How To Take.pictures With You Phone That Blurs The Background

They say the best photographic camera is the 1 you lot accept with y'all, and nearly smartphone cameras can now easily supplant a point-and-shoot. For users who have feel taking pictures, the move from a "real" camera to a smartphone tin be an easy one, but for users with no photography experience, information technology can be a real challenge to get a decent looking shot from your phone. Fortunately, smartphone cameras are often more intuitive than more traditional cameras, and landing the all-time possible shot merely have a few considerations.

I'll exist using diverse Android phones for this tutorial, merely you should easily be able to apply the methods used here on whatsoever smartphone—pay attention to the fundamentals at play here, not necessarily the interface beingness used.

Make Sure the Lens Is Make clean

This actually should go without saying, but you'd be surprised how many people forget to check the lens for smudges before they attempt to snap a motion-picture show. These are even so phones, after all, so they're subjected to aplenty amounts of fingerprints and dirt from being tossed in pockets and other sorts of abuse–while cameras are ordinarily not. So yes, brand sure the lens is clean and smudge-complimentary before yous whip that phone out and start snapping pictures.

Now that you're ready to channel your inner lensman, permit'south talk about actually using that camera.

Lighting Is Everything

Lighting is absolutely crucial in getting a expert picture–and doubly and so on smartphones, which don't oftentimes practice also in low light as standalone cameras. Bad lighting on a normal camera will produce a sub-par photo, simply bad lighting on a smartphone camera can produce absolute garbage.

And so let's talk basics. You've seen professional photo shoots where they have an absolutely ridiculous amount of lights backside the photographer, right? There's a proficient reason for that: lighting is everything when it comes to detail. Proper lighting tin can do everything from put the focal point exactly where you lot want it to make peel look babe smooth.

So, where should you lot stand up? Where should the subject be? Retrieve of a photograph studio: the lights are in the back, shining on the subject, and the photographer is somewhere in the center. The same thought applies to taking simple smartphone pictures: avoid putting the light source to the subject's back—move around until the light source is backside you, highlighting the discipline. Here's a skilful instance of poor lighting versus optimal lighting:

Hither are a few quick tips to keep in mind when shooting with your smartphone:

Avoid direct sunlight. This will wash out the unabridged flick. Overcast days are great for taking pictures, only if it'southward sunny out, endeavor to discover some shade. That should provide the prefect lighting state of affairs.
When indoors, shoot near a window. Call up, don't your put your subject's back to the window, but rather have them/it face up the window. Be aware of where the sun is, as lighting inside of building will change throughout the day.
Avoid the flash in a dark room. If you lot can, try not to use the wink for taking close-up (or macro) shots. This can wash subjects out while making the groundwork dark. The wink tin exist keen for grabbing a quick, wide shot in a dark environment, only for any sort of "portrait" photography, information technology'south a no-go. See beneath for an example of how harsh the wink tin can exist in a dark room.

Again, move around! Play with information technology. The more different pictures you take, the meliorate shot you have of one looking decent. It may accept a bit to figure out this whole "lighting" thing, but once you do it'll start to come much more naturally. There is, however, one more piece to the puzzle that goes hand-in-hand with lighting.

E'er Check the Exposure and Focus

Oh, snap—nosotros just used a photography word. Exposure? What is that?! To put it in the simplest of terms, exposure is the amount of light that reaches the photographic camera's sensor. To brand that easier to understand, grab your phone and open the camera. Now, find a scene with both light and dark objects. Tap the black—run into how the entire frame lights up? Now tap the light object—everything should become darker. This is essentially your telephone doing an automatic exposure adjustment. Cool, correct? Modern telephone cameras brand exposure and then simple, especially compared to more avant-garde cameras that don't have touch screens. Here'due south a look at the difference exposure can brand:

Only that'due south the other half of good lighting. Sometimes, the phone will automatically select a sort of "central" exposure point after seeing the entire frame (you can commonly watch this happen—as yous move the phone, the lighting will modify on-screen), only if you want more control over the lighting, just tap around a piddling bit to get the perfect exposure. You lot generally don't want to utilise the extremes here, so avoid tapping on super-dark or super-light objects. Like everything else, play with it and see what looks best.

Along those same lines, you can change the focal point of the photo by simply tapping it. A shallow "Depth of Field"—a shot where one section of the epitome is in perfect focus and the residuum is blurry—is often sought after, but while information technology's not something that'south very dramatic on most smartphones, it's yet important. See the images below–the left 1 shows the groundwork in focus, while the right one shows our subject in focus.

The main affair to exist aware of when adjusting the focal point is that it will also adjust the exposure, so y'all may take to play with information technology only a piffling scrap to get both exposure and depth of field adjusted correctly.

Because the limited tweaks that tin can be made to most smartphones, proceed in mind that a shallow depth of field is hard, if non impossible, to get on larger subjects, like people. If yous're shooting smaller objects, so a shallow depth of field is a bit easier to attain. Just exist enlightened of the hardware limitations yous'll have to overcome—this is a smartphone afterward all, non a Digital SLR.

Know When to Use HDR

HDR, or "High Dynamic Range," is a peachy manner to get better, more accurate pictures in tough situations. Substantially, this mode takes three pictures with varying exposures, and so combines them into 1 single image—that'southward why information technology takes a lilliputian longer to shoot an HDR shot on your phone. This achieves a better overall rest past enhancing the ration of calorie-free to dark in the scene.

Sounds adept, right? It is! But there are times when it's a skilful idea to use HDR, and in that location are times when it's best to leave it off. Here's a quick and dingy list to get in a little easier.

Information technology's proficient to use HDR when shooting:

Landscapes: HDR can make the all-time of a landscape scene. It will aid the picture await more like what your eyes see versus what the camera sees.
Portraits in bright light:Nosotros've already established that pictures in sunlight are bad, but if you can't avoid it, HDR tin can help residual it out and remove some of the harshness.
When backlighting is unavoidable: If y'all admittedly tin can't help simply have your subjects dorsum to the light source, HDR can aid residual out the dissimilarity—in other words, the subjects won't be equally dark.

It's usually bad to use HDR when shooting:

Action scenes:Since HDR requires three shots in a row, movement is a no-no. Your subjects will look very blurry.
Loftier-contrast situations:Sometimes y'all want a loftier level of contrast for a dramatic result. HDR will accept that away.
Vivid colors: This is 1 that many people abuse—HDR does a good task of making many shots more bright, but using it on already-bright shots can wash them out, thus taking away the desired effect.

A lot of phones have an automated HDR mode that is okay at knowing when to activate itself, but automobile way tin't become information technology right every fourth dimension–and then keep these bullet points in mind as you shoot, and you can turn HDR on or off when yous know it'due south appropriate.

Don't Zoom In, Ever

Digital SLR cameras have what'south called "optical zoom," which means the lens itself actually moves forward to zoom in. On smartphones, this isn't possible, so they use "digital zoom"—which basically means the software zooms and crops the shot.

As a result, this dramatically affects the moving picture quality. Digitally zoomed images often become pixelated, and the more than you zoom, the worse it gets. To put it into perspective, affair about taking an epitome that you already have saved on your computer, then resizing information technology to make itlarger. This is substantially what digital zoom does. In some cases the software will attempt to clear upwards any artifacting that happens, but it's still going to exist.

The solution? Move closer. I realize that this isn't always ideal, but information technology'south ever going to be the best answer. Remember, digital zoom essentially crops your photos–which, if yous must do, you can always exercise later on on with your telephone's editing tools. It still won't wait proficient, but at least you'll have a choice–if you shoot with digital zoom, you tin't become that actress resolution back.

Accept a look at the above pictures for reference: the left ane is zoomed, the 2d is just a closer shot. Huge divergence, right?

Don't Forget Most More Advanced Features

Many smartphone camera apps besides offering access to avant-garde features, like discontinuity, ISO, white balance, and more. This isn't something that most people will want—or even demand—to access, only it's worth keeping in mind that they're in that location. Of course, that depends on the phone, the app, and more, and then poke around in the settings and see what you can find. These settings tin can be a little hard to have in at first, so further research may exist required to fully sympathise what they all practice. For the majority of users, nevertheless, this section tin be left alone.

A Few Other Things to Keep in Mind

And, of course, none of this is meant to exclude the basics of good photography, including:

Environment:Always be enlightened of your surroundings. That can quickly ruin an otherwise splendid shot.
Background:This goes mitt-in-hand with the last signal. Try to keep the background in contrast to the foreground—a kid wearing a dark-green shirt on a background of bushes or trees doesn't make much sense, for example.
Framing: This is crucial! Y'all don't accept to center the flick, merely make certain to frame information technology as all-time yous can—properly framing a photo will make the bailiwick popular, which is exactly what you're going for.

The rules for smartphones aren't that dissimilar than the rules for cameras–in that location are just some rules that get more important. Take care with your photos and you can get some neat looking shots with a telephone.

Unhappy with Your Camera? Try a Different App!

That's really the beauty of shooting with your smartphone: if you don't like the interface your manufacturer gives y'all, you can simply install something else and give information technology a shot. A quick search of your preferred app store will probable bear witness dozens of options for cameras—some simple, some total featured. Some are effects-based, while others offer congenital-in editors. To go yous started, yous could check out Camera+ for iOS or Camera FV-5 for Android.

I personally observe that nearly manufacturers practice a pretty skillful job of providing the best camera software for their respective phones, merely there'south ever room for exploration.

Taking good pictures with a smartphone takes practice, but it's definitely not out of the question to be able to take hold of high-quality shots with your handset. With a petty bit of patience and practise, y'all'll be grabbing those once-in-a-lifetime shots with your phone like a pro. Oh, and just for reference, every image in this mail was taken with a smartphone. Blast.