How To Fix A Scratched Phone Camera

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

I'll be using various Android phones for this tutorial, but you should hands exist able to apply the methods used here on whatsoever smartphone—pay attention to the fundamentals at play here, non necessarily the interface beingness used.

Make Certain the Lens Is Clean

This actually should go without saying, just y'all'd be surprised how many people forget to cheque the lens for smudges before they try to snap a pic. These are however phones, after all, then they're subjected to ample amounts of fingerprints and dirt from being tossed in pockets and other sorts of abuse–while cameras are usually not. So yeah, make sure the lens is clean and smudge-free before you whip that phone out and get-go snapping pictures.

Now that you're ready to aqueduct your inner photographer, permit'south talk virtually actually using that camera.

Lighting Is Everything

Lighting is absolutely crucial in getting a good picture–and doubly so on smartphones, which don't frequently do likewise in depression light as standalone cameras. Bad lighting on a normal photographic camera will produce a sub-par photograph, but bad lighting on a smartphone camera can produce accented garbage.

So permit's talk basics. You've seen professional person photo shoots where they have an absolutely ridiculous amount of lights behind the photographer, right? There'southward a good reason for that: lighting is everything when information technology comes to detail. Proper lighting tin can practice everything from put the focal point exactly where you want information technology to make skin look baby shine.

So, where should yous stand up? Where should the subject be? Think of a photo studio: the lights are in the back, shining on the subject, and the lensman is somewhere in the middle. The same idea applies to taking simple smartphone pictures: avoid putting the light source to the subject's dorsum—motion around until the light source is behind yous, highlighting the subject area. Hither's a proficient example of poor lighting versus optimal lighting:

Here are a few quick tips to keep in listen when shooting with your smartphone:

Avoid direct sunlight. This will wash out the entire picture. Clouded days are swell for taking pictures, but if it's sunny out, try to notice some shade. That should provide the prefect lighting state of affairs.
When indoors, shoot nigh a window. Remember, don't your put your subject's back to the window, but rather have them/it face up the window. Exist aware of where the sunday is, equally lighting within of edifice will change throughout the twenty-four hour period.
Avoid the flash in a night room. If you can, effort not to use the flash for taking shut-up (or macro) shots. This can wash subjects out while making the background dark. The flash can be groovy for grabbing a quick, broad shot in a dark environment, but for any sort of "portrait" photography, it's a no-go. See beneath for an example of how harsh the wink tin exist in a dark room.

Again, move effectually! Play with information technology. The more unlike pictures you have, the ameliorate shot you have of one looking decent. Information technology may take a bit to figure out this whole "lighting" thing, but once you practice information technology'll showtime 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 lite that reaches the camera's sensor. To make that easier to understand, grab your phone and open the camera. At present, find a scene with both light and dark objects. Tap the black—see how the entire frame lights up? Now tap the light object—everything should get darker. This is essentially your phone doing an automatic exposure aligning. Cool, right? Modern phone cameras make exposure so simple, especially compared to more advanced cameras that don't take bear upon screens. Here's a await at the difference exposure can brand:

But that's the other half of practiced lighting. Sometimes, the phone volition automatically select a sort of "central" exposure point subsequently seeing the unabridged frame (y'all can unremarkably picket this happen—as yous movement the phone, the lighting will change on-screen), but if you want more command over the lighting, only tap effectually a piddling bit to go the perfect exposure. You more often than not don't want to use the extremes here, and so avert tapping on super-dark or super-calorie-free objects. Like everything else, play with it and see what looks best.

Forth those same lines, y'all can alter the focal point of the photograph past simply tapping it. A shallow "Depth of Field"—a shot where i department of the epitome is in perfect focus and the rest is blurry—is often sought after, but while it'due south not something that's very dramatic on most smartphones, information technology'south still important. See the images beneath–the left one shows the groundwork in focus, while the correct i shows our subject in focus.

The master thing to exist enlightened of when adjusting the focal bespeak is that it will also adjust the exposure, then you may have to play with it just a little bit to get both exposure and depth of field adjusted correctly.

Considering the limited tweaks that tin be made to most smartphones, keep in mind that a shallow depth of field is hard, if not impossible, to get on larger subjects, like people. If yous're shooting smaller objects, then a shallow depth of field is a bit easier to achieve. Just exist aware of the hardware limitations you'll accept to overcome—this is a smartphone after all, not a Digital SLR.

Know When to Use HDR

HDR, or "High Dynamic Range," is a dandy way to become better, more authentic pictures in tough situations. Essentially, this mode takes three pictures with varying exposures, then combines them into one single epitome—that's why it takes a little longer to shoot an HDR shot on your telephone. This achieves a better overall residual past enhancing the ration of light to nighttime in the scene.

Sounds good, correct? It is! But there are times when information technology'south a good idea to use HDR, and there are times when it's best to get out it off. Here'southward a quick and dirty list to go far a little easier.

It's adept to use HDR when shooting:

Landscapes: HDR can make the all-time of a landscape scene. Information technology will aid the picture look more like what your eyes meet versus what the camera sees.
Portraits in bright calorie-free:Nosotros've already established that pictures in sunlight are bad, simply if you tin can't avoid it, HDR can assistance balance it out and remove some of the harshness.
When backlighting is unavoidable: If you absolutely can't help but take your subjects back to the light source, HDR can help rest out the contrast—in other words, the subjects won't be as dark.

It'south normally bad to employ HDR when shooting:

Activity scenes:Since HDR requires 3 shots in a row, movement is a no-no. Your subjects will look very blurry.
High-contrast situations:Sometimes you desire a high level of contrast for a dramatic effect. HDR will have that away.
Brilliant colors: This is ane that many people abuse—HDR does a good chore of making many shots more vivid, but using it on already-vivid shots can wash them out, thus taking abroad the desired consequence.

A lot of phones accept an automatic HDR way that is okay at knowing when to activate itself, but auto mode can't go it right every time–so go on these bullet points in mind as you lot shoot, and you can turn HDR on or off when you lot know it's advisable.

Don't Zoom In, Ever

Digital SLR cameras have what's 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 picture quality. Digitally zoomed images oftentimes become pixelated, and the more than you lot zoom, the worse it gets. To put information technology into perspective, thing well-nigh taking an image that you already have saved on your estimator, then resizing it to make itlarger. This is essentially what digital zoom does. In some cases the software will attempt to articulate up whatsoever artifacting that happens, but information technology'south yet going to exist.

The solution? Move closer. I realize that this isn't always platonic, but it's always going to be the best reply. Remember, digital zoom substantially crops your photos–which, if you lot must do, y'all can always do later on on with your telephone's editing tools. Information technology withal won't look good, simply at to the lowest degree you'll have a choice–if you shoot with digital zoom, you can't get that actress resolution back.

Take a look at the higher up pictures for reference: the left i is zoomed, the second is just a closer shot. Huge departure, correct?

Don't Forget About More than Avant-garde Features

Many smartphone camera apps also offer admission to advanced features, like aperture, ISO, white balance, and more. This isn't something that most people volition want—or fifty-fifty need—to access, merely it's worth keeping in mind that they're there. Of form, that depends on the phone, the app, and more than, and then poke around in the settings and see what yous tin can detect. These settings tin can be a picayune hard to take in at first, and then farther enquiry may be required to fully understand what they all practice. For the majority of users, however, this section can be left solitary.

A Few Other Things to Keep in Listen

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

Environment:Always be aware of your surroundings. That can quickly ruin an otherwise splendid shot.
Background:This goes hand-in-hand with the last point. Attempt to keep the background in dissimilarity to the foreground—a child wearing a green shirt on a background of bushes or trees doesn't make much sense, for example.
Framing: This is crucial! You don't have to center the motion-picture show, merely brand certain to frame it as best you can—properly framing a photo will make the subject field pop, which is exactly what y'all're going for.

The rules for smartphones aren't that unlike than the rules for cameras–there are just some rules that get more of import. Have care with your photos and yous can get some great looking shots with a phone.

Unhappy with Your Photographic camera? Try a Unlike App!

That'due south actually the beauty of shooting with your smartphone: if yous don't similar the interface your manufacturer gives you, you can simply install something else and give information technology a shot. A quick search of your preferred app store will likely show dozens of options for cameras—some simple, some full featured. Some are effects-based, while others offer built-in editors. To get you started, y'all could check out Camera+ for iOS or Camera FV-5 for Android.

I personally discover that most manufacturers practise a pretty good chore of providing the best camera software for their respective phones, but there's always room for exploration.

Taking good pictures with a smartphone takes practice, only it'south definitely not out of the question to be able to take hold of high-quality shots with your handset. With a fiddling bit of patience and practice, yous'll be grabbing those once-in-a-lifetime shots with your phone like a pro. Oh, and but for reference, every image in this post was taken with a smartphone. Nail.