Cell Phone Visual arts
Suppose you’re strutting down the walk and you see that far-out signboard which kindles your thirst to shoot. But then you realize that your powerful SLR isn’t with you (be practical, who carries that heavy part 24?7).
Well, this is exactly where your cell phone comes in handy. Nowadays, the pocket sized all-so effective mobile phone cameras have driven the point-and-shoot ones to near extinction (well, almost). We take a closer peep toward some tips that can help you get the greatest out of your cell phone camera.
CHOOSING THE SUBJECT
various present day phones offer megapixel counts above 5, but that doesn’t mean they are apt for every shooting scenario. For instance, if you are employing your phone to shoot a rock concert, more often than not you’d merely get dark blurry images. The fact is, camera phones are ideal for shooting still objects in well-lit scenarios, preferably in broad daylight. Even if your phone offers Xenon or LED flash, night design shouldn’t be its cup of tea.
So what is the antidote? Well, squint into your camera’s settings. You will find a number of scene modes (even with the most basic VGA ones) such as ‘night landscape’, ‘portrait’, ‘sports’, ‘fireworks’, etc. These presets automatically choose the ideal shooting options for the given scenario. Experiment with each and you are sure to see your photographs improve drastically. In the newer breed of Sony Ericsson Cyber-shot phones (and in some of the Samsung phones too, though features on Samsung are country-specific most of the time), you will come across an option called Slow Sync Flash. Don’t hesitate to use it. Fundamentally, Slow Sync tells the camera to shoot with a slightly longer exposure time thereby giving the Flash an enhanced duration of exposure. Bluntly put, it helps to lessen the dark.
KEEP IT Safe
If you are acquiring blurry images with your phone, don’t fret because you are not alone. Most of the phones’ cameras have slow shutter speeds with no feature to vary the exposure settings. The best thing one can do is to hold the phone as stable as possible, preferably with both hands while shooting. It is not paradoxical but does require some practice.
KNOW THE ‘CLICK’
Another answer to getting sharp photos is to know the camera’s shutter release. In clear terms, how long does it take for the camera to accomplish the task after you press the shoot button? If there is a lag, you will need to account for that. And if the shutter release is on a touch screen (such as on the Apple iPhone), the shutter in all likelihood gets tripped after you lift your finger, not when you press down. Either way, you will need to hold the camera balanced while the picture is really being exposed. This does not mean that you need to get a tripod for your phone. Just keep your hands still (or at least as still as possible).
OPTIMIZING THE CAMERA SETTINGS
Most camera phones today provide a few settings that you can use to optimize your exposures. All the standard rules and terms from digital cameras are befitting. If there is an ISO setting, take it off Auto. When you are outdoors in daylight, you should set the ISO to its lowest value to minimize the digital noise in your picture (which can be pretty grainy with a camera phone). In lower light settings, bump the ISO up as high as it will go (which commonly should be at least 400 in a good phone).
Likewise, the phone may provide you some control over the JPEG image quality. Always go for the lowest compression/largest quality option available. After all, camera phone pictures are already compact enough to begin with – do not compound the complication with needless photo-damaging compression.
If you are the owner of handsets with amazing optical zoom ratings (such as Sony Ericsson C903, Samsung Pixon or the newly released Nokia N8), use the zoom to the fullest. You will find zooming in at 3x or 4x on the object a better option as compared to yourself moving forward. However, be warned: this is fruitful with OPTICAL zoom only. If your phone is one of the 20x DIGITAL zoom types, bother not. Digital zoom won’t be helpful much and is at best used sparingly.
GET THE Accurate TOOLS
Your photo editing software – whether it is Adobe Photoshop Elements, Corel Photo-Paint or even something like Google’s free Picasaweb – can help improve most of your camera phone photos. If you have an Android device or an iPhone, you are in solid hands as thopefulhere are abundant applications and softwares available that put most of the image editors to shame. For iPhone users, the plethora of options from the Apple safe includes Free Photo Filters, SP Photo Fix Lite, Photobox and iRetouch Lite. If you are an Android user, well, the galaxy is filled with apps for you. Check out Picsay and FxCamera. Both of them, along with diverse other apps, are freely available from the web
FINAL WORD
When cameras where first incorporated into mobile phones, they were something of a gimmick, providing very low resolution and miserable quality images. Today, cameras are an necessitous part of the phone and the features just keep going higher. Even though your phone will stand nowhere in comparison to a mainstream camera, with some effort and implementation of the above said tips, you are sure to get great results. Happy shooting! great
Ben Rama is a Graphic Designer, CG Artist & Cinematographer from London.
He is the creator & original director
at Digital Empire with many years of experience in Graphic Design, Film & TV within London.
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