photos and videos.
Zoom capability
Smartphone zoom is growing rapidly and has become more widespread in recent years. Whether on a smartphone with a triple or dual sensor, it is important to check the optical zoom levels that the smartphone offers (x2, x3, x5, x10, etc.). Indeed, optical zoom uses the camera’s lens to enlarge the image and allows you to zoom without losing quality. The smartphone also offers digital zoom to go even further (x20, x50, x100, etc.), but this is done by software processing and the image quality decreases. It remains useful, but it is a device offering good optical zoom capabilities that should be favored at the time of purchase.
On high-end smartphones, a third sensor, the telephoto lens, is even present to photograph distant elements and get closer to its subject. The images can be impressive and some devices are capable of photographing the moon thanks to their super zoom. We can even find periscopic lenses that offer higher levels of optical zoom.
Application photo
It’s not a hardware element, but the photo application obviously plays a significant part in the success of a photo. In addition to the interface and the need to find an application that suits you, the application can provide additional features. Recently, artificial intelligence solutions have also played a major role, as evidenced by the photography capabilities of the Pixel.
And the number of (mega)pixels?
Often highlighted by manufacturers, the number of megapixels refers to the resolution with which the sensor takes its pictures. While it is important, it is not the only determining factor in the quality of a photo and we advise you to look at the elements mentioned above, in addition to the number of megapixels. Indeed, the size of the sensor and pixels, the quality of the lens, the image processing algorithms also play a crucial role.
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