Holding Your Camera Phone
Put the Camera in Your Dominant Hand
- Hold the camera in your dominant hand
- Put 3 fingers across the back of the phone
- Place the pinkie on one side and thumb on the other
Cradle with Your Other Hand
- Cradle your hand with your other hand
- Use the thumb of the hand not holding the phone to tap the shutter
Keep Your Elbows Tucked In
- When possible, resist holding your phone out away from your body. This leads to shake.
- Hold the phone closer to your body with your elbows tucked in to your sides making a "human tripod" or support.
Grid Lines
Most cameras have a way to turn on a grid that divides the screen up into thirds. By placing the center of your subject on any of the lines, you are practicing the rule of thirds. This is Rosa wiping cat smut on the corner of our stairs but she is well framed using rule of thirds.
Turning on the Grid
For the iphone, go to Settings > Camera and slide on "Grid"
For the Android, go to the camera app, tap settings and turn on Grid Lines
Newer phones give you multiple lenses you can select. Each lens will give you a different focal length (how wide or zoomed in the camera is).
- Optical Zoom - this is real magnification achieved by the lens that is selected.
- Digital Zoom - this is fake magnification achieved by cropping in on the area of interest resulting in a poorer quality image.
When you pinch to zoom you are mostly using digital zoom so depending on the lens that is selected and how much you zoom, you get somewhat to significantly poorer quality image.
Try to always tap on a number (i.e. .5, 1x, 2, 3) and use the view that gives - move your body if you need to be closer or further away if the view the number gives isn't quite right. If you pinch your screen to zoom in and zoom out, you are getting a much poorer quality image than if you tap the number. This is because the camera is still shooting from one of the main lenses (one of those main numbers) and if you zoom more than the selected lens can do, it just crops the image to "fake" the zoom resulting in a lower resolution image.
These are all iPhone photos
iPhone Live Photo
- Tap this icon in the upper right of your screen to toggle live photo on.
- Hold the camera very still for about 2 seconds BEFORE you tap the shutter (it's already recording)
- Tap the shutter and hold very still until you see the word "Live" disappear. (See Holding your Camera Phone for tips)
- Tap the tiny photo icon in the bottom left (or go to your photo album) to view your photo
- Tap the word "Live" (or swipe up on older phones)
- Select "Long Exposure" as the option.
Samsung Motion Photo
- Tap this icon in the upper right of your screen to toggle motion photo on.
- Hold the camera very still for about 2 seconds BEFORE you tap the shutter (it's already recording)
- Tap the shutter and hold very still until it's done (See Holding Your Camera Phone for tips).
- Tap "View Motion Photo"
- When viewing the photo swipe up
- Select "Long Exposure" as the option.
iPhone Night Mode
Night mode will only work in low light conditions. Be sure to have live photo OFF and the maximum shutter speed possible is also determined by lighting and how much you move the camera. A maximum of 30 seconds is possible but you will likely need a tripod.
The lower the aperture number the more shallow the depth of field.
The above image was taken at f2.8