How to Take Camera Phone Pictures
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Very nice. Thanks.
Thank you Merlin. Glad you enjoyed it!
Great snaps. Tells me that irrespective of the equipment, eye for a story, executing it well is what makes photography …
Thanks Kaylan! The equipment you use can always help to create a particular image you have in mind, but you’re right… if you know what you’re doing, equipment is sometimes the least important part of the equation.
Interesting.
What is the crop factor on a phone camera?
Richard, there is no consistent crop factor, as it varies from model to model. Even in the iPhone 7+, each lens has a dedicated sensor, which are each different sizes. But, to give you an idea, the sensors on an iPhone 7+ are approximately 7.21x for the main sensor and 8.6x for the telephoto sensor.
It’s just about one year ago that I began taking smartphone photography seriously and I was on my first vacation without taking my beloved Nikon D700 with me. At first, it felt like an experiment and I was really not used to both traveling light and being so fast when it came to taking a picture. But after a few shots I really began to enjoy my new freedom, realizing once again that not the camera is the tool everything depends on, but the photographer. I don’t want to sell my DSLR equipment – to me, smartphone photography is an extension, it is the possibility to take a photograph whenever I want to and to have the opportunity to just go somewhere without having to think what lenses I should take with me, what bag would suit them and so on. And finally, it just depends on what you want to shoot – just remember that (in most cases) it’s just a wide angle lens that you carry with you!
By the way, I started off with a Microsoft Lumia 640, which gave me a very decent image quality in daylight situations but, at least in my opinion, has three major drawbacks: it only offers JPEG files, it’s low light performance could be better, and finally, the front camera is a stub (yes, that selfie thing – but my wife and I enjoy having pictures of ourselves at places where we have been). So this fall I upgraded to a Lumia 950 and what should I say – it’s just a pleasure taking photos with that great camera. So finally I have DNG & JPEG files, an optical image stabilization and (also due to that) a good low light image quality. Ah, and a front camera that deserves the name “camera” – just to be complete ;-)
So, whatever smartphone you have – I think that nowadays there are some great cameras built into them and that we would miss something if we didn’t use them. Have fun!
Matthias, you’re so right in saying that it’s a freeing experience! I feel the same way every time I’m out without my DSLR. I often take photo walks and intentionally bring only my phone with me. It’s always a good exercise and often makes me feel much more creative for some reason.
Dear Matthias
My experience has been close to yours. Lumia 64 then iPhone 6+ and Huwai 9 for its B&W performances. But when it is low light or fast action it is back to d810 or Summilx.
The good thing is that your telephone is with you all the time.
Be well
A lot of Android apps will set volume buttons for shutter release (or other handy purposes as well). Personally I’ve found setting a two-second countdown before shutter release helps steady the phone (same for any compact camera without a viewfinder) against both shutter release and the awkwardness of holding it in an unsteady pose. (I’ve had no success capturing action with handheld phones or compacts – if there’ are tips for that bring them on.)
Albin, setting a timer a great tip if you’re ending up with blurry images. I just added a section for capturing action. In short, it’s not easy, but by shooting a burst of images you increase your chances for getting the shot you want.
There’s an app called pro cam for Iphone, it let’s you shoot raw, set ISO, white balance, shutter speed. it gives a lot of of control over your basic camera. I really haven’t had time to really use it yet but so far so good.
Thanks for the suggestion, Mike. I’m currently working on a post that covers a few different apps. This one sounds like a good one!
Awesome article…
Thanks for reading RK!
Great article, very timely…please publish more articles on this type of mobile phone photography…its very educational. Topics like mobile phone apps that you find useful, post processing tips, accessories, etc…I do use Lightroom CC and hope to hone my skills using the mobile app for travel photography….thanks.
Thanks Willy! I’m currently working on an article that covers apps and post processing in general. Maybe if these are well-received, I can do some that go into more detail about specific apps.
You missed to talk about Snapseed (available for iOS and android). Crazy, amazing App for editing. You will never miss photoshop, believe me.
About iphone7 image quality. It looks strange but in my opinion the quality from iPhone 5 or 6s to iPhone 7 drops dramatically. I compared face to face the same shot that I took from iPhone 5, iPhone 6s and iphone7.
The iphone7 images look always like watercolour (especially if you shot in low light) and unnatural.
The best picture comes from iPhone 6s with great resolution, details and pleasing without strong NR that flat the image.
This is unbelievable how I was disappointed after I bought new iphone7 and discovered this issue. I tried several iphone7 from a friend of mine and all of them have the same bad quality. When I made the comparison between different iPhone no one of my friends can believe that the shot was took with iphone7.
Have you faced with this silimar issue?
Marcus, I just updated the article and added a section on Snapseed. I met with a non-photographer friend yesterday and she mentioned that she uses it. Once I heard that and saw the comments from you and Anthony, I knew I needed to include it.
I haven’t done any direct comparisons between iPhone models, but I might give it a shot. I still have the 5 and 6, so it might be worth looking into. I do notice what you refer to as a “watercolour” look that I assume is caused by noise reduction, but haven’t noticed that it’s stronger on images from my 7 than previous models.
Just another comment that I missed before…..
You said: “… once you make an edit to the image (say a +10 Contrast adjustment) and click the check mark to apply the adjustment, if you go back to adjust the contrast again, the slider is reset to 0.”
This is not exactly true. You can always view all the changes that you did, and you can also readjust that specific parameter and retain the changes that you did after.
If you click on “undo” button, and then to “see all changes” you have the possibility view changes and also to re-edit previous changes. This is pretty useful like adjustment layers in photoshop.
Hi John, before you give you old iPhones away, just try to compare them with last 7 model. I’m curious to read someone opinion.
Thanks
Thanks John for your reply. I’m really snapseed addicted and it’s a very powerful tool. It has all necessary to do a professional and artistic retouch.
Please try yourself to compare iphone7 and other models. Stood indoor with low light and you will see what I mean. Especially in portraits you will see watercolour effect and hairs and beard are totally destroyed. Also during landscape shot, grass leaves doesn’t have fine details. This is unbelievable how on the web this issue is poorly reported.
If you look at EXIF data the ISO rating is always very low compared to the same shot taken with other iPhone model. Somewhere I heard that iPhone 7 takes several shot and combine them in one RAW to produce better image resolution and quality. This can cause gosts in fast moving object.
Sorry for this OT.
Agree heartily with Marcus about Snapseed. I have used it since it came out a few years ago and find it terrific. They periodically update it with new features, like Tonal Contrast a while ago.
Anthony, see the above reply to Marcus’ comment. I added a section for Snapseed. Thanks!
Interesting discussion. I’ve installed Snapseed for Android but generally use PC software for anything I want to share.
I was most interested in the discussion of DNG, which my phone doesn’t support but is of future interest. I don’t compare the phone with a DSLR but do with my Canon s110 and have found RAW/DNG dramatically improves low light performance for the small sensor models (and i really hate the default NR in recent consumer cameras.) With RAW/DNG on the compact I can hand hold and get usable results with low ISO by “underexposing” on overcast days or indoors, and can speed up the shutter for tolerable motion captures, not possible on my DNG-less smartphone. I noticed your DNG comparisons were of – optimal for small sensor cameras – naturally well-lit sunny day scenes, and wonder if you’ve tried the same in more difficult lighting.
Hi Albin,
I didn’t really do any testing with more difficult lighting. Now you’ve got me curious. I’ll have to give it a try one of these days and let you know what I find out.