In two years, the photo sensors of our smartphones have only evolved. From now on, we no longer use our mobile phone to share photos here and there on Facebook or Instagram, and more and more users have replaced their compact cameras with their smartphones. Knowing how to take beautiful photos is still necessary because if the quality isn’t always there, it’s not necessarily the photo sensor’s fault.
Here are all our tips Improve the quality of photos taken with your Android smartphone
Take the time to take a good photo
Even if you have the best photophone on the market, you will still need to give your device enough time. focus. Almost all smartphones running Google OS have autofocus feature which allows them to focus automatically. The sensor will then adjust the sharpness by selecting one or more points of the image. It is also possible to focus manually by touching the screen.
The first tip to ensure your focus is successful is to ensure that the image you see through your phone’s viewfinder is as sharp as possible, even if it means waiting an extra second for it. From there you can press the shutter button. To do this, all you have to do is aim at the subject without moving, and then take your photo. And feel free to hold the device with both hands.
Prefer manual mode
Most mobile photo sensors now offer a Pro or Manual mode that lets you take control of almost all settings. It’s more or less limited depending on manufacturers, as not all of them allow RAW format and manual controls of the Camera2 API, but generally offer more options than automatic mode (exposure, white balance, etc.).
Once well mastered, the manual mode will give you more accuracy than the automatic mode, which does not always calculate its stroke to perfection, even if it remains satisfactory most of the time.
Playing with ISO sensitivity
Two years ago, Sony innovated the Xperia Z3 by offering a maximum sensitivity of 12,800 ISO, thereby improving its ability to take beautiful low-light photos. It is great for night shots. Other than that, increasing the ISO sensitivity of the device when the light is already satisfactory is useless, even dangerous.
Why ? just because The higher the ISO sensitivity, the louder the image and the less sharp it will be.. At night, we can only recommend taking your photos in automatic mode to get the best possible configuration. On the other hand, during the day when the brightness is satisfactory, Reduce ISO sensitivity to minimum It will continue to be the best option. Note that not all smartphones allow you to go below ISO 100 yet.
Use the HDR function
Think your photos are too dull or overexposed? Why not take your photos in HDR mode? Found in almost all smartphones on the market, this function will actually capture several images with several different exposure levels. The software then stitches the images together to give you a brighter result and it’s usually closer to what your eye sees than what your camera “sees”.
HDR mode will come in handy for landscape photos, especially when taking a portrait in direct sunlight or low light. Note that the shooting time will be slightly longer as the device will take three or five photos instead of one.
HDR photography: what is it for and how does it work?
Know the rule of thirds
If you ask a photographer, they will often say that the composition of the photo is the most decisive factor in its success. For this, photographers often use the rule of thirds, which is also used in photography. The image is divided into nine parts by three horizontal lines and three vertical lines.
purpose then place the subject to be photographed in one of the corners of the middle rectangle. The effect achieved is generally interesting, but still beware of dead spaces.
Use Camera 2 API manual controls
Google’s Camera 2 API brought many new features to our photo sensors and expanded the possibilities of mobile photography. Unfortunately, very few smartphones actually use it, it’s the manufacturers fault. Camera 2’s manual controls are found on a handful of smartphones, including Samsung, LG, and HTC.
The API will give you the ability to control the shutter speed (exposure time) and output your photos in RAW format. In the current situation, first of all shutter speed control that concerns us. Just remember two things, the longer the exposure time, the less noisy your photos will be, but the slightest movement of the hand while shooting can blur it.
To check if your smartphone is compatible with Google’s Camera 2 API manual controls, you can use the Manual Camera Compatibility app, available free on the Google Play Store.
- Don’t miss: our selection of the best photo apps for Android
Feel free to retouch your images
Despite all the advice we gave you above, the result may not meet your expectations. Your photo may be overexposed to look bland. Fortunately, most of the time a little retouching can fix the problem and achieve optimum quality.
Of course there are a few editing tools out there like Snapseed with the “HDR” functionality or Photoshop Express’s “Live” effect. However, instead of having you download loads of Android apps, we’ll limit ourselves to one app you probably already use, which is none other than Google Photos and has a powerful editing tool.
Here’s how to retouch a slightly dull image:
- Go to Google Photos and open the photo you want to edit
- Click on the pencil icon to bring up the retouch tool
- then you will see different editing options. The auto retouch tool will suit some but not others. Fortunately, there are three tools for manually retouching brightness, color intensity, and contrast that, if used well, will give you quite satisfactory results, as you can see in the examples below.
example 1
Example 2
