The Tuesday Ten | Using your Phone Camera

How to get Amazing photos from your Camera Phone!

1. Use it! Using your camera phone is simple, easy, and is most likely always in your pocket or purse. If you already use it, great! If not, I challenge you to start taking pictures. Use that phone for more than just talking, texting, and the internet. Take advantage of the technology available to us. Most of us with smart phones have an fairly reasonable camera available to us 24/7. Start using it more!
2. Keep Steady. Though camera phones have come a long way with technology they are still not a DLSR. You can't change many or any of the settings. Get a good feel for using your camera so you know how it works. Some camera phones are easier to hold than others. But, always try to keep your hands steady or you'll get a blurry shot or the quality of the photo will be affected.
3. Lighting. Lighting is seriously one of the most important aspects of using any camera. Natural light is better than flash but again use both. Camera phones are actually pretty "smart" and take decent photos in any circumstance. Sometimes their white balance is much better than mine on my SLR (until I edit it in Lightroom).
4. Get to know your settings. I can't stress it enough that just using your camera and getting to know what it is capable of is the best way to ensure you get amazing pictures from your phone. Find out if you have a Face-Detection focus mode that you can put the priority on Human subjects, what about burst shots, self portrait, a timer, can you change your ISO settings, etc. Your camera is capable of taking some pretty awesome shots, you just need to play around with it and learn how to use it to it's full capacity. Don't have time? That's ok to. Camera phones have great auto settings as well. Leave them on auto and you'll be safe to capture those memories. When you get time try learning about one thing at a time. 
5. Keep your phone Clean. Believe it or not your phone's camera will take better pictures if it is clean! Remove any dust or finger prints before you use it.
6. Don't always zoom. Camera phones have the ability to zoom but I don't recommend always using it. Zooming makes your pictures more pixilated. Use Optical Zoom instead of digital zoom when available as your pictures will be more clear.
7. Editing programs. Did you know your phone most likely has it's own photo editing program? Check it out, play around with it. It may just help enhance your photo and make it better! If you don't have one or don't like the one you have there are plenty of Apps that are available as well. Some are free and others cost money. 
8. Capture those random, unplanned moments. Usually when I have my SLR out I am at an event, session, or trying to capture a specific photo. One of my favorite things about using my camera phone is its spontaneous. I can use it pretty much anywhere and I get to see all those fun, random and seriously unplanned moments. And I love that I have pictures of those moments. 
9. Back up your photos! I back up my camera phone photos to my hard drive as well as in the cloud back up option my phone service provides. I love keeping those memories and I take a lot of pictures with my phone. In the past I've had to delete photos to make room for additional ones. That's when I started backing them up so I don't loose those awesome, unplanned memories. 
10. Print them! I use Groovebook.  It's an app that prints your PHONE PHOTOS in a small keepsake photo book. They print one book a month for you that includes 100 pictures for $2.99 (Including shipping and handling). It's an awesome way to use your phone pictures for scrap booking, framing, bulletin boards, on the refrigerator, etc. Are they super high quality? No, but they are tangible and it's easy to use! I have a coupon code for a free book if you want to try it out. Let me know.