Follow these 5 basic rules and get perfect pictures everytime with your smartphone

There are few things that top a great photo. A photo can capture a moment in time and help you remember some of the best times in your life. From the moment your son or daughter being born to your first adopted kitten, photos are a great way to capture a moment in time for an everlasting memory.

We all take pictures. Some of us take more than others and some just take way too many.

Regardless, we have assembled five basic tips for instantly improving your photography skills using your mobile phone.

1. Clean your lens

Before mobile smartphones, there were cameras that required something that was called film. “Photographic film is a strip or sheet of transparent plastic film base coated on one side with a gelatin emulsion containing microscopically small light-sensitive silver halide crystals,” from Wikipedia. Film was limited and cost actual money. We couldn’t take 30 pictures of the same thing to try and get the best shot. That meant everything had to be perfect for each shot.

One basic rule, back when film was in use, was keeping your lens clean. Nothing ruins a shot like a fingerprint or a grease smudge. Smartphones sadly do not have lens covers, and are exposed to our grimy hands throughout the day. If you have an eyeglass cleaning cloth handy, use that to wipe your lens clean. You can even use the disposal eyeglass cleaning wipes, which have a cleaning solution, that breaks down grease and dirt and instantly cleans your lens. As a last resort, use your shirt or something soft to wipe it down. Just make sure you give yourself the best chance possible by cleaning your lens.

2. Learn to use light

The more light that is on your subject, the better your image will come out. Shots in full sunlight during the daytime usually have the best exposure and will result in the best pictures. So try to use that lesson when you are indoors.

Lighting can also be used to make your photo a little more “artsy” if you look for it. Whether it be in a misty sunrise with light reflecting off the morning fog, or a sun setting in the cloudy sky learn to see how light behaves in different situations.

Open your windows during the day or turn on all of the lights in your room. More light equals better pictures. It’s why us phone reviewers are so concerned with low-light capabilities, because some phones just can’t take great shots at night. And pictures at night are just as important as those in the daytime.

Standard lighting in my living room.

Lighting in a photo tent.

If you’re trying to sell an object on ebay.com, consider getting a portable photo tent from Amazon.com with external lights.

Whatever you do, try to get as much light as possible on your subject before you take the picture. This basic rule will help improve your photography skills immensely.

3. Learn how to use your camera software

There are various camera apps available on Android and many of them have different features. The camera app on LG phones is one of the more advanced apps you can get with a camera, so learning its features will help tremendously. You can control settings such as ISO, white balance, exposure and even the basics like image size.

For Samsung Galaxy devices, they not only have similar built-in manual features, but they also offer software enhancements like filters and panorama modes. Panoramic pictures can be breathtaking and many people don’t even know their phone has software to help them get these shots. So play with the settings and modes within your phone’s software so you’re better educated on how to use your camera.

You can download Google’s Camera app here if your software is too complicated.

4. Stay Still

Yeah this is a basic tip. But the more you move the higher your chances of getting a blurry shot.

If there is a stationary object nearby like a tree or wall, lean against it and hold your camera tight to the wall to hold it steady. Or if you’re taking a picture of food, try setting the bottom of your phone down on a upside down coffee cup and leaning the lens over the food before you take that shot. You can try breathing slowly before you click the camera shutter button to slow your jitters.

This is even more important in low-light situations where your camera will automatically select a slower shutter speed to compensate to allow in more light. Slower shutter speed increases your chances at a blurry photo, so remember in low-light shots to stay as still as possible. It’s why professional photographers use tripods, and the basic technique of leaning against a stationary object will help improve your shots immensely.

5. Take lots of pictures

Don’t be afraid to take multiple shots. Cameras are so quick these days you can literally snap 15 photos in a matter of seconds. Pile on the pictures and sort through them later. Don’t be afraid to take more than one picture since we are only limited by the memory in our phones. The days of film are gone when you had one chance to get it right. If you don’t like a picture, you can always delete it later to free up space.

With Google Photos offering free and unlimited cloud storage, you can even keep those “bad” photos if you prefer. Try to save your pictures until you can view them on a computer monitor or tablet before you delete them as having a bigger display will give you a better view of your image. You can always crop a portion of your picture that you like and delete the rest.

Just don’t be afraid to take multiple shots. Sometimes numbers improves your luck at getting the perfect shot.

Summary

Keep your lens clean, get as much light as you can on your subject, learn your camera’s software, stay still and take multiple shots. These are five basic rules any person who takes pictures should keep in mind in order to get the best shot possible. If you want to learn more about unlimited storage and how to use Google Photos click here. I hope these basic tips help you on your next shot.

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