The phone is no longer a simple way to hear from those far away; if you chose it right, you can take spectacular photos using it. Choose a smartphone wisely. Today’s smartphones and social networks have turned the phone into a favorite device for capturing images and videos.They are small, easy to carry (compared to a camera), always at hand, and can achieve performance that seemed hard to imagine 5-10 years ago. To choose a model with which you can take beautiful pictures, you have to take into account several aspects. We have gathered essential information in the following guide.
How do I choose a smartphone that takes good pictures? What kind of photos do you want to take with your phone?
If your goal is to take excellent selfies, photos with friends, holiday photos, and photos with food to post on Facebook, Snapchat, or Instagram, you will quickly find a phone that will delight you. If you choose a smartphone perfect for your needs, the results will be perfect for social media. On the other hand, you want to use the phone as a primary camera, to take printable photos, to take high-quality photo sessions or videos, you will need to look for a phone in the range of peak. Of course, don’t forget that a phone can’t wholly replace a professional DSLR camera in terms of performance. Choose a smartphone in concordance with your goals. So, for example, you will not be able to do your wedding photo shoot with your mobile phone.
The best budget available for the purchase of a good camera phone
Once you have established what your expectations are from the phone’s camera and what you will use it for, put a maximum amount on paper to fit. The differences between a phone with an acceptable camera and a perfect one can be in the order of hundreds of dollars. choose a smartphone carefully. First, browse the offer of phones on the market and compare it with your requirements and budget. In principle, mid-range phones and up, launched in the last two or three years, can take excellent photos if you follow a few basic rules and know how to go a little to the settings.
To figure out which phone is right for you, you need to know what kind of pictures you want to take, what budget you have, and follow the technical characteristics. We will detail these in our article.
The conditions in which you want to take good pictures with your phone
- You want to take pictures indoors or predominantly outdoors?
- Do you want to photograph the sunset and the sunrise?
- You want good pictures even when you have the backlight (Contre jour)?
- Do you dream of noticeably clear pictures even taken in the evening?
- You want to take panoramic pictures (360 degrees) or take photos underwater?
These are questions you should ask yourself before buying a phone with a good camera. Not all phones are ready to take quality pictures under any circumstances.
Features of a phone camera that takes good pictures
The answer to all the above questions is in the datasheet of your phone – study it carefully.
The main camera features
The primary camera (back) is the most important in a phone; it will always have the most advanced settings. What are the parameters you need to follow?
Autofocus
The better the focus of an image, the brighter it will be. The focus of the subject refers to the capture of the contour and the details without blurred (blurred) parts. Autofocus should be as fast and right as possible. Autofocus with face detection, on many phones today, is fast, but it does not work as well if the light is dim. The closest to DSLR camera technology is the dual pixel autofocus, found in premium phones.
Sensor
The size of the sensor is defining for the quality of the camera because it depends on the light capture.
A camera with a large sensor has excellent performance even when the light is dim (this is the secret of beautiful pictures taken at sunset or indoors). The ISO function is what allows you to adjust the sensitivity of the sensor to obtain clear images, with as little noise as possible.
Image stabilizer
An image stabilizer camera helps you get rid of “shaky” images and take beautiful and bright photos at any time of the day and even when you are on the move. Usually, you will find optical stabilization in high-end phones because it is an expensive technology.
Resolution
Probably the resolution – the number of megapixels – is the first thing that catches your eye when looking for a phone with a good camera. You should know that manufacturers often use the large number of megapixels as a marketing ploy. Extremely high resolution is not so important if you are not interested in printing your photos. The number of pixels counts in correlation with the size of the sensor; you will be interested in having many pixels if the sensor is also significant. Otherwise, you can get perfect pictures with a 12-megapixel camera if we are talking about a camera with a suitable sensor.
Secondary camera features
The secondary (front) camera is for selfies. Its performance is always lower than that of the main rooms.
If you like to pose often, check when looking for the right phone and the technical data of the secondary camera (resolution, sensor, aperture, focus).
Ability to take good pictures at night
The aperture (aperture) is crucial for the quality of the photo and works like the iris and pupil of the eye, controlling the amount of light that enters the room, New Atlas explains. The aperture size is the number F. The larger this number, the brighter the pictures. So, this is the essential feature to take good pictures at night. Disable the flash, set the ISO to a high value, and use a tripod, or have a stable position.
Technical features of the phone
Should you be interested in anything other than room specifications? Well, if you want to take successful pictures most comfortably, these aspects could also influence you.
Available memory
The larger and brighter the photo, the more space it takes up in memory. If you want to pose without worries, especially when you are on vacation and taking a lot of photos, equip your phone with a roomy memory card.
Geotagging function
Most phones have geotagging enabled – every time you take a photo, it stores GPS coordinates. The choice can be useful if you want to see exactly where you took a specific photo, but it can also be intrusive. Deactivate it if you do not want to share with everyone where you live, where you have fun, or where you travel.
Battery
Photography is an activity that consumes battery resources. A phone with high autonomy (from 3,000 – 4,000 mAh upwards) allows you to take more pictures without charging.
Internet connection
A stable internet connection makes it easier to share photos on social networks and allows you to connect to online photo editors.
Tips from professionals to take good pictures with your phone
A beautiful photo taken with a mobile phone is a combination of the technical features of the camera, the manual settings made by the user, and a minimum of skill.
- Preparing the phone’s camera
- Before you start taking photos, cut the phone’s camera and increase the screen brightness.
- Turn off the flash and use natural light or an external artificial light source as much as possible.
- Select the maximum allowed resolution and quality.
- Do not use the digital zoom of the phone – the photo will never be clear.
- Set the exposure – the more significant, the darker the frame.
- Activates the image stabilizer (if any).
If you want to get a more dramatic effect, with sharp contrast, activate the HDR function in the camera menu.